Showing papers in "Semiotica in 1970"

On a Condition of the Coherence of Texts

Abstract: Let us accept the following working definition of a coherent text or discourse, which is compatible with the intuitive understanding of these terms. A discourse is a sequence of utterances Si, 82, ... Sn, such that the semantic interpretation of each utterance Si (for 2 ^ i ^ n) is dependent on the interpretation of the sequence Si..., Si_i. In other words, an adequate interpretation of an utterance occurring in a discourse requires the knowledge of the preceding context. Such a definition of discourse applies equally well to everyday conversations, lectures and literary or scientific texts. Let us accept also the view that the semantic interpretation of any utterance is the set of consequences or conclusions that can be drawn from that utterance. We shall not explain here how we understand the term "set of consequences" in relation to a natural language utterance, as this will be discussed later in this paper. It may, however, be worthwhile to emphasize here that such an approach is intuitively clear, for it is hard to disagree that if someone understands a given utterance, he is capable of drawing the conclusions that follow from it, and vice versa. The definition given above is compatible with an assumption that has to be made by any speaker, addresser of a message, or author of a text

Genes, Language, and Evolution

Abstract: Although homo sapiens is now viewed as the product of the same evolutionary process* that gave rise to all other living forms, the social and biological sciences have hitherto been only imperfectly integrated. To help bridge this gap, a model of socio-cultural evolution, based on analogies between genetic material and languages as informational coding systems, is outlined. Parallels in the structure of human speech and the genetic code are suggested as well as similarities between transformational grammar and the functional processes of DNA. From this perspective, perhaps, structural, functional and evolutionary approaches to human culture can be integrated, much as the synthetic theory of evolution integrated formerly disparate approaches in biology.

Morphology of the French Folktale

Abstract: The subject of this study is to test a method derived from the one V. Propp (1958) has used in his analysis of the Russian tales, by reference to a corpus of French fairy tales. Let us recall that, in Morphology of the Folktale, the author's ambition is to discover a principle of tale-classification not regarding the 'themes', and 'motifs' (as in the index by Aarne and Thompson, 1961), but the morphological structure of the tale, i.e., the relation between their parts and the relation of these parts to the whole narrative. Analyzed in such a way, the Russian folktale reduces itself, according to Propp, to a sequence of thirty-one functions corresponding to the principal acts and events of the narrative: Villainy, Mediation, Beginning, Counteraction, Departure, etc. Each folktale does not contain all thirty-one functions, but the remaining functions follow each other in immutable order, and so every particular tale may be considered as an incomplete realization of that ideal sequence. It makes us understand the 'archetypical' structure of the Russian folktale. Thereupon our classification project is well advanced: we know that the Russian folktales lead finally to a unique type. But after this first result we should be able to transfer from the general to the specific, distinguish 'species', subspecies, etc. In order to accomplish this program,

An Examination of the Question - Response System in Language

Abstract: The weight of tradition in linguistics has opted for the definition and study of a central, more systematic part of verbal behavior—Saussure's la langue (1959). In its current phase, linguistic study considers its central concerns with the grammar—made up of all (grammatical) SENTENCES. Complete analysis of the grammar will presumably yield insight into linguistic rules, and possibly into extralinguistic considerations as well, and deserves priority over 'behavior' approaches (Chomsky, 1959: 57). While this approach is apparently quite attractive to linguists and psychologists, there are other possible methods of analysis which are inherently more interesting to behavioral scientists. One such approach was pointed out by Pike on the basis of an earlier suggestion by Fries: \"... the analysis of the response to a question cannot usefully be treated without reference to the fact that it is correlated with the prior occurrence of the question which elicits that response, whether the response be verbal or nonverbal\" (1957: 136). Pike suggested that language and interactional-communication behavior (which seem to be more intimately related than modern linguistics would admit) have a formal relationship in question-answer, interactional settings. That is, the answer or response to particular questions appears to be a formal (rule regulated), 'shared' system.

Semiosis and Infinite Regressus

Abstract: Aside from Roman Jakobson, Uriel Weinreich, and Rulon Wells, not many linguists have made the effort to understand the sign theory of Charles Sanders Peirce. This is unfortunate, for as Rulon Wells has recently pointed out, Peirce was attempting to construct a logic of discovery, which in many ways goes far beyond the current Chomskyan empiricist-rationalist controversy. Peirce most definitely did not equate his ''logical interpretant\" with the psychologism of a personal user. He would not have accepted the nominalistic designation of universals residing as innate desiderata between two human acoustic tubercles. There is good reason to believe that Peirce would have referred to the semiotic activities of a bee community as thought', even if thought did not occur in the nervous system of any single bee in isolation. He saw certain common properties in all sign relationships and even suggested that thought, broadly defined as a sign-relating process, also occurs in inorganic materials. A computer program, in Peirce's terminology, would have been one of the forms which the \"interpretant\" might assume. The rules governing the transduction of a message from one medium into another illustrate par excellence what Peirce meant by \"logical interpretant\". The only ULTIMATE interpretants which Peirce was willing to accept as universal are the most general laws of physics which operate throughout the universe both before and after man discovers them.

Some Systems of Musical Scales and Linguistic Principles

Abstract: Linguistics deals with symbols which are used for the expression of certain (real or imaginary) experience. Music also employs symbols to express an esthetic experience. Any symbolism can be interpreted in terms of linguistics. The study of musical symbolism from the linguistic point of view could be called \"musico-linguistics\". This paper will briefly attempt to demonstrate that musical systems l are also semiotic systems, somewhat like language. For this purpose, I have chosen the Indian classical music which has two major systems — the Hindustani and the Karnatak. The latter is popular in the four Indian southern states (Andhra, Mysore, Tamilnadu and Kerala) and also Ceylon. The remaining part of India, as well as Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan, use the Hindustani system. In the present paper, I will use the Hindustani system of raga (Sanskrit raga).

Semantic Information in Grammar: The Problem of Syntactic Relations

Abstract: It has been repeatedly said that the study of language as of a system of signs could serve as a model for an understanding of other semiotic systems. I have been asking myself what contribution a linguist could make to a conference of semiotics. Is present-day linguistics advanced enough to really stand up to the claim of being a model for semiotic sciences? I assume that any semiotic system — linguistic and non-linguistic — includes the following three basic notions: (1) Categories (or: units, elements, constituents) (2) Relations (3) Properties (or: features) Relations may hold between categories or between categories and properties or between properties. Properties may be found in categories, or — and this problem will interest us most — in relations. In linguistics of recent times we have learned a lot about categories and about properties or features. Far less advanced is the description of relations. The situation seems typical: in the history of linguistics we note that one or another of these above mentioned basic notions is being over-emphasized at the expense of the other notions which are often partially or totally neglected. We think that all three should be given equal attention. I thus propose that we concentrate on the notion of relations, more

Formal Analysis of Geomancy

Abstract: Geomancy is a process of divination formed by sixteen distinct figures which correspond to the arrangement, by groups of 4, of two signs (even and odd). The reading, the geomantic revelation, rests on the association of two groups of these sixteen figures: one of them given by random in 65,536 particular examples, and which implies the repetition of certain figures, the other given in one precise example, and which includes all figures. These 65,536 combinations constitute the ensemble of systems said to be in activity; the standard system (or system at rest), which serves as the skeleton, is an ordered picture of sixteen figures. The purpose of this paper is: (1) the statement of formal properties characteristic of the systems in activity and of the standard system; (2) the analysis of relations between the two series of properties and the study of the laws of formation of the system at rest; (3) the application of formal characteristics to the ensemble of geomantic significations. The hypothesis is that the geomantic 'signified' has been organised in proportion to the geometric, arithmetic or algebraic properties of the system. 1 This paper summarizes in a revised fashion several sections of La geomancie: analyse formelle (1966) published in the series Cahiers de VHomme, and was translated from the French by Mr. and Mrs. A. Holden.