Showing papers in "Semiotica in 1990"

The ’practices’ of transcription in conversation analysis

Abstract: Our aim in this paper is to explicate the actual practices of a widely used and highly regarded form of transcription — The Jeffersonian Transcription System, used particularly and primarily in that form of interaction analysis called conversation analysis. One of the fundamental aspects of this transcription system is that it originated from and is deeply embedded in the work of conversation analysis. That is, the transcription system developed by Gail Jefferson for conversation analysis represents, like all systems that attempt to provide a description or representation of the details of produced speech and/or action, an analytic interpretation and selection. Thus it is impossible to present a discussion of the practices entailed in producing a transcript in accord with this transcription system without at the same time discussing the analytic concerns which generated and sustain it. A first observation is that there is not, and cannot be, a 'neutral' transcription system. The presumably 'neutral' presentation of the details of produced speech/action would be the actual, embodied and situated original spoken production. A second level involving minimal transformation would be the presentation of an audio or video recording of the speech/action. Here, of course, such matters as fidelity of recording, location of recording equipment (distance from speakers, selection of camera angles, field of view, etc.), and the temporal selection of just when a recording is to begin or end would all affect the retrieval of the material and what can subsequently be said about it. The transformation of audio and/or video recordings into a written format, a transcript, represents yet another selection process. That is, the transcription system used and the variations in individual transcribers' practices introduce directly and specifically the analysts' interests and theories.

Thinking is seeing: Visual metaphors and the nature of abstract thought

Abstract: The prolific increase in scientifically-oriented research on all aspects of metaphor in the last few decades can only be seen as a sure sign that many cognitive scientists have now come to view this verbal phenomenon as a crucial one for understanding how communication, cognition, and specific language structures interact. As Hoffman (1983: 35) aptly quips, metaphor has indeed become 'a very hot topic' in the cognitive sciences. Especially relevant to this domain of research is the type of metaphor that enlists the visual sense modality in the representation of common abstract thought. In this paper it will be argued that visual metaphors, as they are commonly called, have intriguing implications for the study of the nature of abstract thought. This is not a research report. Such a report would necessarily be dependent upon a previous theoretical probe or search. The search here will be guided by the idea that abstract thinking is linked to the visual system. If this case can be argued successfully, then it can be seen to constitute a testable hypothesis for experimentallyoriented research in several cognitive sciences.

A systemic-functional semiotics of art

Abstract: The visual arts should be a natural field for the application of semiotic models of analysis; and yet most discourse — whether published, pedagogical or popular — about art is still stuck in the well-worn grooves of art history, philosophical aesthetics, or attribution and market values. Attempts over the last ten years to invoke semiotics have mainly been confined to applying a raw Saussurean analysis — questionable even for verbal discourse — to visual texts, exploring the ramifications of Peirce's distinction between index, icon, and symbol in visual terms, or arguing about the nature of representation itself. The result has been a lot of theorizing, partial analysis, and a daunting density of new jargon.

Blame-account sequences in therapy: The negotiation of relational meanings

Abstract: In circumstances involving failure or blame from others, people need some way to repair such threats to face. Offering 'an account' of one's actions is a way to manage such problematic events. An account is an explanation offered to an accuser which attempts to change the potentially pejorative meanings of action. What is interesting about this is how a bit of talk in just the right place can transform what was initially seen as reproachable to something seen now as justifiable or at least understandable. Such apparent minutiae as accounts reflect the larger issues of how language can be used to re-present action and thereby evaluate its acceptability. This practice of social accountability occurs not only in everyday conversation, but also in a variety of institutional contexts where the propriety of action is assessed (e.g., the courtroom, education, job interviews). The project here is to examine blames and accounts in a therapeutic context. A couple therapy interview is used to consider: (1) how the nonverbal and paralingual dimensions of blames and accounts are used to frame or display communicators' meanings and affect, and (2) how communicators make relevant some aspects of the prior problematic event to cohere with their preferred account. Analytic attention is given to the common-sense, folk logic of the clients as well as the therapeutic perspective of the therapist to describe how the interaction is conjointly accomplished and relational meanings are negotiated.

Toward a Perspective on Cultural Communication and Intercultural Contact

Abstract: Consider three examples of situated communication conduct. Each demonstrates poignant moments where communication is culturally tailored from different social fabrics, with each moment motivated by different classes of persons, each conducted through indigenous forms, and each felt deeply as the appropriate conduct to perform. Each example also demonstrates how such action is problematic, at least to one participant in each scene, making immediate coordination of action and meaning difficult if not impossible. Case 1: An instructor of psychology at a university in America's heartland designed a course on 'race and ethnic relations'. In it, he asked members of self-identified ethnic groups — including Native Americans such as the Osage — to sit together, in groups, and discuss 'matters concerning cultural heritage'. Participants in each group were advanced undergraduate and graduate students, all knowing a great deal about the topic. Yet despite the prodding of the instructor, most students did not participate verbally in the groups. Moreover, those who did participate were least informed, while those most informed made comments like Ί don't know, what do you think?' and 'yeh, I guess that sounds okay to me'. Case 2: A recent episode of Sixty Minutes took correspondent Morley Safer to Antigua, a Caribbean island community. Mr. Safer proceeded to investigate his topic — was it real estate investment and its influences on Antiguan society? — which took him eventually to an Antiguan public gathering. The gathering was 'set up' for the viewer, by Safer, as a kind of Colonial town meeting, where issues relating to the controversial topic would be addressed, progress toward rational conciliation made. What transpired, however, was quite different. Safer asked his first question of the Antiguans, which precipitated what appeared to be a heated exchange with several participants standing almost nose to nose, each talking noisily, independently, and all talking simultaneously. Safer tried to interrupt several times, but was unsuccessful. The participants continued,

Visual texture as a semiotic system

Abstract: What place does the study of visual texture occupy in the field of design? Considered in its different modalities (architectural, graphic, industrial), design is a discipline which involves various semiotic systems. On one hand, it includes systems of representation, such as perspective (in its variants: conic or axonometric) and Monge's system of descriptive geometry. On the other hand, it comprehends systems of prefiguration of pure design. If we are able to draw a quadrangular room in a plan (a representation), it is because we have previously had the form 'square' (a pure form) as a possibility. These systems of pure design refer to the formal structures which are behind a visual representation. We recognize, according to Jannello (1988), four systems which allow us to analyze any representation or visual perception. They are the theories of Spatial Delimitation (or Form), Color, Texture, and Cesia. Therefore, Visual Texture is one of these systems, standing at the same theoretical level. Can visual texture be considered a semiotic system? The affirmative answer will imply primarily that in referring to it, we are dealing with signs. As Peirce states, a sign 'is something which stands to somebody, for something, in some respect or capacity' (CP 2.228). With this simple definition Peirce constructs the three aspects of the sign. He also argues that all our knowledge and thought is necessarily in signs (CP 5.251). This affirmation is enough to assume that visual textures are signs. But how do they fulfill the three requisites? Paraphrasing Peirce: when an observer sees a texture, it produces equivalent signs or interpretants in his mind (signs of other characteristics — e.g., tactile concepts such as rough, smooth, etc.). The texture stands for an object (perhaps for the physical composition of a material). It has such internal relations that we can recognize it as belonging to the same kind of texture, even if it appears at different times or on different materials (it has a specific form) (CP 2.228).

Degeneracy: A reading of Peirce's writing

Abstract: One of the sign divisions devised by Peirce is between 'genuine' signs and 'degenerate' signs. This opposition is used by Peirce in at least two senses. On the one hand, both indexical and iconic signs are considered degenerate with respect to symbolic, fully triadic signs, so that the only sign to be 'genuine' or 'pure' in all respects is the Third, all of whose three terms are equally Thirds. On the other hand, both Thirds and Seconds can have degenerate forms. In a degenerate Second the Secondness partakes of Firstness. A Third can be degenerate in two degrees. The first degree of degeneracy is found in a Third involving Secondness; while the second degree of degeneracy is found in a Third partaking of Firstness. The two uses of the concept of degeneracy cannot be neatly separated, but are in several ways interconnected. Not only do they coexist in Peirce's writings; they also overlap theoretically, at least to some degree. To this already confusing situation it must be added that Peirce did not develop the concept of degeneracy in any systematic way. He invented it, as it were, in 1885, then discussed it episodically, and subsequently abandoned it in his later years. What Peirce came to reject was, however, the term 'degeneracy' (with its somewhat pejorative flavor), not the notion itself. As Peirce evolved his general theory of signs and, by 1902, had adopted a new, broad concept of logic as coextensive with semeiotic, the term 'degeneracy' became superfluous, because degenerate signs were incorporated into Peirce's sign theory as varieties of signs. For the purposes of this article, the discussion of degeneracy must necessarily remain limited to one aspect — namely, its emergence in Peirce's thought. An elaborate theoretical discussion of the degenerate sign may be found in Buczynska-Garewicz (1979,1983), on whose insights I have respectfully drawn here. Rather than giving a general account of degeneracy, the present article will thus proceed chronologically. Its primary aim is to venture a commentary on, or interpretation (in the

Why Do Vegetarian Restaurants Serve Hamburgers? Toward an Understanding of a Cuisine

Abstract: Cuisines are mostly regarded as a collection of appropriate combinations of ingredients, cooking methods, and dishes into an acceptable repertoire out of which individuals could select their daily dishes and meals and at a specific historical context. The sociology of food discusses the formation of cuisines, looks at the latter as reflecting upon eating habits and culinary repertoires, and sees cuisines as subject to conventions that guide the correct combinations of ingredients, the order of appearance of dishes, and their cooking and serving methods (Douglas 1974,1984; Douglas and Gross 1981; Delamont 1983; Goode et al. 1984; Brett 1969; Douglas and Nicod 1974; Fitzgerald 1980; Frosterman 1984; Levi-Strauss 1966; Murcott 1983, 1982). Following this definition it is possible to claim that nowadays consumers in the U.S. are simultaneously exposed to various cuisines (French, Italian, Chinese, Jewish, Vegetarian, and so forth), each of which is associated with particular repertoires. Just as 'steak and chips' implies French (Barthes 1983), pasta, tomato sauce and parmesan cheese stand for Italian, sushi is associated with Japanese, and vegetarian means vegetables and wholesome foods. Associating cuisines with certain ethnic groups or cooking styles does not account for the dominance of similar forms in all cuisines regardless of their particular attributes. The present approach, therefore, will look at cuisines as systems of information, as gentrifications and tissues of culinary traditions whose distinctive features are obliterated in favor of constructing one generic cooking style by establishing formal and substantial similarities between what is originally perceived as different and segregated. 'Cuisine' as a term will refer not to segregated units, but to a larger culinary entity with a logic and dynamic of its own that encompasses and modifies the many culinary traditions practiced at a specific historical context. A definition as such accounts for the incorporation of new foods and cooking methods into established culinary forms and

Performing the ‘real’ and ‘impossible’ in the British traveling circus

Abstract: The actor: He's the fat man in the stalls who has come to the theatre to meet a business colleague. As I'm bleeding up on the stage with my 'to be or not to be' I catch his fishy eye fixed on my wig. As the wood advances against Annsinane against me, I see him wondering what it's made of. The highest he can reach is the circus, I'm sure. A two-headed calf; that's the sort of thing his imagination's fired by — a leap from fifteen feet, that's the epitome of art for him. There's something really difficult for you. Something you cannot do yourself, that's what art is, isn't it? The Philosopher: As you are so very insistent, let me admit that I indeed find a fifteen-foot leap interesting. Is that wrong? But I'm interested in calves with only one head, too. (B. Brecht — The Messingkauf Dialogues)

Investigating transparency in the conditions of mediation from a semeiotic view

Abstract: Something mysterious happens when humans communicate, something which cannot be studied in our traditional scientific terms of cause and effect relying on logical determinism. Centuries ago, the Greeks noticed the mystery and tried to develop an appropriate conceptual approach with which to investigate its conditions; but modern Western philosophy, in its logical tradition and preoccupation with linguistic structures, has influenced us to ignore what the Greeks tried to explain. Saint Augustine (c. 397-426) described the mystery this way: Ά sign is a thing which causes us to think of something beyond the impression the thing itself makes upon the senses' (Robertson 1958: 2.1.1, 34). We might say, in modern terms, that when we use a medium for communication, it can mysteriously become 'transparent' for us, and so reveal to our thoughts the thing to which it refers. Take the immediate example. What happens to the words, as observed marks on paper, when you read this paragraph? Not long ago, the study of language was dominated by six philosophers: Frege, Husserl, Whitehead, Russell, Carnap, and Wittgenstein. Their work has given us the more-or-less-acknowledged academic view that the requirements of logic (inference) fundamentally determine the essential features of language structure, and that this structure must determine the effect of language as a medium (structure determines function). This view has become such a dominant feature of the established philosophical approach that the traditional adversaries, rationalists and empiricists alike, take logic rather than discourse or conversation (which the Greeks studied as rhetoric) as the fundamental determinant of meaning. Though the two traditions disagree about the origin of ideas, they both assume that signs represent ideas and that ideas have logical relations without reference to contexts of communication. Meaning, therefore, is in ideas. Both schools accept common logical presuppositions, which carry several important implications and their consequences for those who attempt to study human communication without investigating the mystery of a medium's transparency.

Understanding sign semiosis as cognition and as self-conscious process: A reconstruction of some basic conceptions in Peirce’s semiotics

Abstract: In this paper I will deal with some basic conceptions of semiotics — mainly with the nature, the structure, and the evolution of Semiosis. Thus the nature of Sign and its function in the structure of the Semiotic process is the hero of this story. In the framework of this paper I will discuss semiotics in its widest sense: namely, not only as a theory of signs and philosophy of language, but also as a philosophy of cognition and mind. This extension of the conception of Semiosis comes, upon my interpretation, as a natural conclusion of the reconstruction of Peirce's pragmaticist philosophy. There is a strong inclination among some semioticians, philosophers, psychologists, biologists, and others (including physicists) to understand every natural phenomenon, either physical or psychical, as a Sign process, and therefore as a Semiosis. In doing so they seem to be identifying the structures of the physical processes they study with the structure of their own cognition, in which they interpret in Signs those former processes. Such enterprises follow the path of cybernetics, information theory, and computer science in understanding physical processes in terms of 'sign', 'code', and 'information' (e.g., Sebeok 1976; John 1976: 3-4; Dretske 1981; Heelan 1983; Johnson-Laird 1983: Chapters 15, 16. Cf. Radner 1970: 424ff. in his discussion about Wiener's Cybernetics; see also Wiener 1948: 42ff 132). It seems that the proponents of this approach understand meaning units as elements of the physical domain, and hence, they should

Conformity in the face of ambiguity: A bureaucratic dilemma

Abstract: One of the central problems in the analysis of bureaucracy involves the occasions in which the formal rules of the system fail to provide adequate guidance. Bureaucrats must then attempt not only to decide whether or not to follow the applicable rules, but also to determine, individually and collectively, which rules apply in which situations. How can bureaucrats establish their conformity to the rules of the system in the face of such ambiguity? This paper addresses this question through the analysis of a specific bureaucratic process in the federal government in the United States: the review and approval by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) of government's plans to collect information from persons or entities outside it. Specifically, the paper provides an overview of federal information collection policy, a description of the process through which this policy is exercised, an analysis of the kinds of argument marshalled among the participating bureaucrats to determine the utility of particular information collections, and examples of the process at both its simplest and most complex. As shall be seen in the concluding section, the consideration of this process militates for a view of bureaucratic behavior that straddles the divide between administrative and ethnomethodological approaches to the subject. This last point, however, suggests the need for a brief review of the approach taken to the subject prior to the description of the review process itself.

Antipatros l'Ascalonite dévoré par un lion : Commentaire de CIS I, 115

Abstract: Parmi les inscriptions pheniciennes de Grece, la stele funeraire d'Antipatros merite une attention particuliere. Cette stele en marbre presente une scene sculptee illustrant les circonstances du deces. Sur la base d'observations stylistiques et paleographiques on peut proposer une datation du 4e, 3e siecle av. J.-C.

Reality, the museum, and the catalogue: A semiotic Interpretation of early German texts of museology

Abstract: We all take it for granted that there are museums, that everybody can enter them as public institutions, that occasionally they exchange their sometimes apparently limitless resources for exhibitions (which means that the number of people visiting them may increase), and that there are catalogues. However, it needs only a slight mental provocation to see that all this is not to be taken for granted at all. Admittedly, as will be shown later, there is no human society where people do not collect certain items, but this need not result in museums and their activities as we know them. They are the contemporary end of a historical development which has given the museum a specific place in our societal system — 'societal system' meaning what Luhmann (1980) understands the term 'semantics' to mean; i.e., a sense-generating reflection of man on his/her surroundings and himself/herself. This development can aptly be described with the conceptions and terms of semiotics. The following is an attempt to do this for conditions in Germany between, roughly speaking, 1550 and 1700. What will be said is, in fact, not confined to Germany, but is an all-European phenomenon. We will use the semantic differences between 'reality', 'museum', and 'catalogue' as a starting point for our thoughts. 'Reality' is the universe of natural and artificial objects as they meet the eye; 'museum' is a container (chest of drawers, room, institution) in which such objects are arranged according to a certain order and are made showpieces; 'catalogue' is the type of book in which such showpieces are listed and (frequently, but not always) described.

The Homeland of Zakkur

Abstract: La stele de Zakkur decouverte en 1903 a 40 km au sud d'Alep est conservee au Louvre. Zakkur est roi d'Hamat et de Lu'ash. Zakkur a usurpe le trone d'Hamat a la dynastie neo-hittite au 8e siecle av. J.-C. et semble etre originaire d'Ana

A dialogue on the sign: Can Peirce and Jakobson be reconciled?

Abstract: Roman Jakobson made a very important contribution to the American scholarly community when he brought to our attention the semiotic doctrine of Charles Sanders Peirce. Through Jakobson, Peirce became the central figure in the discipline of semiotics, and finally assumed his rightful place as one of the greatest American thinkers of the nineteenth century. Subsequently, as more linguists conduct research within the framework of Peircean sign theory, Jakobson has been criticized for being more Saussurean than Peircean in his theory of language. Elizabeth Bruss, for example, argues that Jakobson is 'a selective reader' of Peirce, 'using Peirce to supply additional support for his own positions, deploying him polemically as the exemplar of an alternative to the Saussurean tradition. His readings of Peirce never seem to demand any serious revisions of his own categories . . . . The Peirce that Jakobson presents is therefore Jakobson's Peirce ...' (1978: 81). This particular point of view is insightful because it is certainly the case that Jakobson mainly discusses two notions of Peirce: the icon/index/symbol trichotomy and the importance of the interpretant (1974, 1975). Jakobson's focusing only on these two aspects of Peirce's work inclines one to conclude either that Peirce's other works are of no relevance to linguistics, or that Jakobson did not agree entirely with Peirce's classification of signs. I believe that it is possible to demonstrate, using Jakobsonian principles and in particular markedness theory, that Peirce and Jakobson have a great deal more in common than even Jakobson himself realized. Specifically, I would argue that the essence of Jakobsonian markedness theory is based on the principle of the Peircean interpretant, and that markedness theory is essentially a theory of interpretants. One of the fundamental differences between the works of Jakobson and Peirce concerns the importance they attribute to binary and ternary oppositions, respectively. For Jakobson, the primary oppositional relationship of all invariants is binary, beginning with the signans/signatum relationship and continuing through the most complex of linguistic oppo-

Radical translation, actual translation, and the problem of meaning

Abstract: In the following I will argue three points: (1) The radical translation situation, conceived of, in accordance with Quine's intention, as the limiting case of actual translation situations, should be the model situation for the theory of translation (in contrast to a practical manual for the field linguist). (2) Different as they are, the radical translation situation and (any) actual translation situation do not differ with respect to evidential controls for the intensionalist account of a language: there are no such controls in any translation situations. Controversies pertaining to this last issue are, at least in part, due to the inadequacy of the description of the radical translation situation given by Quine. (3) A consistent account of the radical translation situation makes the theory of translation methodologically more complex than the theory elaborated by Quine. In effect, Quine's indeterminacy of translation appears less annoying than some other barriers that have to be overcome by a linguist in the radical translation situation. The task of translating sentences of an unknown language L into sentences of our own language L* is, for obvious reasons, more or less difficult, depending on: — whether there exist dictionaries or chains of dictionaries leading from L to L*, as well as written accounts of the grammar of L in L*; — if not, whether there are interpreters or chains of interpreters, fully or partly bilingual, on whom we can rely; — if not, whether L and L* are kindred (having a common origin) or for some other reasons similar in word forms and/or in syntax; — if not, whether the native speakers of L constitute a community which is similar to our own in important aspects of culture; — if not, whether the native speakers of L are apt to aid us in our translation work by teaching us their language in a direct way; — if not, whether they are friendly and open enough to cooperate with us in any enterprise (thus unintentionally helping us to enter into their language).

Interactive meaning representation of audiovisual texts: A Peircean approach

Abstract: In this paper I will respond to the consequences of an enticing metaphor in order to give an account of the indulgence in its temptation. My interest concerns the metaphor which is contained in the assumption that the meaning of a text cannot be found within that text, but has to be taken as a construction of the user of the text. I will examine this assumption specifically with regard to the audiovisual text, and try to elucidate the metaphor: the meaning of a film or any audiovisual program should be taken as the interactive product of the viewer on the one hand and certain elements of the audiovisual text on the other. I use the term 'metaphor' because the word 'interaction' refers to an intersubjective exchange of action. I will consider film research, because it is in this scientific field that the adoption of methods of investigation generally used for written texts has led to methodological problems regarding the formation of a theory of meaning. The specific nature of the audiovisual text seems to be unsuited to an approach in terms of linguistic methods, and has created a need for an alternative method based on a theory of meaning that can be used in the above field. Apparently, it was these considerations that motivated David Bordwell to conceive of the aforementioned constructivist assumption of meaning representation as appropriate for film, in order to formulate a theory of filmic narration. However, I will not elaborate here upon the adequacy of BordwelFs theory; rather, the problem I will pursue in the first part of this article is: what are the conceivable consequences for a theory of meaning of the pragmatic assumption that the activity of the viewer is constitutive of the meaning of the audiovisual text? In the remainder, I will consider to what degree the theory of meaning put forward by Charles Sanders Peirce can meet the condition that is to be formulated as a consequence of the interaction metaphor: if the activity of the viewer must be given attention in a theory of meaning, then the proclaimed interactivity of the representation of meaning has to transcend the quality of a metaphor. In this theory of meaning, there can be no mere referring to an exchange of

From sincerity to mendacity in personal rhetoric: A discrete look at continuous feelings

Abstract: In the movie version of Tennessee Williams's play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Big Daddy spouts repeatedly about mendacity. Mendacity becomes a common odor in the social air he breathes. He lives with mendacity, like it or not; yet he ultimately rejects mendacity as his way of living. He stomachs it in others, due to their incapacity and unwillingness to be sincere. As for Big Daddy, he styles himself along the lines of brutal sincerity — eloquent in its power to squash mendacity and those who are mendacious. Yet, in his Language: The Loaded Weapon, Dwight Bolinger, in discussing truth and falsity (or deception), tells us that while 'complete truthfulness is synonymous with complete sincerity', it will 'not do to condemn all lying'. If we prefer to protect ourselves from a lie, we must 'understand the lie', unless we prefer to be 'among those who allow themselves to be deceived'. To illustrate that complete truthfulness and sincerity are one, Bolinger explains: Ά has information that may be useful to Β. Β may inquire of A, or A may volunteer. A is truthful to the extent that he conveys the information that he supposes Β wants in the form and manner he believes Β wants it' (Bolinger 1982: 105). In other words, sincerity applies to both the content and the intent of the message sent — that is, whether it is sent to inform, persuade, or whatever. Hayakawa urges that sincerity be judged pragmatically by context and consequences. He would warn: 'Don't merely listen to what a speaker says! Watch what that speaker does!' (Hayakawa 1968). In a variation on Hayakawa's advice, Lasswell encourages us to ask:

Divinités doubles dans le monde phénico-punique

Abstract: Dans le monde phenico-punique est atteste un certain nombre de noms divins " doubles " associant deux authentiques theonymes. Le repertoire des noms divins " doubles " semble aujourd'hui considerablement reduit et c'est en particulier le dieu Reshep qui parait devoir disparaitre du groupe de ces binomes. Restent donc les " divinites doubles suivantes Eshmoun-Astarte, Sid-Tanit, Melqart-Sid, Eshmoun-Melqart, auxquels il convient de joindre Tanit-Astarte, recemment attestee a Sarepta. Les " divinites doubles " phenico-puniques s'inserent sur le fond de traditions religieuses analogues attestees en Mediterannee (Egypte, Syrie-Palestine, Hourrites, Hittites...). Les doubles theonymes refletent l'association de figures divines ressenties comme tres proches en raison de liens genealogiques et fonctionnels et, par consequent, venerees sous des formes analogues et dans des lieux de cultes communs

On the uses and limits of structural analysis for literary scholarship

Abstract: All structural analysis of the literary text must be based on a hierarchy of morphological concepts. The question to be answered is what these concepts are and how they are related. Before attempting a general scheme of the constituents of the literary text, I wish to emphasize the strict limitations of my approach. There have always been two basic orientations in literary scholarship: some advocated an immanent or essentialist view of literature, while others represented a reader-response criticism. In this essay I shall try to occupy a middle ground between these two extremes. My ideal is a kind of giveand-take between what some call a co-textual and a contextual investigation (Petöfi and Rieser 1973: 11; Petöfi 1973: 223). In other words, I take it for granted that the phenomenological and structuralist analysts of composition have helped us develop a homogeneous vocabulary, but I would associate what the Russian Formalists called literaturnost (literariness) with the mode of reception rather than with the structure of a given text. In my view no morphological analysis can decide whether a linguistic utterance is artistic or not, and the crucial question is not what literature is, but rather-when, in what context a text is read as literature. In the same way, it belongs to the scope of pragmatics to decide whether the characters and events mentioned in a text are 'imaginary' or 'real'. If this is so, it is irrelevant to ask whether the structural principles analyzed are valid for non-literary texts. Smaller structural units, such as tropes and figures, are predominant not only in the lyric but also in suph semi-literary genres as the maxim or the proverb, and the macrostructures of narrative may be as important in historiography as they are in the novel, since it is quite possible that 'the nineteenth-century belief in the radical dissimilarity of art to science was a consequence of a misunderstanding fostered by the romantic artist's fear of science and the positivistic scientist's ignorance of art' (White 1978: 28).

Le tarif dit de Marseille (CIS I, 165). Aspects du système sacrificiel punique

Abstract: Inscription purique truvee a Marseille en 1845. L'A. propose de traduire le titre par " reglement des taxes ". Apres l'enumeration de sacrifices d'animaux classes selon leur importance, le texte envisage le cas de l'offrande de volatile puis les sacrifices non sanglants l'huile et peut-etre le lait. Etant donne que l'offrande de lait ne semble pas etre une tradition ouest-semitique, on peut supposer que son introduction dans le rituel du " tarif " de Marseille vient du monde greco-romain avec lequel les Carthaginois ont ete en etroit contact. Si cette explication est recevable, on serait en presence d'une extension de la notion de syncretisme, le melange de deux rituels : l'un d'origine semitique, l'autre d'origine greco-romaine

Interpretant and subject: Semiotics or hermeneutics?

Abstract: There is nobody in Spain who can even claim to be a legitimate son of semiotics, taking into account all the different tendencies — the least representative being that which originated from the philosophical field. But in our most recent history, something happened which could have changed the above statement. At the end of the last century (i.e., in 1894), Miguel de Unamuno, one of the most prominent Spanish thinkers, used the term 'semiotics', probably for the first time in connection with the study of the evolution and meaning of words. There is no record of its usage by other philosophers, after its usage by Unamuno, as far as I can remember, except in its present-day context. Jose Ortega y Gasset's struggle in this field was directed primarily toward the field of phenomenology, which drew the attention of prominent Spanish philosophy lecturers of the pre-war years to questions and problems previously ignored, which to a great extent gave rise to logical atomism, neopositivism, and philosophy of language in other parts of Europe. With the start of the civil war, a generation of intellectuals left to settle in Latin American countries (where their influence is still felt), while an official scholastic philosophy established itself in Spain. The most influential tendencies of the 1960s were those of analytical philosophy, under which banner a number of young philosophers appeared whose primary task centered around making language out of logic and philosophy of science. Some are now prominent university lecturers for whom semiotics constitutes a task and field of invaluable interest, though not supplanting their immediate concern for other areas. This group aroused considerable support, which might even be greater in the near future with promising projects in sight. Surprisingly enough, most writings or works on this theme came from those working in other areas. Professor Jose Luis L. Aranguren, who lost his Chair due to his opposition to the regime of General Franco,

The dragon and the straightedge, pari 3: Porcelains, horses, and ink stones — the ends of acceptance

Abstract: The Dutch drive into Asia in the early seventeenth century stopped cold at China. They conquered Ceylon and took the Spice Islands from the Portuguese, and they established themselves as the sole European nation privileged to trade with Japan. Forestalled from capturing Macao (1622), they fell back on Formosa, proselytized the people there, and built factories for trade with Chinese coastal cities not particularly submissive to the Qing. They commenced a painful protracted courtship of the Qing through embassies simultaneously abetted and sabotaged by the Jesuits. In 1656 a Dutch embassy procured tributary status for the 'red-haired barbarians', but no official recognition of trade. In 1661, Ming loyalists under Cheng Zhenghong (known in the West by the Dutch-sounding name 'Coxinga'), who held a few offshore islands and harassed both the Dutch and the Qing, invaded Formosa and set up a naval base there. This effectively blocked the major maritime trade channels, and though Cheng's son permitted the English to have a factory at Tainan (1673-84), the flow of Chinese goods westwards was seriously curtailed. At a time when a burgeoning European bourgeosie was demanding porcelain, silk, and lacquer, the Dutch and their rivals could do little to satisfy these cravings. The Qing reconquest of Formosa did not benefit Europeans at all, because the English were driven away from their outpost and the Dutch were not allowed to construct new forts. Not until the French and English voyages at the end of the century was a large volume trade started. The whole of European chinoiserie was an effort to imagine a Cathay no longer accessible from a small number of goods in the hands of the elites. Porcelain had been chief among these imports since the sixteenth century and was always in great demand. The bespoke patterning which made the Manuelline wares was allowed the later merchants. During the first decades of the seventeenth century the Dutch were dictating porcelain

Le SE-moyen — une approche sémiotique

Abstract: Dans le present travail* nous nous interrogerons sur les proprietes qui conferent ä une phrase comme la suivante un classement ambigu, soit reflechi, soit passif. 'Le probleme s'enonce en termes simples: faut-il continuer ä fabriquer des navires qui ne se vendent plus?' (Le Figaro: 9.8.86). Dans la litterature linguistique, le passif et le SM sont en goneral mis sur la meme echelle (cf. Zribi-Hertz 1982). En ci qui concerne la conjugaison pronominale, on trouve des definitions differentes dans les livres de grammaire. Suivant le cas, on Pappelle — 'voix reflechie ou moyenne' (cf. Je me blesse ou Cette etoffe se lave bieri) (Rothemberg 1974: 193); — 'voix pronominale' (cf. Jacqueline s'est evanouie) 'qui est parfois proche de la voix passive' (cf. Ce tissu se fabrique en Angleterre); et — un 'verbe' pronominal ä divers sens, comme 'reflechi' selon le type Je me rase, 'reciproque' selon le type Us se regardent I'un I'autre, 'subjectif' selon le type // s'aper$oit de son erreur, et 'passif selon le type Le clocher s'ape^oit de loin. Cette langue se pane encore dans les montagnes. En definitive, nous avons la une variete d'explications semantiques pour lesquelles il n'y a pas d'autre realisation syntaxique que la morphologic pronominale.