Showing papers on "Sign (semiotics) published in 1982"

A Proposal to Create a Cultural Theory of Risk

Abstract: Perhaps the greatest achievement of anthropology has been to show that different people, faced with the same situation, do different things. No sooner does an economist, a psychologist, a sociologist, or a political scientist produce his universally valid model of some aspect of human behavior than an anthropologist will jump up and say, “Ah, but what about the Bongo-bongo?” It is probably safe to say that there is no universalisitic proposition that is immune to Bongo-bongoism. Some semiologists, for instance, have suggested that there are some signs so rooted in nature that their meaning has to be intrinsic. One such sign is the arrow: → . Here, surely, the meaning is intrinsic to the sign; arrows always fly through the air point first and so the point of the sign, surely, must always indicate the direction of travel. Quite so, but who said the sign was an arrow? On a remote island in Micronesia the people spend much of their time hunting a secretive bird whose feet are specially adapted to the marshy terrain. Each time it puts one of its threestoed feet down on the ground, it leaves a sign: → : and every time a hunter sees one of these signs, he knows with certainty which way to go to catch up with his quarry. He goes in the direction indicated by the big central toe.

Introducing Semiotics: Its History and Doctrine

Abstract: The appeal of semiotics lies in its apparent ability to establish a common framework for all disciplines, a framework rooted in the understanding of the sign as the universal means of communication. Introducing Semiotic provides a synoptic view of semiotic development, covering for the first time all the previous epochs of Western philosophy, from the pre-Socratics to the present. In particular, the book bridges the gap from St. Augustine (5th c.) to John Locke (17th c.). It delineates the foundations of contemporary semiotics and concretely reveals just how integral and fundamental the semiotic point of view really is to Western culture. Because of its clarity of exposition and careful use of primary sources, Introducing Semiotic will be an essential textbook for all courses in semiotics. -- Indiana University Press

Symbolism and Interpretation

Abstract: In Symbolism and Interpretation, Tzvetan Todorov examines two aspects of discourse: its production, which has traditionally been the domain of rhetoric, and its reception, which has always been the object of hermeneutics. He analyzes the diverse theories of symbolism and interpretation that have been elaborated over the centuries and considers their contribution to a general theory of verbal symbolism, discussing a wide range of thinkers, from the Sanskrit philosophers and Aristotle to the German Romantics and contemporary semioticians. Todorov begins by examining general ideas of linguistic symbolism and the interpretive process. He then turns to a detailed consideration of two of the most influential and pervasive interpretative strategies in Western thought: the patristic exegesis of Augustine and Aquinas, and the philological exegesis foreshadowed in the work of Spinoza, developed by Wolf, Ast, Boeckh, and Lanson, and criticized by Schleiermacher. Todorov clarifies in masterly fashion the intricacies of the many schools of thought and refines the concepts crucial to critical theory today, including the distinctions between language and discourse, direct and indirect meaning, sign and symbol. Ably translated by Catherine Porter, Symbolism and Interpretation provides a coherent and innovative framework that is indispensable to the study of semiotics, its history, and its future.

Situation, Structure, and the Context of Meaning*

Abstract: Two of the approaches at the forefront of contemporary sociological interest in meaning, symbolic interactionism and structuralism, share an interest in the role of signs and symbols in social life...

Are There Really Signs of Diglossia?: Re-Examining the Situation

Abstract: Recent sign language research has been done with the assumption of the existence of diglossia, as described by Stokoe in 1969. This paper reevaluates the nine characteristics of diglossia with the current sign language situation in the United States. Currently there are some sign communities that do not fully represent these characteristics. There is indeed variation within these communities, but as is more typical in the linguistic communities of the world, code-switching and style-shifting rather than diglossia appear to be the norm.

The Sign in Music and Literature

Abstract: The notion of semiotics as a universal language that can encompass any object of perception makes it the focus of a revolutionary field of inquiry, the semiotics of art. This volume represents a unique gathering of semiotic approaches to art: from Saussurian linguistics to transformational grammar, from Prague School aesthetics to Peircean pragmatism, from structuralism to poststructuralism. Though concerned specifically with the semiotics of music and literature, the essays reveal the breadth of semiotics' interdisciplinary appeal, involving specialists in musicology, ethnomusicology, jazz performance, literary criticism, poetics, aesthetics, rhetoric, linguistics, dance, and film. The diversity of authorial training and approach makes this collection a dramatic demonstration of the on-going debates in the field. In many ways the semiotics of art is the testing ground of sign theory as a whole, and work in this subject is as vital to the interests of theoretical semioticians as to students of the arts. It is to both these interests that this volume is addressed.

Consistency, Completeness, and the Meaning of Sign Theories

Abstract: The final sentence of Stephan F. Barker’s Philosophy of Mathematics (1964) can be paraphrased as follows: The house of semiotics has many mansions, and in it many games are played. But we can ask ourselves whether consistency and completeness-logical concepts in the first place are effective in approaching the legitimacy of semiotics, not to mention that after Gödel’s (1931) research on the relation between consistency and completeness, one would be playing the game of ignorance trying to answer whether sign theories should be both consistent and complete.

The woodcarvers of Kitawa and their canoes: A linguistic and aesthetic analysis of visual art in Melanesia.

Abstract: The present thesis is concerned with problems of aesthetic and symbolic interpretation presented by the analysis of the graphic signs carved on the prows of the ceremonial canoes of Kitawa, one of the so-called kula ring islands (Milne Bay, Melanesia). These canoes are specially made for periodic ritual voyages to other islands in search of valuable objects.;The analysis is based on two periods of field-work in Kitawa (undertaken in 1973-74 and 1976) in the course of which the author learnt the principal language of the island and recorded his discussions with the local carvers about their art. The most important of these sound recordings have been transcribed, analysed and translated, and the texts are submitted as an appendix to the thesis.;In his analysis of the prows the author has adapted the Danish linguist L. Hjelmslev's theory on the structure of a sign to make it appropriate for aesthetic and symbolic interpretation. He is also indebted to the work of J. Mukarovsk.;of the Linguistic Circle of Prague. In particular he has adoptedHjelmslev's articulation of a sign into a content plane and an expression plane. The latter is considered to be the privileged one, at which a non-verbal sign (e.g. a graphic sign carved on a prow) expresses its aesthetic values. Granted that, it is possible to comprehend the aesthetic meanings of a graphic sign, either taken by itself, or in relation to the whole surface of the prow. These meanings are self- contained, i.e. they are independent of elements which are extra-contextual to the prow.;The latter (e.g. myths, tales, semantic values, etc.) have been considered only when the author has interpreted a graphic sign symbolically. To do this he has worked on the content plane of a word which designates a graphic sign. That is, a meaning, or set of meanings, expressed by such a word has been interpreted as a metaphor for something else and this metaphorical value has been linked with that graphic sign. That the distinction between the aesthetic and the symbolic interpretation of a graphic sign which has been made by the author - on the basis of both Hjelmslev's theory and Mukatovsk's methodology - receives independent support from the Kitawa wood carvers themselves, is shown in the 'Aesthetic Conversations' given in the Appendix (Volume II), even if this is sometimes stated metaphorically.

The Key Principle: The Sign Character of Language

Abstract: That every language is a system of signs, that the sounds of language are posited by the speaker as signs and received by the hearer as signs, that the phenomenon of language arises as the mediator between individuals in the exchange of signs in this or some similar way we can begin to speak about language. In any case, the first thing needed logically in order to define it is a general term such as sign (σηeα, signum, seign) . What are signs?

Sign Programs with Nonverbal Hearing Children

Abstract: Recent work has focused on the use of signs as an alternative communicative mode for severely language delayed children. The decision to implement signs should depend on the child's developmental, cognitive, and communicative abilities as well as the support and skill level of the classroom and family. Assessment and programming which incorporate normal language constructs and strategies will more favorably influence a productive, communicative sign language system. Included is a framework for determining if the child is an appropriate candidate for sign programs; a discussion of specific sign objectives; and guidelines for classroom implementation and family intervention.

Emerging Agendas in World Mission

Abstract: Reconciliation as a sign of our witness must be a serious consideration, says Sister Joan Chatfield, in our emerging agendas of world mission. Only when we are reconciled to one another within the church will the world without Christ be able to comprehend our being part of one Body, one baptism and one Lord.

Antecedents to Peirce’s Notion of Iconic Signs

Abstract: I was led to do some historical work--not a work of Peirce scholarship--dealing with a Renaissance term, idolum. The problem of how to translate it led me eventually across the term icon in Peirce, CP, 4.447 (c. 1903?): An icon is a representamen of what it represents and for the mind that interprets it as such, by virtue of its being an immediate image, that is to say by virtue of characteristics which belong to it in itself as a sensible object, and which it would possess just the same were there no object in nature that it resembled, and though it never were interpreted as a sign. It is of the nature of an appearance, and as such, strictly speaking, exists only in consciousness, although for convenience in ordinary parlance and when extreme precision is not called for, we extend the term icon to the outward objects which excite in consciousness the image itself. A geometrical diagram is a good example of an icon. A pure icon can convey no positive or factual information; for it affords no assurance that there is any such thing in nature. But it is of the utmost value for enabling its interpreter to study what would be the character of such an object in case any such did exist.

The Ironic Sign

Abstract: Talking about literary irony in conventional ways, we often get into difficulty when we make the obvious distinction between rhetorical irony and situational irony. The trouble comes when we try to explain what the two have in common. We all know that they’re somehow alike, but expressing the similarity gives us headaches. In my mind, much of that difficulty dissolves if we look at irony from a semiotic point of view, that is, as a system of signs. After an attempt at showing how ironic signs--both rhetorical and situational--work, I want to raise a different kind of question: What is irony itself a sign of? That is, what metaliterary sign does the ironist send out about himself through his use of irony?

Metaphor in Art Education.

Abstract: M etaphors are vital creative instruments through which art education's finest writers, such as Herbert Read, John Dewey, Edmund Feldman, Vincent Lanier, and David Perkins, have forged vivid freshness of meaning and secured the energy and intensity found in great writing. Aristotle believed that, ". . . to be a master of metaphor is ... a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars" (Poetics 22, 1459a5). What communicates is the creator's effort to develop his idea, to evoke imagery, to connect (Bruner, 1962, p. 67). Not merely content to tell his story one way, he not only tells it many ways, but tells in many ways what it is like. While literature and art are fond of metaphors, yet, in scientific writing, poetic expressions and metaphors are not encouraged:

Mao’s Vision for China

Abstract: Regardless of one’s personal view of Mao, no one can deny that he is an historical figure of great importance. Indeed, Mao’s significance in the history of modern China, and hence of the world, is almost self-evident. But on the other hand, Mao was, and still is, a sign of contradiction. To some, he is a god, a great leader and a teacher; to others, he is a devil, a cruel dictator and deceiver. In short, there is no universally accepted ‘verdict’ of Mao, because different people interpret him and his thought differently.

A Semiotic Approach to Information Value

Abstract: Information in human societies is conveyed, transmitted, disseminated, stored, and transformed using signs and sign processing as vehicles. These vehicles can be natural or artificial language texts, utterances, traffic signs, trademarks, gestures, etc. Hence, there should be a strong and natural interplay between the science of signs or semiotics and information science [1].

Semiotic Perspectives on Chinese: A Picturesque Language

Abstract: The title of this paper his an appositive “A Picturesque Language” following “Chinese.”1 The appositive signifies a certain property of language observed in Chinese, when the language is regarded as “signs.” This paper is to propose an alternate way of doing syntax and semantics. It will explore the properties of language in a semiotic perspective with special reference to Chinese. It will examine the relations; among sign, the object designated, and an interpretant.

Authors, Audiences, and Texts

Abstract: prior content, nor is it the report of what some fully self-conscious author had al? ready thought. A text is not a sign which refers to some already settled signified which effectively transcends it. In Derrida (1976, pp. 69), "the original absence of the subject of writing is also the absence of the thing or the referent. " In fact, the notion of a text is itself called into question. The text, for Derrida (1979, pp. 83-84), is "no longer a finished corpus of writing, some content enclosed in a book or its margins, but a differential network, a fabric of traces referring end? lessly to something other than itself, to other differential traces." For Barthes, the text is a tissue of citations flowing from countless cultural sources. Reading, and not the inscribing by an author of his previous thought, is the genuine locus of writing. As Barthes (1972, p. 15) says:

Speech Action and Language Structure

Abstract: Empirical science is able to distinguish in each of its complex objects many, one can calmly say unlimitedly many, different ‘sides’; the same applies to language. Since, besides, speech and humanness [Menschsein], language and culture, language and society, and the history of humanity, language and logic, and still other topics stand in a recognized inner correlation, there is no lack of interests, questions, and stimuli flowing to linguistics from its neighbor sciences. And what discipline would not in some way abut the domain of language, starting with mathematics which today, in the interest of its own axiomatization, is vitally interested in general sematological problems and even with aesthetics, geography, and psychiatry? So there are names enough for part, intermediary, and auxiliary disciplines for linguistic research; there is a psychology of language, a pathology of language, a sociology of language, an aesthetics of language, and so forth. To the theorist of science, these hyphenated sciences are of no immediate interest, no matter how great their practical importance and how rich in conclusions their results in single cases may be for linguistics. What we are considering in the interest of an axiomatization of linguistic research are now neither parts nor modes of the speech event but the genuine fundamental aspects of the object. A first defining note was given to it by subsuming it under the class of innerwordly sign things.

The Semiotics of Plot: Toward a Typology of Fictions

Abstract: Though there have been many attempts to draw a conclusive distinction between high and popular art, for instance on the basis of their different degrees of literariness, these attempts have failed to give us a conclusive principle for making such discrimination. Even if it seems unnecessary to agree with the German critic Karlheinz Stierle (1975) who bluntly calls this critical discussion hitherto beside the point, there is reason enough to try and approach the problem from a radically different point of view. Most traditional attempts have been based on one central presupposition about the ontology of literature that literature should be seen in its relation to real life, as mimesis. It is this conception of the real nature of fiction which constitutes the principle on which attempts to make such mimetic concerns as the adaptation to laws of probability and requirements of verisimilitude into a differential criterion are grounded. Even the suggestion made by Kermode in The Sense of an Ending (1973), a theoretical exposition of the nature of fictions which appears to contest their direct tie to a concrete referential world, that in contrast to popular fiction the plot of high art frustrates our easy expectations about the end, would seem to betray an ultimate bias for mimesis or imitatio (1973:17). Though this mimetic assumption based on our intuitive understanding of fiction is not "untrue," neither has it proven entirely satisfactory on moral and intellectual grounds. The critical controversy about the status of popular fictions testifies to this effect, but also the apparent exhaustion affecting traditional "interpretation" of literature. There is, moreover, Derrida's criticism of the Saussurian concept of the sign, consisting of a discrete signifier and signified, and thus, according to Derrida, rooted in, as well as facilitating, the dualism of Western metaphysics in the otherness of signans and signatum, the preceptible and the intelligible, the ideal and the real (Derrida, 1971:11-27). Thus there would seem to be complex and compelling reasons warrant-

A Semiotic Account of Polysemy and Homonymy

Abstract: It has always been a problem in linguistic theory to decide when two or more similar signs are polysemous or homonymous. A red flag, for instance; can mean danger or nonsale of gasoline. A ring can signify wedding, engagement, graduation, reward, etc. In these cases is it the same sign that stands for several things “polysemy”, or is it just an accident that signs which stand for these things happen to look like “homonymy”? In the English dictionary, there is one lexical entry, bachelor with four different meanings: (1) unmarried person, (2) somebody with a college degree, (3) young knight serving another knight, (4) young fur seal without a mate during the breeding time. But there are two lexical entries, bank l and bank 2: meaning bank of the river, and where the money is deposited, respectively. This paper shows that within a semiotic theory as outlined by Peirce the problem doesn’t arise, because the theory offers devices that can help the lexicographer to tell when the linguistic sign would be listed in the dictionary as polysemous or homonymous. Before this approach is outlined, we shall first discuss problems that are related to the polysemy/homonymy issue.