Showing papers on "Sign (semiotics) published in 1999"

An introduction to algebraic semiotics, with application to user interface design

Abstract: This paper introduces a new approach to user interface design and other areas, called algebraic semiotics. The approach is based on a notion of sign, which allows complex hierarchical structure and incorporates the insight (emphasized by Saussure) that signs come in systems, and should be studied at that level, rather than individually. A user interface can be considered as a representation of the underlying functionality to which it provides access, and thus user interface design can be considered a craft of constructing such representations, where both the interface and the underlying functionality are considered as (structured) sign systems. In this setting, representations appear as mappings, or morphisms, between sign systems, which should preserve as much structure as possible. This motivates developing a calculus having systematic ways to combine signs, sign systems, and representations. One important mode of composition is blending, introduced by Fauconnier and Turner; we relate this to certain concepts from the very abstract area of mathematics called category theory. Applications for algebraic semiotics include not only user interface design, but also cognitive linguistics, especially metaphor theory and cognitive poetics. The main contribution of this paper is the precision it can bring to such areas. Building on an insight from computer science, that discrete structures can be described by algebraic theories, sign systems are defined to be algebraic theories with extra structure, and semiotic morphisms are defined to be mappings of algebraic theories that (to some extent) preserve the extra structure. As an aid for practical design, we show that the quality of representations is closely related to the preservation properties of semiotic morphisms; these measures of quality also provide the orderings needed by our category theoretic formulation of blending.

Relationships Among Feedback Sign, Self-Efficacy, and Acceptance of Performance Feedback

Abstract: The researchers investigated the moderating role of self-efficacy on feedback acceptance. High-self-efficacy individuals who received repeated negative performance feedback exhibited decreased acceptance of the feedback, whereas those with low self-efficacy did not change in their acceptance. Feedback sign and feedback acceptance also had interactive effects on future self-efficacy. Those with high acceptance of positive and negative feedback after repeated trials exhibited self-efficacy levels consistent with that feedback. An important concern for organizations today is how to keep pace with the rapid changes occurring in the workplace. As organizations become increasingly competitive, many employees are faced with the necessity of learning new skills and technologies, a process that may involve repeated attempts before mastery occurs. This process can be demanding and frustrating, particularly for those employees whose early attempts at mastery are unsuccessful and who thus receive repeated negative feedback on their performance. Research indicates that individuals generally respond to negative feedback by increasing their effort, decreasing their goals, or rejecting the feedback, whereas those faced with positive feedback may decrease their effort or increase their goals (Bandura & Cervone, 1986; Bandura & Jourden, 1991; Locke & Latham, 1990; Podsakoff & Farh, 1989). This may not always be the case, however. Although individuals typically respond to initial negative feedback by increasing their efforts, different coping mechanisms may be used when negative feedback is repeated (Campion & Lord, 1982; Mikulincer, 1988, 1989). Because workers must often face repeated negative feedback in the course of

Gesture, Speech and Sign

Abstract: Gestures are a special sort of action. They communicate the individual's moods and desires to the world and they operate under different psychological and cognitive constraints to other actions. The connections between gesture and language - spoken and signed - pose some fascinating questions. How intimately are gesture and language connected? Did one evolve from the other? To what extent are they similarly processed in the brain? In what ways are signed languages akin to spoken language and gestures? Gesture, Speech, and Sign examines these questions, bringing together an international array of expertise to explore the origins, neurobiology, and uses of these three communication systems. A unique feature of the book is its discussion of how a greater understanding of these issues can be used to improve human-computer interations. Designed to appeal to a multi-disciplinary audience, Gesture, Speech, and Sign will be of interest to advanced students and researchers in neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, computer science, and those involved in deaf studies

Grounding, Mapping and Acts of Meaning

Abstract: What is meaning, what is it for a sign to be meaningful, how can meaning best be analyzed, and in what sense is linguistic meaning proper or unique to language? Cognitive linguistics offers answers to these questions that challenge two traditional dogmas of linguistic theory, philosophy of language and cognitive science. However, although they have notionally abandoned both these dogmas, many cognitive linguists retain an ambiguous loyalty to some of their underlying presuppositions. I hope to convince them of the necessity to review their deep theoretical commitments, in order to rebut, once and for all, the charge that cognitive semantics entails a Subjectivist theory of meaning.

Bilingual-bicultural models of literacy education for deaf students: considering the claims.

Abstract: As Carolyn Ewoldt (1996) points out '[M]uch has been written of late about the viability of a bilingual focus in deaf education.' While these writings are necessary to the ongoing pedagogical dialogue in the field, much of the rhetoric suffers because, rather than truly adopting a 'holistic perspective', arguments and positions focus only on selected aspects of the relevant theoretical and research information. If proponents of bilingual education for deaf children truly rely on 'research on the benefits of native sign language and from theoretical and research support coming from other disciplines' (Ewoldt, 1996, p. 5) to support their claims, then these research and theoretical supports must be examined as comprehensively, and holistically, as possible. Weaving together only a few threads of theory and research does not create the fabric for a pedagogical position that can withstand close scrutiny and analysis.In this article, we will touch on some of the major claims made in explications of bilingual models of literacy education for deaf students (Baker, 1997; Livingston, 1997; Mashie, 1995; Mason & Ewoldt, 1996). Our goal is to broaden the scope of the discussion on some of the major arguments and to encourage an expanded dialogue in this ongoing debate. It is not our aim to argue against the concept of bilingual education for deaf students nor to advocate the exclusion of native sign languages from the classroom. Rather, we support the concept of a bilingual education for deaf students with native sign languages playing a key role; however, we contend that the model as it is currently conceived requires further scrutiny and analysis.

The foundations of Latin

Abstract: The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks as well as studies that provide new insights by building bridges to neighbouring fields such as neuroscience and cognitive science. The series considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language.

In Praise of the Variant: A Critical History of Philology

Abstract: In this study, Bernard Cerquiglini looks at the relation between philosophical studies and their texts, with special attention to texts from the Middle Ages. He finds that the scientific reconstruction of texts is not only a recent historical phenomenon, but also an anachronism that loses exactly what it seeks: a way of confronting a text in its own terms. In the medieval period, Cerquiglini observes, works were translated into French and transmitted in French copies that often varied greatly. For centuries such texts were valued, precisely because each was, in some manner, unique. The variant was not necessarily a careless accident, but a sign of precious individuality, and a source of pleasure, or even joy.

Original Signs: Gesture, Sign, and the Sources of Language

Abstract: By making no strict separation between language and gesture, this thought provoking work reveals that the use of signs by Deaf people to create a fully formed language also reflects a natural facet of communication development for all people.

Language change: advances in historical sociolinguistics

Abstract: The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks as well as studies that provide new insights by building bridges to neighbouring fields such as neuroscience and cognitive science. The series considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language.

The Welsh Answering System

Abstract: The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks as well as studies that provide new insights by building bridges to neighbouring fields such as neuroscience and cognitive science. The series considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language.

Meaning for observers and agents

Abstract: Shannon and Weaver (1963) formalized the notion of information transmission rate and capacity for pre-existing channels. Wittgenstein (1968) insisted that linguistic meaning be defined in terms of use in language games. Peirce (1965) realized the importance of sign, signified, and interpretant in processes of semiosis. In particular, the connection between sign and signified does not take place in a platonic vacuum but is situated, embodied, embedded, and must be mediated by an interpretant. We introduce a rigorous mathematical notion of meaning, as (1) agent- and observer- perceptible information in interaction games between an agent and its environment or between an agent and other agents, that is (2) useful for satisfying homeostatic and other drives, needs, goals or intentions. With this framework it is possible to address issues of sensor- and actuator- design, origins, evolution, and maintenance for biological and artificial systems. Moreover, correspondences between channels of meaning are exploited by biological entities in predicting the behavior or reading the intent of others, as in predator-prey and social interaction. Social learning, imitation, communication of experience also develop and can be developed on this substrate of shared meaning.

French Sign Language: Proposition of a Structural Explanation by Iconicity

Abstract: In this article, I shall attempt to demonstrate that sign languages are linguistic objects which provide us with increasingly tangible means of accessing cognitive activity. This is possible by virtue of the existence in language of the visible, iconic manifestation of a dynamic process, which is set in motion by deaf signers to speak of experience outside of the situation of the utterance.

"From Endpoints to Repertoires": A Challenge to Art Education

Abstract: Whether or not we agree with Arthur Danto's (1997) idea of living in the "after the end of art" era, one thing is certain: At the end of the 20th century the concept of art constitutes, more than ever before, an ill-defined category. The understanding of what art is, could be, or should be is guided by the universe of classification rules too vast to allow for an operational definition that would hold to the scrutiny of various social, political, cultural, ethnic, racial, religious, ideological, or aesthetic perspectives. While the notion of art as an open concept has been advocated from the late 1950s when Morris Weitz (1959) warned that the "contention that 'art' is amenable to real or any kind of true definition is false" (p.435), recent years have stretched the boundaries of this concept even further. This situation clearly poses a challenge to the field of art education. It necessitates re-examination of what art education should be in the "after the end of art" era to account for a variety of pictorial repertoires and visual languages reflecting the open texture of the concept of art. It offers an opportunity to incorporate in art education realms of pictorial representation that have traditionally remained outside its boundaries. It calls for re-evaluation of our understanding of the notion of artistic development and ways in which such growth should be encouraged and supported. Re-thinking Learning in Art: Artistic Development as Development in Repertoires of Pictorial Representation The road to a revised understanding of artistic development has been outlined by researchers who have argued that there is a non-linear progression in artistic growth (e.g., Darras, 1992; Golomb, 1994; Wolf & Perry, 1988; Wolf, 1994; Pariser, 1997; Kindler & Darras, 1994, 1997, 1998). Wolf & Perry (1988) called for freeing our thinking about development in art from a compulsive search for "endpoints." They argued that the world of visual imagery is broader than what classical stage models could account for, noting that children are often capable of constructing and using a range of "styles" in pictorial representation within the time frame of a single "stage." Wolf and Perry suggested that at various points in the development of graphic symbolization children "construct a range of visual languages with which to portray their experience or ideas." (p.31) This point has been well demonstrated by Atkinson (1991) who offered some convincing examples testifying to children's ability to access multiple pictorial systems. Bernard Darras and I have also suggested that in order to look at artistic development in a comprehensive way it is necessary to explore not only the analysis of pictorial evidence produced by infants, young children, adolescents and adults, but also to examine the semiotic process that underlies the production of visual imagery (e.g., Darras & Kindler, 1993, 1997; Kindler, 1998; Kindler & Darras, 1994, 1997, 1997a, 1998). We have indicated that emergence of pictorial representation can be traced back to early iconic gestures, often long before first tangible marks are produced. This recognition of aspects of movement as iconic signs, bears serious implications to the discussion of development of pictorial representation. It shifts emphasis to the semiotic function of an iconic sign, whether this sign is tangible and permanent or not. It is congruent with the assumption underlying our model that regards what has been referred to as "development in art," as a semiotic process mediated by the socio-cultural context in which it unfolds. The understanding of artistic development that we have proposed highlights the significance of this context. It exposes the actual and potential influence of culture in guiding choices of pictorial repertoires that are favored, valued, and taught. In the "after the end of art" era, this model is particularly relevant as it considers multiple possible teleologies, purposes, and ambitions that may guide human pictorial behavior. …

Elements of Semiotics

Abstract: Foreword PART I: THE PROVENANCE OF SEMIOTICS What is Semiotics About? Consciousness of Signs Concepts of Sign Critical Phenomena of Semiosis PART II: SIGN SYSTEMS Vocabulary Function Grammar The Reality of System in a Universe of Dialogue PART III: ANALYSIS OF THE SIGN Peirce's Problematics for the Sign Psychological Aspects of Signification What is a Sign? Boundaries of the Sign PART IV: ELABORATIONS OF THE SIGN Articulation Hierarchy and Reference Structure: Grammar and Pattern in Texts The Text in Context The Processive Sign: Ritual, Symbol and Art PART V: TOPICS IN COMPARATIVE SEMIOTICS Artful and Artificial Languages Signs in the Visual Arts Melody Concept and Expressivity in Art PART VI: CONSEQUENCES Semiotics and the Problem of Free Will Semiotics and the Aims of Education

Transformations: Children's Meaning Making in a Nursery

Abstract: This original study shows how children make meaning in a variety of modes and it challenges conventional notions of literacy as being linked only to print. By observing children making models, drawing, writing and playing, and by tracking children's ideas as they flow through a nursery, new ways of understanding and crediting children's communications are revealed. "Transformations" examines how a variety of activities such as model making, cutting out, drawing and communication in the widest sense, are all forms of literacy. Its linking of theory and practice gives nursery and infant teachers access to new and challenging theories of communication and extends their understandings about the social and cultural differences of young children. The theory that children naturally negotiate multiple sign systems when making meaning is develop, and the book illustrates how children's communication is shaped by the dynamic interplay between their internal worlds and external socio-cultural forces. This book is for early years teachers, nursery nurses and anyone working with young children who welcomes fresh insights into how children produce texts. Based on her observations in an inner city nursery and using data which embraces work by children at home and at school and by bilingual children, Kate Pahl here illuminates how children make sense of the world, and how they present their worlds.

Numeral Types and Changes Worldwide

Abstract: The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks as well as studies that provide new insights by building bridges to neighbouring fields such as neuroscience and cognitive science. The series considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language.

The Linguistics of British Sign Language: Visual motivation and metaphor

Abstract: This chapter continues the discussion of the sources of signs, focusing in the first section on how handshapes are used in visually motivated signs In the second section, we consider the role of metaphor in the creation of the BSL lexicon All signers use visually motivated signs, but most of the time they use these signs automatically without thinking about why they are made that way or what information is included Understanding how signs show different degrees of visual motivation, and in different ways, is very important when it comes to understanding how to create new signs We will talk about this more in chapter 11 For now, we can say that it is important to understand how BSL can reflect the visual nature of an object or an action CLASSES OF VISUALLY MOTIVATED SIGNS In the 1970s, the American sign linguist Mark Mandel classified visually motivated signs into different groups: (a) those that show an image of the referent or action itself (these are ‘presentation’ signs, because we present the referent or action in some way); and (b) those that make a picture of the referent, either by drawing it or by making the shape of it with the hands (these are ‘depiction’ signs because they make a picture) Presentable objects These can be pointed to, because they are present There is no specific sign because the referent is in the environment, so simply pointing will give all the information needed

TQM as an Arbitrary Sign for Play: Discourse and Transformation:

Abstract: This paper opens up quality management discourse. A historical review traces quality control discourse before TQM appeared. It is argued that rather than `Japanization', the challenge, paradoxically, is the westernization of `foreign'/ Japanese management technologies. To explore a conceptual possibility, the naming of TQM is scrutinized. When TQM is revealed as an arbitrary linguistic sign (de Saussure 1959), the limit of representation based on signified-signifier dichotomy becomes apparent. An arbitrary sign makes playing with substitutes possible (Derrida 1978). Specifically, de Saussure' s sign-signified-signifier trichotomy allows three substitutions. In so doing, a supplementary understanding of TQM is offered. The potential for reconsidering the emergence and transformation of other arbitrary signs (e.g. BPR and HRM) in the management/organization discourse makes this seemingly perverse deconstruction of TQM worthwhile.

Vygotsky, sign language, and the education of deaf pupils.

Abstract: This article considers the impact of Vygotsky on the education of deaf children in Russia and is a translation / adaptation of an article currently being published in Defektologiia. While Vygotsky perceived sign language as limited in some aspects, nevertheless, he always considered that it had a role in the education of deaf pupils. He believed that sign language should not be treated like an the enemy and said that bilingualism of deaf people is an objective reality However, sign language was banned from Russian schools following a conference decision in 1938. The changing political climate in Russia has lead to the reevaluation of many aspects of life, including approaches to education, and to a reassessment of Vygotsky's ideas and an appreciation of their continuing relevance, Among other things, this has resulted in a rcevaluat ion of the role of sign language for deaf pupils and an emerging interest in sign bilingualism.

Jeremiah's and Ezekiel's sign-acts

Abstract: The books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel contain the majority of the biblical accounts of prophetic sign-actions. By analysing these two prophets' actions according to the terms and concepts used in studies of nonverbal communication and rhetoric, this work seeks to bring conceptual and terminological clarity to the discussion of prophetic sign-acts and to enhance the perception of the prophets as persuasive communicators. Rather than prophetic sign-acts being viewed as having a magical derivation or as being inherently efficacious in bringing about what they portray, the sign-acts are viewed as being primarily forms of nonverbal communication whose purpose was to have a persuasive impact upon spectators.

Signs and Representations: Semiotics for User Interface Design

Abstract: Goguen has proposed the use of semiotics to study the ways in which information is mediated in computer systems, particularly in user interfaces. His algebraic semiotics provides a formal tool for studying the systematic use of signs in computer systems, and for presenting formal comparisons of different interface designs. The formal elements of algebraic semiotics make it a kind of algebraic engineering for sign systems, and introduces an engineering rigour to interface design.

Receptive Sign Vocabulary Tests: Tests of Single-Word Vocabulary or Iconicity?

Abstract: First-, fourth-, and ninth-grade hearing students were administered randomly selected items from the Carolina Picture Vocabulary Test (CPVT; Layton & Holmes, 1985) to determine the degree to which signs used in the CPVT are iconic (see note) and can actually convey a sign's meaning at the moment of testing, thus providing an inflated vocabulary score. Hearing students were tested because they had no prior sign knowledge or experience. Results indicate that the signs used in the CPVT are sufficiently iconic to enable students unfamiliar with signs to identify a test picture; 73% of their responses were correct when chance selection was 25%. Such findings signal potential problems with existing receptive sign vocabulary tests; consequently, test results should be interpreted cautiously. Note: Not all signs are iconic. Iconic signs have semantic features nested in their formation, location, and movement that visually convey enough information to manifest word meaning. Formation, location, and movement are also called cheremic features of sign.

Semantic Revolution Rudolf Carnap, Kurt Gödel, Alfred Tarski

Abstract: According to a common opinion, the word ‘semantics’ (precisely: its French counterpart semantique’), derived from the Greek word semantikos (=having meaning, denoting), appeared for the first time, at least in modern times, in the book Essai de semantique, science de significations by M. J. A. Breal (1897). However, Quine says in his lectures on Carnap: As used by C. S. Peirce, “semantic” is the study of the modes of denotation of signs: whether a sign denotes its object through causal or symptomatic connection, or through imagery, or through arbitrary convention and so on. This sense of semantic, namely a theory of meaning, is used also in empirical philology: empirical semantic is the study of historical changes of meanings of words.1 For Breal, semantics was a branch of general linguistics. In particular, semantics was occupied with so-called lexical meaning and its changes through time. Thus, semantics in this sense belonged to what was called “the diachronic treatment of language”. This tradition is fairly alive in contemporary linguistic theory. Quine’s description of the word ‘semantic’ in Peirce corresponds, which Quine explicitly states, to its use in philology. However, some linguists ascribe a more theoretical role to lingustic semantics. Karl Buhler is an example. In his Sprachtheorie (1934) he says that a theory of semantic functions of language is a part of theory of language.2 This account is to be found also among philosophers. It is also rather obvious that Peirce did not limit his semantic only to empirical studies. Linguists (and sometimes philosophers) also use the word ‘semasiology’ instead of ‘semantics’; Buhler proposed the term ‘sematology’ for a general theory of symbols.3

Semiotics and Computational Linguistics On Semiotic Cognitive Information Processing

Abstract: Signs, which are the domain of inquiry in semiotics, have a complex ontology. Apart from being used-adequate knowledge provided-by communicators, and recognized as being decomposable into smaller elements and aggregatable to larger structures, they are also meant to be understood. This is a consequence of their manifold identity as compound physical objects with real world extensions in space-time-locations and as activators for complex mental processes which tend to be identified with some mind and/or brain activities responsible for their understanding. In the cognitive sciences all processes of perception, identification, and interpretation of (external) structures are considered information processing which (natural or artificial) systems-due to their own (internal) structuredness or knowledge-are able (or unable) to perform. Combining the semiotic with the cognitive paradigm in computational linguistics, the processes believed to constitute natural language sign structures and their understand­ ing is modeled by way of procedural, i.e. computational (re-)constructions of such processes that produce structures comparable to those that the understanding of (very large) samples of situated natural language discourse would imply. Thus, computa­ tional semiotic models in cognitive linguistics aim at simulating the constitution of meanings and the interpretation of signs without their predicative and propositional representations which dominate traditional research formats in syntax and semantics so far. This is achieved by analyzing the linear or syntagmatic and selective or paradig­ matic constraints which natural languages impose recursively on the formation and structure of (strings of) linguistic entities on different levels of systemic distinction. It will be argued (and illustrated) that fuzzy modeling allows to derive more adequate representational means whose (numerical) specificity and (procedural) definiteness may complement formats of categorial type precision (which would appear phenomenolog­ ically incompatible) and processual determinateness (which would seem cognitively inadequate). Several examples from fuzzy linguistic research will be given to illustrate these points.

Art, Culture, and the Semiotics of Meaning: Culture's Changing Signs of Life in Poetry, Drama, Painting, and Sculpture

Abstract: Introduction - Meaning - Meaning Making: The Physical and Cognitive Materials - Signs of Life: Medieval Schemes of the Ages of Man - Death of a Sign - The Semiotics of Poetry: That a Poem May Mean and Be - The Meaning of the Author: Robert Lowell as Image of an Age - Signs of Space: Jo Mielziner's Stage Sets - Can Non-Objective Art Mean? - Cognitive Science and the Semiotics of Art - Conclusion - Works Cited

Semiotics and Computational Linguistics

Abstract: Signs, which are the domain of inquiry in semiotics, have a complex ontology. Apart from being used—adequate knowledge provided—by communicators, and recognized as being decomposable into smaller elements and aggregatable to larger structures, they are also meant to be understood. This is a consequence of their manifold identity as compound physical objects with real world extensions in space-time-locations and as activators for complex mental processes which tend to be identified with some mind and/or brain activities responsible for their understanding. In the cognitive sciences all processes of perception, identification, and interpretation of (external) structures are considered information processing which (natural or artificial) systems—due to their own (internal) structuredness or knowledge—are able (or unable) to perform. Combining the semiotic with the cognitive paradigm in computational linguistics, the processes believed to constitute natural language sign structures and their understanding is modeled by way of procedural, i.e. computational (re-)constructions of such processes that produce structures comparable to those that the understanding of (very large) samples of situated natural language discourse would imply. Thus, computational semiotic models in cognitive linguistics aim at simulating the constitution of meanings and the interpretation of signs without their predicative and propositional representations which dominate traditional research formats in syntax and semantics so far. This is achieved by analyzing the linear or syntagmatic and selective or paradigmatic constraints which natural languages impose recursively on the formation and structure of (strings of) linguistic entities on different levels of systemic distinction. It will be argued (and illustrated) that fuzzy modeling allows to derive more adequate representational means whose (numerical) specificity and (procedural) definiteness may complement formats of categorial type precision (which would appear phenomenologically incompatible) and processual determinateness (which would seem cognitively inadequate). Several examples from fuzzy linguistic research will be given to illustrate these points.

Word-order based grammar

Abstract: The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks as well as studies that provide new insights by building bridges to neighbouring fields such as neuroscience and cognitive science. The series considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language.

The Secret History of the Equal Sign: L = A = N = G = U = A = G = E between Discourse and Text

Abstract: Avant-gardes, in breaking down the boundaries of the autonomous author in favor of both the work and its immediate reception within its community, frequently employ strategies of “multiple authorship,” in which the work is positioned between two or more authors, toward a horizon of collective practice or politics. Any theory of the avant-garde must take into account not only the poetics of its devices of defamiliarization and their relation to the construction of new meaning but also its stakes in the discursive community defined by means of its literary practices. This essay discusses several examples of avant-garde multiauthorship developed by writers of the Language School: the collective authorship represented by L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E and other literary journals; Legend, a multiauthored experimental poem by five authors; two poems written under the title “Non-Events” by Steve Benson and myself; and Carla Harryman and Lyn Hejinian’s collaborative novel The Wide Road. Michel Foucault’s concept of “discursive formation” and Julia Kristeva’s dialectic of “symbolic” and “semiotic” provide critical terms for an approach to the politics of community enacted in works of the avant-garde. These cultural politics, and their implications for the genres of poetry and poetics, continue in the contemporary form of the poetics Listserve, itself seen as a form of multiauthorship.