Sign (semiotics)

About: Sign (semiotics) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4080 publications have been published within this topic receiving 70333 citations. The topic is also known as: semiotic sign.

Catalysts and Regulators of Psychological Change in the Context of Immigration Ruptures

Abstract: In this chapter our aim is to show how the concept of catalysis, as taken from chemistry, can be used to understand the conditions that bring about change and support the emergence of new psychological phenomena following psychological ruptures, such as that of immigrating. Specifically, we use the concepts of semiotic catalysts and regulators, connecting the concept of catalysis to semiotic mediation (Cabell, Psychol Soc, 3(1):26–41, 2010) and to the theoretical framework of symbolic resources (Zittoun, Transitions: Development through Symbolic Resources, 2006) in order to analyse the case of Sabar, a Kurdish political refugee living in Greece (Kadianaki, Negotiating Immigration Through Symbolic Resources: The Case of Immigrants Living in Greece, 2010). Through this case study we show that catalysts are meanings introduced into the psychological system that provoke a rupture in the taken for granted. At the same time, another form of catalysts, cultural elements, introduce opposing meanings through their semiotic qualities. We show how Sabar uses these elements as semiotic regulators to deal with the immigration ruptures and orient himself in time, mediate his experiences at different levels of generality as well as his relationship with self, others, and the social world. We suggest that a catalytic framework can enrich our understanding of how ruptures emerge within the psychological system and how meanings, found or synthesized in semiotic forms, can be used to regulate these ruptures. Further, we argue that the transference of a catalytic framework into the realm of semiotic mediation can contribute to the theorization of the complexity of semiotic catalysts (i.e. complex sign arrangements), of the generativity of psychological change processes (i.e. regulators becoming catalysts) and of the complexity of the semiotic outputs (i.e. enabling multilevel mediation) of these processes.

C. S. Peirce and Intersemiotic Translation

Abstract: Intersemiotic translation (IT) was defined by Roman Jakobson (The Translation Studies Reader, Routledge, London, p. 114, 2000) as “transmutation of signs”—“an interpretation of verbal signs by means of signs of nonverbal sign systems.” Despite its theoretical relevance, and in spite of the frequency in which it is practiced, the phenomenon remains virtually unexplored in terms of conceptual modeling, especially from a semiotic perspective. Our approach is based on two premises: (i) IT is fundamentally a semiotic operation process (semiosis) and (ii) IT is a deeply iconic-dependent process. We exemplify our approach by means of literature to dance IT and we explore some implications for the development of a general model of IT.

Kongo Graphic Writing and Other Narratives of the Sign

Abstract: This comprehensive book traces the history and development of visual traditions in the Kongo religions of Africa and Cuba (where it is known as Palo Monte)

Italo Calvino and the organizational imagination: Reading social organization through urban metaphors

Abstract: This article explores the way in which uses or abuses of urban metaphors can inform differing polities and ethics of human organization. From its earliest inception, the city has taken on a metaphorical significance for human communities; being, at one and the same time, a discursive textual product of culture and, reciprocally, a provider of artefacts and architecture that produces culture and meaning. The city can be interpreted as a trope that operates bidirectionally in cultural terms. It is a sign that can be worked to serve the principles of both metonymy and synecdoche. In metonymical or reductive form, the city has the propensity to become weighty and deadening. The work of Michael Porter on competitive strategy is invoked to illustrate this effect. In the guise of synecdoche, on the other hand, the city offers imaginative potential. Drawing inspiration from the literary works of Italo Calvino (in particular, his novel Invisible Cities), the article attempts to reveal the fecundity of the city for...

Visual literacy and print literacy‐theoretical considerations and points of contact

Abstract: The theoretical stance of visual literacy advocates is described as a multi‐sign approach that goes beyond the usual focus on print literacy but does not deal adequately with nonlinguistic signs other than the visual. Semiotics, the general theory of signs, is seen as a more cohesive basis for theory‐building in education. Five areas of overlap between visual literacy and print literacy are discussed: (1) use of graphic organizers as learning aids; (2) study of propaganda; (3) video technologies; (4) use of computers; and (5) children's drawing and writing. The authors state that the points of contact further suggest the need for a semiotic frame of reference. They describe an expansive semiotics‐based model of human experience developed by Deely, but modified by Cunningham and Luk to be a comprehensively multi‐sign model. Suhor's general model for a semiotic theory is presented as a way of depicting relationships among not only linguistic signs and visual signs, but other signs and sign systems in educat...