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.

Cool: The Signs and Meanings of Adolescence

Abstract: The image of restless, apathetic, mopish, awkward teenagers who listen to loud, screeching music when they are not on the phone, and who insist on dressing, wearing their hair, and behaving exactly like the friends they cannot seem to live without, has become a fixture of the modern social landscape. The emergence of certain behaviours (facial expressions, linguistic styles, dress codes, musical preferences, etc.) on the developmental timetable of children is a sign that they have entered a transitional period. The dramatic changes in physical appearance that occur during adolescence, and the emotional changes that accompany them, are traumatic. Teenagers naturally become inordinately concerned about their appearance and behaviour, and they believe that everyone is constantly observing them. This is why they talk all the time about how others act, behave, and appear. Language, dress, musical tastes, and other symbolic systems become the concrete means for identifying with peers. Teenagerhood is a socially constructed time-frame that channels the physiological and emotional changes that occur at puberty into patterns of symbolic behavior. These patterns are then reinforced by the media. This book represents both a synthesis of Marcel Danesi's research on the semiotics of modern adolescence, and his own interpretation of the significance and implications of our teenage culture. It constitutes a semiotic portrait of the teenager and of the factors that have led to the construction of the teenage persona and culture. Danesi makes a distinction between adolescence as psychobiological period of human growth and development and teenagerhood as a socially induced mindset that accompanies it. He focuses on the central behavioral trait of teenagerhood -- coolness; he defines it and discusses its emergence at or around puberty, and draws up an 'anatomy' of the behaviors associated with it. He discusses the language of teenagers, which he calls 'pubilect,' and concludes with observations on the etiology, evolution, and future course of teenagerhood. Cool is intended not only for semioticians, as a documentation of a specific form of social semiosis, but also for parents and educators, and for teenagers themselves.

Language contact and change in the Austronesian world

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.

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.

The law as a system of signs

Abstract: I Introduction to Legal Semiotics.- 1 Legal Semiotics: The Peircean Frame.- 2 Staking the Claim/Walking the Field.- 3 Perspectives on the Legal System.- 4 A Comparatist View.- 5 Global Developments.- II The Open Hand.- 6 The Art of Conversation.- 7 Riddles, Legal Decisions, and Peirce's "Existential Graphs".- 8 Speech Acts: Decisions.- 9 Pure Play: Rules of Law and Rules of Conduct.- 10 Limits of Authority in Law.- III Quid Pro Quo.- 11 Contracts and Equivalences.- 12 The Mapping of Morals onto Law: Problems of Rights, Ethics, and Values.- 13 Economic Justice: The "Takings Clause" and Legal Interpretation.- 14 Economic Links with Law: The Market as Sign of a Free Society.- 15 Signs of the Naked and the Dressed: Contract and Cause in Law.- IV Interpretation and Value.- 16 Origins and Development: Hermeneutics of Law and Politics.- 17 American Realism.- 18 The Constitution as Interpretant Sign.- 19 Property I.- 20 Property II.- V Inquiry as Method of Freedom.- 21. Inquiry and Discovery Procedures.- 22 Conflict of Laws: A Complex Indexical Sign.- 23 The Means-End Process of Freedom in Law.- References.

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.