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.

Signgeist: promoting bilingualism through the linguistic landscape of school signage

Abstract: This study is an examination of signage and sign-making practices in one elementary (Kindergarten to sixth grade) public school which offers a German Bilingual Program (GBP) for the development of German–English bilingualism. Schools are public spaces in which the visible language choice on signs reveals the circulating discourses around language status. Surprisingly, little is known about the creation of these signs and the decision-making behind their creation. This linguistic landscape is analysed using nexus analysis which sheds light on the convergence of (1) the historical body of social actors in which teachers are primarily responsible for sign making, (2) an interaction order in which teachers practise organic sign placement and (3) discourses in place which include the promotion of bilingualism. This research reveals that signage is limited in its promotion of German–English bilingualism, constrained strongly by practices that define sign maker's responsibility and the GBP's reach. This study co...

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

Mervelous Signals: Poetics and Sign Theory in the Middle Ages

Abstract: "As one of the very few books that competently span the millennium of the Middle Ages as well as the spectrum of modem critical approaches, Vance's Mervelous Signals should stand as a monument and exemplar to fellow medievalists, as well as providing inspiration for years to come."--Envoi. "A highly valuable contribution to medieval literary studies in its individual readings as well as in its illumination of literary theory."--Style. "Often brilliant, and always stimulating."--Studies in the Age of Chaucer. The investigation of language, of how (and what and why) signifiers signify, is prominent in modern critical work, but the questions being asked are by no means new. In Mervelous Signals, Eugene Vance asserts that "there is scarcely a term, practice, or concept in contemporary theory that does not have some rich antecedent in medieval thought." He goes on to illustrate the complexity and depth of medieval speculations about language and literature. Vance's study of the link between the poetics and semiotics of the Middle Ages takes both a critical and a historical view as he brings today's insights to bear on the contemporary perspectives of such works as St. Augustine's Confessions, the Chanson de Roland, Chretien's Yvain, Aucassin and Nicolette, Spenser's The Faerie Queen, and certain aspects of the works of Dante and Chaucer and of French medieval theater. Eugene Vance, a professor of comparative literature at Emory Uni-versity, is the author of Reading the Song of Roland (1970) and From Topic to Tale: Logic and Narrative in the Middle Ages (1986).

A Referential Communication Experiment with Foreign Sign Languages

Abstract: A great deal of research has been done by psychologist and psycholinguists in the area of communication accuracy or intelligibility (cf Mehrabian & Reed 1968). Simply, intelligibility is a measure of how well a receiver can understand the communication of a sender. In order to arrive at a precise measure of intelligibility, communication researchers have made extensive use of what is known as a referential communication design. First used by Carroll (cf Osgood & Sebeok 1965: 200) and used most notably in the work of Krauss and Glucksberg and their associates (Krauss 1968, Krauss & Glucksberg 1969, Glucksberg & Krauss 1967), a referential communication setting is a situation in which one person (S, the sender) describes a specified referent to another person (R, the receiver). Because the referent is known to the experimenter, a measure of intelligibility is very simple and straightforward. If, after attending to a sender's communication, a receiver can identify the correct referent from among others, the communication is said to be intelligible. Referential communication experiments have been used successfully by researchers studying the sign language communication of deaf individuals, from young school-age children (Hoemann 1972) to linguistically mature adults (Jordan 1975). Most frequently, the referents that have been used with deaf subjects were either photographs or drawings. These kinds of stimuli allow for a great deal of control, while at the same time they give the communication task a lifelike aspect. Previous work (Jordan 1973) has shown that the less artificial the stimuli and task are, the more willing subjects are to \"play the game\" and the more confident the researcher can be that the subjects are really trying to communicate to one another. The investigation reported here was designed to compare