The Age of the Sign: New Light on the Role of the Fourteenth Century in the History of Semiotics

Dialogue ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 509-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludger Kaczmarek

Semiotics, the age-old investigation of signs, is still striving for acknowledgement as a scientific (and academic) discipline. Though the ‘linguistic turn’ in the philosophical disciplines seemed to be followed by a ‘semiotic turn’ in many sciences during the 1970s, efforts were not crowned by great success. When seen from a certain distance, a definition of semiotics as a discipline can only be obtained from its history. Research into the sources of the human pre-occupation with signs, and with concepts or conceptions of signs, is really desirable and even necessary when a field of considerable scientific interest at the brink of being awarded the rank of a discipline runs the risk of getting lost between the unificationism of the Morris-type and the elegance of pseudo-mathematical empty classificationism (such as demonstrated in the late Max Bense's Stuttgart School) on the one side, and profitable exploitation of the sign's popularized design qualities on the other.

Author(s):  
Paolo Desideri

This chapter discusses first the general cosmological principles which lie behind Plutarch’s historiographical work, such as can be recovered through significant passages of his Delphic Dialogues. Second, it investigates the reasons why Plutarch wrote biographies, and more specifically parallel biographies, instead of outright histories: in this way, Plutarch aimed to emphasize, on the one hand, the dominant role of individual personalities in the political world of his own time, and, on the other hand, the mutual and exclusive relevance of Greece and Rome in the history of human culture. Third, the chapter seeks to connect the rise-and-fall pattern, typical of biography, with the general rise-and-fall pattern which Plutarch recognizes both in the Greek and in the Roman civilizations; through that connection one can rule out the idea that Plutarch had any providential view of history. Finally, some reflections are offered on Nietzsche’s special interest in Plutarch’s biographies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Moses Njenga

While vital for the social and economic development of Kenya and Africa as whole, Vocational Education remains hampered by a negative parity of esteem. Individuals and households continue to view vocational education as a second option. This is in contrast with the views held by both pre-colonial and post colonial governments. Each successive government has attempted to provide vocational education and made policies to effect widespread provision. This article reviews the history of these policies and identifies the source of negative views towards vocational education on the one hand to discriminatory approaches by colonial governments and on the other hand to the burdening of technical education with the task of employment creation.


M n gement ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Anthony Hussenot

This article examines the emergence of organizational dynamics in the context of fluid organizational phenomena. To do so, three organizational dynamics are studied: (1) identity, (2) actorhood, and (3) interconnected instances of decision-making. To study how these three organizational dynamics take shape in the context of fluid organizational phenomena, I rely on the events-based approach and a case study of makers operating in a makerspace in the Paris region. The results show, on the one hand, that the collective of makers enacts a structure of past, present, and future events that participates in the definition of a common frame of reference and, on the other hand, that this common frame of reference plays a role in the emergence of organizational dynamics. On the basis of this result, my main contribution is to show the role of the eventalization – that is, the definition, configuration and narration by the actors of past, present, and future events – in the definition of organizational dynamics in fluid organizational phenomena. This article contributes on the one hand to the literature on fluid organizational phenomena, and on the other hand to the literature on makers working in makerspaces.


2021 ◽  
pp. 342-368
Author(s):  
Anne Storch

This chapter explores the dialectics of walking and resting, and of mobility and waiting, with regards to creativity in language. It thereby focuses on the interruption and unintended break as an opportunity for interactions and encounters across linguistic epistemes, boundaries and norms. Walking as a methodology and epistemic approach has been discussed in anthropology, the social sciences and literary critique, but met very little interest in linguistics. This chapter on the one hand consequently attempts to address walking as a substantial approach to the study of multilingualism and improvisation, but on the other aims at highlighting disruption and stillness as creating the very liminal space and practice through which language creativity can emerge and be realized. It touches upon various practices that are crucial: being stuck, passing time, getting lost. Points of special interests interest include the role of language in the love songs and other genres, especially in the context of the Mediterranean, disruptions associated with migrations and peoples’ movements, the context of tourism, and the linguistic effects of spirit possession.


Author(s):  
David Anderson

The introduction commences with a ‘detour’ into the history of landscape art and the picturesque, suggesting ways that this mode pre-empted what may seem like more modern ideas about the interference between perception and representation. This discussion is folded into a brief account of the so-called ‘spatial turn’ and the interventions of theorists including Doreen Massey and Marc Augé, establishing an immediate context for the work of Keiller, Sebald, and Sinclair. Suggesting a twin heritage of the ‘English Journey’ on the one hand and the French Surrealists and Situationists on the other, the introduction then offers the tension between amant and amateur as a way of characterizing the balance of exotic/everyday, plan/coincidence, and high-brow/low-brow in these figures’ work. It considers the role of pedestrianism and melancholia before closing with a discussion of Walter Benjamin and Gustave Doré’s ‘New Zealander’.


Author(s):  
S. M. Mostova

The article deals with the linguistic study of discourse which is based on the material of «Dia- ries» by O. Gonchar. In the focus of this research, diary entries are established as the projection and reflection of the linguistic personality of the writer. The process of keeping a diary is considered as the communicative value of text writing. Therefore, the entries reflect the results and characteristics of Gonchar’s communicative activity. The reflection of the word appears as a writer’s artistic work that absorbs the philosophy of his time, his aspiration and cultural experience. Moreover, the linguistic reading of the diary discourse reveals the axiсological perception of the reality, verbalized in the word. As noted by I. Sirko, in the Ukrainian linguistic culture only in the second half of the 20th century – at the beginning of the XXI century dia- ries became a form of personal expression. Due to the philological achievements, it is known that diary and diary activity form the discourse. If to quote the definition of discourse by N. Arutyunova, then discourse is a text immersed in life. Ac- cording to Y. Stepanov, the phenomenon of discourse is the proof of the thesis «Language is the home of the spirit» and, to some extent, the thesis «Language is the home of being». So keeping a diary is a kind of communicative activity. The concept of the diary accurately reflects the specifics of its keeping – a kind of activity that is implemented every day. Linguistic study of the diary’s discourse involves a variety of approaches, including 1) modeling of diary activity, 2) the selection of typical cases of diary writing and the main tendencies characterizing diary texts; 3) description and characterization of diary texts in the unity of language, psycholinguistic, cultural, extra-linguistic circumstances, which influenced the subject and led to creativity. In the diary discourse, we can trace the activities of the author in the role of «figure», the role of «chronicler», the role of «carrier of the psychological state», the role of «the one who writes». This is due to the wide possibilities of the diary. Naturally, in each case, these roles are individual. For example, O. Gonchar realizes himself in several different roles, which is reflected in the numerous entries. He includes all the information, such as drafts of letters, scenes of works, heard jokes or stories, interesting facts, personal or other observations, thoughts which the author consid- ered to be deserving for certain reasons to save. O. Gonchar is endowed with a degree of freedom in his communicative activity. He is free not only in the choice of lexical and syntactical means but also in the choice of topics (events) for a diary entry, as well as in measures of detail, describing a particular event. Thus, a diary is the prism of the vision of the writer’s world, the history of his experience and the formation of the author as a person. In addition, it is important to notice that the records often cover the entire life of the author, which allows us to trace the evolution of the linguistic personality, reconstruct the content of its worldview. In this way, diaries provide informational and communicative values, appear as a projection of the linguistic personality of the writer and reflection of the author’s language.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-222
Author(s):  
Christopher D. Bahl

Abstract Persian narrative sources provide a colorful picture of Mughal courtly life, but in order to zoom in on cultural practices one has to turn to the artefacts of cultural pursuits. This article studies one specimen of the empirical treasure trove of Arabic manuscripts in South Asia in order to approach a lacuna in Mughal scholarship: the role of Arabic at the Mughal court. In the following, I will analyze the different paratextual layers of a manuscript of the thirteenth century Arabic grammar commentary Sharḥ al-Radī by Radī al-Dīn al-Astarābādhī to study its reading and transmission. The manuscript version represents a written artefact, which emerged out of a series of intellectual engagements. On the one hand, these textual engagements offer a perspective on the manuscript’s initial owner, Saʿd Allāh Khān (d. 1656), and his intellectual pursuits, as well as the scholarly framework in which he was brought up and worked in. On the other hand, the history of this manuscript’s circulation highlights the treatment of Arabic written artefacts at Shāh Jahān’s court. In an exemplary manner, the manuscript’s history of circulation demonstrates how courtly elites engaged with Arabic during the seventeenth century.


2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-249
Author(s):  
G. Anuarbekova ◽  
◽  
Y. Bidaibekov ◽  
N. Oshanova ◽  
◽  
...  

In this article, the meaning of the concept of national characteristics is scientifically justified and the definition of the meaning of the concept of national characteristics is clarified. The concepts of national peculiarities in the works of foreign and domestic researchers were analyzed, and conclusions were given. The role of national features of training in the section «algorithmization and programming» in the course of computer science is revealed. The characteristic of national characteristics was considered. Taking into account national characteristics in the educational process on the one hand acts as a result, on the other-as a tool to achieve the goal. The national peculiarity is that the school has a connection with life, concretizes the content of the theory through the connection with practice. And also at the organization of activity of pupils by means of realization of substantial aspects of training on differentiation and individualization of all components of pedagogical system. The issue of taking into account the national needs and characteristics of peoples is reflected as an important aspect of improving the education system in schools.


2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattia Thibault

The aim of the article is to introduce an approach to play based on semiotics of culture and, in particular, grounded in the works and ideas of Juri Lotman. On the one hand, it provides an overview of Lotman’s works dedicated to play and games, starting from his article on art among other modelling systems, in which the phenomenon of play is treated deeply, and mentioning Lotman’s articles dedicated to various forms of play forms, such as involving dolls and playing cards. On the other hand, it applies a few Lotmanian theories and ideas to playfulness in order to shed some light on this highly debated, as well as intriguing, anthropic activity. Thus, the paper approaches some of the core questions for a play theory, such as the definition of play, the cultural role of toys and playthings, the importance of unpredictability, the position held by playfulness in the semiosphere and, finally, the differences and commonalities between play and art. Lotman’s theories and works, often integrated by other existing semiotic or ludologic perspectives offer an extremely insightful and fresh take on play and illustrate the great heuristic potential of semiotics of culture.


2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 509-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Dietschy

This article argues that the question of national perspectives is a fundamental problem in the writing of European sports history. It does so by demonstrating that France has an equal pedigree, in terms of diffusion and exceptionalism, as Britain, and pleads for a less skewed approach to the history of the subject in general. The article shows, first, that France contributed significantly to the internationalization of sport in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with French networks facilitating the spread of sports across the globe. It considers the impact of French universalism on the institutional structures of world sport and assesses the importance of sport to governmental diplomacy. Second, it proposes that France occupies a special place in the history of European sport, halfway between that of the British on the one hand and other continental sporting cultures on the other. It discusses the role of central and regional administrations in the creation of a sports space that is distinctly marked by a lack of football hegemony. French sport, the article concludes, is characterized by a peculiar mix of anglomanie, invented traditions, internationalism, state interventionism and eclecticism.


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