scholarly journals Towards an integration of two aspects of semiosis – A cognitive semiotic perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 132-165
Author(s):  
Piotr Konderak
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Cognitive Modelling ◽  
Semiotic System ◽  
Internal Factors ◽  
Cognitive Studies ◽  
Sign System ◽  
Cognitive Framework ◽  
Internal Sources ◽  
Semiotic Perspective

Meaning-making processes, understood hierarchically, in line with the Semiotic Hierarchy framework, change on various timescales. To account for and predict these changes, one can take a cognitive view on semiosis. I adopt an interdisciplinary approach combining semiotic studies and cognitive studies in an attempt to account for meaning-making activity and to predict the course of semiosis. In this context, I consider meaning-making activity as shaped by both “external” (to a semiotic system) as well as “internal” factors. I also show how both the “external” and “internal” sources of the dynamicity of meaning-making should be framed in terms of studies on cognition. I start with a non-standard, 4e approach to meaning-making. According to this framework, meaning-making processes are constituted by (and not just dependent on) environmental and bodily factors. The dynamicity of semiosis can be accounted for in terms of an experiencing, embodied subject (agent) enacting her/his/its own domain of meaningful phenomena. As I argue, this perspective on meaning-making is the cognitive foundation of the first two levels of the Semiotic Hierarchy. In the following sections I present the Peircean view on signs and semiosis, according to which semiosis is a result of the very nature of a sign and a sign system. In this view, the dynamicity of semiosis has primarily “internal” sources: it stems from the unavoidable fallibility of interpretation and synechism of signs. As I show, this aspect of semiosis can be addressed by means of standard (cognitivist) cognitive science and by means of cognitive modelling. Ultimately, I sketch a proposal of an attempt to develop a uniform cognitive framework allowing for integration of the above-mentioned aspects of semiosis – a framework based on Rowlands’ idea of the Amalgamated Mind.

scholarly journals New institutional challenges to the educational space: security as a criterion for development in the conditions of digitalization

2020 ◽  
pp. 81-93
Author(s):  
Sergei Vladimirovich Rabkin
Keyword(s):  
Social Development ◽  
National Security ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
The State ◽  
Internal Factors ◽  
Sociocultural Processes ◽  
Institutional Challenges ◽  
The Impact

The subject of this research is the institutional transformations of educational space associated with the global processes of digitalization of social relations, as well as internal factors in cooperation between society and the state with regards to determination of the criteria of security for their development. Using the general methodology of institutional analysis, methods of analogy and summary, as well as interdisciplinary approach towards studying the educational space, the author considers the questions of implementation of digital education technologies under the conditions of current sociocultural transformations. Special attention is turned to the balance between rational and immaterial factors that affect the formation of modern educational space, and thereby, specification of the new institutional challenges to the security of social development. The conducted analysis of the problems of implementation of such technologies in the system of higher education leads to the conclusion on the need for assessing the effectiveness of implementation of digital technologies in accordance with the institutional criteria that imply not only the impact of both, rational and immaterial factors of social development. The institutional nature of these factors is insufficiently studied, however determines the possibility of application of cognitive models in solution of the tasks aimed at ensuring national security in the conditions of digitalization of sociocultural processes. Therefore, the crucial institutional criterion that defines the effectiveness of implementation of digital technologies in the educational space consists in its security in all regards. The proposed institutional-criteria approach allows the state and society to focus on ensuring security of the educational space in the context of solution of relevant tasks of ensuring national security of the Russian Federation.

The heroes of the pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 07 (01) ◽  
pp. 9-29
Author(s):  
Sebastian Moreno Barreneche
Keyword(s):  
Health Economics ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Construction Process ◽  
Semiotic Perspective ◽  
Economics And Politics

Besides its impact on health, economics, and politics, the COVID-19 pandemic was the source of phenomena of a discursive nature, specifically regarding the solutions found by societies to make sense of the crisis caused by the uncontrolled spread of the virus. This article analyzes from a socio-semiotic perspective the construction process of the collective identity of “the healthcare workers” during the pandemic. After generally introducing semiotics as the discipline interested in meaning-making and signification, the article studies four semiotic mechanisms present in the discursive construction of any collective identity. It then moves on to its main goal: the analysis of the functioning of those four mechanisms in the specific case of “the healthcare workers,” a collective identity that, since the beginning of 2020, has been central in the narratives that emerged around the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, it should render visible the semiotic mechanisms of segmentation, actorialization, generalization, and axiologization.

scholarly journals Development of the region based on the activation of internal factors

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 70-81
Author(s):  
Ekaterina G. Leonidova
Keyword(s):  
Regional Development ◽  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Internal Factors ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Power Resources ◽  
European North ◽  
State Of The Economy ◽  
Internal Sources

The state of the economy of the Russian regions is to a considerable extent determined by the external environment, in the conditions of the negative impact of which on the socioeconomic processes, it is necessary to search for internal sources that reduce these restrictions. Their stimulation could minimize dependence on energy exports and fluctuations in the external economic situation, change the reproductive structure of the economy, and thereby ensure the socioeconomic development of the regions. The aim of the study is identifying and scientifically substantiating the activation of such internal factor as tourism, the potential of the latter being not fully utilized, but can stimulate regional development. The object of the research is the European North of Russia, where economy is dependent on the export of power resources. The subject of the study is the internal factors that ensure the development of regional socioeconomic systems. The information base of the study has been the statistical data of the Federal State Statistics Service, the data of sociological surveys conducted by the Federal State Budgetary Institution of Science Vologda Research and the information of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). The study is based on the work of domestic and foreign scientists involved in ensuring economic growth and development of territories on the basis of tourism, in particular. The authors suggests a scientific approach that allows identifying reserves for stimulating regional development based on using the potential of internal factors of the socioeconomic subsystems of the region. The author stresses determines that for the European North of Russia the tourism subsystem with significant potential is a substantional factor of regional development.. Based on the analysis, it has been revealed that insufficient influence of tourism on the region’s economy is associated with the weak demand of the population for domestic tourism due to a lack of funds. In conclusion, areas that promote the consumption of tourist goods and services in the region are proposed.

scholarly journals Reconsidering the contents of interpreters’ notes: A human-centered approach to classification

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Anna Sasaki
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Note Taking ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Semiotic Perspective ◽  
New Perspective

AbstractThis paper tackles the issue of the lack of a substantially new approach to classifying the interpreters’ notes. In my paper, I highlight the fact that the researchers in the field are yet to agree on the contents of interpreters’ notes, and that is, in my opinion, the problem that is numerously stumbled upon in consecutive interpretation research in general and note-taking research in particular. Not only do researchers invent new classifications within an excising paradigm, sometimes they contradict each other presenting different definitions for the same concepts. This paper attempts to solve the issue by introducing a new perspective on the contents of interpreters’ notes by adapting the human-centered approach and turning to the “writers” of the notes, the interpreters. The interpreter trainees who participated in this research were interviewed to obtain an in-depth understanding of what is included in interpreters’ notes. Under the semiotic perspective, which assumes both linguistic and non-linguistic notes as a system of signs, I classified the interpreters’ notes based on the subject’s comments to the notes they had written. This retrospective approach unveiled how interpreter trainees perceive their notes which prompt meaning-making and facilitate the memory when delivering interpretation.

scholarly journals Eisenstein’s Aesthetics in Semiotic Perspective

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-19
Author(s):  
Nikolai Andreyevich Khrenov
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Philosophical Approach ◽  
Sign System ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
Semiotic Approach ◽  
Russian Cinema ◽  
Semiotic Perspective ◽  
Modernist Studies ◽  
Vyacheslav Ivanov ◽  
Academic Interests

The article is devoted to the semiotic interpretation of the theoretic heritage of the film director Sergey Eisenstein by Vyacheslav Ivanov whose jubilee has been recently celebrated. Sergey Eisenstein foresaw the structural methodology that became so popular after the 60s. Vyacheslav Ivanov is known for his vast range of academic interests. The present article is focused on his interest in cinema, in particular - the theoretic heritage of Eisenstein. This interest may be explained by Vyacheslav Ivanovs assertion, that Eisenstein tended to see cinema as a language or, more specifically, a sign system. This fact couldnt escape Vyacheslav Ivanovs notice, since the formation of semiotic methodology in Russia is closely connected with Eisenstein. So it is quite natural that Vyacheslav Ivanov reflects on the prehistory of semiotics too. As for cinema, prehistory in question is closely connected with Sergey Eisensteins aesthetics. The author of the present article also touches upon applying semiotic methodology to cinema as a sign system in general. Due to this purpose, the author refers to the period, when Russian cinema theorists were involved in semiological analysis introduced with the influence of structuralist and post-modernist studies in humanities. Some theoreticians attacked semiotic approaches in favor of philosophical and, in particular, phenomenological one. Nevertheless though these approaches are appropriate and efficient, they do not replace the semiotic one. The author argues, that such attempts to refuse from the semiotic approach in the cinema field were ill-timed and superficial. Vyacheslav Ivanovs semiotic works on cinema, especially his book Eisensteins Aesthetics, simultaneously affirm a philosophical approach to this topic. Interpreting the meaning of the title, the author of the present article argues, that the concept of semiotics was already created at the initial stage of the development of aesthetics as a branch of philosophy.

scholarly journals “Stand Still in The Light”: What Conceptual Metaphor Research Can Tell Us about Quaker Theology

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Rachel Kirkwood
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Structural Elements ◽  
Metaphor Analysis ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Theological Thought

The purpose of this study is to explore how an interdisciplinary approach can benefit Quaker Studies. The paper applies conceptual Metaphor Theory to help explicate aspects of theology in 17th century Quaker writings. It uses a combination of close reading supported by a corpus of related texts to analyse the writing of 4 key figures from the first decade of the movement. Metaphor analysis finds that orientational schemas of UP-DOWN and IN-OUT are essential structural elements in the theological thought of all 4 writers, along with more complex metaphors of BUILDINGS. Quaker writers make novel extensions to and recombinations of Biblical metaphors around Light and Stones, as well as using aspects of the theory of Elements. Such analysis can help explicate nuances of theological meaning-making. The evaluation of DOWN IS GOOD and UP IS BAD—except in specific circumstances—is distinctively Quaker, and embodied metaphors of divine immanence in humans indicate a ‘flipped’ soteriology which is distanced from the Christ event.

scholarly journals A semiotic perspective on webconferencing-supported language teaching

ReCALL ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Guichon ◽  
Ciara R. Wigham
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cues ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Verbal Cues ◽  
Trainee Teachers ◽  
Desktop Videoconferencing ◽  
Screen Shot ◽  
Semiotic Perspective ◽  
Communicative Gestures ◽  
Undergraduate Business Students

AbstractIn webconferencing-supported teaching, the webcam mediates and organizes the pedagogical interaction. Previous research has provided a mixed picture of the use of the webcam: while it is seen as a useful medium to contribute to the personalization of the interlocutors’ relationship, help regulate interaction and facilitate learner comprehension and involvement, the limited access to visual cues provided by the webcam is felt to be useless or even disruptive.This study examines the meaning-making potential of the webcam in pedagogical interactions from a semiotic perspective by exploring how trainee teachers use the affordances of the webcam to produce non-verbal cues that may be useful for mutual comprehension. The research context is a telecollaborative project where trainee teachers of French as a foreign language (FFL) met for online sessions in French with undergraduate Business students at an Irish university. Using multimodal transcriptions of the interaction data from these sessions, screen shot data, and students’ post-course interviews, it was found, firstly, that while a head and shoulders framing shot was favoured by the trainee teachers, there does not appear to be an optimal framing choice for desktop videoconferencing among the three framing types identified. Secondly, there was a loss between the number of gestures performed by the trainee teachers and those that were visible for the students. Thirdly, when trainee teachers were able to coordinate the audio and kinesic modalities, communicative gestures that were framed, and held long enough to be perceived by the learners, were more likely to be valuable for mutual comprehension.The study highlights the need for trainee teachers to develop critical semiotic awareness to gain a better perception of the image they project of themselves in order to actualise the potential of the webcam and add more relief to their online teacher presence.

scholarly journals Verse as a semiotic system

2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 18-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihhail Lotman
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Semiotic System ◽  
Sign Systems ◽  
Sign System ◽  
Chess Piece ◽  
Semiotic Systems ◽  
Special Area ◽  
Important Challenge ◽  
Systems Studies ◽  
Modelling System

Poetry is an important challenge for semiotics, and a special area of study for the Tartu-Moscow semiotic school, since the first volume of Sign Systems Studies was Juri Lotman’s monograph Lectures on Structural Poetics (1964). From then on the concept of poetry as one of the secondary modelling systems has evolved, since in relation to poetry, the primary modelling system is natural language. In this paper, the concept of semiotic system has been re-examined and the treatment of primary and secondary semiotic systems has been significantly revised. A semiotic system can be characterized not only by its internal structure and other systems to which it is related, but also by the field upon what it is realized. The latter aspect has gained almost no attention in any treatment of semiotics; the execution of a sign is understood in the spirit of Saussure and Hjelmslev as a material realization of an abstract element (for instance, a chess piece knight can be realized with wood or plastic, but it can also remain purely virtual). At first, distinction is made between language and sign system. Every sign system consists of language and field. There are three different kinds of fields: 1) just a background – footprints on sand are a sign on the background of sand; 2) a material structured field (a football ground or a chess board in the game called Chapayev) and 3) an abstract structured field, which in its turn consists of other fields (for instance, the chess board which consists of 64 fields). Differently from a football ground, a chess board can be a purely virtual one on which virtual pieces are moved (for instance, in case of blindfold or correspondence chess). The field in its turn can be language and one language can use another language as its field. In this case we speak of primary and secondary sign systems. For instance, the prosodic system of language is a field for a verse metre, while the semantic system of language is a field for a narrative.

scholarly journals Culture, humanities, evolution: the complexity of meaning-making over time

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1828) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joep Leerssen
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Information Transfer ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Semiotic System ◽  
Human Culture ◽  
Cultural Exchanges ◽  
Over Time

This article outlines how the historical human sciences see ‘culture’ and its dynamic developments over time and over generations. The operations of human culture are systemically self-reflexive and, as a result, exhibit a complexity that sets them apart, as a semiotic system, from mere communicative information transfer. Peculiar to this complexity is the two-way interaction between the ‘etic’ substance of the cultural exchanges and their ‘emic’ function. Cultural signals require parallel etic/emic processing at stacked levels of complexity. As a result of this complexity, the homeostasis and autopoiesis of human culture, including its dynamics and development over time, cannot be explained fully in terms of responses to the physical environment. How, this article ponders by way of conclusion, can an evolutionary approach be reconciled with these characteristics of human culture, or the notion of culture be applied to evolutionary modelling? This article is part of the theme issue ‘Foundations of cultural evolution’.

Rūmī’s Verse at the Crossroads of Language and Music

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 91-128
Author(s):  
Amir Artaban Sedaghat
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Ordinary Language ◽  
Direct Relation ◽  
Semiotic System ◽  
Ultimate Truth ◽  
Musical Performances ◽  
Sign System ◽  
Semiotic Systems ◽  
Language And Music ◽  
Mystic Experience

AbstractThis article demonstrates how Rūmī has made use of the Iranian musical system and Persian classical prosody, two separate semiotic systems with overlapping forms and aesthetic principles, in order to create a hybrid semiotic system in his poetry. His poetic feat can be observed through a comparative analysis of the linguistic and musical components of his poems in the Divān-e Shams-e Tabrizi, used extensively in the sacred tradition of samāʿ as well as in Iranian musical performances. This essay shows how the systematic use of rhythm and music in versification reaches new heights in Rumi’s ghazals, where the combination of language and music gives birth to a transcendental mode of expression devised with the aim of expressing the ineffable Ultimate Truth. Rumi employed this unique sign system to communicate a mystical message that cannot be conveyed using ordinary language. His unparalleled means of expression, in direct relation with the mystic experience of wajd, is used to incarnate what Sufis call maʿnā (the archetypal meaning). These archetypal ideas cannot be understood through dialectic means of the intellect but can only be taken in by the heart of the mystic in a state of ecstasy.

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