scholarly journals The distinction between semantics and pragmatics: The point of view of semiotics

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-307
Author(s):  
Claudio Paolucci

Abstract In this paper I will try to outline the reasons why, in order to understand the life and the nature of meaning, the semiotic tradition has always thought that it was better not to separate semantics and pragmatics. I will first reconstruct the history of this idea, grounded in Pragmatism and in Structural Linguistics. Later, I will deal with its first formulation in A Theory of Semiotics by Umberto Eco. In the second part of the paper, I will work on the idea by Ferdinand de Saussure that meanings are values, that is, indeterminate entities whose identity is determined only through reciprocal determination. I will claim that this idea is the importation in linguistics of Leibniz’s principles of the differential calculus. In the final part of the paper, I will apply this idea to the distinction between semantics and pragmatics, claiming that meanings are better understood through a theory of modes of existence. If we understand the differential nature of meaning, we can see that meanings live only through the using of the expressions and these variations contribute to offer stability within the transformations, without creating a stable object defined by its properties and endowed with an independent existence split from the relationships that define it.

Author(s):  
Николай Калиниченко

В статье раскрывается значение термина «семиотика» и даётся научное определение семиотике как науке, с её характерными целями и задачами; рассматривается вклад основных представителей данного направления в развитие семиологии как науки. К ним относятся: швейцарский ученый, стоявший у истоков Женевской лингвистической школы, заложивший основы семиологии и структурной лингвистики, - Фердинанд де Соссюр; американский философ, сформулировавший термин «прагматика», - Чарльз Уильям Моррис; основоположник семиотики и прагматизма, математик и логик Чарльз Сандерс Пирс. На основе рассмотренных понятий анализируются избранные произведения известного итальянского писателя и ученого, внёсшего весомый вклад как в область теоретического, так и практического применения научного инструментария семиотики как методологии, - Умберто Эко. На примере эссе «Шесть прогулок в литературных лесах» подробно исследована структура всего произведения, характерный для него тип повествования и позиция, которую занимает сам автор. The article reveals the meaning of the term «semiotics» and gives a scientific definition of semiotics as a science, with its characteristic goals and objectives; the contribution of the main representatives of this direction to the development of semiology as a science is considered. These include: the Swiss scientist who was at the origins of the Geneva Linguistic School, who laid the foundations of semiology and structural linguistics - Ferdinand de Saussure; the American philosopher who formulated the term «pragmatics» - Charles William Morris; the founder of semiotics and pragmatism, mathematician and logician Charles Sanders Pierce. On the basis of the considered concepts, the selected works of the famous Italian writer and scientist, who made a significant contribution to both the theoretical and practical application of the scientific tools of semiotics as a methodology, Umberto Eco, are analyzed. Using the example of the essay «Six Walks in the Literary Woods», the structure of the en-tire work, the type of narrative characteristic of it, and the position taken by the author himself are studied in detail.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 635-661
Author(s):  
Sergey V. Sidorovich

From the jural point of view, the Yuan era (1271–1368) can be considered as one of the most interesting in the history of Eastern Asia. This is partly because at that time the Chinese tradition was enriched by a foreign influence. However, very few sources on the Yuan legal system have survived, and even those which did survive are usually far from being complete. The article introduces the recently discovered part of the Zhi-zheng tiao-ge code published in 1346 at the very end of the Yuan Empire. The author lists the testimonia, which mention this document. He also offers the analysis of legal documents mentioned there following the time of their issue. The introduced source is compared with legal codes of the previous years and suggests ways of their reconstruction. The final part of the article contains a brief description of the surviving chapters of the monument. The results of the analysis allow us to see in the Zhi-zheng tiao-ge code an important source on the legislation not only of the late Yuan but also on the Yuan dynasty as a whole.


Author(s):  
Jonathan RUBIN

This article offers a first study and edition of Burchard of Mount Sion’s ‘Egyptian section’. This text—hitherto almost completely neglected by scholars—provides a detailed account of Egypt, and is preserved in its entirety in two manuscripts, following Burchard’s Descriptio Terrae Sanctae. The present work provides an analysis of the contents and characteristics of this text, of the cultural context in which it was composed, and of its reception in medieval and early modern times. Appendix 1 includes a provisional edition of Burchard’s account of Egypt. Appendix 2 offers an edition of the final part of a shortened version of this text which is significant from the point of view of the history of its reception.


2006 ◽  
pp. 112-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Nazarov

The attempts to reconstruct the instruments of interbudget relations take place in all federations. In Russia such attempts are especially popular due to the short history of intergovernmental relations. Thus the review of the ¬international experience of managing interbudget relations to provide economic and social welfare can be useful for present-day Russia. The author develops models of intergovernmental relations from the point of view of making decisions about budget authorities’ distribution. The models that can be better applied in the Russian case are demonstrated.


2008 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 769-770
Author(s):  
Csaba Pléh

Danziger, Kurt: Marking the mind. A history of memory . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2008Farkas, Katalin: The subject’s point of view. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008MosoninéFriedJudités TolnaiMárton(szerk.): Tudomány és politika. Typotex, Budapest, 2008Iacobini, Marco: Mirroring people. The new science of how we connect with others. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2008Changeux, Jean-Pierre. Du vrai, du beau, du bien.Une nouvelle approche neuronale. Odile Jacob, PárizsGazzaniga_n


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-86
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Heyne

AbstractAlthough visual culture of the 21th century increasingly focuses on representation of death and dying, contemporary discourses still lack a language of death adequate to the event shown by pictures and visual images from an outside point of view. Following this observation, this article suggests a re-reading of 20th century author Elias Canetti. His lifelong notes have been edited and published posthumously for the first time in 2014. Thanks to this edition Canetti's short texts and aphorisms can be focused as a textual laboratory in which he tries to model a language of death on experimental practices of natural sciences. The miniature series of experiments address the problem of death, not representable in discourses of cultural studies, system theory or history of knowledge, and in doing so, Canetti creates liminal texts at the margins of western concepts of (human) life, science and established textual form.


2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 255-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimír Bačík ◽  
Michal Klobučník

Abstract The Tour de France, a three week bicycle race has a unique place in the world of sports. The 100th edition of the event took place in 2013. In the past of 110 years of its history, people noticed unique stories and duels in particular periods, celebrities that became legends that the world of sports will never forget. Also many places where the races unfolded made history in the Tour de France. In this article we tried to point out the spatial context of this event using advanced technologies for distribution of historical facts over the Internet. The Introduction briefly displays the attendance of a particular stage based on a regional point of view. The main topic deals with selected historical aspects of difficult ascents which every year decide the winner of Tour de France, and also attract fans from all over the world. In the final stage of the research, the distribution of results on the website available to a wide circle of fans of this sports event played a very significant part (www.tdfrance.eu). Using advanced methods and procedures we have tried to capture the historical and spatial dimensions of Tour de France in its general form and thus offering a new view of this unique sports event not only to the expert community, but for the general public as well.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
David Caballero Mariscal

Guatemala experienced a cruel genocide in the early eighties, in the context of a repressive Conflict. Due to the different governments´ repressive policies, this terrible social situation was little known abroad, and even in the own country. Just after the Peace Accords, several organisms worked to uncover the historical truth. In any case, we cannot forget that testimonial literature is a privileged mean to know this dark period of the contemporary history of Guatemala. This genre is particularly relevant, because the main writers are originally Mayans, and have directly suffered both repression and social exclusion due to ethnic reasons. Rigoberta Menchú, Unmberto Ak´abal and Víctor Montejo represent a new and original point of view in the measure in which they describe feelings and situations from the perspective of those who experience them personally. Testimonial literature or the Testimonio becomes an ethnographic document that allows us to know not just a period but a people who have suffered from repression and exclusion for centuries.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-96
Author(s):  
Ramon Reichert

The history of the human face is the history of its social coding and the media- conditions of its appearance. The best way to explain the »selfie«-practices of today’s digital culture is to understand such practices as both participative and commercialized cultural techniques that allow their users to fashion their selves in ways they consider relevant for their identities as individuals. Whereas they may put their image of themselves front stage with their selfies, such images for being socially shared have to match determinate role-expectations, body-norms and ideals of beauty. Against this backdrop, collectively shared repertoires of images of normalized subjectivity have developed and leave their mark on the culture of digital communication. In the critical and reflexive discourses that surround the exigencies of auto-medial self-thematization we find reactions that are critical of self-representation as such, and we find strategies of de-subjectification with reflexive awareness of their media conditions. Both strands of critical reactions however remain ambivalent as reactions of protest. The final part of the present article focuses on inter-discourses, in particular discourses that construe the phenomenon of selfies thoroughly as an expression of juvenile narcissism. The author shows how this commonly accepted reading which has precedents in the history of pictorial art reproduces resentment against women and tends to stylize adolescent persons into a homogenous »generation« lost in self-love


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