Modeling in semiotics: an integrative update

This paper provides an integrative and updated view of modeling in semiotics. It postulates that the essence of modeling is supersession. In any act or instance of modeling, the model supersedes and is brought to the front for salience, accessibility, and operability, whereas at the same time the modeled recedes and exists in the background, inaccessible and inoperable. The paper goes on to differentiate between two major types of modeling, the underlying “existential modeling,” functioning as the fundamental scaffold and the genuine foundation of all other types of modeling as we know them, and the overlaying “semiotic modeling,” designating the process of creation and use of “forms of meaning,” a process that underlies both cognition and communication. By focusing on semiotic modeling, the paper features an unconventional view that casts a new light on the relation between a model and a sign and thus the relation between semiotic modeling and semiosis. Endorsing an embodied approach to meaning-making as semiotic modeling, the paper finds it important to stress the appropriateness and necessity of understanding the term “model” as a verb rather than as a noun, in that modeling is never static and should be properly regarded in terms of embodied action.

Semiotic modeling of the text-driven conceptual paradigm in language education

The conceptual paradigm of Thomas Sebeok’s modeling systems theory builds a theoretical foundation that modeling and knowing converge and coexist in the process of life evolution, and affords multiple narrative spaces for foreign language education, allowing us to address living and learning concurrently in the process of meaning modeling. The present paper argues that the concept of modeling has elevated us above the long-standing emphasis on the most valuable knowledge with the same (target) language standards and the same discourse power, and has captured the interest of language educators to establish a semiotic connection between knowledge content and knowledge representation through a representation model, the English textbook, which is generally considered as an important carrier of language knowledge. The study of the concept of English textbooks promotes sustainable regeneration of semiotic information on multi-level spatial interpretability so that learning can be regarded as exploration and growth of experience. Based on what these analyses reveal, the paper concludes by confirming that the textbook can effectively construct a diverse cultural signification order, considering the learner’s greater flexibility and social responsibility and providing the curriculum with a modeling nature for meaning negotiation among all parties involved.

Peircean anti-psychologism and learning theory

Taking influence from Peirce’s phenomenological categories (Firstness, Secondness, Thirdness), a notion of what we call bottom-up modeling has become increasingly significant in research areas interested in learning, cognition, and development. Here, following a particular reading of Peircean semiotics (cf. Deacon, Terrence. 1997. The symbolic species: The co-evolution of language and the brain. London and New York: W. W. Norton; Sebeok, Thomas and Marcel Danesi. 2000. The forms of meaning: Modelling systems theory and semiotic analysis. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter), modeling, and thus also learning, has mostly been thought of as ascending from simple, basic sign types to complex ones (iconic – indexical – symbolic; Firstness – Secondness – Thirdness). This constitutes the basis of most currently accepted (neo-Peircean) semiotic modeling theories and entails the further acceptance of an unexamined a priori coherence between complexity of cognition and complexity of signification. Following recent readings of Peirce’s post-1900 semiotic, we will present, in abbreviated form, a discussion as to the limits of this theoretical approach for theories of learning that draws upon Peirce’s late semiotic philosophy, in particular his late work on iconicity and propositions. We also explore the corollary conceptions of semiotic resources and competences and affordances to develop an ecological perspective on learning that notably does not impose a linear developmental progression from simple to complex. In conclusion, we address some of the implications of this (post-Peircean) conceptualization for transdisciplinary research into learning.

The politics of promise or threat and the praxis of hope: modeling a linguistic-phenomenological epistemology of practice for the assessment of alternative worldviews in media literacy

At the outset, I discuss selected conceptions of world images put forward by philosophers pertaining to human experience and the social construction of reality. Herewith, I am trying to clarify distinctions between appearances and experiences of things in the world and the abilities of humans to construe worlds beyond words, along with their being-in-world, and experiencing their in-the-world existence. Subsequently, I confront some epistemological theories about the complexity of scientific knowledge of the world and its fragmentary perception in psychophysiological cognition. What is relevant for the theme, I present the methods of the lived-through research in dealing with the ideology of promise or threat expressed by leaders of social movements who offer a hope for better worlds which are not here and not now but can be achieved in the future. Lastly, I submit proposals to approach the relationships between world and reality in their hierarchical ordering and semiotic modeling.

Intercultural parallax: Comparative modeling, ethnic taxonomy, and the dynamic object

Comparative modeling is necessary for semiotic inquiry. To better theorize such pursuits, a reflexive turn is in order: comparative modeling needs comparative modeling. In search of experientially grounded analogies better suited for understanding, validating, scrutinizing, and accounting for the situation of the semiotic inquirer, this paper applies insights from Peircean process semiotics and Göran Sonesson’s extended theory of cultural semiotics toward two ends: one theoretical, the other applied. First, I undertake a critical review of recent scholarly and creative works that attempt to adapt concepts of “parallax” as a source domain for comparative modeling activities. I do this in order to continue laying groundwork for a more complex, systematic theory of reflexive semiotic modeling in human inquiry, building on my earlier work. Second, I explore a specific case study of comparative intercultural modeling: namely, nationalist ethnic classification strategies in China and Vietnam. While many researchers have considered the onomastic and geopolitical dimensions of state-sanctioned ethnic categorization programs in these two countries, little has been done to unpack the powerful visual and narratological strategies employed by both; and little has been done to compare the intercultural categories these strategies serve to legitimize. The Vietnamese classification program is clearly modeled on its Chinese counterpart historically, but important categorical mismatches emerge between the two that indicate the presence of hidden diversity. Comparing the two systems also leads to a number of discoveries with implications for further developing the theory of cultural semiotics. Ultimately, the function or purpose of parallax modeling is shown to both comprehend and point beyond nascent intercultural and intracultural models toward more complex blends, by holding all such relations in a comparative frame, not as irreconcilable positions but as a more developed composite sign indicating the presence of yet more deeply buried dynamic objects to be searched out through further collateral experience.

Atlas mapping of the Baikal region: structural-semiotic organization

We consider the process of forming the iconic system of atlas mapping of the Baikal region. More than twenty atlases were created for the territory of the Baikal region and published. Fifteen of these were selected by us for their general cartosemiotic study. We review the results of the analysis of the information-modular structure of atlases on the example of the map index in these atlases. It is shown that the number of information-semiotic modules in each atlas can vary and depends on its subject and purpose. The subject, structure and purpose of atlases are the cause of their complex and flexible modular-thematic semiotic structure. The analysis of the internal semiotic structure of atlases was carried out from the perspective of a single system of classification of conventional signs and graphic display methods on the example of three atlases: Atlas of Transbaikalia, Atlas of the Baikal Basin and the new atlas “Baikal region: society and nature”. The information and semiotic modules of the new atlas are formed according to the macrostructure of its thematic content, taking into account territorial levels and specific substantive thematic positions of mapping. When creating this atlas, we used effective methods of semiotic modeling and a certain balance and variety of applied syntactic constructions of cartographic signs. The atlas is being prepared for a printing publication as a work of a new kind, integrating modern information about the impact of socio-economic processes on the natural environment. The balance and diversity in the combination of various types, classes, groups and types of syntactic constructions of cartographic signs revealed during semiotic analysis of atlases of the Baikal region shows a high scientific level of map compilation and works on the general semiotic design of the publication of most atlases of the Baikal region.

Imagination in the Semiotics of Creativity

The research analyzes the concept of imagination set in the context of semiotics of creativity. It specifies the essence of this concept from the point of pragmatic, syntactic and semantic rules applied in imaginative thinking. The objectives of the research are to explicate the history of the concept of imagination; to define the role of imagination in the projective semiosis of reason, mind and perception; to identify the relationship between imagination and intuition in the creative act. The material of the research is the history of forms of philosophical and psychological reflection on “imagination”, “intuition”, “creativity” from I. Kant, G.W.F. Hegel, P.K. Engelmeyer, F. Dessauer, S.L. Rubinstein and up to the latest semiotics of creativity and technology. The research method is semiotic modeling, representing any phenomenon as a sign in receptive and projective semiosis, realizing as a complex, organized representation of contents in the substrates of sensory perception, mind and reason. In the receptive processes (in the acts of cognition and understanding), the order of representation is determined by the ascent from the reality to the concept: sensory perception, mind, reason. In projective processes (in acts of creativity, technology, interpretation, practice, etc.), the order of representation is reversed: from the concept (phantasm, image) to its logical-grammatical construction and to its physical embodiment in the form of an artifact. The study is built as an expansion and substantiation of the thesis that imagination is, firstly, the environment for the implementation of semiosis, and, secondly, it is one of the ways to remove uncertainty that arises both in reception and in projection. As an environment, imagination is revealed as a condition for the possibility of applying rules in the substrates of reason and mind and is defined as the sphere of the thinkable and imaginable, but impossible in the physical world. The uncertainty, in the epistemological sense, means the situations of knowledge about not knowing for receptive processes and not knowing about knowledge for projective processes. Removing the uncertainty, the imagination is revealed as an addition to reality within the framework of the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic rules of sensory perception, mind and reason. The analysis of imagination, as an addition to perception, is illustrated by the data of experimental psychology, in particular, the Zagorsk Experiment; as an addition to the mind by the concept of secondary modeling systems or semiological systems by Yu.M. Lotman and R. Barthes; as an addition to the reason by a comparative analysis of the concepts of intuition and imagination. The study concludes that the functional definition of imagination as an addition to reality at the levels of reason, mind and perception is justified both in the context of the theory of creativity, adhering to the model of “three-act”, and in the context of semiotic ontology itself.

COMMUNICATIVE DISCOURSE OF TERMINOLOGY USED IN GASTRONOMICAL MEDIA CULTURE

Purpose of the Study: This article aims to analyze and describe the food discourse and terms of the French language, as well as to determine correlations with the French national and cultural worldview. The study also considers the current state of "gastronomical discourse" based on the French food semiotic and communicative model. Methodology: The authors of the article used the method of linguistic and semiotic modeling and heuristic interpretation developed by A.P. Sedykh. The authors also utilized tools of corpus linguistics and computer lexicography (National Corpus of the Russian language; a parallel corpus of the French language, n.d.), methods of a sociolinguistic survey and linguistic review. Main Findings: The authors of the article considered and presented the linguistic and culturological features of the French food terms. They determined certain correlations between the national conceptual sphere and the art of cooking. The authors revealed certain similarities between the French ethnos and the culture of food consumption. It is shown that the French communication, modal constructions and nomination methods have ethnocultural features reflecting autochthonous preferences in terms of logic, semantics and strategies for achieving the goals of gastronomical communication. Applications of this study: The application of research results. The study results can be useful for teaching French and intercultural communication in secondary schools and institutions of higher education, as well as for preparing university lectures and seminars on stylistics, lexicology and theoretical problems of studying a linguistic identity. Novelty/Originality of this study: The scientific novelty of the study lies in innovative elements of the linguistic and semiotic approach to gluttony and prescription nominations in their correlation with the mental characteristics of the French linguacultural.