Abstraction and embodiment: exploring the process of grasping a general

This paper reports from a case study which explores kindergarten children’s mathematical abstraction in a teaching–learning activity about reflection symmetry. From a dialectical perspective, abstraction is here conceived as a process, as a genuine part of human activity, where the learner establishes “a point of view from which the concrete can be seen as meaningfully related” (van Oers & Poland Mathematics Education Research Journal, 19(2), 10–22, 2007, p. 13–14). A cultural-historical semiotic perspective to embodiment is used to explore the characteristics of kindergarten children’s mathematical abstraction. In the selected segment, two 5-year-old boys explore the concept of reflection symmetry using a doll pram. In the activity, the two boys first point to concrete features of the sensory manifold, then one of the boys’ awareness gradually moves to the imagined and finally to grasping a general and establishing a new point of view. The findings illustrate the essential role of gestures, bodily actions, and rhythm, in conjunction with spoken words, in the two boys’ gradual process of grasping a general. The study advances our knowledge about the nature of mathematical abstraction and challenges the traditional view on abstraction as a sort of decontextualised higher order thinking. This study argues that abstraction is not a matter of going from the concrete to the abstract, rather it is an emergent and context-bound process, as a genuine part of children’s concrete embodied activities.

The semiotic dimension of contemporary pragmatics

Contemporary Pragmatics has the semiotic features from the respects of disciplinary naming, the means of development, and theoretical source to research object and method. It is not only an independent linguistics and language science, but also an interdisciplinary field and paradigm. This paper is to explore the semiotic features and dimensions of Pragmatics for tracing back the origin and the theoretical resources from semiotic perspective, and to define its research scope and clarify the connotation of its conception. As Semiotics has a triad dimension of semiosis, one of which is the “pragmatic dimension”. Therefore, contemporary pragmatics includes at least three semiotic dimensions: scientific semiotics, linguistic semiotics and social semiotics. The semiotic analysis of Pragmatics could be conducive to clarify and fix the semiotic and philosophical origin, definition, disciplinary connotation and meaning of Pragmatics, which is also theoretically helpful for clarifying the concepts for the study of philosophical pragmatism, pragmaticism, semiotics, semantics and syntax. Key Words: Semiotic, Pragmatics, Pragmaticism

Social semiotic genre: exploring the interplay of words and images in advertising

This study examined the interplay of pictorial and written modes that position advertising as a multimodal genre, explainable through a social semiotic perspective. Eight advertisements of the financial, telecommunications, and beverage products functioned as devices of analysis. Nevertheless, multimodal communicative acts served as the processing tool, elucidating the meaning potentials of the advertising configurations. Having deployed a system of multimodal interacts, tables and graphs assisted in accounting for the frequency of the semiotic resources of the written modes. The analysis indicated large and highlighted fonts (Celebrating the world’s no. 1 fixer), repetitions (Guinness, Maltina, real deal), and deviant constructs (EazyLoans, GTWorld) as elements of propagating intended messages. The deployment of codes (*966*11#, 737) and fragmented clauses (Over N100 million worth of airtime) played some roles in the meaning-making operations. Of significance is the Guinness’ conceptual “digits” of 17:59, contextualising the year, time, and channel of promotional benefits. Though questions (Have you called mum today?), offer (It can be), and minor clauses (Welcome to Guinness time) were parts of the communicative systems, statements (Terms and condition apply) and commands (Enjoy the complete richness of Maltina) dominated the entire dialogues. One might suggest that communicators should endeavour to deploy apt constructions and create eye-lines between participants as means of sensitising readers into consumption.

Decision making and semiotics: a view in homeopathy

This paper discusses medical action, homeopathic medical action in particular, from a semiotic perspective. Any doctor – patient relation and communication aims at an action. Action in medicine follows a decision which is determined by the meaning of signs and operations with signs. In their turn, signs are conditioned in their perception and interpretation by the meaning they have to their receivers, both intra- and intersubjectively. The meaning of signs in the medical context relates to reference values established by normative signs, around which semiotic fields are organized. Signs never appear isolated but in configurations, meaningful only from the perspective of some specific coherence. While decision-making is a consequence of meaning, meaning is conditioned by codes predetermined in both the sender and receiver of signs. Each and every medical action has an outcome which might give rise to a new series signs – decision – action. The outcome of medical action functions as a sign subsequent to previous ones, and a new configuration might appear, which allows for new action. Homeopathic signs have as their ultimate referent an individual; these signs are configured in a coherent way using the specific codes. Specific configurations allow for specific decisions and effective prescriptions of remedies when they point out to the individual. Keywords: Medical action; Medical semiotics; Decision-making; Homeopathy.  Decissão e semiótica: um olhar em homeopatia Resumo O presente artigo discute a ação médica, particularmente a homeopática, de uma perspectiva semiótica. Toda relação e comunicação médico-paciente visa uma ação. A ação, em medicina, segue a uma decisão, por sua vez determinada pelo sentido de signos e operações com signos. Os signos estão condicionados em sua percepção e interpretação pelo sentido que tém para seus receptores, tanto intra quanto intersubjetivamente. O sentido dos signos no contexto médico se relaciona com valores de referéncia estabelecidos por signos normativos, ao redor dos quais são organizados campos semióticos. Os signos nunca aparecem isolados, mas em configurações, significantes somente como função de uma coeréncia específica. Enquanto a decisão é conseqüéncia do sentido, este é condicionado por códigos pré-determinados, tanto no emissor quanto no receptor dos signos. Toda ação médica tem um resultados que, por sua vez, pode originar uma nova série de signos - decisão - ação. O resultado da ação mpedica opera como signo subseqüente aos anteriores, e dessa maneira pode aparecer uma nova configuração que leva a uma nova ação. Os signos homeopáticos tém como referente último um indivíduo; esses signos se configuram de maneira coerente graças a códigos específicos. Configurações específicas levam a decisões específicas e prescrições efetivas de medicamentos quando visam o indivíduo. Palavras-chave: Ação médica; Medicina semiótica; processo de tomada de decisão; Homeopatia.  Decisión y semiótica: una visión en homeopatía Resumen Este artículo discute la acción médica, particularmente la homeopática, desde una perspectiva semiótica. Toda relación y comunicación médico-paciente apunta para una acción. La acción, en medicina, sigue a una decisión, determinada por el sentido de signos y operaciones con signos. Los signos, a su vez, están condicionados en su percepción e interpretación por el sentido que tienen para sus receptores, tanto intra e intersubjetivamente. El sentido de los signos en el contexto médico se relaciona con valores de referencia establecidos por signos normativos, alrededor de los cuales se organizam campos semióticos. Los signos nunca aparecen aislados, sino en configuraciones, significantes solamente en función de una coherencia específica. Mientras que la decisión es consecuencia del sentido, éste es condicionado por códigos predeterminados, tanto en el emisor como en el receptor de los signos. Toda acción médica tiene un resultado que, a su vez, puede originar una nueva serie signos - decisión - acción. El resultado de la acción médica opera como signo subsiguiente a los anteriores, y así puede aparecer una nueva configuración, que lleva a una nueva acción. Los signos homeopáticos tienen como referente último un individuo; esos signos se configuran de manera coherente, gracias a códigos específicos. Configuraciones específicas llevan a decisiones específicas y prescripciones efectivas de medicamentos cuando apuntan al individuo. Palabras-clave: Acción de la medicina; Medicina semiótica, la toma de decisiones; Homeopatía.  Correspondence author: Gheorghe Jurj, [email protected] How to cite this article: Jurj G. Decision making and semiotics: A view in homeopathy. Int J High Dilution Res [online]. 2008 [cited YYYY Mmm DD]; 7(23): 103-112. Available from: http://journal.giri-society.org/index.php/ijhdr/article/view/270/346. ÂÂÂ

Cupping: A Healing Method in West Sumatra (Indonesia) A Semiotic Perspective

This article investigates cupping a widespread traditional healing method in West Sumatra. However, the way cupping is used in some areas of the Malay-speaking region is unique in the sense that it uses buffalo horns during the cupping process. The author argues that for the matrilineal society of the Minangkabau in West Sumatra, the buffalo horn has a special connotation as it is crucial in many elements of their culture. By considering a semiotic research approach, the author wants to offer a new perspective on the Minangkabau and their culture. By doing so, the author intends to participate in the discussion about signs and symbols in the field of Minangkabau studies. In qualitative research that comprised fieldwork, traditional healers were observed and interviewed. The peculiar cupping technique was analysed, and a semiotic perspective seemed most fitting. It was detected that the usage of horns contains a specific meaning for the Minangkabau culture.

Semiotic process implied in phenomena associated with high dilutions

This article is an attempted sketch for a semiotic perspective about the HD phenomena, from their production, signification and meanings to possible fields of research. On the grounds of classic semiotic notions, it is proposed the model of “iconic transmission” which posits HD signs as icons. As a working hypothesis, it might be useful to explain the anomalous aspects of HD, which fall outside the scope of traditional science grounded on the notion of matter.

Semiotic processes implied in the High Dilution phenomena

Semiotic processes ( or semiosis) refer to those process which are carriers of meaning and are performed through signs. A sign is something that stands for something else, and is the main mediating factor between an object and an interpreter, able to connect them and give rise to significations. The semiotic perspective, according to Charles Sanders Peirce, is basically triadic: all aspects of reality are triadic, comprising the categories of Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness in a continue and virtually infinite process of semiosis, i.e of various forms of giving rise to meanings that accordingly will generate reactions, actions and transformations. The aim of the present paper is to examine the possible levels of semiosis implied in the high dilution phenomenon, beginning with the process of so called “potency” of substrata (where every potency may be considered a sign for the next one) and arriving to the complex responses of the living bodies to infinitesimal signs.

Recalcitrant Interactions : Semiotic Reflections on Fieldwork among Mountain Ascetics

This article explores issues related to ethnographic research, such as “otherness” as a form of relation, the researcher’s position, and the difference between anthropological and native knowledge, leading to the production of ethnographic data that can undermine previously established models. In order to approach these issues, I will refer to the notion of “recalcitrant subjects”, coined by I. Stengers, and based on the idea that we should turn our attention to objects of analysis that are capable of raising new questions, forcing the researchers to reorganise their instruments and theoretical perspectives. Using the interaction regimes formulated by E. Landowski, I will analyse from a semiotic perspective my own field research, conducted within the mountain ascetic group Tsukasakō in Katsuragi, central Japan. The article shows how, far from being based on forms of communality and undifferentiated reciprocity, ethnography and sociality always involve heterogeneous actors and can only emerge from interactions that are inherently recalcitrant.

Onomasiology in the Romance Languages

Onomasiology represents an approach in semantics that takes the perspective from content to form and investigates the ways in which referents or concepts are designated in particular languages. In this way, onomasiology can be seen as being complementary to semasiology, which takes the opposite perspective and focuses on form-content relations. From a semiotic perspective, the two perspectives can be more clearly defined and delimited from each other by specifying the basic semiotic entities that represent the key reference points for onomasiological and semasiological investigations, respectively. Previous research has highlighted the contribution of both to a comprehensive understanding of lexical semantics. In this respect, the distinction between meaning change and change of designation appears to be of key importance for the domain of lexical innovation and change. In the history of Romance linguistics, onomasiological perspectives were included in early etymological studies (e.g., Diez, Salvioni, Tappolet, Merlo), and the term “onomasiology” was introduced by Zauner. The research on “Wörter and Sachen” (words and objects), and the research focus on lexical fields then took an explicit focus on onomasiological research questions, with linguistic geography established as a specific subdomain of linguistic research. The linguistic maps and atlases elaborated in this context provided important resources for multiple applications and theoretical discussions of synchronic and diachronic issues of Romance linguistics. In addition, various onomasiological case studies on particular concepts and conceptual domains were conducted, and onomasiological dictionaries elaborated. Moreover, linguistic typology has aimed to identify universal patterns of conceptualization and strategies of designation. With the rise of cognitive semantics, the synchronic relevance of onomasiology has been reinvigorated, as many basic approaches and concepts developed in this framework are inherently based on an onomasiological perspective. Bringing together typological considerations and cognitive semantics, and linking these approaches to the achievements of the prestructuralist and structuralist traditions, diachronic cognitive onomasiology opens up multiple perspectives for further research in lexical semantics. Finally, the potential of onomasiological investigations has also gained interest in language contact research, where issues of borrowability as well as semantic and pragmatic patterns of linguistic borrowing have been studied. A broad range of further research perspectives arises from the focus on the language users and their communicative intentions, these perspectives being strongly linked to the usage-based turn in cognitive linguistics as well as to investigations at the semantics-pragmatics interface.

Exploring digital interactivity: a multimodal and social semiotic approach to intersemiotic construction in COVID China website

This paper explores intersemiotic construction and digital interactivity through a multimodal social semiotic lens examining the semiotic instantiations of interactive signs on the homepage of “Fighting COVID-19 the Chinese Way” (covid-19.chinadaily.com.cn), a website created to disseminate information on news and development of COVID prevention and control practices in China to contribute to global efforts to fight the pandemic. The study focuses on how digital interactivity is afforded by the COVID China website, where the interactive signs are ideationally and compositionally constructed for meaning representation and interpersonally for text-viewer relation construal. From the multimodal social semiotic perspective, systemic functional model-based cluster and intersemiotic analyses are applied to explore the visual, spatial, and linguistic features that contribute to the design and construction of interactive semiotic signs on the COVID China website and afford digital interactivity for viewers’ action potentials. This study extends the analytical focus to the semiotic instantiations of interactive signs and their intersemiotic construction process that stimulate the enabling of interactivity, instead of the interactivity per se, and demonstrates how different semiotic instantiations of interactive signs are featured and interact to afford digital interactivity. It argues for an integrated lens in analysis to look at the interactive signs not only as signs of action with action-enabling forms but also as signs of meanings that afford user-page interactivity.