Published by De Gruyter Mouton

Volume 15 Issue 1

Issue of Chinese Semiotic Studies

Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available February 22, 2019

Part One: Cultural Signs and Sign Theories

February 22, 2019

Foundations of the Theory of Signs (1938)

Abstract

“Foundations of the theory of signs,” published by Charles W. Morris in 1938, deals with the relations between semiotics and science, and those between semiosis and semiotics, among others. Compared with previous research regarding the aspects of semiotics being meta-science, the three dimensions of semiosis, semiotic as organon of the sciences, etc., this article does push forward the development of linguistics and semiotics since the late 1930s. However, its discussions on semiotics being meta-science, the nature and classification of signs, the three dimensions of semiosis, organism in the sign relations, universals and universality of signs, and thing-language are either not logically rigid or inadequate in content and scope. For a piece of work discussing the theoretical foundations of signs, it does not consider sign transformation, a universal and ubiquitous sign activity, which is not consistent with the keyword “foundations” in its title. A critical analysis of these problems involving the aspects mentioned above may not only enrich the visions of triadic sign relations, semiotics, and translation semiotics, but also inspire future semiotic studies and even other new research related to signs.

February 22, 2019

GP and NCP

A challenge to the two new pragmatic principles that challenge Grice

Guojin Hou, Qingsheng Jiang

Page range: 15-37

Abstract

Despite its theoretical significance, Paul Grice’s CP, as the heart of classic and neo-Gricean pragmatics, has been a bone of contention for the last four decades for both Western and Eastern scholarship. This study addresses the contribution of four Chinese pragmaticians to the anti-CP principles: Guanlian Qian, Meizhen Liao, and Yameng Liu and Chunshen Zhu, focusing on the latter two. We briefly discuss Liao’s Goal Principle (GP) and Liu and Zhu’s Non-Cooperative Principle (NCP), which challenge Grice’s CP head-on. It points out that Liao’s GP is loaded with neo-Gricean pragmatic value as an alternative interpretation of CP but is not deemed “more applicable” as they claim, and that the NCP of Liu and Zhu, based on their CP query, sheds some light on neo-Gricean pragmatics and rhetoric, and yet calls for suspicion of their NCP as an “antistrophos/counterpart rhetoric-principle.” We maintain that cooperation in CP suggests pragma-philosophical cooperativeness or cooperationality between rational humans and that it applies to pragmatics and rhetoric alike, as well as to forensic, daily, and rhetorical utterances. It seems that so-called “non-cooperation in cooperation” or “cooperation in non-cooperation” is only logico-semantic non-cooperation, deeply rooted in the soil of pragma-philosophical cooperativeness or cooperationality.

February 22, 2019

______ is necessary for interpreting a proposition

Marc Champagne

Page range: 39-48

Abstract

In Natural propositions (2014), Stjernfelt contends that the interpretation of a proposition or dicisign requires the joint action of two kinds of signs. A proposition must contain a sign that conveys a general quality. This function can be served by a similarity-based icon or code-based symbol. In addition, a proposition must situate or apply this general quality, so that the predication can become liable of being true or false. This function is served by an index. Stjernfelt rightly considers the co-localization of these two parts to be a primitive phenomenon. Although this primitive character would seem to bar any further analysis, I endeavor to clarify the degree of proximity sufficient to enable co-localization. Siding with Pietarinen (2014), who argues that the whole issue should not be construed in metric terms, I conclude that one cannot make sense of propositional co-localization without appealing to some form of first-person perspective.

February 22, 2019

Trump: A Semiotic Analysis

Arthur Asa Berger

Page range: 49-75

Abstract

This analysis discusses the various culture codes that are found in societies and the work of Clotaire Rapaille and Marcel Danesi on this topic. It then offers a semiotic analysis of Trump’s candidacy and presidency and deals with topics such as his hair style, rhetorical style, use of metaphors and metonymy, facial expression and body language, jokes about Trump, and his use of humor.

February 22, 2019

City of Nostalgia: The Semiotics of Urban Retrotopias

Massimo Leone

Page range: 77-94

Abstract

The Casa da Nostalgia , or “Nostalgic house,” in the Taipa area of the special administrative region of Macau, is a museum devoted to temporary exhibitions reconstructing everyday life in the city, especially in the epoch of Portuguese ruling. Just opposite the museum, on the other side of a large pond, a giant casino, the Venetian Macau, reproduces Venice both with its external architecture and its interior design. The article analyzes these two urban settings in order to develop a semiotic understanding of as many ways of symbolically reconstructing cities. On the one hand, cities can be reconstructed in a nostalgic form; the essay inquires on the origin and the consequences of urban nostalgia; on the other hand, cities can be reconstructed as ersatz. The article further investigates the dialectics between predominantly temporal or prevailingly spatial urban reconstructions, with reference to the socio-cultural dynamics that have changed Macau in the last decades. The article concludes with the methodological suggestion that the study of urban re-constructions requires the combined efforts of several disciplines, jointly investigating why, how, but also to what effect cities are re-built.

February 22, 2019

A Corpus-based Study of Metaphor in Pavilion of Women

Xia Zhao, Yaoyao Han, Xincheng Zhao

Page range: 95-117

Abstract

Pavilion of Women , a vivid and interesting novel from the Nobel Prize winning author Pearl S. Buck, was selected as the corpus of the study. The goals of the research were to identify the metaphors, interpret their distributions in the novel, and construe Buck's metaphorical thoughts. To achieve these goals, the corpus tool Antconc3.2.4w was used to retrieve the keywords of the metaphors. The research results show that Buck uses many conceptual metaphors, and they are distributed in each chapter. Among them, the metaphors with the highest frequency appear in Chapter 7 and the lowest in Chapter 5, which shows that the more complicated and abstract the plot in a chapter, the more metaphors appear in it and vice versa. Meanwhile, structural metaphors appear the most frequently, followed by ontological metaphors, and finally the orientational metaphors. In addition, Pearl Buck’s cognitive context and her metaphorical thinking are found to have a close relationship with Chinese Yin-Yang semiotics and her own life experiences in China.

Part Two: Peircean Semiotics and the Philosophy of Inquiry

February 22, 2019

Introduction to the 2019 Peirce Section

Celebrating Charls Pearson, and remembering Eliseo Fernández

Cary Campbell

Page range: 119-123

February 22, 2019

Of Thinkers and Tinkerers

Science meets technology at the invention of the triode

Eliseo Fernández, Cary Campbell

Page range: 125-138

Abstract

Cary Campbell (ed.): This paper is one of four that were approved for publication in this journal prior to Fernández’s passing in 2017. Many of these backlogged articles did not have abstracts, so I have had to create them based on Fernández 's own in-text summary. In this brief presentation a crucial technological innovation of the early twentieth century – the invention of the triode thermionic valve – is used as a springboard for a historically informed discussion of the complex interrelations of theory and praxis in the generation of technological novelty. This episode was chosen for its critical role in triggering a whole chain of developments that culminated in the growing network of technologies and economic infrastructures that underpin our so-called “information society” and the evolving role of “technoscience.” This represents a starting point in a broadening cascade of innovations that led to the rise of television, digital computers and the expanding web of artifacts that shape our daily existence today. In the present era of technoscience, scientific and technological research are so closely entangled that it is hard to discern their respective natures and interrelations. Nevertheless, it is possible to partially distinguish both their common characteristics and their contrasting differences (i.e. in goals, cognitive styles, methods, etc.). In this context, some reflections are put forward on the activity of “tinkering” as a cognitive instrument (a form of what Peirce called Abduction ) in the generation of technological novelty.

February 22, 2019

From tendencies to purposes

Peirce between Aristotle and Kant

Eliseo Fernández, Cary Campbell

Page range: 139-151

Abstract

In this article, Fernández examines a remarkable convergence of ideas in Peirce’s mature thought: the Aristotelian notion of causal powers or capacities and its possible combination with some ideas about finality that Kant advanced to make sense of the notion of purpose in the behavior of organisms. He argues that this proposed synthesis deserves to gain relevance in light of new investigations aimed at clarifying issues concerning causality and explanation in science, especially in biology. After reviewing new developments and interpretations concerning the notions of mechanism, teleology, and purpose, especially in regard to their origins in the Kantian tradition, Fernández concludes this trailblazing study by hypothesizing that the characteristic “finality” of biological teleology (manifest in the very idea of purpose) results from the interaction of two basic types of causation: efficient causation and semiotic causation . This a standpoint that incorporates ideas from Peircean semiotics to characterize and justify biological teleology.

February 22, 2019

Habit and Generalization

Eliseo Fernández, Cary Campbell

Page range: 153-163

Abstract

Both terms in our title, “habit” and “generalization,” are ordinary language expressions that take a peculiar and abstract sense in Peirce’s thought. From various standpoints, the concepts denoted by these two terms prove to be fundamental for understanding Peirce’s ideas, and eventually for the further development of these ideas in the philosophy of science. My review suggests that Peirce’s thought moves toward a goal that he constantly suggests but never articulates explicitly. This unstated objective is no other than the goal of generalizing the very idea of generalization. This article demonstrates that once the notion of habit is generalized, its connotational range swells to cover such diverse instances as those of symbol, rule, propensity, and law of nature. Therefore, this expanded conception can be applied to unify previously separated strands of thought and scientific practice. These considerations lead me to speculate on the possibility of extending Peircean synechism toward a wider conception that could include the generalizing functions of ideas concerning symmetry (and symmetry breaking) and other kinds of invariance. A version of this paper was first presented at the conference “V Jornadas: Peirce en Argentina” at the Academia Nacional De Ciencias, De Buenos Aires, from August 23 to 24, 2012.

About this journal

Objective

Chinese Semiotic Studies (CSS) is a peer-reviewed academic journal sponsored by the International Institute of Semiotic Studies of Nanjing Normal University and the Chinese Semiotic Research Center of the Chinese Association of Linguistic Semiotics.

As the only international semiotics journal in China appearing in English, CSS is a unique outlet for Chinese scholars to be heard in global academia, affording an expanded and constructive dialogue between Chinese and non-Chinese semioticians on China-related subject matters and beyond.

Each issue contains three thematic sections: (i) Chinese Cultural Signs and Sign Theories, (ii) Western Cultural Signs and Sign Theories and (iii) Interactions between Chinese and Western semiotics.

Topics

Chinese semiotics
Linguistic studies
Area studies
Asian studies

Article formats
Original Research Articles, Review Articles, and Book Reviews.

Volume 15 Issue 1

Issue of Chinese Semiotic Studies

Frontmatter

Foundations of the Theory of Signs (1938)

A critique

Abstract

GP and NCP

A challenge to the two new pragmatic principles that challenge Grice

Abstract

______ is necessary for interpreting a proposition

Abstract

Trump: A Semiotic Analysis

Abstract

City of Nostalgia: The Semiotics of Urban Retrotopias

Abstract

A Corpus-based Study of Metaphor in Pavilion of Women

Abstract

Introduction to the 2019 Peirce Section

Celebrating Charls Pearson, and remembering Eliseo Fernández

Of Thinkers and Tinkerers

Science meets technology at the invention of the triode

Abstract

From tendencies to purposes

Peirce between Aristotle and Kant

Abstract

Habit and Generalization

Abstract