Published by De Gruyter Mouton

Volume 17 Issue 1

Issue of Chinese Semiotic Studies

Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available January 14, 2021

Frontmatter

Page range: i-v

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Part One: Chinese Cultural Signs and Sign Theories

January 14, 2021

A diachronic analysis of the FIRE character

Danqing Huang, Dirk Geeraerts, Weiwei Zhang

Page range: 1-44

Abstract

Chinese radicals are the semantic components of Chinese characters that generally indicate major concepts and categories. Characters that share the same radical may be semantically linked in various ways to the broad semantic category that the radical represents, and radicals may thus be considered a categorization mechanism to distinguish lexical meanings. Given the fact that FIRE is an independent character that can also be used as a radical in composite characters, the question arises as to what extent the semantic developments of the FIRE character and the FIRE radical are similar, i.e. does the FIRE radical develop independently of the FIRE character? Against the background of this question, this paper studies the diachronic semantic structure of the FIRE character, which will be compared to the FIRE radical in composite characters in follow-up studies. The analysis shows that the overall diachronic development of the FIRE character exhibits prototypical characteristics and a radial network structure.

January 14, 2021

Chinese does have independent tense elements

Zai and guo as tense markers

Zhiyi Zhang, Li Shikun

Page range: 45-69

Abstract

Previous research on Chinese tense indicates that Chinese has either null tense or no tense. However, the present study suggests that the conclusions of previous studies regarding Chinese tense are either against the syntactic truth or illogical. The present study provides new evidence to support that Chinese has two independent tense elements, zai and guo , which clearly indicate present and past tense, contrary to the traditional assumption that they are aspectual markers. From the perspective of grammaticalization, both zai and guo witnessed grammaticalization from the spatial concept to the temporal concept. The semantic evidence shows that zai and guo are semantically different from the aspectual markers zhe and le and convey the meaning of time location. The fact that both zai and guo are allowed in negation but not permitted in non-finite structure provides syntactic evidence that they are tense markers. However, the present study also suggests there can be two different zai and guo ; zai and guo used separately and independently and zai and guo used with zhe and le. In the latter case, zai is a time adverbial and guo is an aspectual marker. The existence of independent tense markers in Chinese also shows that Chinese may have at least four different mechanisms to anchor tense.

January 14, 2021

Chinese terminology studies

Practical explorations and theoretical contributions

Jian Yin

Page range: 71-88

Abstract

A single but collective, multifaceted, and multidimensional theory of terminology relies on the contributions of scholars in different ways and in different languages. Local terminology practice and exploration back-feed the general theory and jointly contribute to the completion of a comprehensive theoretical framework. This paper analyzes the application of terminology as the driving force of the discipline, which includes standardized application, domain-specific communicative application, and cross-cultural/cross-lingual application. Specifically, the characteristics of terminology translation practice in China are introduced, with terminology translation conducted as a practice of knowledge dissemination and discourse contribution bound by and affecting Chinese language. Then, several characteristics of Chinese terminology studies are introduced. It is pointed out that Chinese terminology studies, based on the answering of the local terminology problems in China, have universal value for the construction of terminology as a whole discipline.

January 14, 2021

A multimodal analysis of Jane Eyre book covers

Contextualizing the acceptance and gradual rediscovery of a Western Classic in China

Jie Wu, Qinghong Wu

Page range: 89-108

Abstract

This paper applies visual grammar theory to make a multimodal discourse analysis of book covers of the different Chinese versions of Jane Eyre. It illustrates the relationship between the social environment and social changes in Chinese society and culture in relation to an increasing social acceptance of the novel in China. This research not only validates the applicability and practicability of visual grammar in analyzing book covers, but also helps to show an ideological change in Chinese readers and publishers over time from the 1930s to the 21st century. Indeed, the connotations of book covers of the different Chinese versions of Jane Eyre seem to be closely related to different historical and social contexts. They document and bear witness to, in their particular way, the tremendous changes in Chinese society from early last century on. They also show that Jane, the heroine of the novel, seemed to be re-discovered over and over again in China, depending on the main social features of different periods. She seems to have been portrayed as the gray presence, the feminist, the lover and protagonist, and finally the icon.

Part Two: Cultural Signs and Narrative Signification

January 14, 2021

Creating and applying a narrative-semiosis model

Hyosup Song

Page range: 109-121

Abstract

In this study, I explore a new model of narrative that contains interactions between three levels of story – narrative story, cognitive story, and social story. With this new model, narrative is no longer a static form but rather a whole signifying process among levels. I term this new model narrative-semiosis . The narrative-semiosis model in this study is closely related to the six elements of Jakobson’s communication model. In my new model, cognitive story exists in the minds of both the addresser and addressee, and social story exists in the context where human beings think and perform in the real world. Cognitive story is inferred from the message that is in a narrative story. In this paper, I describe the semiotic interactions among the three levels of stories, not unidirectional but bidirectional, in my narrative-semiosis model. I also validate my model by applying it to a traditional Korean shaman epic Danggumagi and a painting text, Sun and Moon , describing their semiotic narrative signification.

January 14, 2021

Double consciousness to scaffold narrative skills

A Peircean developmental perspective

Donna E. West

Page range: 123-142

Abstract

Determining the utility of auditory hallucinations (including imaginary friends) in developing logic is sorely under-investigated (Fernyhough, Charles. 2016. The voices within: The history and science of how we talk to ourselves . New York: Basic Books). The present account demonstrates how Peirce’s double consciousness fueled by his endoporeutic principle, provides insight into how abduction directs adopting arguments from one source while dismissing others. Peirce’s categories provide hints as to which voices become admitted to logical scrutiny, and which are validated – consequent to irritations imposed by surprise/conflict. Effort/resistance (4.536) clearly illustrates how Secondness legitimizes emerging perspectives, facilitating examination of peripheral voices, which can be competitive (MS 9) or collaborative (4.551). Peirce’s Energetic and Emotional Interpretants (MS 318) impel or inhibit new habits (attention to one stimulus over another). Consciously inhibiting forces hastens self-control (Thirdness) integrating voices on the fringes of conventionality into one’s own (MS 318). Ultimately, incorporating alterity via imagined arguments satisfies Peirce’s endoporeutic maxim because reflecting upon the legitimacy of alien perspectives transforms habits from the outside in.

Part Three: Special Section on Peirce and Learning Theory

January 14, 2021

Peirce and learning theory

Special section introduction

Cary Campbell

Page range: 143-152

Abstract

Peirce Section editor, Cary Campbell introduces a series of three commissioned articles. Together, they serve to present and contextualize the broad relevance of Peirce’s philosophy and semiotics for the contemporary study of learning. Some key Peircean ideas and context are touched on, such as: the transdisciplinary nature of Peirce research and its connections to learning theory and education; an account of “Peirce as teacher” and Peirce’s own relationship to pedagogical topics; the broad significance of understanding learning-as-semiosis; and the importance of synechism (Peirce’s doctrine of continuity) for research into learning and education.

January 14, 2021

A semiotic model of learning

Torill Strand

Page range: 153-162

Abstract

My ambition with this paper is to throw some light on Charles S. Peirce’s (1839–1914) semiotic model of learning. Peirce developed this model in his later writings, where he integrated his phenomenology, pragmatism, and semiotics while renewing all three. I start by introducing an analogy on pedagogy used by Peirce in one of his 1903 lectures on phenomenology. Next, I sketch out Peirce’s perspective on the ways in which we learn from experience. In the last section, I map out Peirce’s semiotic model, while indicating some prospects and limitations of a Peircean outlook on the paradoxical attributions of knowledge and learning.

January 14, 2021

Peirce on learning and teaching

Winfried Nöth

Page range: 163-174

Abstract

The paper is a precis of C. S. Peirce’s semiotic theory of education. It presents this theory of learning and teaching from the perspective of Peirce’s phenomenological categories of Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness. In the domain of Thirdness, learning is mediation between ignorance and knowledge, new information and old knowledge. Teaching has its focus on laws, symbols, legisigns, and reasoning. In the domain of Secondness, learners acquire new knowledge from the “hard realities” of real-life experience, from obstacles, and from the resistance caused by error and doubt. Teaching takes place by means of sinsigns (singular signs) and indexical signs. In the domain of Firstness, the learner acquires familiarity with the sensory qualities of objects of experience and learns from free associations, imagination, and acts of creativity. The instruments of teaching are qualisigns, icons, and abductive reasoning. The paper concludes that Peirce’s philosophy of education is holistic insofar as it states that most efficient signs are those signs in which “the iconic, indicative, and symbolic characters are blended as equally as possible.”

January 14, 2021

Peircean anti-psychologism and learning theory

Cary Campbell, Alin Olteanu, Sebastian Feil

Page range: 175-197

Abstract

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.

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.