Published by De Gruyter Mouton

Volume 2006 Issue 160

Issue of Semiotica

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Contents
Journal Overview

August 3, 2006

A semiotic analysis of the genetic information system

Charbel Niño El-Hani, João Queiroz, Claus Emmeche

Page range: 1-68

Abstract

Terms loaded with informational connotations are often employed to refer to genes and their dynamics. Indeed, genes are usually perceived by biologists as basically ‘the carriers of hereditary information.’ Nevertheless, a number of researchers consider such talk as inadequate and ‘just metaphorical,’ thus expressing a skepticism about the use of the term ‘information’ and its derivatives in biology as a natural science. First, because the meaning of that term in biology is not as precise as it is, for instance, in the mathematical theory of communication. Second, because it seems to refer to a purported semantic property of genes without theoretically clarifying if any genuinely intrinsic semantics is involved. Biosemiotics, a field that attempts to analyze biological systems as semiotic systems, makes it possible to advance in the understanding of the concept of information in biology. From the perspective of Peircean biosemiotics, we develop here an account of genes as signs, including a detailed analysis of two fundamental processes in the genetic information system (transcription and protein synthesis) that have not been made so far in this field of research. Furthermore, we propose here an account of information based on Peircean semiotics and apply it to our analysis of transcription and protein synthesis.

August 3, 2006

Sword play: The cultural semiotics of violent scapegoating and sexual and racial othering

Robbie B. H Goh

Page range: 69-94

Abstract

The abiding cultural significance of swords, in an age of technologicallysophisticated weapons of mass destruction, is as much a semiotic puzzle as it is a socio-psychological one. The semiotics of swords displays certain features — commodity fetishism, the business speak of ‘cutting edge’ performance, primitive vitality, and related elements — that reveal the doubleness of desire in market society, the simultaneous desire to negate the capitalist present in favor of a primitivist past, together with an invigoration of the present through tropes of violent conflict. The edginess of swordsemiotics also marks certain points of cultural instability, in terms of race, gender, and sexuality, evincing an incessantly transgressive impulse.

August 3, 2006

Reading Holmes: Capital and the sign of the market in The Hound of the Baskervilles

Robbie B. H Goh

Page range: 95-113

Abstract

Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles , one of his most financially successful stories, is not so much a fantasy of ‘policing’ Victorian society and its wealthy class (as it appears in part to be), as it is a subtle unwriting of a policed society and the related securities of semiotic, financial, professional, and scientific processes. This is effected through the sign of the detective — his depersonalization, his interchangeability with the villain, his marks of utter professionalism — as well as in narrative signs of capitalism's appropriative centrality to all the agents and events in the novel. The process of reading thus becomes an alternative semiotics of the marketplace, in which codes of capitalism's alienating and displacing power are written into, and work in contrast to, the linear narrative of the detective's prowess and his triumph over the villain.

August 3, 2006

Au sujet des couleurs de céphalopodes — rencontre de points de vue sémiotique et éthologique

Marie Renoue, Pascal Carlier

Page range: 115-139

Abstract

Résumé Traitant de la coloration des céphalopodes, les auteurs procèdent à un examen critique des explications physiologique et physico-chimique du phénomène et de ses interprétations en termes de communication de message, d'utilité pour la survie de l'espèce (fitness darwiniste), de représentation ‘plasmatique’ (modèle formaliste de Portmann signifiant un type de rapport au monde), de manifestation de ‘changements d'humeur’ et du monde subjectif de l'animal (Umwelt de von Uexküll et mouvements d'expression de Buytendijk). Conciliant une approche située de la cognition animale et le modèle tensif de la sémiotique, les auteurs proposent un modèle original de corrélation entre niveaux de tension et de réactivité cognitives et apparence plus ou moins contrastée de l'animal interagissant avec son environnement.

August 3, 2006

A dialectical materialist reading of the sign

Wolff-Michael Roth

Page range: 141-171

Abstract

In this article, I reread sections of Karl Marx's Capital, substituting the term ‘sign’ wherever he used ‘commodity.’ I show that such a substitution yields statements that have close family relationship with the results of twentieth century scholarship in a variety of disciplines. The question about the origin of such family resemblance can be found in the notion of substitution that occurs in trade and translation. The results of this rereading suggest that a theory of sign can be grounded in the notion of substitution, translation, and use rather than in the notion of reference and meaning. This approach thereby fundamentally depsychologizes our understanding and theories of the sign.

August 3, 2006

Rudolf Engler, le grand maître du saussurisme

Michel Arrivé, Izabel Vilela

Page range: 173-183

Abstract

Résumé On rappelle les grandes lignes de la vie personnelle et professionnelle de Rudolf Engler. On insiste surtout sur son oeuvre, pour une large part consacrée à la manifestation raisonnée du texte de Ferdinand de Saussure et à l'interprétation de sa pensée. Le Cours de linguistique générale , publié en 1916, trois ans après la mort de Saussure, par Charles Bally et Albert Sechehaye a été à l'origine de l'influence du saussurisme sur de nombreux aspects de la réflexion scientifique du vingtième siècle, en linguistique (Jakobson, Troubetskoï, Martinet, Hjelmslev, Guillaume, etc.), certes, mais aussi en sémiotique (Barthes et Greimas), en psychanalyse (Lacan), en ethnologie (LéviStrauss), en philosophie (Merleau-Ponty). Il conserve à cet égard un rôle fondateur. Mais il ne représente pas de façon totalement exacte l'état de la réflexion de Saussure au moment où il professait ses trois cours (de 1906 à 1911). La monumentale Édition critique réalisée par Rudolf Engler permet d'avoir accès simultanément à l'état conféré à la pensée de Saussure par ses éditeurs et aux propos et écrits par lesquels cette pensée s'est manifestée. Engler, par son contact intime avec les textes saussuriens, est sans doute l'interprète le plus autorisé de la pensée du maître de Genève.

August 3, 2006

Three levels of the symbolosphere

Mark Burgin, John H Schumann

Page range: 185-202

Abstract

This paper attempts to understand the coexistence of the material and nonmaterial aspects of our lives. By synthesizing ideas about structures, physical entities, mental phenomena, and symbolic relations, we argue that the nonmaterial can emerge from the material, and then the nonmaterial may mediate the production of material entities. Finally, this cycle is applied to notions of creativity and invention.

August 3, 2006

A discourse-based approach to human-computer communication

John H Connolly, Alan Chamberlain, Iain W Phillips

Page range: 203-217

Abstract

The term ‘dialogue’ has its origin in the study of human language, where it is regarded primarily as a form of discourse, and hence as a pragmatic-level phenomenon. However, ‘dialogue’ is nowadays also used to denote humancomputer interaction; and in this field it tends to be described in syntactic rather than in pragmatic terms. But to treat dialogue as though the term had two distinct senses is unsatisfactory and unwarranted. Instead, we show how it is possible to maintain a consistent, discourse-based view of dialogue that encompasses not only interpersonal communication but also multimodal human-computer interaction.

August 3, 2006

Literacy in the ‘visual world’: Impact of the SLS experiment in rural India

Seema Khanwalkar

Page range: 219-228

Abstract

Education has always been an institutional process across the globe with schooling as its central agent. But for sometime now, there have been demands to revisit the role of education in building literate societies. For, as has been often stated, education is not just a fundamental and constitutional right, but a fundamental human process as well. However, ironically, evaluations of the existing educational process have come in the form of external commentaries. We need to understand the impact of literacy through an internal evaluation by engaging with the people who directly derive meaning from them. Meaning making, is social, material, and by analogy so is literacy. Field observations conducted in a village in South Assam, a state in Eastern India, to study the impact of the ‘Same Language Subtitling,’ an experiment in support of literacy provided insights into existing models of literacy and demonstrated a need to amalgamate them into contexts that pertain to the receivers of literacy experiments. The responses to the subtitling were motivated by clear pragmatic subjectivities in relation to the surrounding discourses. This paper demonstrates that questions on the growth of literacy should hinge upon what counts as knowledge, whether the users believe knowledge is created, and whether this knowledge relates to their lives in any way.

August 3, 2006

Neo-dualism and the bifurcation of the symbolosphere into the mediasphere and the human mind

Robert K Logan

Page range: 229-242

Abstract

An extension is made of the neo-dualist model of Logan and Schumann (2005) where a distinction is made between the symbolosphere, which includes the human mind and all its thoughts and communication processes such as language and the physiosphere, which is simply the physical world and includes the human brain. The notion that the symbolosphere can be thought of as consisting of two separate subdomains, the Mind, and the mediasphere is examined. The first non-physical subdomain, Mind, consists of the human mind and its abstract symbolic thoughts, language, culture, concepts, and memes. The second subdomain consists of the products of the human mind instantiated in the physiosphere, which we define as the mediasphere. Examples of the mediasphere in the domains of science, mathematics, technology, music, and the fine arts are made. A correspondence of this approach with Popper's notion of three worlds is made.

August 3, 2006

How to mean without saying: Presupposition and implication revisited

Sky Marsen

Page range: 243-263

Abstract

This paper examines presupposition and implication from a semiotic perspective. It suggests that the conventional approaches to presupposition have a limited focus because of emphasis on truth-value, or the propositional level of the utterance. The paper demonstrates how texts construct an assumed world of agents, which can be traced in narrative structure. This ‘presupposed world’ gives the story the form in which it is narrated. By analyzing utterances from a variety of written texts, the paper outlines an approach that traces presupposed worlds in syntactic and semantic strategies. The paradigmatic and syntagmatic axes, and the deictic framework of the text are examined to show this. The paper concludes by discussing the significance of presupposed worlds for semiotic text analysis.

August 3, 2006

A solution to the Sorites

Marcia R Pinheiro

Page range: 307-326

Abstract

The Sorites paradox, as it is known in the philosophical environment, is one of the oldest unsolved puzzles of humanity. It has been inspiring philosophers for centuries now because of its involvement with language, mathematics, philosophy, and humanity in general. In this paper, I try to expose an algebraic explanation for the Sorites defending the fact that the Sorites cannot have a purely logical solution because it is not a problem, it is a statement in itself. The only way to actually solve the Sorites is relating language to logic, is mixing things.

August 3, 2006

Thirdness as self-reference in computing

Kumiko Tanaka-Ishii, Yuichiro Ishii

Page range: 327-343

Abstract

We argue that the essence of thirdness in computing is self-reference. Our discussion is grounded on the theories of Church and Curry, which have been studied in the domain of theoretical computing. Using their theories, we show that any program can be transformed into a program consisting only of three-term relations, where the essence of the three-term relations lies in self-reference.

August 3, 2006

Encounters

Nataly Tcherepashenets

Page range: 345-355

Abstract

This review article oers a detailed analysis of Lisa Block de Behar's Borges: The Passion of an Endless Quotation (2003), an innovative and erudite study that bridges the passions of the semiotician and the literary critic. The Uruguayan scholar offers illuminating insights into Borges' oeuvre and takes a new step in delineating similarities between specific questions of semiotics and his imagination. Inspired by her perceptive observation that Borges has oered a new dimension in the use of quotations by demonstrating the impossibility of not quoting, I analyze his story ‘A Weary's Man Utopia,’ which enters into an implicit dialogue with such classical texts as Thomas More's Utopia , H. G. Wells' The Time Machine and Henry James' The Sense of the Past to comment on the notion of language as a system of quotes. Furthering Block de Behar's insight into the creative process of Borges as writer, in the course of which he uses his earlier written texts to fashion new works, I discuss Borges' creative version of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass to suggest that Borges' translations are also informed by his own fiction and poetry.

About this journal

Objective
Semiotica is published in six annual issues, in two languages (English and French). From time to time, Special Issues, devoted to topics of particular interest, are assembled by Guest Editors. The publishers of Semiotica offer an annual prize, the Mouton d'Or, to the author of the best article each year. The article is selected by an independent international jury.

Topics
We welcome papers reporting results of research in all branches of semiotic studies.

Article formats
Research articles, in-depth reviews, guest editorials, reports

Mouton D’Or Winner 2022

"Semiotricité et corps en jeu", Parlebas, Pierre, 248, 9-35.

The judges commented: "The Committee members made this decision based on many appreciations. First, the article contains a concise theory on semiotics of movement, synthesizing decades of research of the author. It opens an exciting framework for the contribution of many other authors. The theoretical grounds of semiotircity are built on the most classical semiotic approaches and represent a genuine development. Second, the article refreshes semiotics methodology in very original way, by engaging the applied semiotics for furtive and instantaneous activities analysis. Third, the article is pretty clear and well structured, written in very comprehensible French. The theoretical frame it opens is thorough and far reaching. Fourth, the semiotic theory of movement comes in a very special moment when the whole world is football, but it covers also many other areas of applicability which reflect major trends such as the general gamification of life thanks to new media and digital technologies. It is crucial for semiotic theory to open its theoretic scope towards significant cultural trends and become more attractive for young researchers."

Les membres du comité ont pris leur décision en fondant leur appréciation sur quatre éléments principaux. Premier élément : l'article, en peu de mots, en prenant appui sur des décennies de recherche de la part de l'auteur, déploie de manière précise les termes d'une sémiotique du mouvement. Les fondements théoriques de la sémiotricité sont construits sur des approches sémiotiques bien établies et représentent un véritable développement dans le domaine. En cela, le texte ouvre un cadre passionnant pour les contributions de nombreux autres chercheurs. Deuxièmement, l'article renouvelle la sémiotique appliquée de manière très originale, l'engageant dans une approche efficace des actions instantanées et furtives; la méthodologie sémiotique en général en tire donc aussi profit. Troisième point, en plus d'être profond, avec un cadre théorique d'ampleur et de grande portée, l'article est particulièrement bien structuré et écrit dans un français très compréhensible, ce qui est un véritable gain pour sa diffusion. Enfin, quatrièmement, s'il est indéniable que le texte pourrait bénéficier d'une visibilité complémentaire due à la ferveur liée au contexte récent de la coupe du monde de football au Qatar, il couvre surtout de nombreux autres domaines d'applicabilité qui reflètent des tendances majeures telles que la gamification générale de la vie, portée par les nouveaux médias et les technologies numériques. L'on y voit une belle opportunité pour la théorie sémiotique d'ouvrir son champ à la faveur de tendances culturelles significatives; ceci est une garantie pour continuer à attirer de nouvelles générations de chercheurs.