Zeitschrift für Semiotik

Diagramme von Gesten. Eine zeichentheoretische Analyse digitaler Bewegungsspuren

2023-09-30T10:06:43+02:00

Summary. This paper presents a semiotic investigation of how diagrams are produced and used in empirical, motion-capture based gesture research for the purposes of representation and analysis of co-speech gestures. First, we discuss the notion of diagram, drawing on Peircean semiotics and more recent accounts of diagrammatic thinking, and traditional ways of recording and representing co-speech gestures. We then employ analytic tools stemming from semiotic theory to a) account for the notational procedures used in motion-capture technology and b) offer a diagrammatic interpretation of the signs resulting from them. Our hypothesis is that motion-capture diagrams are products of operative diagrammatic processes and that they are comparable with empirical measurements. The “epistemic force of the trace” (Krämer 2011) consists in the iconic visualization of movement trajectories which become perceptual gestural gestalts through projecting an indexical sign onto a coordinate system that virtually structures gesture space. We further highlight diagrammatic processes underpinning co-speech gestures themselves, which may be visualized as holistic gestalts with the help of optical motion-capture technology. These cognitive-semiotic processes manifest themselves dynamically and spatially through embodied image schemas, relational representations of abstract concepts, and gestural diagrams based on mental maps (for example, when conversational partners are jointly planning a journey).

Von subhumaner zu humanspezifischer Interaktion. Tomasello und die Qualität des Zeigens

2023-09-30T10:13:48+02:00

Summary. Michael Tomasello, whose research is increasingly recognized in socio-theoretical discourses, describes deictic gestures as the crucial milestone on the way from animal interaction to specific human forms of interaction. On a mentalistic principle, he does not shy away from comparing the pointing gesture to language and from defining the deictic gesture as ontogenetic and phylogenetic earliest form of specific human cooperative communication. This article initially shows that the expression-theoretical construction of the research program creates contradictions and circularities. With reference to Karl Bühler’s works, a semiotic analysis of Tomasello’s examples of the special quality of pointing gestures is provided. This approach also casts a new light on Tomasello’s explanation of the transition to verbal language and argues that Tomasello’s theoretical construction hardly yields reliable statements according to social interaction as a process and to the emergence of cognitive capacities and communication means, but that his findings on the actual cognitive capacities of children and nonhuman primates could additionally be taken into account to unlock the secret of the origins of language.

Was heißt „Vorhandensein“? Die kulturwissenschaftliche Relevanz einer Klärung

2023-09-30T10:21:14+02:00

Summary. This contribution builds on the idea of integrating truth-fulfilling entities into a truth-conditional semantics. It asks which kind of truth conditions are to be considered for statements of something being really there – as opposed to just being an intentional object. The adverbial theory of perception treats experiences, for example appearances (visual experiences), as ‘adverbially’ classified. As a further approach towards how an object is related to its appearance (being experienced visually), semantical externalism is considered. On this basis, it is proposed that the notion of existence can be understood as a disposition to be experienced: y being really there is explicated as a disposition to experiences that are adverbially characterized as y-experiences. This approach helps to understand the different perspectives of the natural sciences and the arts and humanities. While the natural sciences are directed towards y, the arts and humanities primarily deal with y-experiences.

Exaktheit – Eindeutigkeit – Eigentlichkeit. Zur semiotischen Explikation terminologischer Grundeigenschaften

2023-09-30T10:29:14+02:00

Summary. The terminological properties of exactness, uniqueness and authenticity can be related to each other on the basis of Ogden and Richard’s semiotic triangle. With respect to meaning, expression, and reality they have to be understood as referential, semantic, and motivated comprehensibility of terms. They are conceptualized in different ways within the framework of an inventory model in the tradition of system-oriented linguistics, a context model in the tradition of pragmalinguistics, and a functional model in the tradition of cognitive linguistics. Exactness, uniqueness and authenticity are systematically postulated, pragmatically analyzed, or cognitively interpreted. Argumentatively and historically, the approach demonstrates a dialectical relationship between the three models.

Binäre Diskurskonstruktionen als mentale Realitäts- und Möglichkeitskonstruktionen. Exemplifiziert am ‚Dramatischen Dialog‘ des 16. bis 18. Jh.*

2023-09-30T10:40:55+02:00

Summary. This contribution explains the notion of discourse constructions, and presents aspects of the analysis of two binary discourse constructions, wer p, (der) q and wenn p, (dann/so) q. These binary constructions serve to define relations between elements on the basis of the conditional schema but in different ways, namely as an objective reality or as a possibility that needs to be evaluated, respectively. The conception of discourse constructions is related to Mental Space Theory, which considers knowledge structures as representations that are being integrated, selected, composed, and elaborated within mental spaces during interactions. Depending on the space builder, different inferences are drawn that point to social practices either as quasi objective or as negotiable. The cognitive approach of constructional grammar is combined with the philosophical question of how the self and its realities become visible through social interaction. Evidence from a corpus of 16th to 18th century drama is presented that supports the theoretical assumptions.

Einführung

2023-09-30T09:50:25+02:00

Christian Stetter (1943–2017). Ein Nachruf

2023-09-30T10:49:14+02:00