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1. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 42 > Issue: 4
The Editors

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2. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 42 > Issue: 4
Alexandros Ph. Lagopoulos, Karin Boklund-Lagopoulou

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Space, in the environmental sense, holds a rather marginal position in semiotics. We shall try, however, to show in this paper that its importance is greaterthan thought previously, not only because it may establish one of the main sub-fields of semiotic research, but also because it has repercussions on other semiotic systems and even semiotic theory as such. We start by reviewing the main positions of the Theses of the Tartu-Moscow School and compare them to Lotman’s concept of the semiosphere. We conclude that a sociologically sound framework for culture is missing and try to demonstrate that culture is not the only factor composing a society, but there also exists a concept of a material, extra-semiotic society. This framework is systematically developed in relation to geographical space in our second section.We examine the place of space in semiotics according to two different axes of analysis. The first axis, discussed in our third section, corresponds to the semioticsof (geographical) space. We approach this field from two different perspectives. The first perspective is the direct study of urban space as a text, that is, it is focused on space-as-text. Three case studies are discussed, all drawn from pre-capitalist societies: the semiotic urban model in ancient Greece, the Ethiopian military camp and the spatial organization of the traditional Libyan oases. To the second perspective corresponds the semiotic study of the geographical spaces constructed by literary texts, that is, space-in-text. Here, we discuss two case studies: the ideal Platonic city and the medieval Arthurian courtly romances. These analyses are followed by an overview of the semiotics of space in pre-capitalist societies, to which we compare Lotman’s views.The second axis, discussed in our fourth section, concerns the importance of space for semiotic theory. We show that space can serve as a tool for the analysis oftexts from other semiotic systems and focus on the use of space by diff erent spatial metalanguages.

3. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 42 > Issue: 4
Anton Markoš

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The analogy between semiosphere (world of cultures) and biosphere (world of life), coined by J. Lotman, is a courageous attempt to interconnect two seemingly incompatible worlds. In congruence with his view, I would like to convince the reader that the only possible general definition of life is “a system born, endowed with semiosis, with history”. Such a view requires considering biosphere and semiosphere as coextensive, which requires merging the cultural, scientific, historical, and linguistic approaches into a coherent whole.

4. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 42 > Issue: 4
Anton Markoš

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5. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 42 > Issue: 4
Anton Markoš

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6. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 42 > Issue: 4
Charikleia Yoka, Evangelos Kourdis

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The paper examines a specific advertising campaign of a biotech company characteristic of the whole biotech industry and discusses how the evocation ofuniversal values, such as the protection and correct management of the planet’s resources, the struggle against poverty and against the shortage of raw materials, the support of farmers and their families, distorts information about nature, global agriculture and the biotech industry’s products. This distortion is a necessary and vital part of this industry’s existence. The rhetorical techniques of conscious informational repression and distortion, which are often discussed only in terms of informational loss, are expressly evident and even taken to their extremes in the case of biotechnology. Yet on the other hand they are characteristic of a translation process that takes place in the rhetoric of advertisement in general, as is evident in the use of Goran Sonesson’s translation model which we suggest is appropriate for the definition and study of advertising codes.

7. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 42 > Issue: 4
Charikleia Yoka, Evangelos Kourdis

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8. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 42 > Issue: 4
Charikleia Yoka, Evangelos Kourdis

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9. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 42 > Issue: 4
Lei Han

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This paper discusses Juri Lotman’s concept of autocommunication and explores its applicability by referring to Roland Barthes’s representations of Self andOther. The texts to be discussed include Barthes’s writings on Japan and China, an excerpt from his rewriting of Balzac’s “Sarrasine” in S/Z, and his autobiography and Rousseau’s Confessions. The paper contrasts two cultural communication cases in terms of analysing two kinds of a-semantic codes: (1) the positive a-semantic code of Japan, and (2) the negative a-semantic code of China. With reference to “Sarrasine” and S/Z, the paper discusses two specific codes, cultural memory and imagination, which lead to the addressee’s reformulations. Finally, the paper examines how different modes of autocommunication are put into practice in Barthes’s autobiographical and Rousseau’s confessional writings.

10. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 42 > Issue: 4
Lei Han

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11. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 42 > Issue: 4
Lei Han

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12. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 42 > Issue: 4
Kalevi Kull, Ekaterina Velmezova

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13. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 42 > Issue: 4
Kalevi Kull, Remo Gramigna

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14. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 42 > Issue: 2/3
Kristian Tylen, Luis Emilio Bruni

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15. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 42 > Issue: 2/3
Winfried Noth

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The paper discusses the theory of semiosis in the context of Peirce’s philosophy of evolution. Focussing on the thesis that symbols grow by incorporating indices and icons, it proposes answers to the following questions: What does Peirce mean by the “self-development of signs” in nature and culture and by symbols as livingthings? How do signs grow? Do all signs grow, or do only symbols grow? Does the growth of signs presuppose semiotic agency, and if so, who are the agents in semiosis when signs and sign systems grow? The paper discusses objections raised by culturalists and historical linguists against the assumption that signs can still grow and are still growing in complex cultures, and it draws parallels and points out differences between Peirce’s theory of semiotic growth and the theories of memetics and teleosemiotics.

16. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 42 > Issue: 2/3
Winfried Nöth

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17. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 42 > Issue: 2/3
Winfried Nöth

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18. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 42 > Issue: 2/3
Joel Parthemore

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In the context of the relationship between signs and concepts, this paper tackles some of the ongoing controversies over conceptual development andchange – including the claim by some that concepts are not open to revision at all – taking the position that concepts pull apart from language and that concepts can be discussed on at least four levels: that of individual agent, community, society, and language. More controversially, it claims that concepts are not just inherently open to revision but that they, and the frameworks of which they form part, are in a state of continuous, if generally incremental, change: a position that derives directly from the enactive tradition in philosophy. Concepts, to be effective as concepts, must strike a careful balance between being stable enough to apply across suitably many contexts and flexible enough to adapt to each new context. The paper’s contribution is a comparison and contrast of conceptual development and change on four time scales: that of the day-to-day life of an individual conceptual agent, the day-to-day life of society, the lifetime of an individual agent, and the lifetime of society and the human species itself. It concludes that the relationship between concepts and experience (individual or collective) is one of circular and not linear causality.

19. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 42 > Issue: 2/3
Joel Parthemore

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20. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 42 > Issue: 2/3
Joel Parthemore

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