Sign Systems Studies

This paper deals with textual aspects of the geometric diagonal linear ornamentation that appears on traditional woven Lithuanian bands. Taking into consideration diachronic, local as well as universal perspectives, it aims to determine and classify the basic elements of the ornament that relate to the development of textuality. Previous investigations of Baltic and Lithuanian textile ornaments have been based on a purely geometric analysis of ornamental form, or on creating linguistic inventories of folk pattern denominations. This paper describes a unique, elaborated, interdisciplinary method for studying such ornaments based on historical-typological comparative analyses, the classification of patterns with regard to their form and meaning, and the semiotic interpretation of mythopoetic images of patterns names. Further, the paper discusses whether an authentic folk classification and a tradition of typology based on the forms of patterns and names can be detected. From the traditional point of view the main meaning-carrying element of this ornamentation is the type of pattern. Therefore, reconstructions and interpretations of the semantic field of patterns’ signification may be based on the mythopoetic context of folk culture.

Family tree diagrams are a specific type of visual representation of time that serve a range of purposes. This research considers their semiosic developmentacross western cultures using cases from the earliest extant copies of the eighth century to current online versions. Cases are taken from the fields of religion, genealogy, history, anthropology, genetics, and popular culture. The paper begins with a general model of tree design based upon the linguistic representation of time, or tense, and then discusses in case study fashion, how each design was composed to support its use. Composition is discussed using the visual variables of the direction of time on the page, the key reference point, scale, alphanumeric and pictorial symbols, symbol positions, and the size, colour, tone, and texture of symbols and graphic elements. The paper argues that choices for the direction of time flow in a tree (e.g. left-to-right, right-to-left, top-down, etc.) depend upon many factors, which are the use of the diagram, the amount of information that needs to fit onto the page, patterns of reading and writing, aesthetic needs, the linguistic metaphor of descent, cultural values, and the “ideal-real” continuum that exists along the vertical axis for some types of graphics.

This article, which envelops a case study and development of umwelt theory, addresses four research questions: At what point does the human umweltemerge? What umwelt transitions can be identified in the ontogenesis of the early human umwelt? What is characteristic of the umwelt trajectory of human embryos/foetuses/infants? How are umwelt objects established/crystallized/fixated in the human umwelt?The early human umwelt is characterized by rapid change, radical transformations, and gradual establishment of the first and most basic umwelt objects by wayof exploration and learning. While the human umwelt arguably emerges already at the embryonic stage, the sense-saturated umwelt emerges at the foetal stage. Unlike an adult human’s umwelt, but like other altricial umwelten, the umwelt of the human foetus and infant is not fully functional from the perspective of the organism itself. In other words, their basic functioning directly depends on others. Our human sociality is further stimulated by shared undertakings early on in our terrestrial lives which effectively make us part of some specific social system.

The article attempts to show that graphic design production works through a particular semiotic process. The performance of a new sign category, the GraphicSign, makes possible the articulation of the iconic, the plastic, and the linguistic signs in case of a specific dialogue that exists between the letters and the images in some graphic design productions. Overhauling theories of Eco, Groupe μ and Klinkenberg, we will be able to understand that Graphic Design generates meaning in a formal dimension, yet it also generates particular cognitive structures. Therefore, understanding this new kind of sign, we can recognize its communicational dimension and the powerful cultural creation platform this Design is, beyond its ability to make things visible and in the best cases clear and beautiful.

In this paper, I report on a set of data which, so I believe, give evidence of current experience as being conceptualized on the basis of conceptual structuresthat originate from different time scales. The data are obtained by a procedure that shows features of think-aloud protocols and eye-tracking research. The text which is read is a narrative, an excerpt from Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince. Five groups of readers, at different times and locations, were presented with the text in five different languages. They underlined the words for which something came to mind and jotted down responses in the margin of the one-page long text ad lib, in a time frame of ten minutes. Their responses, expressed by pictorial and written signs, testify to ways of perceiving elements in scenes and scenarios, in short, elements of the environment with which the readers interact at the moment of reading. When the jotted responses are correlated with the segmental positions in which they occur, regular patterns emerge, revealed by significant differences in response frequencies. The semantic properties of the linguistic material in these segmental positions signal the perceptual presence of (image-)schematic figure-ground relations that inhere in basic event structures. Different layers of semiosis, originating from different time scales, thus appear to simultaneously contribute to current experience, the latter being possible because of the expanded consciousness of the organism that discovered how to turn in on itself.

Acknowledging that narratives are an important resource in human communication and cognition, the focus of this article is on the cognitive aspects ofinvolvement with visual and auditory non-verbal narratives, particularly in relation to the newest immersive media and digital interactive representational technologies. We consider three relevant trends in narrative studies that have emerged in the 60 years of cognitive and digital revolution. The issue at hand could have implications for developmental psychology, pedagogics, cognitive science, cognitive psychology, ethology and evolutionary studies of language. In particular, it is of great importance for narratology in relation to interactive media and new representational technologies. Therefore we outline a research agenda for a bio-cognitive semiotic interdisciplinary investigation into how people understand, react to, and interact with narratives that are communicated through non-verbal modalities.

Building on anthropological discussions of perspectivism and (zoo)semiotic accounts of sign use by humans and other animals, the article explores the cooperation of a guide dog and its visually impaired handler as contingent on the mutual adjustment of two individual perspectives. A perspective is defined as a point of view which comprises the meanings as well as the forms of objects that the subject perceives and acts upon. On certain occasions, individual perspectives can be alligated to one another, resulting in a transformation of the meaningful worlds of the subjects. Three types of connections between individual perspectives are delineated in the paper, resulting in the formation of mimetic, collaborative and comparative double perspectives. Although all of them bear relevance for the guide dog team’s interactions, the collaborative double perspective is put under further scrutiny. The maintenance of the collaborative double perspective depends on the formation of trust between the two individuals. While investigating the conditions for the establishment of trust, a question is raised as to whether a shared communication system can serve as an ultimate ground for it.