Journal Name: Semiotica Issue: Ahead of print.

In light of current findings under the culture-driven view, the present article proposes a co-shaping interactive relation between the human brain and culture, and a further notion that semiosis actually serves as the central link that connects external models and internal models, initiating what is known as unlimited semiosis, which coincides with the neurological process of cognition. Empirical studies on the differences of neural activities pertaining to distinct cultural modeling systems, such as the Chinese orthography, the English and the French (...) alphabets, have also provided clear evidence that the human brain exists in an adaptive relation to the corresponding culture, in which semiosis proves to be one of the fundamental mechanisms of how culture exerts its influence. Besides the cultural specificity of semiosis and brain functions, this paper also proposes that it is essential to pay constant attention to semiosic individuality, as this will secure a comprehensive unbiased perspective of semiotic and cognitive studies. (shrink)

Journal Name: Semiotica - Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies / Revue de l'Association Internationale de Sémiotique Volume: 2013 Issue: 197 Pages: 141-152.

This paper affords a Lotmanian cultural semiotic analysis of the inner workings of ritual embodying the mechanism of cultural memory. In this intersectional study, we propose treating ritual as an integral semiotic system in which the community follows a prescribed collective process to create religious or social meanings and to regulate the mechanism of cultural memory through concrete symbols in the forms of behavior, speech, gestures, objects, spatial structures, and so on. Three semiotic properties of ritual in relation to cultural (...) memory are identified, namely, continuity, concreteness, and integrity, which are jointly responsible for the efficacy of ritual in cultural memory making, or to be specific, in the preservation, retrieval, and even reproduction of cultural memory. With these properties, ritual helps construct and maintain socio-cultural order and group identity in the community, by repeating itself and thus creating a sense of continuity through the preservation and retrieval of cultural memory. The key components in ritual are its diverse and polysemous symbols, which are seldom confined to a specific context, although they are indeed subject to the dominant symbol and the dominant meaning in a ritual when necessary. With an extraordinary degree of autonomy and not bound to any fixed context, ritual symbols can enter a ritual situation as its components but retain the freedom of leaving the ritual context at any time, like an unchained “spectator,” and permeating multiple contexts as self-contained units. It is precisely through these transferrable ritual symbols that the fragments of cultural memory are randomly dispersed in the semiosphere and carried to unexpected socio-cultural contexts, bridging the past, the present, and the future and creating new cultural memory. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2016 Heft: 210 Seiten: 151-166.

This paper affords a critical and historical reappraisal of Bakhtin’s theory of polyphony. It addresses the issue of the subjectivity of interpretation in the reception and formulation of this highly influential theory in literary semiotics. Following a revaluation of three major patterns of interpretation of polyphony that have emerged in the global field of literary theory since 1929, as well as Bakhtin’s shift in emphasis in 1963, we find that Bakhtin’s theorizing of polyphony, based on his seemingly inconsistent interpretation of (...) Dostoevsky’s novels, was defined by his own subjectivity as well. An obvious consequence of such subjective predispositions in both the reception of Bakhtin’s theory and his own treatment of Dostoevsky’s polyphonic novels is that they have instigated a type of perpetuating availability bias in approaching the theory of polyphony. This revelation is key to understanding the wholeness of the theory of polyphony from a diachronic perspective. By tracing the cultural and intellectual sources of Dostoevsky’s polyphonic creation, this paper attempts to reframe and restore the Bakhtinian idea of polyphony to its fullness, which we believe can be encapsulated in one phrase: harmony without uniformity. (shrink)

Through a simple model of autogenic interpreting system featuring molecular constraint-work dynamics, Deacon critically tackles the issue of the nature of information in living systems and proposes that interpretation of a molecule as information about something else is more important than molecular replication. Two aspects of the target article are highlighted in this commentary. First, Deacon’s illustrations nicely resonate with and instantiate the wisdom in the doctrine of yin-yang in Chinese philosophy. Second, his theorizing demonstrates a bold intellectual innovation with (...) regard to Peircean semiotics. In short, the article exemplifies what highly relevant, and succinct, semiotic modeling looks like. (shrink)

By focusing on three different yet correlated disciplines in China in which the Sebeok’s Chinese connection has been found, this article elaborates on his personal contact with the Chinese semiotic community and extant constructive academic responses from Chinese semioticians. It provides a detailed description of the reasons for the uniqueness of Sebeok’s Chinese connection and proceeds to demonstrate the three major Chinese figures that used to know Sebeok and the interactions between them. Against the common belief that influence of Sebeok (...) the semiotician, rather than Sebeok the convener, is quite minimal in China, I have proven that he did have a direct impact upon the Chinese semiotic literati, which is evident not only in the form of the work exclusively on Sebeok the person but also in the form of the writings in recognition of both his contributions to semiotics as a global cause and his status as the mid-wife of contemporary semiotics. As a projection into the future, I put forward a vision in which Sebeok’s work and achievements should be duly appreciated in their full extent by the new Eastern stronghold of semiotics. (shrink)