Semiotic Features Research Articles

The taste of video: Facebook videos as multi-sensory experiences

Recipe videos are among the most viral genres of videos on social media. Yet, little research has been done on their aesthetic and formal attributes, especially on how they operate within the frameworks of the attention economy and embodied interaction specific to social media interfaces. This paper examines recipe videos published on Tasty, one of the most popular Facebook pages in the world. We analyze these videos through a three-dimensional model that integrates their semiotic characteristics (visual, auditory, and textual), their interactive and haptic qualities, and their invitation to perceptual engagement and sensorimotor response. We conclude that Facebook recipe videos are exemplary of a broader category of social media videos which we call hyper-sensory videos: these create heightened multisensory experiences that take precedence over informational use or narrative involvement. Hyper-sensory videos present a cultural response to broader questions regarding materiality, presence, and embodied relations within a highly mediated social reality.

Microstructural Brain Pathology in Paranoid Schizophrenia (According to Magnetic Resonance Tractography)

Background: inconsistency of the obtained results of research on the pathology of microstructural connectivity in schizophrenia on the basis of tractography, absence of clinical application of special MRI techniques justify the need to continue scientific search in this direction. Objective: to identify the features of microstructural pathology of the brain in paranoid schizophrenia. Patients and methods: 25 patients diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia (F20.0) were included in the main group, 30 healthy subjects without neurological and somatic diseases made up the control group. Instrumental studies were carried out on a Philips Ingenia magnetic resonance tomograph (magnetic field strength 1.5 T) using a DTI pulse sequence. Subsequent processing was carried out using “DSI Studio” (software for the analysis of tractor data). Results and discussion: the resulting microstructural brain changes demonstrated differences in the microstructural connectivity of the brain in patients with paranoid schizophrenia compared to the control group. Significant connections were revealed (at the given parameters for constructing connectivity matrices) between the hippocampus and the cingulate gyrus, the hippocampus and thalamus, thalamus and structures of the striopallidar system, and the absence of significant connections between the amygdala in the main group compared to the control group. The results of graph theoretical analysis of neural network indicators of the brain demonstrated higher values of indicators of “clustering” and the “small world” coefficient, characteristic path length, transitivity, density, and lower values of the global efficiency indicator of the main group compared to the control group. Conclusion: the obtained results demonstrate microstructural semiotics of neural network changes of brain in paranoid schizophrenia. Changes in the connectivity of the hippocampus, thalamus, and amygdala appear to be important tractographic semiotic features of the microstructural pathology of the brain in paranoid schizophrenia. The study is one of the stages of the search for a method of objectification and detection of disruption of brain neuroplasticity processes in the endogenous pathology of the schizophrenic spectrum.

FOLLOW ME THROUGH INSTAGRAM: FRONT-STAGE, BACK-STAGE, AND INTIMATE-STAGE IN GIORGIA MELONI’S AND MATTEO RENZI’S PERFORMANCES OF CELEBRITY POLITICS

Over the last decade, social media became an indispensable tool for political campaigning for populist political leaders, who successfully used social media to circumvent traditional media elite and establish a seemingly direct relationship with their constituents. Based on this premises and adopting the lens of “digital populism”, our study presents a visual analysis of the portraits and candid shots posted on Instagram by two Italian populist party leaders: Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Renzi. Specifically, we explore a corpus of 424 images featuring the two leaders and posted on their respective profiles during 2020 (266 for Meloni, 158 for Renzi). Our analysis mostly focuses on a crucial semiotic feature of these images: setting. Recognizing that digital photography contributes to the mutual construction of self and space, we argue that the Renzi and Meloni strategically use setting to negotiate the inherent tension between their status as celebrity politicians and the “claim to ordinariness” typical of their populist political style. Thus, we claim that the two leaders navigate this tension by selectively posting images set “on stage” (e.g., while being interviewed during a talk show), “behind the scenes” (e.g., while working in their office), or on an “intimate stage” (e.g., on a day hike with their family). In our conclusions we reflect on the notion that populism is endemic in Italian politics, suggesting its digital manifestations take different shapes depending on political narratives that charismatic leaders construct for themselves through different mixes of celebrity and micro-celebrity practices.

Лингвосемиотические характеристики метафоры в профессиональном дискурсе

The aim of the article is to identify and analyze the linguistic and semiotic parameters of metaphors in the English professional discourse, to reveal the semiotic and linguistic potential of professional metaphors in conveying the business world significance and to study the mechanisms of the impact of professional metaphors on various target audience. This goal is achieved by referring to modern scientific both domestic and foreign studies of metaphor, linguistic semiotics and professional discourse. The relevance of the present study is determined by the necessity to understand the essence and main semiotic features of the metaphor used in the English professional discourse. As an empirical material, a bank of metaphors (1234 units) from the Economist is used. The novelty is the fact that metaphors in professional discourse are described as special signs of the semiotic continuum, 4 semantic groups and 23 subgroups are identified and analyzed. The authors have identified that metaphors are not used only as an independent cognitive resource in business, but also as a special sign that acts as a constructive foundation for business as a whole. They conclude that the metaphorization process in professional discourse provides a special algorithm for understanding social phenomena. Moreover, the authors argue that professional metaphors should be seen as conceptual frames applied to organizations to promote understanding, generate new meanings, and enable business and economic change, considering the advantages of second level professional metaphors.

Semiotic manipulation strategies employed in Iranian printed advertisements

Abstract Commercial advertisements are considered informative discourse, whereas the manipulative effects of their verbal and visual strategies have been ignored. According to van Dijk (2006), manipulation in mass media is performed by drawing the audience’s attention to information A rather than to B, by providing irrelevant or incomplete information, and by playing emotional games. Since the analysis of manipulative effects of semiotic features used in advertisements is scarce, the present research project investigates the potential manipulative effects of semiotic aspects used in Persian printed advertisements, and the influence of the Iranian sociocultural context on designing these visual messages. A corpus of 160 Persian printed advertisements was analyzed; the results revealed that their semiotic features, especially those which are meaningful based on the sociocultural context of Iran, tend to inculcate relevant information and meaning in consumers, in order to control their minds and subsequently their purchases. The findings of this study include six theme-based categories of semiotic manipulation strategies: Celebrity images, Creative images, Punctuation marks, Natural images, Seasonal images, and Cultural images. The results are discussed along the lines of research methodology in discourse and semiotic analysis.

Comparative Evaluation of the Possibilities of Radiomic Аnalysis of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Differential Diagnostics of Primary Extra-Axial Intracranial Tumors

Purpose of the study. Comparing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) abilities in differential diagnostic of three types of primary extra‑ axial brain tumors (benign and malignant meningiomas, and neuromas) based on standard semiotics and radiomic features.Patients and methods. Retrospective research included 66 patients with primary extra‑a xial tumors who were divided into two groups: the instructional (39 patients) and the valid (27 patients). MRI was used towards all patients before surgery. The one method of statistical modeling – discriminant analysis – was used to compare the abilities of differential diagnostic based on semiotic features and radiomic parameters.Results. The features of tumor semiotics MRI didn’t allow to differentiate effectively benign and malignant meningiomas. Several parameters were certainly varied for all those tumor types (neuromas, benign and malignant meningiomas). The modelling based on the discriminant analysis demonstrated that radiomic features can be used for primary extra‑a xial tumors differential diagnostic. The area of the radiomic model ROC‑curve took 0.86 which exceeds the result of the model based on semiotic features (AUC 0.78).Conclusion. The best results of the tumors classification by radiomic model demonstrate expediency to continue research the primary extra‑ axial tumors differential diagnostic with support of histogram and textural parameters of MRI imaging.

Modality from the Cross-cultural Studies Perspective: a Practical Approach to Intersemiotic Translation

Any scientific question should be understood as a process of dynamic semiosis in search of truth. The revelatory web is goal-oriented (teleological), but with no stable outcome, static method, redefinition, or fixed agent. All outcomes, methods, and agents are temporary and are temporary “trends” in translation studies that can be abandoned for new ones. The translation can be categorized as a fragmented record or metaphorically as a mosaic, whose components allow the construction of a figurative, diegetic, dramatic world in intersemiotic translation, to be inscribed in the diagram of the narrative. The translation adopts the repetitive and non-repeating behavior patterns of a particular culture, rejecting trendy or outdated translation tools. The same applies to intersemiotic translation with interpretive and reinterpretive meaning. The ideas of the classics about a global approach to semiolinguistics have turned the whole traditional approach to translation studies upside down. The traditional view of the question of intercultural, intersemiotic translation focused on untested dichotomies labeled as dogmatic forms of double self-reflection. Intersemiotic translation offers experimental and temporal responses of a skeptical and evolutionary nature at the boundaries of the translated and untranslatable, correspondence and non-correspondence, conformity and unconformity, the starring role and purpose of intelligence, the dynamism and emotionality of the Falabilist spirit and the Falabilist heart of the translator. It focuses on the concepts of translation and retranslation, the fate of the intercultural text, the fate of the target text, and other semiotic issues of translation in the broadest sense, in the sense of an encoded phenomenon rather than an intersemiotic code. This paper analyzes cultural and linguistic transsemiosis from the perspective of translation and transduction to reveal the essence of intersemiosis. One considers the extrapolarity and complexity phenomenon of modality in terms of cognitive-discursive and semiotic features of its manifestation during translation. In the contemporary scientific pattern, the linguistic category of modality is considered as a functional-semantic, semantic-pragmatic, semantic- syntactic, syntactic, grammatical or logical category. One defines it as the inner attitude of the narrator to the content. The essence of modality in intersemiotic translatin is related to the inner linguistic thinking. Accordingly, intersemiotic translation is the recoding of the original text by means of another sign (semiotic) system.

ANVAR OBIDJON LIRIKASIDA SEMIOTIK XUSUSIYATLAR

ANVAR OBIDJON LIRIKASIDA SEMIOTIK XUSUSIYATLAR

The Semiotic Method as an Aspect of the Methodology of Social Philosophy: the Experience of S.S. Averintsev

The subject of the study is the correlation of the application of the semiotic method by S.S. Averintsev with social philosophy. The aim of the work is to demonstrate how and to what extent S.S. Averintsev applied the semiotic method and to identify the belonging of this method to the socio-philosophical field. The author identifies and concretizes the specifically semiotic features of Averintsev's methodology. The role of the sign in the worldview of early Byzantine society, the formation of this worldview and its adequate presentation, the sign as a reflection of the life of society and at the same time as a factor influencing it is revealed. The problem of the sign's ability to convey philosophical and theological meaning is considered. The material for the study is the work of S.S.Averintsev "Poetics of Early Byzantine literature". As a result of the work, the specifically semiotic features of Averintsev's methodology were identified and concretized. In his research, Sergey Sergeevich uses the terms "semiotics", "sign", "sign system", "structure", "context", "representation", "meaning", the concept of "word function" with varying degrees of intensity, which are characteristic of semiotics as a science. S.S. Averintsev touches on philosophical and ideological themes. It concerns such philosophical concepts and topics as being, ontology, anthropology, goodness, transcendence, otherness, meaning. The novelty of the research is due to the fact that the semiotic aspect of Averintsev's works has not been investigated, and there are also no scientific texts devoted to the relationship of the semiotic method and social philosophy in Averintsev's works. Averintsev reveals the correlation of the existence of society with the iconic universe. Being itself is a philosophical concept. Averintsev's work shows how meanings affect signs and the life of society, and at the same time, how signs themselves create new meanings.The Christian worldview presupposes such a view of man and society, in which a person in his unity with God is thought of as a being with the highest value and dignity in the created world.

О ЛИНГВОСЕМИОТИЧЕСКИХ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКАХ ЧИСЕЛ В ЯПОНСКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ

The subject matter of the study is the determination and analysis of linguosemiotic peculiarities of numbers in Japanese phraseology. The paper examines the functional and semantic features and means of linguistic representation of numbers, special attention is paid to some cases of numerical prejudices and stereotypes. The relevance of the research topic is determined by the increasing scientific interest to the Japanese culture, which, having formed original national traditions, strictly protects them. The main methods of work are comparative analysis, linguocultural commentary, descriptive method to identify features on the basis of which the meaning of the word is built. An analysis of numerous examples made it possible to explicate the spiritual, sacred significance of numbers. The authors have come to conclusions that the linguistic and semiotic characteristics of numbers in the Japanese language are largely determined by the homophones. Homonymy attaches secondary connotative meanings to numbers, endows them with some sacred or symbolic meaning. It has been revealed that the numbers “three”, “five”, “seven”, “eight” are considered the most significant in the Japanese linguistic culture, forming a branched system of secondary meanings, connotations and associations.

تجليات سيميائية في رواية شيفرة بالل ألحمد خيري العمري

Semiotic analysis is concerned with monitoring the signs that reveal the components of text. This study aims to highlight the defining semiotic features included in Ahmed Al-Omari's Bilal's Code with particular reference to semiotic features including title, cover, dedication, preface, semiotics of colors, body language, characters, and time and place components. Using the descriptive- analytical method based on the mechanisms of semiotic analysis, the study tries to highlight the features of the semiotic formation that has played an important role in the foundation of the novel's aesthetic and narrative structure.The study came up with a number of results. The cover of the novel opened the text space on the symbols of racism and rebellion against torture. The title of the novel underlines significant connotations that the receiver has to unravel in order to study the relation between the symbol of the code and the connotations associated with the name Bilal. The beginning of the novel also highlighted Bilal's character, a child who possessed the qualities of boldness, endurance, and secrecy. The author also made use of the language of eyes in terms of sarcasm, love and hatred, perplexity and indifference. The features of the face and its expressive forms ranged from a face symbolizing identity, a face devoid of feelings, and a worried face. The tones of the voice also varied to indicate enthusiasm at times, astonishment in addition to sarcasm, anger and pain .Each character is associated with a symbol that goes along with its nature and its characteristics related to color and behavior. The novel also highlighted the semiotic significance of time and place.

Semiotics of Media Text Translation

The topic of the article is important, because nowadays there is a need to study the semiotics of media text translation, the use of innovations in choosing the types of media text translation. The aim of the article is the need to study and substantiate the importance of studying the essence of the concepts of “semiotics”, “media text”. The article gives a theoretical justification for the concept of media text in the field of mass communication, substantiates the semiotics of learning about signs and sign systems; semiotic characteristics of media texts translation are given. In the field of view of semiotics are various sign systems, features of translation of these signs in media texts, in particular: natural (spoken) and artificial (formal) languages, sentence systems of scientific theories, signaling systems in society and nature, states and many others. Artificial languages can also be considered as sign systems (including the “language” of scientific theory, “languages” of fine arts, cinema, theater, music), various types of visual sign systems (from road signs to painting), as well as any complex control systems considered from the standpoint of cybernetics: machines, devices and their circuits, living organisms, their subsystems (for example, central nervous system), industrial and social associations and society as a whole.

But then something happened: A critical multimodal genre analysis of corporate image repair videos

This study explores an emergent genre of corporate image repair videos that were produced and disseminated on YouTube by three large corporations Facebook, Uber and Wells Fargo following major corporate scandals and mismanagement. Utilising a critical multimodal genre analysis, the generic and semiotic features of this new corporate multimodal ‘product’ are investigated focusing on meanings, values and beliefs that they interactively produce. The analysis shows how the corporations appropriate the generic structure of the canonical narrative, narrative positionality, narrative frames and audio-visual resources in fresh and creative ways to do repair work and diminish their responsibility for wrongdoings. The analysis raises critical awareness of the ‘dark side’ of generic creativity and innovation in the service of corporate interests and public manipulation. This study is intended as a case study showcasing to the community of ESP students, teachers and researchers a workable approach to explore multimodal practices of professional communication mediated online.

Choreographing linguistic landscapes in Singapore

Abstract This paper proposes the notion of choreographed multilingualism to describe the top-down dimension of Singapore's linguistic landscape. Using a range of examples of official multilingual discourse, including public signage, exhibition artefacts, and print texts, it identifies a quadrilingual constellation that reiterates across different modalities, stabilizing into a visual-spatial formula. As a semiotic feature, the quadrilingual formula is an indexical that calls up the trope of neat multilingualism, whereby the four official languages of Singapore (English, Chinese, Malay, Tamil) are construed in a relation of equilibrium and equitability, while nonofficial/nonstandard languages, language varieties, and Chinese dialects are relegated to oblivion. The trope of neat multilingualism in turn evokes a larger sociolinguistic ambiance shaped by the official language policy and the language education system in Singapore. The paper theorises this situation in respect of Michel de Certeau's spatial theory, arguing that official discourses in Singapore corroborate the multilingual “place” produced by technologies of choreography.

밈의 기호학적 특성과 문화의 전파

A meme is a unit of cultural information that spreads like a gene. In a broad sense, all information reproduced through the process of 'imitation' is considered a meme. The subject that propagates the meme is a decisive factor in the meme, mediating the meme through symbols. The researcher pays attention to the semiotic characteristics of the meme and attempts to explain the propagation process of the meme based on Stuart Hall's encoding and decoding theory. Furthermore, the factors affecting the spread of memes are defined as external experiences, internal experiences, and emotions, and cultural development is interpreted through the three stages of heredity, variation, and selection. This study attempts to explain the evolution of culture through cultural phenomena, such as how tea evolved due to geographical differences. In other words, through detailed examples, the heredity, variation, and selection process of memes is the result of an evolutionary process that is not based on genetic factors but rather on the evolutionary process of the individual who created them. In this study, I explain the development of culture from the perspective of memes.

Qanons, anti-vaxxers, and alternative health influencers: a cultural semiotic perspective on the links between conspiracy theories, spirituality, and wellness during the Covid-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT Scholars have highlighted the bond between conspiracy theories, new-age spirituality (conspirituality), and wellness. This paper contributes to this scholarship by critically analysing the underlying semiotic mechanisms that govern the overlap between QAnon, antivax, and Covid-19 related conspiracy theories, new age spirituality and wellness. From a Lotmanian perspective, I draw a critical semiotic analysis of the links between these three discursive realms during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially focusing on alternative health influencer Christiane Northrup’s Facebook page. To do this, I rely on Lotman’s concept of translation, as well as its development in the field of cultural semiotics. Combining Lotman’s theory of translation with Greimas’ discursive semiotics, I claim that the bond between conspiracy theories, spirituality, and wellness is based upon the translations of five semiotic cultural elements: (i) basic narratives plots; (ii) themes and thematic roles; (iii) figures; (iv) plastic features; and (v) collective passions. Drawing on this analysis, I also seek to detail how Lotman’s translation works, looking at which semiotic features are exactly translated when two or more semiosphere come into contact, as well as what logics this translation is based on.

Color as a pictorial principle in the artistic language of Chinese painting: approaches and models of representation

The purpose of the article is to study the approaches and models of color as a pictorial principle in modern Chinese painting.
 The article is devoted to the actual problem of the study of the artistic language of painting. In Chinese art history, it has several forms of representation. However, one of the key themes is the role of color as a central pictorial principle in contemporary fine art.
 The study of the role of color in painting is based on the analysis of the formal and compositional-plastic features of artwork. At the same time, color is an important factor in the interpretation of artistic signs and symbols of a particular author. The selection of color from and a number of other elements of the artistic language is associated with the influence of the traditional artistic system in the art of China on the practice of modernization. In many professional studies, we can come across an opinion about the practical significance of tonal and color solutions for substantiating the artistic imagery of a work and its ideological and aesthetic meaning.
 The methodology. For the analysis of sources we used the method of comparative analysis and the method of typology. Visual sources are analyzed with the use of methodological, formal, compositional and figurative-stylistic analysis.
 The results. In modern Chinese studies, the problem of color is a completely independent area, which is of universal importance for the analysis of the evolution of fine art. As a visual principle, the subject matter is considered within two approaches: 1) figurative-plastic, where the central place is occupied by tonal and color features in the context of the search for form and composition; 2) emotional-figurative, where the central place is occupied by the perception of color and the interpretation of the signs and symbols of the work.
 Within the framework of the first approach, three research models dominate: 1) figurative and artistic model, which is characterized by the ability of color to change within the framework of the author’s style idea; 2) the symbolic model focuses the artist’s attention on cultural and historical references; 3) the decorative-figurative model positions the problem of color as a matter of color morphology, as well as the use of traditional decor techniques along with oil painting methods.
 Within the framework of the second approach, the sign-emotive and semantic-emotive models are the main ones. The first model represents color as a factor of the author’s sign space. The second model is a tool for studying color as a part of a sign artistic language. This artistic language regulates the specific meaning of the aesthetic essence of color (for example, red in traditional symbolism is a sign of power). In this model, the semiotic feature of color is enhanced by the emotional nature of painting techniques.
 The scientific novelty. The article substantiates the concept of color in painting as the main pictorial principle in the contemporary fine arts of China. The research approaches of Chinese art critics are summarized.

POSSIBILITIES OF RADIOGRAPHY IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF PNEUMONIA IN NEWBORNS

The features of X-ray semiotics in pneumonia in newborns were evaluated depending on the gestational age at birth. Conducted clinical and radiological examination of newborns with pneumonia. Plain chest radiography was used from radiographic methods. In the group of full-term newborns without signs of intrauterine growth retardation with pneumonia, changes prevailed that were mainly characteristic of the I degree of severity of the respiratory distress syndrome, namely, miliary spotting, limited low-intensity inhomogeneous darkening, blurry nodose-reticular mesh, and a distinguishable "air bronchogram". In full-term newborns with signs of intrauterine growth retardation, changes characteristic of I and II degrees of severity of the respiratory distress syndrome prevailed in equal proportions, that is, a decrease in pneumatization, coarse randomly scattered areas of lung tissue compaction and "air bronchograms". In preterm newborns, depending on the depth of prematurity, and possibly due to a short-term clinically asymptomatic onset, in most cases, II and III degrees of severity of the respiratory distress syndrome were noted at admission: a pronounced decrease in pneumatization (“frosted glass”), smoothing of the pulmonary-diaphragmatic and pulmonary -cardiac border (positive "silhouette" symptom), air bronchograms. The distribution of children according to clinical and radiological signs depends on gestational age, and atelectatic pneumonia is most often recorded in premature babies against the background of morphofunctional immaturity of the lungs. The deeper the prematurity, the more pronounced the influence of immature lung tissue on the occurrence and course of the inflammatory process in the lungs, and the inflammatory process becomes rapid, spreading to a large area of ​​the lungs.

Language Visibility and Invisible Languages: The Street Name Signs of Taipei City

Abstract This article examines the street name signs of Taipei City in their ideological, linguistic, and semiotic dimensions. These different levels of analysis correlate with different processes of sign development. Combining critical toponymy and linguistic landscape research, it is claimed that in ideological and linguistic terms the post-war period has been one of the fundamental changes that has been arguably unparalleled elsewhere. By contrast, the ideological about-turn after the 1980s has had relatively little influence on the contents of street name signs. Alluding to Western-style modernity, semiotic features like the colour of the signs and the direction of writing are later innovations. It is also argued that in the broader context of their multilingual environment, there is an enormous discrepancy between visible normativity and audible multilingualism.

Structural and Semiotic Features of the Virtual Narrative in Immersive RIA.Lab Projects

The article examines the semiotic features of the virtual narrative in the projects of RIA.Lab platform of the leading Russian news agency “Russia Today”. The aim is to analyze the structural, linguistic and iconic elements of the virtual narrative in relation to the projects of immersive journalism, highlighting their features, taking into account the multimodal nature of virtual reality and the simulative aspect of the sign system of immersive works. Virtual space is not only a narrative environment with special topos, chronotope and other narrative elements, but is itself a semiotic element, participating in the process of semiosis, the space of virtual “language game”. The thesis is put forward that VR, being an element of the multimodal information and communication universe, contains in its structure other modalities (TV, radio, cinema, print formats), and is multidimensional, a kind of “modus in modus”. The thesis on the priority of the modeling approach to the creation of immersive mass-media content over the simulative one and the necessity of observing the balance between modeling and simulation in immersive journalism are discussed. The specifics of conventional conditions of interpretation of simulacra signs in virtual space, which depend on the degree of their identity to the signs of real reality and the “rules of the virtual game”, set by the authors, are outlined. The directions of increasing the pragmatic efficiency of virtual narrative through the variability of its affords, the use of emphases, haptics (tactile experience) and other means of VR are outlined.