Semiotic Interpretation Research Articles

Spatial Semiotics in Pre-Islamic Arabic Poetry: The Study Case of Suspended Odes

Spatial structure plays an important role in the seven suspended odes, "Mu'allaqat," being tightly interrelated by sequential compositional manifestations to the narrative format of the circular journey through the spatial nature of the Arabian Peninsula. This is because they denote a compiled configuration with clarity and profundity regarding this systematic representation. Literary rhetoric bestows upon them distinctiveness, illumination, and embellishment. The research branches into two paths, demarcating the spatial signs into two forms: static space and interactive space. To capture the meanings of these two spaces through the interpreter of each sign, it requires a comprehensive excavation of the archaeological and historical foundations of civilization. The initial stages of cultural forms incorporate the spatial structure of the Arabian Peninsula and serve as the foundational cornerstone for the semiotic analysis, since the effectiveness of interpreting the markers of spatial structure highlights the interaction between the signifier and the signified. The formats of the suspended odes embody multifaceted depictions among the poets of the lengthy verses. Semiotic interpretation contributes to improving the discursive nature of the sign, as the spatial model archetype in the suspended odes finds its pre-eminence in literary semiotics.

Calligraphic Semiotic Interpretation in Jewelry Design: Culture, Identity and Expression

This article places the application of calligraphy in jewelry design under the perspective of semiotic research. It is a targeted study based on whether calligraphy can be organically integrated with semiotic characteristics for jewelry design. Supplemented by qualitative analysis, based on the relationship between the form and connotation of calligraphy and the signifier and the signified in semiotics, the positive impact of the integration and mutual promotion of calligraphy semiotics and jewelry design was deeply explored. This article first introduces the principles of semiotics, cultural semiotics and the research theory of traditional Chinese cultural symbols, then explains the essential characteristics and significance of jewelry design, and then focuses on the multi-dimensional and diversified connection between calligraphy, jewelry design and semiotics. After discussion and research, we finally reflected on jewelry design and attached relevant suggestions. The perspective chosen in this article is one of the outstanding features of this study. Although calligraphy and symbols originated from different cultural backgrounds in the East and the West, they have common attributes and functions that can be learned from each other. Based on the theoretical intersection of calligraphy and semiotics, the value and application of the combination of calligraphy symbols and jewelry design are discussed, which fully illustrates the close connection between Chinese calligraphy and semiotics and jewelry design. This article attempts to start with Chinese calligraphy and use semiotic research as a guide to construct a more practical "symbol"-"calligraphy"-"culture" jewelry design model. Through theoretical framework analysis, literature review, and empirical research, this article delves into how calligraphic symbols contribute to cultural heritage conservation, personal identity expression, and artistic expression in the context of jewelry design.

Analisis Dhikr sebagai Kesadaran Tauhid dalam Surah Thaha [20] Ayat 14: Perspektif Al-Tafsir Mafatih Al-Ghayb dan Semiotika Karl Buhler

The pronunciation of dhikr in the Qur'an is mentioned 292 times, with various forms of the word derivation (sighat). One form of the word in the form of isim masdar is found in QS. Thaha [20]: 14. This research is a library research with an analysis approach of the Qur'an (interpretation) and philosophy. The method used in this study is the method of philosophical interpretation of Muhammad Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and Karl Buhler's Psycholinguistic Semiotics. The main objective of this study is to determine the relationship between dhikr and tauhid. The researcher describes data about the concept of dhikr in the Qur'an Surah Thaha [20]: 14 perspectives of al-Tafsir Mafatih al-Ghayb and Karl Buhler's Psycholinguistic Semiotics. The results obtained from this study are that dhikr as monotheistic awareness is not enough to be done only with theoretical knowledge. Monotheism that is carried out only with theoretical knowledge will only be informative. Therefore, it is necessary to have an awareness of knowledge and an actual awareness that is affirmative in nature, to achieve true monotheism.

Look at indigenous Ecuadorian art captured by the Puruhá people. A semiotic interpretation

La cultura Puruhá, representativa de la región andina ecuatoriana, se destaca por su rica herencia cultural que incluye expresiones artísticas y estéticas. Su legado perdura gracias a una abundante iconografía que refleja su profundo respeto por la naturaleza. A través de formas geométricas en sus creaciones artísticas, los Puruhá han transmitido su conexión espiritual con el entorno. Estas formas, analizadas en el presente estudio contemporáneos, revelan su cosmovisión. La cultura Puruhá sigue siendo un testimonio vivo de la riqueza cultural andina y su capacidad para comunicar su relación con la naturaleza a través del arte y la simbología.

Etched in Stone: Shaligrams as Object-Texts

Shaligrams are the sacred fossil ammonites of the Himalayas. Viewed primarily as manifestations of Hindu gods, Shaligrams are obtained by pilgrimage to Himalayan Nepal and are then brought home to families and communities all over South Asia and the Diaspora as household deities. But Shaligrams also contain a variety of natural characteristics that are read and interpreted through long-standing oral traditions that use these features to both determine which specific deity is manifest within the stone and to link each Shaligram with a body of religious stories and local folklore. Therefore, the semiotic interpretation of Shaligrams instantiates ritual practices by which each stone becomes both an object and a text; able to be read by those fluent in its symbolic language. This practice then blurs the line between categories of object and archive; where fossils become literal texts and stones become storytellers.

Exploring Narcopolis as a Postmodern Narrative and Semiotic Text

Jeet Thayil’s Narcopolis (2012), inspired by his own experience as an opium and later heroin addict, paints a vivid picture of the seedy underbelly of 1970s Bombay. The novel features a multitude of characters from the opium dens of Bombay and threads multiple narratives, subversive and carnivalesque, to create a postmodern chronicle of the city. This article analyzes the narrative techniques in Jeet Thayil's novel Narcopolis (2012) to explore traits of postmodernity. It contends that the occurrence of multiple narratives, whose reliability is questionable, indicates a Barthian death of the author, encouraging the readers to give meaning to the text. Also, an inquiry into the novel’s commentary on its own narrative style indicates self-reflexivity. A study of the chronotope will be undertaken to decipher the temporality in the novel. Besides, the article will look out for possibilities of embedded narratives, plot digressions, and intertextuality. It also intends to scrutinize the novel using the tools of social semiotics. Linguistic analysis of discourse entails a monolithic approach, wherein it considers language as the only mode of interpretation of a text. Gunther Kress and Theo Van Leeuwen suggest that this limitation can be overcome by social semiotics, which studies a text in its multimodality. Signs, linguistic as well as nonlinguistic, are apparent through multiple modes, such as language, sound, visual, and so forth. The incorporation of certain pictures, changes in typography of certain pages as well as the book cover of Narcopolis poses a rich possibility of the semiotic understanding of the text through visual mode. Lastly, this article will aim to establish a connection between the narrative techniques and the semiotic interpretation of the text.

ANIMATING MEANING: A SEMIOTIC STUDY OF CULTURAL SIGNIFIERS ON INDIAN CHILDREN’S TELEVISION ANIMATION SERIES

The animation industry in India is booming. It's creating an increasing number of animation programs to children. Although the majority of animations are originally made in Hindi, they are later translated into other Indian regional languages. Analyzing the cartoon series' content critically is crucial as ‘Children’ are watching these animation series. This study adopts Roland Barthes' semiotics to analyze the animated children's television series in India. Barthes suggests the death of the author/the creator of the text to witness the birth of the recipient allowing him to interpret, read, and produce a wide range of meanings which are a form of semiotic production that is oriented to observation an analysis of the media's messages and discussions to open the eyes of the semiotic researcher to the complexity of semiotic interpretation and new methods of using signs within the social and cultural context of the media. Applying Barthes' semiotics to television cartoons allows us to examine how meanings are formed, conveyed and understood within the cultural context of animated series. For this study, the researcher selected episodes from the three Indian animated television series Shiva, Rudra: Boom Chik Chik Boom and Selfie with Bajrangi. The Tamil dub versions of these animation series are analyzed here.

Semiotic Interpretation of Longing as Expressed in Seventeen's Music

Semiotic Interpretation of Longing as Expressed in Seventeen's Music

Uma leitura tensiva do suspense em Continuidade dos parques, de Julio Cortázar

This article examines, under the interpretation of tensive semiotics, the effect of sense of suspense in the short story Continuity of Parks, by Julio Cortázar. It takes as a starting point the ascending canonical tensive scheme of suspense, which foresees, as a tensive cipher, a gradual increase in intensity, while the intelligible dimension of the discourse would tend to decrease. Based on the definition of suspense presented by Claude Zilberberg (2011, p. 136) as "the extensive dilation of an intensive expectation", it is defended, in the analysis of this text, a complexification of the canonical tensive scheme, to the extent that the suspense stems from movements of enunciative positions that overlap in the text and that configure a singular tensive path, in which the intensive subdimensions of tempo and tonicity gain strength at the end of the short story, without, however, compromising the exercise of the presence of the cognitive, intelligible dimension of extensity, which remains active in the discursive field, even in the moment of surprise, thus keeping the reader-enunciatee in a state.

From image to identity icon: Discourses of organizational visual identity on Australian university homepages

This article explores how universities construe organizational identities and engage digital audiences through images on web homepages. Combining visual content analysis and a discourse-analytic approach informed by social semiotics, I interpret the discourses of identity in 400 images from organizational homepages of four top-tier public universities in Sydney, Australia – University of Sydney, University of New South Wales, University of Technology Sydney, and Macquarie University. Based on the social semiotic interpretation of images, I identify eight identity icons, each deploying a combination of semiotic resources to represent a specific organizational identity. The analysis suggests that universities prioritize featuring people, which results in an augmented sense of social presence on the homepage. Lastly, four identified strategies for digital audience engagement in images – proximation, alignment, equalization, and subjectivation – point to how these are instrumental in representing university life as both individual and shared experiences.

Семиотическое прочтение сценического костюма

The aim of the study is to identify cause-and-effect relations in semiotic interpretation of stage costume. The article explores the history of stage costume development, briefly presents its periodization with characteristic features of each stage, and socio-cultural forms of encoding. The scientific novelty of the research lies in focusing on the issue of costume semantics as an important component of the expressive system of modern music and theater productions. The research establishes that stage (theatrical) costume has its own developmental regularities and periodization caused by many factors. It is found that in the 20th and 21st centuries, there is an increasing interaction of two main trends: 1) stage costume is characterized by a high degree of codification and symbolism, with significant transformations in the specific content of symbols; 2) a variety of techniques are observed in achieving various aspects of “authenticity” in relation to theatrical action as a whole and theatrical costumes in particular.

Languages of Life and the Blending of Worlds

Addressing the links between religion and experiences of nature requires language, and at the same time it moves beyond linguistic forms of communication. After a brief review of the linguistic paradigm in the study of religion, the question of linguistic understandings of nature is addressed from two perspectives. First, linguistic approaches attempt to include experiences of nature in our knowledge about the natural world and the human place within it; these perspectives usually extend linguistic knowledge to poetic expressions. Second, approaches that problematize the focus on linguistic communication altogether favor non-linguistic or semiotic interpretations of human communication with the more-than-human world. Making use of biosemiotics and other interdisciplinary research, an argument is made for radical entanglement and a scholarly strategy to coordinate the languages of life and to blend the different worlds and perspectives that we find on the planet.

Stuck Up, Peeled Off, Covered Up, Shared and Scribbled Out: Doing Ordinary Politics with Political Stickers

Stickers are pervasive, if often small and subtle, tools of political activism. Despite their enduring popularity, stickers do not fit into popular models of political action that presume either a spectacle of protest or formal institutions and debate. In this paper, we argue that stickers enable and facilitate public interchange as a process of sociomaterial claims-making. However, in order to recognise how stickers are used to do politics, there is a need to shift from semiotic interpretations of stickers as representational signs in favour of an action-oriented, pragmatist approach that examine stickers in action in people’s lives and shared worlds. Connecting with recent calls in geography to reconceptualise political and communicative action as lively, emergent, and materially-mediated, we tour through the sticky, peeling, covered, shared, and scribbled geographies of stickers in everyday, ordinary political action.

Photographs and Cartoons: Differences in Interpretation of the Visual Semiotics

Photographs and Cartoons: Differences in Interpretation of the Visual Semiotics

Semiotic Interpretation of the Cultural Connotations of Chaozhou Traditional Handicrafts

Semiotic Interpretation of the Cultural Connotations of Chaozhou Traditional Handicrafts

Semiotic interpretation of traditional festivals to construct regional brands

Semiotic interpretation of traditional festivals to construct regional brands

Chinese Stories in Chinese Animation: A Semiotic Interpretation of Chinese Folktales—Goose Mountain

Goose Mountain is the second episode in the Chinese animation Chinese folktales. Rooted in traditional Chinese culture, this short film deconstructs Chinese stories into Chinese landscapes, Chinese legends and Chinese allusions. Although there is not a single line of dialogue in the whole film, it still presents a strong sense of Chinese style. Peirce’s study focuses on the role of representament in personal perception. Based on Peirce’s semiotic theory, this study adopted the definition of representament and trichotomy as theoretical framework to explore the important role of cultural representaments in the process of telling Chinese stories in Chinese animation.

Diagrams as centerpiece for an enactivist epistemology

In the present work I will examine two semiotic contributions, Legg (2021) and Caravà (2019) respectively, that explore the possible connection between semiotics and enactivism. Both attempt to offer a semiotic interpretation of the enactivist theory of perception and cognition, with the aim of showing how semiotics can contribute to the debate on mental representations. I will argue that Legg’s proposal, based on the Peircean concept of the dicisign, assigns to basic cognition conditions that are not necessary, from the point of view of enactivism. Caravà’s, in turn, assigns non-sufficient conditions. I will argue that if we want to semiotically interpret the enactivist framework the concept that describes necessary and sufficient conditions is that of the diagram.

UNESCO Graphic Novel “Inside AI”: Issues of Semiotic Interpretation

UNESCO Graphic Novel “Inside AI”: Issues of Semiotic Interpretation

A Cognitive Semiotic Interpretation of Chinese Culture Through Digitalized Reading

Cultural differences and geopolitical disputes severely impede the globalization process. As a method of eliminating cross-cultural misunderstandings and fostering mutual respect, it is crucial to increase cross-cultural awareness through cross-cultural education to support the world's peaceful and healthy development. This article investigates, from the perspective of cognitive semiotics, how the integration of digitization and language learning through reading can provide foreign language learners with a more immersive and stimulating learning experience. Questionnaires and interviews demonstrate that digital reading has exerted more significant learning effects on cross-cultural education than traditional paper reading. Digital reading reflects cognitive communication, cognitive subjectivity, and cognitive diversity more accurately. The integration of digital reading and cross-cultural education makes language learning more accessible and effective and can encourage students to grasp the target language while simultaneously promoting Chinese culture.