Seminarier
CCS Seminars
(Those announced in English will be held in English, the others in Swedish.)
March 2010
- 4/3 13:15-15:00, H428B
Göran Sonesson: Hur mycket innehåller en hällristning? Om semiotiken som metakritik av arkeologin. Arkeologer verkar ofta se lite för mycket i förhistoriska bilder - som om de trodde att vi delade väldigt mycket värld med våra gamla artfränder. Några principer för att undvika övertolkning. - 11/3 15:15-17:00, H428B
Mikael Ranta (Stockholm): Stories in Pictures and Non-Pictorial Objects
– Reflections from a Narratological and Cognitive Psychological Perspective
February 2010
- 4/2 13:15-15:00, H428B
Göran Sonesson: From Mimicry to Mime by way of Mimesis. Reflections
on a General Theory of Iconicity (Part I)
Within the framework of Peircean philosophy, iconic signs have always been
taken for granted. In other quarters, on the contrary, their existence has been called into question: by philosophers such as Bierman and Goodman, as well as semioticians such as Eco and Lindekens. In a series of works, starting with Sonesson (1989), I have tried to rehabilitate the idea of iconicity, at least in the case of pictures, without identifying it with “tautology”, as Barthes (1964) did, or with “frozen mirrors”, as was recently suggested by Eco (1999), in a work which constituted a radical volte-face in relation to his earlier views. In the rresent article, I will refrain from spelling out my criticism of Goodman, Bierman, Eco, and others (Cf. Sonesson 1989, 1993, 1995, 2000a), but will instead formulate my findings as a positive theory, and then go on to consider some further problems. - 11/2 13:15-15:00, H428B
Göran Sonesson: From Mimicry to Mime by way of Mimesis. Reflections
on a General Theory of Iconicity (Part II)
- 18/2 13:15-15:00, H428B
Felix Ahlner and Jordan Zlatev: Cross-modal iconicity: A cognitive semiotic approach to ”sound symbolism”
Is the relationship between the expression and content poles of the linguistic sign fundamentally arbitrary, as it is typically claimed, following the famous dictum of the “father of modern linguistics” (cf. Lyons 1968), Ferdinand de Saussure, or is there some kind of ‘natural connection’ between the two? This question dates back to antiquity, but – we would claim – is still not satisfactorily resolved. Even the most committed proponents of the arbitrariness dictum recognize the existence of onomatopoetic words, but tend to regard these as ‘primitive curiosities’, existing outside and alongside the language system proper. The alternative viewpoint, commonly known as ‘sound symbolism’ (Hinton, Nichols and Ohala 1994), has gained ground during the last few decades. For example, a result that has been replicated a number of times is that when both adults and children (without autism) are given two fictive words like bouba and kiki and asked to decide which one denotes a roundish and which a pointy figure, they agree up to 95% that bouba suits best the roundish one (e.g. Ramachandran and Hubbard 2001). How are we to explain this, and is it possible to find a dialectical synthesis that could help resolve the debate between ‘arbitrariness’ and ‘sound symbolism’? This is the main question that we address in this article.
- 25/2 2010, 13:15-15:00 H428B
?
January 2010
- 21/1 15:15 - 17:00, H428b
Diagrams as signs of cognition
Frederik Stjernfeldt, University of Århus Diagrammatical reasoning plays a central role in the mature version of Peirce's semiotics and pragmatism. This lecture outlines Peirce's doctrine of diagrams as a theoretical framework, also for current cognitive semiotics. - 27/1 15:15-17:00, H428b
Differences between young and old languages
Peter Bakker, University of Århus
In my talk I will discuss two types of young languages, and contrast them with “mature" languages. Creole languages are phylogenetically young, as all known creoles have developed only within the past few centuries. And twin languages are ontogenetically young, as twins are sometimes reported to create their own private languages. Both groups show striking similarities, and both types differ systematically from mature languages.
December 2009
- 10/12 10:15 - 17:00, H435
The Mental Lexicon
Guest speakers include Jean Aitchison, Oxford University; Kai Alter, Newcastle University; Véronique Boulenger, CNRS, Lyon; Michael Fortescue, Copenhagen University; Alan Paivio, University of Western Ontario, Gabriele Scheler, Stanford University; Yury Shtyrov, Medical Research Council, Cambridge.
The symposium is open to everyone. For purposes of planning, however, it would be appreciated if you could send a message to Merle Horne (merle.horneling.luse) - 17/12 13:15-15:00, H428b
Suspending Disbelief: A Multi-Level Approach to Film and Emotion
Daniel Barratt, CBS
Why are film viewers capable of engaging with disembodied patterns of light projected onto a screen? And why are film viewers capable of responding emotionally to fictional characters and events? In this presentation, I will sketch a possible solution to the so-called paradox of fiction. The general framework of the solution will be based on a modular account of the mind/brain, while the more specific framework will be based on a multi-level approach to the emotion system – an approach which (working from the bottom up) refers to neurobiological systems, associative networks, cognitive appraisals, and simulation/empathy. In addition to this theoretical discussion, I will talk about an ongoing empirical project on investigating the link between visual attention and emotion. This project uses reaction time paradigms and pictures of faces as emotional stimuli.
November 2009
- 5/11 13:15 - 15:00, H428b
Gaze-following and direction of conspecific attention to novel objects in bonobos, chimpanzees and orangutans
Elainie Madsen, University of St. Andrews, UK
Humans prolifically and conventionally use referential gestures, such as pointing, to direct others' attention to aspects of the environment. The use and understanding of declarative pointing have been linked with cooperative motivations and sophisticated cognitive capacities, such as mental state attribution, and the paucity of declarative communication in non-human animals has led to the suggestion that it reflects a defining criterion for humankind. I investigated if bonobos, chimpanzees and orangutans, who were presented with an ambiguous stimulus, predicted to evoke interest rather than want, would lead a conspecific to detect it using signals, that might be meaningful to the apes, though not necessarily correspond to the canonical human index finger pointing gesture. While the design did not eliminate the possibility of a social referencing motive underlying the attention directing ('social referential pointing', “look and help me decide how to respond"'), the coupling of an auditory attention-getting component followed by a stimulus directed component by bonobos and some chimpanzees, is consistent with a declarative interpretation. The results suggest that the paucity of observed pointing behaviours in Pan owes to the inconspicuousness and multi-faceted nature of the signals. - 12/11 13:15-15:00, SOL centrum H428b
Iconicity and beyond: towards a new model for understanding fossilized and reconstructed language resources
Gerd Carling - 19/11 13:15-15:00, SOL centrum H428b
Transparens i ikoniska gester?
Mats Andrén - 26/11 13:15-15:00, SOL centrum H428b
Semiotics and the assumption of rationality: the evolutionary turn
Paul Bouissac (University of Toronto, Victoria College)
The seminar will deal with the problems connected with the everyday work for a philologist and a comparative historical linguist: How reliable is my data? How reliable is my reconstruction? Does my material reflect a spoken language or is it completely artificial? The seminar will try to look at the methods of philology and comparative linguistics in the light of theories of language structure and language development as initiated by the Prague school and continued by linguists and semioticians dealing with iconicity. Basic questions discussed will be arbitrariness of signs, definition of linguistic iconicity, types of linguistic iconicity, iconicity and language change, necessity of etymology, reconstruction of iconicity.
Gester beskrivs inte sällan som ett "universellt språk", med potentialen att t.ex. möjliggöra kommunikation med människor som bara talar språk man inte själv behärskar. I allmänhet är det då ikoniska (och indexikala) aspekter hos gester som avses, snarare än de konventionella ("symboliska", enligt vissa terminologier) aspekter som annars är centrala för de många existerande talspråken. Idén är att de ikoniska gesternas "avkodning" kommer "naturligt" – genom blotta likheten mellan uttryck och innehåll. Frågan är dock vad denna "naturlighet", eller transparens, ligger i? I litteraturen om gester finns två huvudsakliga ståndpunkter då det gäller vad som möjliggör ikoniska gesters begriplighet. En som betonar kognitiva "spontana" aspekter och en som betonar konventionalitet och praxis. Jag vill argumentera, utifrån mina analyser av barns gester, att båda perspektiven fångar värdefulla insikter. Ett viktigt klargörande är dock skillnaden mellan frågan om en och samma gest kan ha både ikoniska och konventionella aspekter, och frågan om ikonicitet per se är reducerbart till något annat (konventionalitet). På dessa två frågor svarar jag, i korthet, ja respektive nej. Föredragets tema är utformat för att stimulera till en diskussion om semiotiska grundfrågor med seminariets deltagare.
In spite of widespread ideological resistance rooted in religious cosmologies, Darwinism is now coming of age and the impact of its theoretical implications is felt in many scientific disciplines and beyond. Semiotics and linguistics have been slow in coming to grips with the implications of evolutionism for their heuristics and epistemologies. The tentative claim of this presentation is that evolutionism leads to questioning the assumption of rationality on which semiotics (or semiology) is grounded. The purpose of this approach is to examine the consequences it may have for a paradigm which ultimately derives its legitimacy from philosophy rather than science, and to suggest ways of overcoming the deep epistemological crisis the evolutionary turn is bound to create.
The presentation will start with a discussion of the case of Saussure whose main ideas were formulated in reaction against the first wave of Darwinism that rippled through the nineteenth century’s epistemologies (e.g., Haeckle, Schleicher, Baldwin), and will endeavor to show that the inability of Saussure to produce a satisfactory theory of language was caused by what he considered to be the fundamental irrationality of language (and by implication of all semiological objects). This will lead us to consider the ways in which contemporary semiotics has been elaborated during the twentieth century on the rational basis of systems of categories that were derived from the traditional discourse of philosophy. The presentation will conclude with a semiotic research agenda for the twenty first century, an agenda that will require the development of an operational interface between the problems raised by semiotics and the methods of inquiries offered by the contemporary biological and formal sciences. This semiotics will necessarily bring into focus both the evolutionary and developmental points of view, a conciliation that remains a thorny issue in contemporary thinking and will constitute a stimulating challenge for semiotics itself.
October 2009
- 8/10 13:15-15:00, SOL centrum H428b Föredrag från semiotikkongressen i La Coruña
Anna Redei, Sara Lenninger - 15/10 13:15-15:00, SOL centrum H428b Föredrag från semiotikkongressen i La Coruña
Iconic and indexical ground in the semiotics of culture. On American influences in contemporary architecture
Gunnar Sandin
The phenomenological road to cognitive semiotics
Göran Sonesson - 22/10 13:15-15:00
Datoriserad scenanalys med inspiration från Husserls fenomenologi
Lars Kopp
Jag diskuterar olika nivåer av anticipation av tingens rörelse. Rum-
tid modeller förankrade i en kontinuerlig förändring av omvärlden
beskrives. Sådan modeller förutsätter en förmåga att "föreställa
sig" olika objekts framtida position och rörelsebana vid en
given tidpunkt. Föredraget illustereras med en video av ett system för
scenalys som opererar i realtid.
- 28/10 16:15-18:00, SOL centrum H428b:
"Naturalized Phenomenology"
Dan Zahavi, Centre for Subjectivity Research, Department of Philosophy
Whereas 20 or 30 years ago one might have been inclined to characterize the development of 20th century philosophy in terms of a linguistic turn, a turn from a philosophy of subjectivity to a philosophy of language, it might today be more apt to describe the development in terms of a turn from anti-naturalism to naturalism. But insofar as naturalists consider the scientific account of reality authoritative, a commitment to naturalism is bound to put pressure on the idea that philosophy can make a distinct and autonomous contribution to the study of reality. In the following, I will discuss the question of how phenomenology ought to respond to this challenge. What sense can we make of recent proposals to naturalize phenomenology?
September 2009
- The Evolution of Human Language, Culture and Consciousness
The renowned cognitive scientist and cognitive semiotician Prof. Merlin Donald from Queens University, Canada will spend the whole month of September visiting the Centre for Cognitive Semiotics at Lund University. On this occasion, Prof. Donald will give a series of four 3 hours lectures that will focus on the evolution of the human mind and culture, and the evolution of language specifically, which Prof. Donald has discussed extensively in his two books and many other publications. Prof. Donald’s four lectures will be preceded by lectures by Prof. Göran Sonesson, Department of Semiotics and Dr. Jordan Zlatev, Department of Linguistics), presenting cognitive semiotic background to Prof. Donald’s theories.
- 2/9 2009, 14:15-17:00, SOL, H339
Göran Sonesson: A few missing links on the way to human beings
- 7/9 2009, 15:15-18:00, SOL, A121
Jordan Zlatev: A framework for semiotic evolution
- 8/9 2009, 14:15-17:00, Kungshuset, 104
Merlin Donald: Mimesis as a species-defining cognitive trait
- 11/9 2009, 14:15-17:00, SOL, A121
Merlin Donald: Theories of the evolution of language
- 16/9 2009, 15:15-18:00, Kungshuset, 104
Merlin Donald: The impact of material culture on brain, cognition and consciousness
- 18/9 2009, 14:15-17:00, SOL, A12
Merlin Donald: Cognitive governance and cognitive-cultural networks
The series of 6 lectures can also be taken as an intensive course for PhD students (7,5 ECT), with active participation and course paper as requirements. To register, contact: Ximena.Narea@semiotik.lu.se
Course literature
For 2/9: Sonesson, G. (in press) Semiosis beyond Signs. On Two or Three Missing Links on the Way to Human Beings. To be published in the Acts from Missing Links Conference, Copenhagen, November 22nd-23rd 2007
For 7/9: Zlatev, J. (in press) The Semiotic Hierarchy: Life, Consciousness, Signs and Language, Cognitive Semiotics, #4.
For 8/9: Mimesis
For 11/9: Protolanguages
For 11/9 and 16/9: Hominid Enculturation + Material culture
For 16/9: Memory Palaces
Background literature
Donald, M. (1991). Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Donald, M. (2001). A Mind so Rare: The Evolution of Human Consciousness. New York: Norton.
For other articles by Merlin Donald, see:
http://psyc.queensu.ca/faculty/donald/sel-pubs.html
May 2009
- 7/5 2009, 10:15-12:00, H428b (Theme 4)
Arthur Holmer: Interfaces of music and language: a new face of typology?Based on Patel's (2008) book Music, Language and the Brain, certain typological parellels between language and music will be presented, with particular focus on (tentatively) proposed implicational tendencies: e.g. the relation between word order and rhythmic perception, and between linguistic rhythm type (stress-timed vs. syllable-timed) and certain rhythmic patterns in music. This will be followed by a discussion of how these hypotheses can be tested on a wider scale than has hitherto.
- 18/5 2009, 15:15-17:00, H428b (General)Kristian Tylén, Center for Semiotics, University of ÅrhusWritten in bodies, action and objects
Abstract: I discuss some of the ways different kinds of matter are experienced to take on a mediating function in intersubjective encounters. Special attention will be put on the way that static configurations of everyday objects like chairs, flowers and vacuum cleaners can be employed as signifiers of intersubjective meaning-making. This happens for instance when chairs are put out in the street to reserve a parking lot, flowers are arranged in bouquets and left on a doorstep to express a declaration of love, or old vacuum cleaners are lined up in ranks at a lawn to make a conceptual piece of art. It will be argued that the recognition of a special ostensive quality of such scenes motivate a shift in the perceiver’s attitude from a private ‘episodic’ to a ‘public’ and semantic style of perceptual exploration. While in the first case (‘private perception’) the perceiver’s experience is primarily regulated by an associative style of contextualization brought to the encounter by herself, in the second case (‘public’ perception) the scene is recognized as intended for a special kind of semiotic exploration: in a very literal sense the context has been constructed to regulate intersubjective meaning-making. The sense-making efforts of the perceiver are thus implicitly informed and regulated by another (absent) agent responsible for the composition of the scene: meaning is co-constructed. Consequently, in these cases the perceiver is not only relating to the world as a single autonomous agent, s/he also become subpart in a larger system as a participant-addressee engaged in triadic interactions. Central points will be supported by reference to a number of recent empirical, cross-disciplinary investigations (including functional brain imaging studies) targeting the cognitive foundation of our understanding of the intended signifying function of objects, bodies and action.
- 25/5 2009, 15:15-17:00, H435 (General)
Chris Sinha, University of PortsmouthLanguage as a Bio-cultural Niche and Social InstitutionExtended abstract
- 28/5 2009, 13:15-15:00 H135b CANCELLED!
Göran Sonesson: Hur mycket innehåller en hällristning? Om semiotiken som metakritik av arkeologin. Arkeologer verkar ofta se lite för mycket i förhistoriska bilder - som om de trodde att vi delade väldigt mycket värld med våra gamla artfränder. Några principer för att undvika övertolkning.
April 2009
- 1/4 2009, 16:15-18:00, H428b (General)
Arthur Holmer & Junichi Toyota Discussion of Chapters 5 and 6 of Heine & Kuteva (2007): The Genesis of Grammar: A Reconstruction (OUP)
- 15/4 2009, 16:15-18:00, H428b (General)
Gisela Håkansson Discussion of Chapter 7 and sum up of Heine & Kuteva (2007): The Genesis of Grammar: A Reconstruction (OUP)
- 16/4 2009, 14:15 - 16:00, A121 (Theme 4)
Junichi Toyota: Ancestor worship and transitivity
- 23/4 2009, 13:15-15:00, H429b (Theme 3)
Gunnar Sandin: Arkitekturens semiotik.
En genomgång av olika synsätt på hur materiella och spatiala kvaliteter kan analyseras i semiotiska termer, närmare bestämt hur begrepp som aktant, affordance och uttryck används i relation till design-, arkitektur- och stadsutveckling.
- 30/4 2009, 13:15-15.00 H428b (Tema 1)
Tomas Persson: Simian semiotics - visioner om primatstudier inom CCS
Att jämföra djur och människor är en metod för rekonstruktion av evolutionära förlopp. Presentationen är en sammanfattning av Perssons studier av bildförståelse hos apor, samt förslag på framtida studier av betydelsemedling hos apor.
March 2009
- 11/3 2009, 16:15-18:00, H428b (General)
Jordan Zlatev & Lars-Åke Henningsson
Discussion of Chapters 1 and 2 of Heine & Kuteva (2007): The Genesis of Grammar: A Reconstruction (OUP)
- 12/3 2009 15:15-17:00, H428b (Theme: Typology)
Alf Hornborg: Culture "Types", Cultural Evolution, and Socio-Ecological Processes in Ancient Amazonia
- 19/3 2009 15:15 - 17:00, H135b (Theme: History)
This seminar will address language change, population movements, and social processes in two very different settings: Renaissance Europe and Pre-Columbian Amazonia. We shall begin with two presentations, to start the discussion:
1. Junichi Toyota: Language contact and social movement in Europe in the Renaissance and Age of enlightenment. The language situation within Europe saw a dramatic shift from the 16th through 18th century. How can we account for such a radical shift within the same geographic area? As argued in Heine and Kuteva (2005; 2006), language contacts may be responsible. Some languages in Europe (e.g. Celtic and Slavic) have preserved archaic structures better than other language families. These languages were not influenced by the Renaissance or Age of Enlightenment. Such social movements accelerated people's movements, which resulted in more contacts than before, which may in turn account for changes in certain languages.
2. Love Eriksen: Developing a GIS database for correlating material culture, linguistics, and geography in prehistoric Amazonia.This presentation explores the spatial distribution and historical relationship between ethno-linguistic groups belonging to the language families Arawak, Carib, and Tupi in northeastern Amazonia. It examines the spatio-temporal distribution of material culture in the region, seeking correlations between defined ethno-linguistic entities and the distribution of specific elements of material culture in space and time. The main goal is to investigate the historical processes that generated the distribution of ethno-linguistic groups recorded at the time of European contact, and to more fully understand the nature of these processes.
- 11/3 2009, 16:15-18:00, H428b (General)
Discussion of Chapters 1 and 2 of Heine & Kuteva (2007): The Genesis of Grammar: A Reconstruction (OUP), Jordan Zlatev & Lars-Åke Henningsson
- 25/3 2009, 16:15-18:00, H428b (General)
Tomas Persson & Gerd Carling Discussion of Chapters 3 and 4 of Heine & Kuteva (2007): The Genesis of Grammar: A Reconstruction (OUP)
February 2009
- 11/2 2009 16:15-18:00, H428b (General)
Fortsatt diskussion av G. Sonesson & J. Zlatev "SEDSU: Theoretical Summary" (från 2.2.2 Intersubjectivity and joint attention)
- 12/2 2009 16:15-18:00, H428b (Theme: History)
Gerd Carling talar om språket som hjälpmedel i tolkningen av tidig (för)historia och Anna Redei Cabak om kultursemiotiken, såsom den användes i hennes avhandling om Mme de Stael - och vidare utvecklingsmöjligheter
- 19/2 2009 15:15-17:00, H428b (Theme: Typology)
Håkan Lundström talar om musikalisk typologi, dvs olika parametrar som kan användas i en typologisk studie av musikaliska system.
- 25/2 2009, 16:15-18:00, H428b (General)
Sista diskussion av G. Sonesson & J. Zlatev "SEDSU: Theoretical Summary": fokus på en studie från varje del av Section 4: active perception, imitation, pictures, conventions + avslutning (Section 5+6).
- 26/2 2009 13:15-15:00, PC Datasal, Humanistlabbet (B054) (Theme: Ontogeny)
Jordan Zlatev och Mats Andrén presenterar sin artikel "Stages and transitions in children's semiotic development" och vi diskuterar metodologiska frågor och planerade studier. Texten kan laddas ner härifrån.
January 2009
- 21/1 2009 16:15-18:00, H428b (General)
Diskussion av G. Sonesson & J. Zlatev "SEDSU: Theoretical Summary"
Sidansvariga: Göran Sonesson and Jordan Zlatev Webbansvarig: webmaster
Ansvarig utgivare: Sanimir Resic
Uppdaterad: 2010-02-08