Suchergebnisse

AbstractWe briefly review the impact of Paul Cobley (born 1963) on biosemiotics and list his works on the topic. These have links to communication studies and integrationism. After Thomas Sebeok, John Deely, and several others, Cobley has been a leader of the general semiotics movement, according to which "semiotics' project is most fully realized on a biosemiotic basis."

AbstractThis essay speaks briefly about the main argument of John Deely's bookFour Ages of Understanding(2001), pointing to the importance of dialogue between the physical sciences and the semiotic sciences and the centrality of this discussion in the postmodern era as defined by Deely. A bibliography of the reviews of the book is also provided.

Abstract
In this paper I formulate briefly the main principles of evolution of semiotic systems. The neo-Darwinian theory of evolution does not take into account the semiosic nature of the systems under study, therefore its applicability to languages and cultures (and also to biological species as communicative semiosic systems) should be rigorously questioned. The semiotic theory of evolution should include the implications from the dynamic features of semiosis and sign systems. The two major tendencies in the evolution of semiosic systems are diversification - or introduction of new mutually incompatible systems and categories - and standardization - or development of mutual compatibility. The inclusion of agency as based on semiosis provides a non-Darwinian model, yet includes the Darwinian one as a restricted special case.

Abstract
In 1973, a collectively written manifesto titled Theses on the Semiotic Study of Cultures was penned under the leadership of Tartu scholar Juri Lotman together with his Moscow colleagues Vjacheslav Ivanov, Vladimir Toporov, Aleksandr Pjatigorskij, and Boris Uspenskij. The appearance of this work marked the birth of a new scholarly field of research called the semiotics of culture. In the present contribution we provide a bibliographic list of republications and translations of this seminal text.

Abstract
Semiotics can be defined as the study of what can err, thus generalizing Umberto Eco's definition. Introducing the fourth section on the Tartu School of semiotics for Chinese Semiotic Studies, the focus is put on the recent developments and the current state at the center of semiotics in Tartu.

Abstract
With this issue, Chinese Semiotic Studies introduces a section on the Tartu Semiotics School. This regular feature, appearing potentially in every issue, is justified by several arguments: this school has been persisting on the semiotic scene already since the 1960s; this is the school that founded the semiotics of culture and actively studied it ever since; the Tartu school has the potential to bridge the different approaches of semiotics-structuralist and dynamic, Western and Eastern, cultural and biological; and, as it is situated on many boundaries, the Tartu Semiotics School may be used as a source for creative ideas or new approaches.

The fourth volume in the Approaches to Culture Theory series is a contemporary Estonian anthology in culture theory. Most of the authors are members of the research groups of the Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory: archaeology, cultural communication studies, contemporary cultural studies, ethnology, folkloristics, religious studies, landscape studies, and semiotics. These scholars have revised their recent work to highlight current topics in culture theory in Estonia and use theoretical analyses to advance the self-description and self-understanding of culture. Contributors include Aili Aarelaid-Tart, Martin Ehala, Halliki Harro-Loit, Tiiu Jaago, Anne Kull, Kalevi Kull, Kristin Kuutma, Valter Lang, Art Leete, Kati Lindström, Mihhail Lotman, Hannes Palang, Rein Raud, Raul Tiganik, Peeter Torop, Ülo Valk, and Tõnu Viik.

AbstractWe briefly sketch some characteristics of Thomas A. Sebeok's program to develop semiotics and relate them to the approaches in the Tartu circle. It is not a historical, but effectively a paradigmatic insight into research in contemporary Tartu semiotics, where we can see the inevitability of cooperation between the large branches of semiotics such as bio-, socio-, and cultural semiotics that were, consciously or not, preceded by Sebeok. We take a closer look into Sebeok's arguments in between the times when he re-introduced semiotics to contemporary audiences and when he seemingly departed from the conceptual realm of the Tartu–Moscow School of semiotics. Likewise, we aim to show how his practical engagement in "radwaste" is already acute today and demands realization of the connection between the biological and the cultural as mediated by the social.

Abstract
This is an interview in which six questions formulated by J. Peng on the contemporary developments in semiotics at the University Tartu are addressed by K. Kull. The questions concern the role of Juri Lotman's semiotics today, its relationship to the works of Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas A. Sebeok, the importance of the concepts semiosphere and umwelt, and more.

Abstract
This article provides a brief overview of the journal Sign Systems Studies, apparently the oldest journal of semiotics in the world. It was established by Juri Lotman in 1964, produced in Tartu and published by the University of Tartu Press. In addition, we provide a list of all semiotic journals currently published in the world, which includes 46 titles; from these 39 are printed on paper (among them 6 international journals on general semiotics, 14 specialized in some branch of semiotics, and 19 regional semiotics journals). Seven journals appear exclusively on the web. Altogether these journals publish articles in 16 languages.

Abstract
The essay provides a brief analysis of correspondence between two scholars whose heritage forms the basis of contemporary Tartu semiotics-Jakob von Uexküll (1864-1944) and Juri Lotman (1922-1993). A comparison between Uexküll's and Lotman's work demonstrates a series of features in which their approaches are in concord. We find some aspects of local culture as supportive of their way of thinking. We also claim that the theoretical integration of Jakob Uexküll's and Juri Lotman's approaches is at the heart of the contemporary semiotics, which has a task to develop a theoretical and methodological apparatus that would delimit and specify the scope of general semiotics and that could be used as a basis for all branches of semiotics.