Semiotics and International Scholarship: Towards a Language of Theory NATO ASI Series Advanced Science Institutes Series ASeries presenting the results of activities sponsored by the NA TO Science Committee, which aims at the dissemination of advanced scientific and techn%gica/ know/edge, with a view to strengthening links between scientific communities. The Series is published by an international board 01 publishers in conjunction with the NATO Scientilic Affairs Division A Life Sciences Plenum Publishing Corporation B Physics London and New York C Mathematical and D. Reidel Publishing Company Physical Sciences Dordrecht and Boston D Behavioural and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers Social Sciences DordrechtlBoston/Lancaster E Applied Sciences F Computer and Springer-Verlag Systems Sciences Berlin/Heidelberg/New York G Ecological Sciences Se ries 0: Behavioural and Social Sciences - No. 33 Semiotics and International Scholarship: Towards a Language of Theory edited by Jonathan D. Evans The University 01 Georgia Athens, Georgia U.S.A. Andre Helbe Universite Libre de Bruxelles Brussels Belgium 1986 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers Dordrecht / Boston / Lancaster Published in cooperation with NATO Scientilic Affairs Division Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on "Semiotics and International Scholarship: An International Language of Theory", Estoril, Portugal, September 18-30, 1983 ISBN-13: 978-94-010-8487-1 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-4464-0 001: 10.1007/978-94-009-4464-0 Distributors for the United States and Canada: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 101 Philip Drive, Assinippi Park, Norwell, MA 02061, U.S.A. Distributors for the UK and Ireland: Kluwer Academic Publishers, MTP Press Ltd, Falcon House, Queen Square, Lancaster LA1 1RN, UK Distributors for all other countries: Kluwer Academic Publishers Group, Distribution Center, P.O. Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, P.O. Box 163, 3300 AD Dordrecht, The Netherlands Copyright © 1986 by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1986 v DIRECTOR'S COMMENTS The Advanced Studies Institute titled "Semiotics and International Scholarship: An International Language of Theory" was held at the Hotel Sintra-Estoril in Alcabideche, Portugal, during September 18-30, 1983. It was at tended by scholars and advanced students representing 13 countries, and covered the full range of disciplines and special interests to which the present volume speaks. All participants were encouraged to challenge traditional interdisciplinary barriers in an attempt, the success of which can be judged from the essays which follow, to develop a matrix of intelligibility grounded in a variety of semiotic traditions. The entire endeavor flourished in the warm and hospitable environment provided by our Portuguese hosts. The Director would like to express his especial appreciation to Dr. Jose Seabra, Minister of Education and Associate Director of the Institute: to Dr. Norma Tasca, President of the Portuguese Semiotic Association, whose untiring attention to our material comfort as weIl as to our intellectual stimulation insured a memorable fortnight: and to the members of the Corni te d 'Honneur, whose warm interest in our activities cemented the ties between Portuguese semiotic scholar ship and its international counterparts: Dr. Jose Blanco, Administrator da Funda~ao Calouste Gulbenkian: Dr. Jose de Azeredo Perdigao, Presidente do Conselho de Administra~~o da Funna~äo Calouste Gul benkian: Prof. Dr. Fernando Roldao Dias Agudo, Presidente do Instituto Nacional de Investiga~~o Cientifica; Prof. Doutor Esperan~a Pina, Reitor da Universidade Nova de Lisboa: and Prof. Doutor Tsocano Rico, Reitor da Universidade Classica de Lisboa. The generous fun ding afforded by the Scientific Affairs Division of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization guaranteed a VI successful gathering. This was further enhanced through the generosity of the Funda~go Gulbenkian in Lisbon. Through the munificQncQ of the latter foundation, we were privileged to have the active participation of scholars from nonmember count ries. Finally, a supporting grant from the National Science Foundation enabled an advanced graduate student from the U.S.A. to participate. The Director is happy to entrust the editing of this volume to two colleagues who participated actively in the program. The decision to do so was based on adesire to continue beyond the Institute itself that spirit of shared responsibility and commit ment that characterized the entire event. If the Institute was an index of future promise, this volume is truly an icon of the enthusiasm it genera ted and a symbol of the participants' determination to continue exploring the potentialities of semiotic method and theory for international scholarly communication. --M.H. Thanks also are due to the Department of English of the University of Georgia and the Office for Research of the University of Georgia as well as the Department of Anthropology, Indiana University (Bloomington) for providing funds to bring this project to completion. Thanks also to my co-editor Professor Andre Helbo, who collected and edited the French-language contributions to this volume; and to Michael and Cathy Rainer of Verbatim Typing and Editing, Athens, Georgia, whose skillful keyboarding and prepara tion of the camera-ready copy are self-evident. --J.E. VII TAßLE OF CONTENTS Director' s Comments .•..•...•.....•.......•.•.•....••••••• "" V Preface .....•...............•................................ ix Introduction ..•.............•....•••....•••..........•....... xi PAUL BOUISSAC Tradition, Specu1ation and Cognition: A Prospective Investigation of Semiotic Termino1ogy .........•........... 1 ROLAND POSNER Syntactics: Its Relation to Morpho1ogy and Syntax, to Semantics and Pragmatics, and to Syntagmatics and Paradigmatics ......•..........................•........... 25 GERARD DELEDALLE La Semiotique Peircienne Comme Metalangage: Elements Theoriques et Esquisse D'une App1ication .................. 49 CLAUDE MORIER a Char1es Sanders Peirce Du L'Initiation 1a Semiotique Theorique ................................................. 65 MARTIN KRAMPEN Ontogenesis of Iconicity and the Accessibi1ity of the Mental Image by Children's Drawings ...•..••.........•..... 85 J0RGEN DINES JOHANSEN The Place of Semiotics in the Study of Literature ............ 101 EERO TARASTI Music as Sign and Process ..••......•••.•......••.••..•••••••• 127 ANDRE HELBO Semiotique et Societe: Approche Du Spectaculaire •....•....•.. 153 MONICA RECTOR Cross-Cu1tura1 Interaction: A Semiotic Perspective ........•.. 175 MICHAEL HERZ FELD Meta-Anthropology: Semiotics In and Out of Culture 209 Index ...........•.......•..•.............•................... 223 IX PREFACE Le present volume est la reecriture d'un seminaire international organise au Portugal du 18 au 30 septembre 1983; la reunion se voulait avant tout radiographie des tendances actuelles et des nouvelles perspectives en semiologie (filiations historiques, champs d'application, statut des unites conceptuelles, ecarts entre theories et leur objet); les contributions rassemblees dans ce recueil depassent sans nul doute la pure description du "state of art"; elles s'offrent au contraire comme une interrogation retrospective sur les paradigmes; en un mot, elles se font moins 1 'echo de 1 'acquis que du questionnement. Leur premier souci concerne la definition de la discipline : consideree longtemps comme un savoir ventriloque manipule par les linguistes ou les logiciens, la semiotique s'affirme aujourd'hui de plus en plus comme une propedeutigue en dialogue permanent avec toutes les formes du discours scientifique. A ce titre, elle s'incarne en premier lieu dans l'effort d'intelligibilite transformant l'objet re el en objet de connaissance : demarche reductrice, simulatrice (le modele figure le fonctionnement de a a l'objet decrire), la recherche de categories toujours plus puissantes, mais confrontee a la resistance du sens, a cette part a non interpretable qui lui echappe sans cesse, et vouee donc operer sur le mode du pari. Contenue tout entiere dans le geste qui la construit, la recherche s'interroge sur ses presupposes : exprimee par la langue et soumise aux contraintes logico-discursives (nomination, articulation, concatenation, ... ), la discipline s'affranchit dans la reflexion et la transgression; la question du metalangage, celle de la methodologie en entrainent aussitot de plus insidieuses : x repercussion du lieu de parole sur la methode, pluralite des ancrages culturels, illusion du metal~mgage unificateur, validite d' une semiotique generale mise en cause par les paradigmes regionaux. 11 nIest pas inutile de souligner que les auteurs du present recueil soulevent ces problemes et suggerent des voies a a d'approches referant Peirce et Saussure. Stil est vrai que le metalangage peut exercer une fonction tantat organisatrice (ordonnant la theorie par le rappel de definitions operatoires) tantot creatrice (formalisant des creations lexicales qui suggerent de nouvelles pistes heuristiques), la profusion des points de vue greve cependant l'idee d'une methodologie universelle, conforme au proces acheve des sciences holistiques. Faut-il des lors se faire raison d'un oecumenisme heterogene ou d'un eclectisme sectaire? Les etudes ici rassemblees prouvent qu'il n'en est rien, car elles s'engagent resolument dans la direction d'une semiologie comparee. Sans doute est-ce 18 l'une des urgences dans l'etat present des recherches, celle d'un bilan veritablement intertextuel, soucieux non de compiler mais bien de suggerer 8 partir de convergences fecondes. En cela, la semiologie se donne sans doute les moyens de maitriser sa cirse, de transformer son questionnement en disponi bili te cri tique. Elle rappelle aussi 1 'indissoluble collusion entre l'objet et la methode: si nous disposons aujourd'hui d'un arsenal d'instruments scientifiques, la mise en oeuvre de ceux-ci depend totalement du probleme etudie; mieux : certains objets d'analyse appellent des reflexions qui pointent les silences de la semiotique generale. Loin donc de re ver d'une langue semiotique, d'un code d'archetypes (les siqnes, le sujet, le sens), on relira ce mot de Greimas : "la semiologie ( ... ) se veut un savoir pour l'homme qu'est la signification et dont il est a la fois le producteur et l'interpnhe, le sujet et l'objet, le manipulateur et la premiere victime". Enfin, on notera que plusieurs contributions abordent de front a a le probleme de l'ouverture propre la discipline; n'hesitant pas joindre 1 'exercice pratique au cheminement theorique, elles prouvent ainsi que la quete de l'authenticite philosophique releve de la prehistoire semiotique; la methode a atteint desormais le stade du dialogue interactif entre le savoir et les donnees "empiriques". --Andre Helbo Universite Libre de Bruxelles XI INTRODUCTION: SEMIOTICS AS A LANGUAGE OF THEORY The central quest ion confronted in this volume is whether or not semiotics is now or is likely soon to be an "international language of theory." The papers collected here--as indeed the NATO-sponsored Advanced Study Institute (ASI) lectures of which they are the written record--explore prospectively various ways of raising an affirmative response to this question. But it is perhaps a significant comment on the nature of an institute devoted to this prospect that its proceedings are published in two languages--French and English. As a result, what is obvious at the level of natural language might justifiably be perceived to obtain as weIl at the deeper theoretical substratum : namely, that semioticians, figurati vely, speak not one but a variety of languages. Whether or not this comment conveys the implicit recognition that no single theoretical dialect yet exists in which American and European scholars can mutually communicate on matters of common importance in the metaphenomena uniting their various research activities, or, instead, that the kind of inquiry in which semiotic scholars are engaged is of such broad dimensions that the languages in which their contributions are recorded must necessarily be the two international languages of commerce and diplomacy, is a matter that probably must be decided in the minds of this volume's readers. However, the fact that the chapters of this book are written in French and English is only superficially important when measured against the contents of the perspecti ves offered by the present contributors, whose different approaches to the unifying capabilities of semiotic research testify to the richly variegated web (or the loosely-woven fabric) of the current semiotic scene. "How can semiotics claim to offer a single international