Semiotics

The Loss of Criteria: essay on the pathological reverie of non-being and not-willing to know. Pathological essay on Being and Not Being Universal Dualism about Contextualism.

Field cancerization, the process by which prior carcinogenic insults corrupt the semiotic landscape through which immune cells detect and respond to “the other”, persists even after the precipitating conditions resolve and the tissue histologically appears normal. This is a paradigmatic case of a broader explanatory problem: How can we account for biomedical phenomena whose current pathology is continually constituted by a history that standard mechanistic accounts cannot recover? I argue that a comprehensive understanding of field cancerization requires us to supplement (...) molecular mechanistic explanations with lineage-level accounts, developed through a dialogue among Derrida’s hauntology, ghost criminology, and von Uexküll's Umwelt as formalized through Peirce's triadic model of signs. This framework generates a three-ghost taxonomy of immune semiotic corruption, explains why treating the present condition without addressing historically constituted corruption fails, and suggests concrete therapeutic implications based on this framework. (shrink)

In this book, I use a mix of logical argumentation, phenomenological attention, and myth interpretation to champion caution in the face of uncritical consumption. If forced to choose, I would pick meaningful inefficiency over meaningless efficiency. Unfortunately, questioning technological development often gets dismissed as “Luddism.” As a philosopher trained to examine arguments on all sides of an issue, I do not find this lopsidedness helpful. Things would not turn out well for a driver if their car could not slow down, (...) stop, or go in reverse. So, when it comes to technology, I aim to make those three moves respectable and feasible. (shrink)

Language sophistication indicates the development of language that incorporates differentiation or diversity that is constrained by integration that facilitates organization or unity. This prelude provides the backdrop for discussing language sophistication. Of necessity, any language that was a part of the continuum of salvation history (Heilsgeschichte ) should: 1) possess the sophistication necessary to re-define OT terminology, 2) have the hegemony to launch the NT church, 3) enjoy the universality that allowed for translation into contemporary languages, and 4) retain the (...) portability that enables interpretation in post-modern languages. (shrink)

I consider the common usage of emojis as dogwhistles in light of the debate between pictorial and lexical accounts of emoji semantics. I argue that many dogwhistle emojis crucially rely on depiction to retain plausible deniabliity – a key feature of dogwhistles.

Giving away of some kind of philosophy, to a new shore and horizons.

Questi appunti si concentrano sul ruolo del Potere e sulla sociologia del Potere. L’analisi classica sul Potere è sempre basata sulla definizione a priori del Potere. “La storia di tutta la società, svoltasi fin qua, è storia di lotta di classe” sono le affermazioni che rappresentano il Potere come un effetto di un predeterminato rapporto fra gruppi costituiti. -/- Questi appunti invece vogliono partire dal Potere come un concetto di più alto livello nell’analisi sociologica. -/- Dopo il manifesto dell' Archelogia, (...) disciplina che cerca di sistematizzare il Potere come disciplina, si passa a dare una definizione del Potere e delle sue linee di analisi. -/- Si arriva ad un approccio semiotico (come segno) della verità e si tenta di iniziare dei ragionamenti sulla teoria del valore sotto il profilo dei segni. -/- These notes focus on the role of Power and the sociology of Power. -/- The classic analysis of Power is always based on the a priori definition of Power. "The history of the whole society, which has taken place this far, is the history of class struggle" are the statements that represent Power as an effect of a predetermined relationship between constituted groups. -/- These notes instead want to start from Power as a higher level concept in sociological analysis. After the manifesto of Archelogy, a discipline that seeks to systematize Power as a discipline, we move on to give a definition of Power and its lines of analysis. We arrive at a semiotic approach (as a sign) of truth and we try to start reasoning on the theory of value from the point of view of signs. (shrink)

Earlier semioses (implicating at least sometimes political forces to establish a sign) enabled by anonymous intentions permeate later semioses and shape the structure of language. The same way earlier neuroses shape the epistemically embattled structure of unconscious.---Contingent but primordial relations of power semiotically implicated, on both sides of inter-translation of distant languages, so effectively permeate language and literature that there is ever an ineradicable textual residue in the translation reminiscent of the political contexts.---Every belated text a corollary to the primordial (...) proof of establishment of precursor texts. (shrink)

There is a SURFACE unity of a text which may be described as that which is reflected by taking for granted that the object of desire to be fulfilled in the text contributes EQUALLY to the parts constituting the text as a whole. The DEEP unity of a text on the other hand is that which is reflected by specifying that to which the object of desire underlying the text contributes the most content. The other parts while bearing some superficial (...) content have ONLY poetic (or evocative) function. They constitute FORMS serving aesthetic fortification and condensation not really condensation of content relevant to the object of desire. They are ultimately contingent in terms of the underpinning the text. The Freudian mythology is susceptible to conflating contingent forms as essential content. -/- . (shrink)

In the context of Kripke's puzzle, Paderewski-the-pianist and Paderewski-the-politician are the same object but belong to two different semiotic systems. Their respective tokenings in thought or language are based on two informational contents which are caused by the same object but emitted through two distinct causal pathways. Relativization of the object to the two semiotic systems represent elements of a set of ___coreferential homonyms___. Every F is an F = Everything X that is conspicuously or demonstratively an F is something (...) XX which is systematically or descriptively an F. Although bearing distinct meanings, X is the same as XX. (shrink)

how does society works? By the group? By will of a single individual? Interesting to notice the articulation between several social systems.

Debt to a friend, debt to the humaniny, there's the destiny of a young anthropology trying to succeed.

"Language is a Virus" (Laurie Anderson).

Rodney Needham bipolarity in a small context.

In this paper, I start with the deep interrelationship between the linguistic and the corporeal in order to think about the body in the specific act of laughing. The corporeality of the faculty of laughter will serve as a guiding principle to present an analysis of what I will call “laughter act.” A reading of laughter in terms of “speech act” will make it possible for us to appreciate the active capacity of doing things laughing and, more specifically, to explore (...) the dichotomous collapse of the act performed by the laughing body. Thus, I will first go through the specific characteristics of the laughter act and then I will study a particular use from the enunciative position of the female subject, of the Thracian servant. While analyzing the laughter of the slave, I will look at how her doing can be read from the classic theories of laughter and, finally, I will extend the analysis to other possible readings that help us understand both her potential scandal and what her laughter can do. I will conclude how, by unravelling an act of laughter, its performative scope can be appreciated from the necessary interconnection between the linguistic and the corporeal. (shrink)

Journal Name: Semiotica Issue: Ahead of print.

Objective Semiotica is published in six annual issues, in two languages (English and French). From time to time, Special Issues, devoted to topics of particular interest, are assembled by Guest Editors. The publishers of Semiotica offer an annual prize, the Mouton d'Or, to the author of the best article each year. The article is selected by an independent international jury. Topics We welcome papers reporting results of research in all branches of semiotic studies. Article formats Research articles, in-depth reviews, guest (...) editorials, reports Mouton D’Or Winner 2022 "Semiotricité et corps en jeu", Parlebas, Pierre, 248, 9-35. The judges commented: "The Committee members made this decision based on many appreciations. First, the article contains a concise theory on semiotics of movement, synthesizing decades of research of the author. It opens an exciting framework for the contribution of many other authors. The theoretical grounds of semiotircity are built on the most classical semiotic approaches and represent a genuine development. Second, the article refreshes semiotics methodology in very original way, by engaging the applied semiotics for furtive and instantaneous activities analysis. Third, the article is pretty clear and well structured, written in very comprehensible French. The theoretical frame it opens is thorough and far reaching. Fourth, the semiotic theory of movement comes in a very special moment when the whole world is football, but it covers also many other areas of applicability which reflect major trends such as the general gamification of life thanks to new media and digital technologies. It is crucial for semiotic theory to open its theoretic scope towards significant cultural trends and become more attractive for young researchers." Les membres du comité ont pris leur décision en fondant leur appréciation sur quatre éléments principaux. Premier élément : l'article, en peu de mots, en prenant appui sur des décennies de recherche de la part de l'auteur, déploie de manière précise les termes d'une sémiotique du mouvement. Les fondements théoriques de la sémiotricité sont construits sur des approches sémiotiques bien établies et représentent un véritable développement dans le domaine. En cela, le texte ouvre un cadre passionnant pour les contributions de nombreux autres chercheurs. Deuxièmement, l'article renouvelle la sémiotique appliquée de manière très originale, l'engageant dans une approche efficace des actions instantanées et furtives; la méthodologie sémiotique en général en tire donc aussi profit. Troisième point, en plus d'être profond, avec un cadre théorique d'ampleur et de grande portée, l'article est particulièrement bien structuré et écrit dans un français très compréhensible, ce qui est un véritable gain pour sa diffusion. Enfin, quatrièmement, s'il est indéniable que le texte pourrait bénéficier d'une visibilité complémentaire due à la ferveur liée au contexte récent de la coupe du monde de football au Qatar, il couvre surtout de nombreux autres domaines d'applicabilité qui reflètent des tendances majeures telles que la gamification générale de la vie, portée par les nouveaux médias et les technologies numériques. L'on y voit une belle opportunité pour la théorie sémiotique d'ouvrir son champ à la faveur de tendances culturelles significatives; ceci est une garantie pour continuer à attirer de nouvelles générations de chercheurs. (shrink)

This commentary explores biological models of analogical and associative learning in support of Illusion 1 and Illusion 4 in D. Noble’s target article. The intent is to support Noble’s theses of emergent higher level functionality from lower level stochastic dynamics and his etiological claim that “there is no privileged level of causation” through a biosemiotic lens. Upon these arguments, a case for creative agency via higher-dimensional constraints will also be made in support of Noble’s claim that organismic behavior is actively (...) directed by an agent. (shrink)

This study investigates how two interpreters mobilize different language resources when faced with a semiotically complex construction in Norwegian Sign Language (NTS): constructed dialogue. Drawing on a semiotic approach to languages and multimodal conversation analysis, I analyze four sequences of interpreted semi-naturalistic conversation. Applying a semiotic approach to languages, three main types of resources serve as analytical categories of source utterances and renditions: descriptions, depictions, and indications. Part of interpreters’ task entails either maintaining or changing the depictive character of the (...) source utterance’s constructed dialogue sequences, but this is only one of many choices. Fine-grained analysis reveals that interpreters recruit from a semiotically diverse repertoire to reconfigure the semiotics of the source utterance. The interpreter’s task of situating the complex semiotics of source utterances is highlighted. When the interpreter renders another participant’s utterance, they reconfigure the semiotic resources to ensure the rendition fits appropriately within its target language ecology, thus assuring common ground between participants. This study contributes to existing knowledge of interpreting as a discourse process by analyzing the semiotics of signed-to-spoken interpreting. (shrink)

According to Denis Noble, one of the greatest illusions of the Modern Synthesis is embodied in the Central Dogma, a principle first formulated by Francis Crick in 1958. The principle holds that DNA makes protein, not the other way around. For Noble, the Dogma has contributed to the illusion that genes alone are responsible for the development and evolution of an organism’s phenotype. Though I am largely sympathetic to Noble’s critique, I argue that there may be alternative grounds for accepting (...) the plausibility of the Central Dogma and also the illusion it perpetuates. (shrink)

The disjuncture between narrative representation and affective embodiment poses a central problematic for film analysis: how cinema articulates subjectivities resistant to stable definition amid historical crises. Zoltan Korda’s The Macomber Affair (1947), set against a charged backdrop of post-war anxiety and colonial ideology, provides a potent case study. Through close analysis of visual composition, modal configurations, and passional trajectories, this article argues the film stages masculine subjectivity not as a coherent, attainable identity, but as a precarious process of corporeal signification. (...) Synthesizing post-Greimasian semiotics (Zilberberg, Greimas, Fontanille) with psychoanalysis (Freud, Lacan, Mulvey), it analyses masculinity as a field of modal fluctuations, recalibrated through desire, knowledge, capacity, and obligation (vouloir, savoir, pouvoir, devoir), that gives form to unconscious drives within a triangulated field of gazes. The film’s formal architecture is central: the safari landscape operates as a colonial dispositif where masculine anxiety becomes legible, while its recursive temporality, by presenting death at the outset to inscribe meaning retroactively, destabilizes linear causality, foregrounding subjectivity as re-articulation over teleological attainment. Crucially, the article contends this individual psychodrama is predicated upon the ideological erasure of the “native gaze,” revealing the colonial frame as the narrative’s precondition. Ultimately, this study proposes a methodological shift from reading masculinity as thematic representation to apprehending it as a corporeal, affective process produced by cinema’s formal and colonial operations. (shrink)

While most discussions of generative AI center on issues such as algorithmic bias and disinformation, we should also consider the quantitative sea change brought about by these technologies. Large language models or LLMs can generate contents at a rate uncoupled from the human datasets they were trained on. Forecasts about such artificial outputs are difficult to make, but it seems clear that the word count and image/video bank of the internet will grow far beyond what humans actually produce. Although this (...) growth may seem benign, I worry that it results in a semiotic inflation capable of devaluing many human experiences. What connects quantitative and normative considerations is scarcity. The basic idea is simple: When you discover a diamond, you become rich. When you discover two diamonds, you become twice as rich. However, when you discover a stash of diamonds so large that diamonds outnumber gravel, you become poor—and instantly make every diamond owner poorer too. Similarly, AI’s vast output risks devaluing experiences that are vital to human flourishing. Adopting a wide evolutionary vantage that gives weight to proven cultural adaptations, I suggest that some situations have natural sign-to-object ratios. Hence, when users are flooded with too many signs, they can go against their long-term interests. Critics of AI typically cling to features that computers allegedly cannot mimic. Semiotic inflation, however, lets us grant the possibility of perfect AI counterfeits while still detecting them en masse, via their negative experiential effects. Hardcoded features like Bitcoin’s 21 million token ceiling show that “[i]n contrast to the linguistic sign, the money sign cannot be reproduced in arbitrary quantity” (Bankov 2023: 117). Prompted by the rise of generative AI, I surmise that non-monetary signs also cannot be reproduced in arbitrary quantity. I thus draw parallels between healthy semiotic systems and the constraints governing viable monetary systems. (shrink)

To explore how molecules became signs I will ask: “What sort of process is necessary and sufficient to treat a molecule as a sign?” This requires focusing on the interpreting system and its interpretive competence. To avoid assuming any properties that need to be explained I develop what I consider to be a simplest possible molecular model system which only assumes known physics and chemistry but nevertheless exemplifies the interpretive properties of interest. Three progressively more complex variants of this model (...) of interpretive competence are developed that roughly parallel an icon-index-symbol hierarchic scaffolding logic. The implication of this analysis is a reversal of the current dogma of molecular and evolutionary biology which treats molecules like DNA and RNA as the original sources of biological information. Instead I argue that the structural characteristics of these molecules have provided semiotic affordances that the interpretive dynamics of viruses and cells have taken advantage of. These molecules are not the source of biological information but are instead semiotic artifacts onto which dynamical functional constraints have been progressively offloaded during the course of evolution. (shrink)

Denis Noble has produced a succinct analysis of the ‘Illusions of the Modern Synthesis’. At the heart of the matter is the place of agency in organisms. This paper examines the nature of conscious agent action in organisms, and the role of affects in shaping agent choice. It examines the dual role these have in shaping evolution, and in the social worlds of scientists that shape evolutionary theory. Its central claim follows Noble, that agency is central to the structure of (...) organisms, and raises careful consideration for the role animal agency and affective evaluations in biology, and in biologists. (shrink)

The question of quantitative methods versus qualitative methods appears periodically in most of the scientific fields. Which is the most relevant? The most useful? Do we find the same things when using these two options, are they congruent? While most of the academic fields have a quite important and strong literature dealing with these questions nowadays, it is not really the case for zoosemiotics. In this paper, I will introduce the main issues zoosemioticians can resolve by using quantitative methods and (...) tools, and how and why it is mandatory to implement them if qualitative theory to pursue our researches further. (shrink)

Vivoscape, from Latin ‘vivo’ and the English ‘scape’ is presented as a new ecosemiotic agency that integrates the interactions between biological and ecological components of a taxon with the environment. According to this model, the interactions between species and the environment are fused into a new functional unity driven by external and internal events. Sensorial and relational channels are used by a taxon to sense external energy gradients, matter, information and to return actions and proactions in an external operational environment. (...) The eco-field model is suggested as the functional ecosemiotic mechanism associated with each vivoevent. (shrink)

Résumé Considérée comme un catalyseur d’affects au cours des interactions, l’(in)discrétion peut nous révéler l’alternance entre accord et conflit à l’égard de la protection mutuelle de la face, notamment si cela implique l’espace privé ou intime. En effet, si la discrétion semble assurer un respect des vulnérabilités, l’indiscrétion affecte le seuil mobile, mais toujours présent, de l’irritation des frontières identitaires. Cependant, l’indiscrétion n’est pas toujours dévalorisée, car elle peut apparaître comme un calcul stratégique pour restituer une incarnation sensible aux masques (...) qui protègent les rôles institutionnels, à tel point qu’elle peut fonctionner comme une arme pour démystifier l’hypocrisie qui habite la société et révéler des comportements reprochables. En ce sens, notre contribution voudrait enquêter sur la déclinaison de l’(in)discrétion selon les rôles actantiels joués et les topiques qui y sont localement associées à partir des trois volets : la présence, l’observation et l’énonciation, tout en profitant des textes littéraires (ex. : France et Chine) afin d’attester respectivement les délicatesses de la discrétion et la rudesse possible de l’indiscrétion. En tout cas, le fait de vivre ensemble ne peut pas être réduit à la société formelle et à ses lois, et alors l’(in)discrétion dessine les marges d’une éthique de contact. (shrink)

Experimental studies show that some corvids, apes, and rodents possess a common long-term memory system that allows them to take goal-directed actions on the basis of absent spatiotemporal contexts. In other words, evidence supports the hypothesis that Episodic Memory —far from being uniquely human— has evolved as a cross-species meaning making system. However, within this zoosemiotic breakthrough, neurocognitive studies now struggle characterizing the relations between teleological factors and phenomenological factors that would account for the episodic behavior displayed by these living (...) beings. Within such field, this paper identifies four epistemological gaps —the ‘Nagelian’, ‘de Waalian’, ‘Chomskyan’, and ‘semiotic’ gaps—, making a case for the need of a future biosemiotic model of Alloanimal Episodic Memory to come into the equation. As a whole, I conclude that experimental developments in AEM research, and philosophical advancements in biosemiotics could converge through the concept of semiosis. Introducing the latter would account for animal episodic agency as a causal influence and continuity between the above relations, outclassing the reductionist and Cartesian separation between ‘external’ bodily behavior and ‘internal’ computational operations. (shrink)

RNAs can do many things. They can store information, act in the world, and respond to the world. Because of these capabilities biologists have proposed a primordial ‘RNA world’ in which RNA, rather than DNA, performed the central role of replicator and repository of adaptive information. Deacon dismisses this hypothesis because replication is not about anything and because the structure of replicating molecules cannot contain information about the environment. I dispute both claims. An RNA and its opposite-sense complement represent each (...) other and, by two rounds of complementation, represent themselves. Although nucleic acid sequences do not change in response to their present environment, these sequences embody information about ancestral environments via the selective filtering of alternative sequences in those environments. Nucleic acid sequences are the textual record of what has worked in the past. (shrink)

Semiotic affordance transformation – despite its prominence in multi-semiotic rhetorical design – remains under-researched in multi-semiotic discourse analysis. This study proposes a systemic-ordered typological framework for analyzing affordance transformations in environmental posters situated in the Chinese eco-cultural context. The framework integrates material and immaterial affordances to reveal how ecological messages are strategically crafted. Using a corpus of 44 World Environment Day posters (489 signs) annotated with UAM ImageTool 2.1, the analysis identifies recurrent patterns of affordance transformation – metaphorical, trans-categorizational, and (...) systemic order-shift – arising from matter–meaning interactions. Findings advance a systemic-ordered, affordance-precise analytic path for diagnosing hybridization mechanisms and demonstrates their rhetorical functions – knowledge representation, eco-social identity enactment, and inter-semiotic cohesion. These insights extend linguistic systemic principles to multi-semiotic contexts, offering a robust analytical model that enriches both theoretical accounts and practical design of multi-semiotic rhetorical communication. (shrink)

The Annual Biosemiotic Achievement Award was established at the annual meeting of the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies in 2014, in conjunction with Springer and Biosemiotics. It seeks to recognize papers published in the journal that present novel and potentially important contributions to biosemiotic research, its scientific impact and its future prospects. Here the winner of the Biosemiotic Achievement Award for 2020 is announced: The award goes to Filip Jaroš and Matěj Pudil for the article “Cognitive systems of human and (...) non-human animals: At the crossroads of phenomenology, ethology and biosemiotics”. (shrink)

La presente compilación de artículos es resultado del trabajo en colaboración realizado en el seminario institucional intitulado “Sociosemiótica y Cultura: Principios de Semiótica y Modelos de Análisis”, que durante 2016 se desarrolló en las instalaciones del Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (IIS-UNAM). En dicho espacio de intercambio académico se dieron cita diferentes investigadores que —desde sus particulares enfoques— contribuyeron a adoptar una visión holística acerca de los temas y problemas semióticos implicados en la investigación (...) científica. En principio, el objetivo del seminario fue la divulgación; a saber: dar a conocer la vinculación tanto teórico-empírica como teórico-metodológica de las categorías semióticas en la construcción de explicaciones científicas sobre fenómenos sociales y procesos de conocimiento en la ciencia. Para ello, el programa de presentaciones abordó diferentes ámbitos de conocimiento, tanto de las ciencias naturales: física, biología, matemáticas, lógica, como de las ciencias sociales: sociología, antropología, comunicación, al igual que estudios concretos desde las humanidades: filosofía y arte. En este sentido, acercarse a los estudios de semiótica desde diferentes disciplinas científicas (en términos generales, no sólo en ciencias sociales), obligó a reconocer el valor epistemológico de la explicación semiótica. Dicho valor consiste en aceptar que el conocimiento científico se constituye a partir de procesos de significación, donde intervienen relaciones sígnicas en el nivel lingüístico (términos, conceptos, categorías); en el nivel icónico-visual (esquemas, imágenes, diagramas), icónico-lógico (fórmulas, operaciones), entre otros; y que —en conjunto— dichas relaciones de significación dan como resultado “ensamblajes sígnicos”; es decir (a la manera de Javier Echeverría, 1985: 71 y ss.), sistemas de signos que construyen modelos explicativos, cuya validez y sentido están determinados por la coherencia/consistencia interna de dichos sistemas. (shrink)

The aim of the study is to analyze viruses using parameters obtained from distributions of nucleotide sequences in the viral RNA. Seeking for the input data homogeneity, we analyze single-stranded RNA viruses only. Two approaches are used to obtain the nucleotide sequences; In the first one, chunks of equal length are considered. In the second approach, the whole RNA genome is divided into parts by adenine or the most frequent nucleotide as a “space”. Rank–frequency distributions are studied in both cases. (...) The defined nucleotide sequences are signs comparable to a certain extent to syllables or words as seen from the nature of their rank–frequency distributions. Within the first approach, the Pólya and the negative hypergeometric distribution yield the best fit. For the distributions obtained within the second approach, we have calculated a set of parameters, including entropy, mean sequence length, and its dispersion. The calculated parameters became the basis for the classification of viruses. We observed that proximity of viruses on planes spanned on various pairs of parameters corresponds to related species. In certain cases, such a proximity is observed for unrelated species as well calling thus for the expansion of the set of parameters used in the classification. We also observed that the fifth most frequent nucleotide sequences obtained within the second approach are of different nature in case of human coronaviruses. We expect that our findings will be useful as a supplementary tool in the classification of diseases caused by RNA viruses with respect to severity and contagiousness. (shrink)

In The Biosemiotic Fundamentals of Aesthetics: Beauty is the Perfect Semiotic Fitting Kull makes a foray into the concept of Beauty. His target article is a welcome contribution not only for providing a biosemiotic notion of beauty but also as a trigger for further enquiry into the matter. Additionally, Kull delivers a new concept: Semiotic Fitting, shining new light on the Umwelt theory. My commentary embraces the challenge Kull presents. Offering an alternate view on beauty, as a matter, and product, (...) of cognition, I suggest reflecting on the philosophy of Alexander von Baumgarten, who coined the term “aesthetics”, offers rich insight that could extend and enrich the definition of beauty Kull presents. (shrink)

This article is a concise reconstruction of the notion of figure in Greimas’ work. The article begins by briefly discussing a couple of recent contributions to a general outlook on Greimasian figure and figurativity. It then proceeds with a more detailed reconstruction of the notion of figure in Greimas’ work, which has been lacking in English. Besides the attempt at reconstruction, the article presents a thesis that, in so-called standard Greimasian semiotics of text, figure has been reduced to an empty (...) site for two kinds of indexicals, and thus deprived of its original textual-analytic potential. This textual-analytic potential concerns spanning the divide between text and percept, which reflects the interest of Greimas’ original notion of figure. With this in mind, the final chapter of the article presents a couple of brief attempts at a figurative textual-semiotic analysis. (shrink)