Abstract
The distinction between picture and text involves a set of basic semiotic challenges. First, pictures are linked in their production to the motoricity of hands, in their receipt to the eye and the visual cortex. Language in its basic form, spoken language, is linked in its production to the motoricity of the human vocal apparatus (from the vocal cords to the lips) and in its perception by the ear and the auditory cortex. The dynamics of these four subsystems and moreover the coordination of the pairs of subsystems in production and reception define the base line of any comparison of picture and text. The fact that written texts map the characteristics of spoken texts onto the dynamics of hands and eyes (to abbreviate the more complete description above) points to the fact that transitions between the two basic modalities have been achieved in the last millennia. If we take abstract signs of the Palaeolithic as point of departure (cf. Wildgen [32, 34]), this (cultural) evolution has been running the last 30,000 years. An even deeper evolutionary opposition opposes manual/facial sign languages and spoken language. The origin of human language after the proto-language of Homo erectus was basically a dominance shift from a slower and less rich system, at least partially based on visual/motor articulations, to a much quicker and richer systems of phonetic/auditory articulation (cf. Wildgen [33]). We have no direct knowledge about the sign language of Homo erectus, but we may guess the characteristics of such a manually based language, if we consider modern signed languages. Due to the use of the manual/visual mode, they show, in spite of being constructed in parallel to existing phonetic languages, characteristic deviations (cf. Emmorey [5], and Lidell [10]). The most characteristic differences concern the diversity of parameters and the relevance of gradient subsystems. As [24] summarizes, spoken language has as major parameter the recombinant system based on phonetic quality.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
U. Becks-Malormy. Wassily Kandinsky. 1866-1944. Aufbruch zur Abstraktion. Benedikt, Köln, 1993.
P. A. Brandt. Dynamique du sens. Études de sémiotique modale. Aarhus University Press, Aarhus, 1994.
E. Cassirer. Philosophie der symbolischen Formen, volume 1-3. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1923-1929.
N. Chomsky. Syntactic Structures. Mouton, The Hague, 1957.
K. Emmorey. Language, Cognition and the Brain: Insights from Sign Language Research. Erlbaum, Mahwah (NY), 2003.
H. Haken. Synergetik. Eine Einführung. Springer, Berlin/New York, 2 edition, 1983.
W. Herzogenrath, A. Buschho., and A. Vorwinkel. Paul Klee - Lehrer am Bauhaus (Ausstellungskatalog, Kunsthalle Bremen, 30.11.2003–29.02.2004). Hauschild, Bremen, 2003.
R. Jakobson. On Language. Edited by L. R. Waugh and M. Mouville-Burston. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1990.
M. Leyton. Symmetry, Causality, Mind. MIT-Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1992.
S. Lidell. Sources of Meaning in ASL Classifier Predicates. In K. Emmorey, editor, Perspectives on Classifier Constructions in Sign Language. Erlbaum, Mahwah (NY), 2003.
B. B. Mandelbrot. Die fraktale Geometrie der Natur. Birkhäuser, Basel, 1977/1992.
G. Nicolis and I. Prigogine. Exploring Complexity. An Introduction. Freeman, New York, 1989.
C. E. Osgood. Focus on Meaning. Mouton, The Hague, 1976.
H.-O. Peitgen, H. Jürgens, and D. Saupe. Bausteine des Chaos Fraktale. Springer, Berlin/New York, 1992.
J. Petitot-Cocorda. Les catastrophes de la parole. De Roman Jakobson à René Thom. Maloine, Paris, 1985.
J. Petitot-Cocorda. Physique du Sens. De la théorie des singularités aux structures sémio-narratives. Editions du CNRS, Paris, 1992.
C. Pollard and I. A. Sag. An Information Based Syntax and Semantics, volume 1: Fundamentals. CSLI, Stanford, 1987.
B. B. Rieger. Semiotic Cognitive Information Processing: Learning to Understand Discourse. A Systemic Model of Meaning Constitution. In R. Kühn, R. Menzel, U. Ratsch, M. N. Richter, and I.-O. Stamatescu, editors, Adaptivity and Learning. An Interdisciplinary Debate, pages 347-403. Springer, Berlin/New York, 2003.
N. Roelens. Cènes, Banquets et Festins. In S. Caliandro and A. Beyaert, editors, Espaces perçus, territoires imagés en art, pages 99-119. L'Harmattan, Paris, 2004.
F. Saint-Martin. Semiotics of Visual Language. Indiana U. P., Bloomington, 1990.
H.-J. Sandkühler and D. Pätzold, editors. Kultur und Symbol. Die Philosophie Ernst Cassirers. Metzler, Stuttgart, 2003.
J. Spahr. Paradies & Pastiches. Christoph Meriam, Basel, 1991.
I. Stewart. Does God Play Dice? The Mathematics of Chaos. Penguin Books, London, 1989.
L. Talmy. Recombinance in the Evolution of Language. Chicago Journal of Linguistics, 39, 2005 (forthcoming).
A. Warhol. Catalogue Published for the Exhibition “Andy Warhol. The Last Supper”, Munich 27 May - 27 September 1998. Crantz, Ostfildern-Ruit, 1998.
W. Wildgen. Difierentielle Linguistik, Entwurf eines Modells zur Beschreibung und Messung semantischer und pragmatischer Variation. Niemeyer, Tübingen, 1977.
W. Wildgen. Catastrophe Theoretic Semantics. An Elaboration and Application of René Thom's Theory. Benjamins, Amsterdam, 1982.
W. Wildgen. Process, Image, and Meaning. A Realistic Model of the Meanings of Sentences and Narrative Texts. Benjamins, Amsterdam, 1994.
W. Wildgen. Das kosmische Gedächtnis. Kosmologie, Semiotik und Gedächtnistheorie im Werke von Giordano Bruno (1548-1600). Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. M., 1998.
W. Wildgen. Die Darstellung von Hand (Gestik) und Auge (Blick) in einigen Werken von Leonardo da Vinci. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the German Association of Semiotics, Kassel, August 2002.
W. Wildgen. Die Sprache - Cassirers Auseinandersetzung mit der zeitgen össischen Sprachwissenschaft und Sprachtheorie. In H. J. Sandkühler and D. Pätzold, editors, Kultur und Symbol. Die Philosophie Ernst Cassirers, pages 171-201. Metzler, Stuttgart, 2003.
W. Wildgen. The Evolution of Human Languages. Scenarios, Principles, and Cultural Dynamics. Benjamins, Amsterdam, 2004.
W. Wildgen. The Paleolithic Origins of Art, its Dynamic and Topological Aspects, and the Transition to Writing. In M. Bax, B. van Heusden, and W. Wildgen, editors, Semiotic Evolution and the Dynamics of Culture, pages 117-153. Peter Lang, Bern, 2004.
W. Wildgen. éléments Narratifs et Argumentatifs de l' “Ultime Cène” dans la Tradition Picturale du XIIe au XXe Siècle. In S. Caliandro and A. Beyaert, editors, Espaces perçus, territoires imagés en art. Harmadan, Paris, in press.
W. Wildgen. Time, Motion, Force, and the Semantics of Natural Languages. Antwerp Papers of Linguistics. Universiteit Antwerpen, in press.
W. Wildgen and L. Mottron. Dynamische Sprachtheorie. Sprachbeschreibung und Spracherklärung nach den Prinzipien der Selbstorganisation und der Morphogenese. Brockmeyer, Bochum, 1987.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wildgen, W. (2007). The Dimensionality of Text and Picture and the Cross-Cultural Organization of Semiotic Complexes. In: Aspects of Automatic Text Analysis. Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing, vol 209. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-37522-7_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-37522-7_20
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-37520-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-37522-7
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)