Search results for "Semiotics"
showing 10 items of 438 documents
Modernity and the articulation of the gender system: Order, conflict, and chaos
2009
Gender system can be understood as a cultural system rooted in biological differences. Semiotically speaking, it is a binary sign system (male/female) with some variation involved (transsexuals, homosexuals, etc.). In the process of modernity, the biological motivation of the gender system is being loosened by technological innovations such as contraception and mother's milk substitute. At the same time, the state has replaced family and kin as the organizing structure of society and the cultural ideal of equality has gained a strong position. These and similar changes together have made gender flow in 'post-traditional' societies. The paper deals with this process in paying attention to th…
Hibridisme i autoreferència en el fantàstic d'Espiral, de Manuel Baixauli
2018
The aim of this paper is to define and to analyse the fantastic universe of short stories by Manuel Baixauli published in the volume Espiral (2010), an original and highly significant example of modern fantastic literature that has abolished the real and imaginary borders, that is to say a significant example of fantastic literature conceived as a language phenomenon. The conception of reality integrates and naturalises the supernatural and the irrational in a vision that joins multiple dimensions and perspectives of reality. The self-referential component is also of essential importance in this fantastic, which assimilates and exhibits themes and motifs of inherited traditions in a fully c…
Uexküll's <i>Kompositionslehre</i> and Leopold's "land ethic" in dialogue. On the concept of meaning
2013
Uexküll's famous umwelt theory, which is simultaneously a theory of meaning, remains almost unknown in American environmental thought. The purpose of this article is to create a dialogue between the umwelt theory – a source of inspiration for biosemiotics – and one of the major figures of the environmental thought, namely Aldo Leopold. The interest of this dialogue lies in the fact that the environmental thought has much to gain by relying on Uexküll's theory of meaning and, conversely, that Leopold's land ethic is likely to extend Uexküll's thought in terms of ethics.
Usos impropios de los términos 'Iconografía' e 'iconología'
2013
ABSTRACT: A reflection on the meaning of the terms «iconography» and «iconology», as defined by the fields of Art History and Archeology, in a strict sense, as disciplines concerned with the description and interpretation of images, respectively. In the everyday use of these terms we can also observe an inappropriate meaning when the object itself to which one of these disciplines is applied is designated as «iconography». Likewise, the term «iconology», in its migration from Art History to areas such as Theology, has come to acquire —in one concrete case analyzed here— a completely inappropriate meaning due to the loss of the correct epistemological orientation. KEY WORDS: Iconography, Ico…
Ludus sphaerae per annulum ferreum: tradición alegórico-emblemática del beugelen
2016
ABSTRACT: Beugelen was a game, described early on by Erasmus, which gained wide popularity in the Netherlands, played both in palaces and villages, as evidenced by numerous engravings of the 16th and 17th Centuries. Therefore, it is not surprising to find its allegorical-symbolic exploitation, associated with concepts such as mental laziness (Heinrich Aldegrever), the fatal consequences of the game (Johannes David) and the effects of human and divine love (Peter Rollos, Typus mundi , Ludovicus van Leuven and Willem den Elger). In the light of previous emblematic repertories, I delve into the meaning of a number of paintings, paying special attencion to works of Lucas Gassel ( David and Bath…
Constructing female identities through feminine hygiene TV commercials
2009
Abstract In this paper we report the results of a qualitative multimodal analysis of a corpus of Spanish and British TV ads featuring female hygiene products such as tampons, liners and sanitary towels/pads. We contend that advertisers of menstruation-related products employ a wide range of strategies to convey both overt information about the products advertised, as well as to – and more importantly – indirectly transmit stereotypical beliefs of women which inevitably helps reproduce and sometimes perpetuate a gender-biased type of discourse ( Holmes and Marra, 2005 ). Crook's (2004) distinction between the product-claim and the reward dimension in ads has been taken as the starting point …
The reflexivity of human languaging and Nigel Love's two orders of language
2017
Abstract Nigel Love's distinction between first-order language and second-order language exposes the fallacy of the code view of linguistic communication. Persons do not ‘use’ the forms that are said to constitute a pre-existing language system; they adapt and shape their bodily behaviour, including their vocalizing, in accordance with community-level norms and practices that have historical continuity and thus define the cultural-historical traditions of a community. Individuals normatively orient to these continuities and self-reflexively engage in forms of situated appropriation of them as they flexibly adapt them to the requirements of situations in the pursuance of their goals. Love ha…
La divisa de las granadas del rey Enrique IV de Castilla y su estela posterior
2015
ABSTRACT: This study analyzes the meaning of the impresa or device of the pomegranates, with the motto « Agro dulce », utilized by Henry IV (1425-1474), of the House of Trastamara, King of Castile from 1454 until his death. By means of a review of vestiges that remain of the device, especially in architectonic elements, I postulate that the pomegranate may have been used as the family impresa of the House of Trastamara and their descendants. This, it seems, can be deduced from the pictura of the device in several personal imprese of relatives who lived in the sixteenth century. KEYWORDS: pomegranate, devices, royal clemency, Henry IV, Catholic Monarchs, Catherine of Aragon, Charles V, Phili…
From visual perception to evidentiality: A functional empirical approach to se ve que in Spanish
2019
Abstract The Spanish sequence se ve (que) presents intricate functional polysemy, including constructionalization as an evidential. The present paper investigates its different formal-functional combinations and degrees of specialization as an evidential construction. The following questions were addressed: (1) How many different senses can be distinguished in the sequence se ve (que) and what are their respective frequencies? (2) How do these senses correlate with the morphosyntactic behavior of the sequence se ve (que)? (3) Which senses of se ve (que) are more closely related to each other, and how does the evidential construction relate to this polysemous network? The semantic and formal…
Identidad social y discursiva del turista: su construcción a partir de la oferta de valores abstractos
2017
Este artículo examina cómo la página web hotelera mercantiliza valores simbólicos abstractos, y de qué manera ello incide en la construcción discursiva de un actor social 'turista'. Para ello se propone un análisis cualitativo desde el marco del Análisis Crítico del Discurso, concretamente desde la vertiente socio-cultural de Fairclough (2002), que a su vez parte del sistema de transitividad de Halliday (1985). Considerar la mercantilización de los valores abstractos resulta interesante en este contexto, pues se podría pensar que los hoteles ofrecen ante todo valores de tipo concreto y material, y no abstracto. Sin embargo, la representación mental de lo placentero y deseable en el turista,…