Thesis (M.A.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Dr. James O'Rourke, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 19, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 62 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Les unités phraséologiques représentent actuellement un objet d’étude commun à de nombreuses disciplines en science du langage. C’est dans ce cadre que s’inscrivent les travaux exposés dans la présente thèse. Adoptant une optique pluridisciplinaire alliant linguistique et psycholinguistique et impliquant l’approche comparative interlangue, nous étudions un phénomène linguistique complexe, le figement, en français et arabe dialectal tunisien. Nous proposons, en premier lieu, une description des expressions figées dans les deux langues mises en contraste, en repérant la typologie et le fonctionnement morphosyntaxique, lexical et sémantique de ces séquences. Notre attention se porte essentiellement sur les deux notions importantes dans l’étude du figement: la scalarité et l’iconicité. La méthodologie et les résultats d’une étude psycholinguistique et expérimentale réalisée auprès d’adultes francophones natifs et non natifs (des arabophones tunisiens apprenant le français L2) sont, en second lieu, exposés. L’intérêt est de déterminer si les facteurs linguistiques, degré de figement et iconicité, facilitent le traitement du langage figé au cours d’une tâche de mémorisation impliquant l’encodage et la reconnaissance des séquences figées du français. Une troisième expérience consiste en un test de familiarité qui examine l’effet des facteurs linguistiques, la scalarité et l’iconicité, ainsi que personnels, l’âge et le sexe, sur la connaissance des expressions figées du dialectal tunisien par des locuteurs arabophones natifs. Ces recherches psycholinguistiques, portant sur une population d’adultes, sont suivies d’une étude exploratoire sur l’émergence des expressions figées ou semi-figées chez les enfants. Ce travail suit la double problématique de l’émergence et de la comparaison interlangue. Nous comparons les productions de deux enfants: un enfant arabe tunisien et un enfant français. / The phraseological units currently represent a common object of study in many disciplines in language science. It is in this context that we present our work in this thesis. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach combining linguistic and psycholinguistic involving comparative cross-language approach, our goal is to study a complex linguistic phenomenon, the fixation, in French and Tunisian Arabic dialect. We propose, first, to contrast the fixed expressions in both languages by identifying the type and the morphosyntactic, lexical and semantic operation of these sequences. Our interest will focus on two important concepts in the study of the fixed sequences: scalarity and iconicity. The methodology and results of a psycholinguistic and experimental study among native and non-native francophone adults (Tunisian Arabic speakers learning French as second language) will be then exposed. Our aim is to determine whether language factors, scalarity and iconicity, facilitate the processing of fixed expressions during a memorization task involving the encoding and recognition of French frozen sequences. A third experiment is a test of familiarity that examines the effect of linguistic factors, scalarity and iconicity as well as personal factors such as; age and sex, on the knowledge of Tunisian dialect frozen sequences by Arabic native speakers. This psycholinguistic work carried on an adult population is followed by an exploratory study on the emergence of fixed and semi-fixed expressions in children communication. This work follows the dual problem of emergence and cross-language comparison. We compare the productions of two children: a Tunisian Arab child and a French child.

In this thesis, the usage of iconic expressions, or sound symbolic expressions, is investigated in Swedish child-directed speech during the first two years of life. Furthermore, it is explored whether there is an effect of the usage of sound symbolism on productive vocabulary at 2;0 years. Ten monolingual Swedish and typically-developing children and their parents were selected at the ages of 0;3, 0;6, 0;9, 1;0, 1;3, 1;6, 1;9 and 2;0 years. The sound symbolic expressions were extracted, classified and analysed. One finding is that sound symbolic expressions are used by all parents in varying degrees from sparsely to abundantly. On average 0,9 sound symbolic expressions were used per minute by all parents. There was no significant effect of the usage of sound symbolism on productive vocabulary. Nevertheless, this work shows that iconicity is used in early childhood and might be a part of the register child-directed speech. Further studies should investigate more thoroughly the effect of iconicity on language acquisition. / I denna studie undersöktes ikoniska, eller ljudsymboliska, uttryck i svenskt barnrikat tal under barnets första två levnadsår. Utöver detta testades det om det fanns någon effekt av användning av ljudsymbolik på barnets produktiva ordförråd vid 2;0 år. Tio enspråkiga svenska och typiskt-utvecklade barn och deras föräldrar valdes ut vid 0;3, 0;6, 0;9, 1;0, 1;3, 1;6, 1;9 och 2;0 år och de ljudsymboliska uttrycken extraherades, klassificerades och analyserades. Ett resultat var att alla föräldrar använde sig av ljudsymboliska uttryck; varierande från lite till mycket. I genomsnitt användes det 0,9 ljudsymboliska uttryck per minut av alla föräldrarna. Ingen signifikant effekt på det produktiva ordförrådet kunde hittas. Trots detta så visar detta arbete att ikonicitet används under den tidiga barndomen och att ikonicitet kanske är en del av talstilen ‘barnriktat tal’. Framtida forskning kan undersöka ikonicitetens påverkan på språkinlärning mer ingående. / Modelling infant language acquisition from parent-child interaction (MINT)

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-07-26T17:49:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 pedroataribeiropinto.pdf: 2255947 bytes, checksum: 2cf31a876b204a5b0d0bfa114a1cc486 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-07-27T11:31:03Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 pedroataribeiropinto.pdf: 2255947 bytes, checksum: 2cf31a876b204a5b0d0bfa114a1cc486 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T11:31:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 pedroataribeiropinto.pdf: 2255947 bytes, checksum: 2cf31a876b204a5b0d0bfa114a1cc486 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-04 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Este trabalho sugere uma estrutura teórica para uma Estética Cognitiva pragmaticamente orientada, baseada na Filosofia de Processos e Semiótica Cognitiva de Charles S. Peirce. Esta abordagem pouco explorada é capaz de fornecer novos métodos e premissas para a investigação da relação complexa entre obras de arte, significado, ambiente e artefatos, paradigmas artísticos, e criatividade. Nós oferecemos: (i) uma noção de criatividade artística relacionada as dinâmicas de construção de nicho cognitivo; (ii) um modelo da relação entre significado, criatividade, artefatos e nichos cognitivos; (iii) um modelo de construção de nicho cognitivo através de semiose icônica. As contribuições desta dissertação à Semiótica Cognitiva e Filosofia da Arte incluem, principalmente: a aproximação interdisciplinar entre conceitos e ferramentas teóricas oriundas da Filosofia de Processos, Semiótica, Solução Situada de Problemas, e Biologia Evolutiva; o fornecimento de uma série de análise de exemplos incluindo dança, literatura, música e tarefas de solução de problemas; a sugestação de uma estrutura conceitual para abordar fenômenos estéticos cognitivos. / This work suggests a framework for a pragmatist oriented Cognitive Aesthetics based on Peirce's Process Philosophy of Signs and Cognitive Semiotics. This little explored approach is capable of providing new methods and premises for investigating the complex relationship between artworks, meaning, environment, artistic paradigms, and creativity. We provide: (i) a notion of artistic creativity as related to cognitive niche construction dynamics; (ii) a model of the relationship between meaning, creativity, artifacts and cognitive niches; (iii) a model of cognitive niche construction through iconic semiosis. The contributions of this thesis to Cognitive Semiotics and Philosophy of Art include, mainly: the interdisciplinary approximation between concepts and theoretical tools from Process Philosophy, Semiotics, Situated Problem Solving and Evolutionary Biology; the provision of a series of example analysis in dance, literature, music and in problem solving tasks; the suggestion of a conceptual framework to approach cognitive aesthetic phenomena.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-08-02T19:26:19Z No. of bitstreams: 1 leticiaalvesvitral.pdf: 2896183 bytes, checksum: 1f7330c49125eb2babe8535e19161f46 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Diamantino Mayra (mayra.diamantino@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-08-04T11:13:00Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 leticiaalvesvitral.pdf: 2896183 bytes, checksum: 1f7330c49125eb2babe8535e19161f46 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-04T11:13:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 leticiaalvesvitral.pdf: 2896183 bytes, checksum: 1f7330c49125eb2babe8535e19161f46 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-01 / O fotolivro Palast der Republik, do fotógrafo Christoph Rokitta, é um fotolivro independente publicado em 2013, em Berlim. Neste fotolivro, diferentes recursos semióticos interagem uns com os outros, com a intenção de recriar uma nova experiência semiótica sobre o processo de demolição do edifício homônimo. Em oposição à noção trivial de ícone como um tipo específico de signo que está para seu objeto em uma relação de similaridade, iremos analisar o fotolivro como um ícone cuja principal característica definidora é a possibilidade de descoberta de novas informações sobre seu objeto através de sua manipulação. Esta característica específica dos ícones é chamada de critério operacional de iconicidade. O propósito deste trabalho é descrever e analisar as interações entre os diversos recursos semióticos encontrados no fotolivro Palast der Republik, explorando não apenas o critério operacional de iconicidade, mas também o papel de diagramas nos processos de raciocínio e a função de modelos como artefatos epistêmicos. Portanto, será apresentado como recursos semióticos com características morfológicas diferentes interagem no fotolivro a fim de se criar um artefato epistêmico diagramático de seu objeto: o processo de demolição do Palast der Republik. / Palast der Republik, by the photographer Christoph Rokitta, is an independent photobook published in 2013 in Berlin. In Palast der Republik different semiotic resources interact with one another, in order to reveal a new experience about the demolition process of the homonymous building. In opposition to the trivial notion of icon as sign that stands for its object in a relation of similarity, we are going to analyze the book as an icon whose main feature is the possibility of discovering new information about its object through its manipulation. This specific feature is called operation criteria of iconicity. Our aim is to describe and analyze the relations between semiotic resources in this photobook, by exploring not only the operational criterion of iconicity, but also the roles of diagrams in reasoning, and how models function models as epistemic artifacts. Therefore, it will be presented here how semiotic resources with different morphological features in the photobook interact in order to create a diagrammatic epistemic artifact of its object: the demolition of the Palast der Republik.

Bien que le continuum discursif de l’information télévisée soit marqué par un rituel quotidien, il inscrit les événements dans différents niveaux de profondeur pathémiques. Lors de grandes catastrophes telles que le tsunami d’Asie du Sud-Est de 2004 ou le 11 septembre de 2001, le degré de profondeur atteint semble avoir cristallisé une forme particulière, que le travail de thèse désigne comme information d’urgence, à l’égard de laquelle il s’attache à dessiner les plans conceptuels et définitionnels. Majoritairement manifestée par l’immixtion massive d’images d’amateurs, l’information d’urgence installe des conditions de lecture capables d’élever le pathos à son paroxysme, sur le fond d’une vérité probatoire qui plonge ses racines dans les pratiques sociales/culturelles. Alors qu’ils filtrent la « bonne » réception de l’image, comment les signes de l’imperfectibilité (caractéristiques de ces images) arrivent-ils à renvoyer au monde naturel avec une vérité saisissante ? Comment participent-ils à l’élaboration de la visée pragmatique de l’urgence ? Constituent-ils une autonomie ? En s’appuyant sur un corpus télévisuel de différents pays (France, Portugal et États-Unis), l’exploration des éléments constitutifs de l’information d’urgence guide la réflexion au-delà de la strate sémio-textuelle, vers l’analyse du paradigme communicationnel. En conséquence, s’inscrivant dans une polyphonie sémiotique (autour du verbal, du visuel et des pratiques), cette traversée interrogera les plans d’immanence avant de conduire à une définition stable du syntagme information d’urgence / Despite being a discursive continuum, broadcasted news is marked by daily ritual; it inscribes events into various pathemic depth levels. When catastrophes such as the 2004 South-Asian tsunami or the 9/11 attacks of 2001 occur, the depth level that is reached seems to crystallize into a specific form. My thesis work has led me to conceptualize this particular form as “emergency news” (information d’urgence) and the research aims at defining its conceptual and constitutive traits.“Emergency news” is mainly characterized by a significant amount of amateur images, intermingled with standard professional images. “Emergency news” thus sets up interpretation/reception conditions which in turn are able to heighten pathos to its maximum, within a background frame consisting of a proven truth rooted into social and cultural practices. When signs of imperfection —which are characteristic of amateur images— filter the “right” image reception, how can they reflect the natural world in a strikingly realistic way? How do they contribute to the pragmatic aims of urgency and emergency? Do they work in an autonomous manner? Based on a corpus composed of broadcasted images and news reports from three different countries (France, Portugal and the United States), the exploration of the various elements constitutive of “emergency news” guides the reflexion beyond the semio-textual strata, toward the analysis of the communicational paradigm. Thus, with its inscription in semiotic polyphony (revolving around the visual, the verbal and practices), this journey will question planes of immanence before leading to a stable definition of the “emergency news” syntagm

L’impératif anglais est ici étudié en supposant un lien motivé entre sa forme et ses sens, dans le cadre d’une sémantique textuelle et énonciative cottienne. Analysant un corpus de films américains contemporains, l’étude décrit la construction du sens de requêtes pour y chercher la contributionpropre de l’impératif. Les éléments sémiotisés et non-sémiotisés à ce mode figurant souvent par ailleurs dans le discours, l’impératif apparaît comme une posture énonciative choisie par le locuteur. Celle-ci consiste en un rapport d’immédiateté aux signes et à l’action. L’injonction apparaît ainsi comme d’abord mentale, ce qui explique les cas où l’impératif ne doit pas mener à agir dans le monde. La sous-sémiotisation des relations est aussi une forme de refus des processus d’entrée dans le linéaire de la parole, ce qui peut anticiper une sortie vers le monde des actes. Les hypothèses proposées espèrent ainsi contribuer à montrer comment la brièveté peut être exploitée à des fins directives. / This study analyzes the English imperative in the framework of Pierre Cotte’s textual-gramatical semantics. It hypothesizes that the grammar of imperatives is iconic, i.e. motivated to some degree. The study describes the construction of meaning of requests found in a corpus of contemporary North-American films and isolates the specific contribution of imperatives. The elements verbalized in an imperative clause and those not verbalizedin it are actually both often verbalized in other phases of a request. This suggests that the imperative is a linguistic-cognitive attitude adopted by the speaker: the structure manifests and imposes a relationship of immediacy with the signs and with the action. The imperative command is therefore cognitive first, which explains the cases where an imperativedoes not require the hearer to act. The hypo-semiotic verbalization of the action may also mimic a refusal of the processes that produce connected speech, thus anticipating an exit from talk to action.Keywords: English imperative, iconicity, requests, film corpus, enunciation, textual semantics, grammatical semantics, enunciative linguistics.

My thesis aims to anatomize the cognitive theory of metaphor and suggests a Peircean semiotic perspective on metaphor study. As metaphorical essentialists, Lakoff/Johnson tend to universalize a limited number of conceptual metaphors and, by doing this, they overlook the dynamic relation between metaphorical tenor and vehicle. Such notion of metaphor is not compatible with the polysemous nature of the sign. The diversity and multivalency of metaphorical vehicle, in particular, cast serious doubts on the hypothesis of “conceptual metaphors” which, being meta-metaphorical constructs, can tell us nothing but a dry and empty formula “A is B”. Consequently, Lakoff/Johnson’s notion of conceptual metaphor is very much a Chomskyan postulation. Also problematic is the expedient experientialism or embodied philosophy they have put forward as a middle course between objectivism and subjectivism. What is missing from their framework is a structural space for dynamic interpretation on the part of metaphor users. In contrast, cognitive linguists may find in Peirce’s theory of the sign a sound solution to their theoretical impasse. As a logician, Peirce sees metaphor as the realization of iconic reasoning at the language level. His exposition on iconicity and iconic reasoning has laid a solid foundation upon which may be erected a fresh epistemology of metaphor fit for the contemporary study of language and mind. Broadly speaking, metaphor in Peirce can be examined from roughly two perspectives. Macroscopically, metaphor is an icon in general as opposed to index and symbol, whereas, microscopically, it is a subdivided hypoicon on the third level as opposed to image and diagram. Besides, Peirce also emphasized the subjective nature of metaphor. Semioticians after Peirce have further developed his theory on metaphor. For example, through his concept of “arbitrary iconicity”, Ersu Ding stresses the arbitrary nature of metaphorization and tries to shift our attention away from Lakoff/Johnson’s abstract epistemological Gestalt to the specific cultural contexts in which metaphors occur. Umberto Eco, on the other hand, sees interpretation of signs as an open-ended process that involves knowledge of all kinds. Encyclopedic knowledge thus serves as unlimited source for metaphorical association. For Eco, the meaning of a metaphor should be interpreted in the cultural framework based on a specific cultural community. Both Ding’s and Eco’s ideas are in line with Peirce’s theoretical framework where the meaning of a metaphor depends on an interpreter in a particular socio-historical context. They all realize that we should go beyond the ontology of metaphorical expressions to acquire a dynamic perspective on metaphor interpretation. To overcome the need for presupposing an omnipotent subject capable of knowing the metaphor-in-itself, we turn to Habermas’s theory of communicative action in which the meaning of metaphor is intersubjectively established through negotiation and communication. Moreover, we should not overlook the dynamic tension between metaphor and ideology. Aphoristically, we can say that nothing is a metaphor unless it is interpreted as a metaphor, and we need to reconnect metaphors with the specific cultural and ideological contexts in which they appear.

Cross-cultural differences in the perception of pictorial material has long been established and documented. In the Republic of South Africa, which is increasingly globalized, and where it is appealing from financial, economic and training perspectives, the temptation is to use Western-based AAC symbol systems and strategies in intervention with clients from other language and cultural orientations. The aim of this study was to determine the translucency ratings of specific Blissymbols as rated by six-to seven-year-old Setswana-speaking children. A secondary aim was to determine whether the ratings changed after second and third exposures in order to determine the learnability of these symbols. A brief comparison was made between the results of the current study and the results reported in the Quist et al., study (1998). Thirty-five Setswana learners were exposed to 93 selected Blissymbols, based on a study by Quist et al., (1998). A three-point semantic differential scale, consisting of three faces accompanied each Blissymbol. Participants marked the face that best described his/her perception of the specific symbol’s iconicity. This procedure was repeated over a period of three days. The results indicated that the translucency ratings of the majority of the Blissymbols ranged from moderate to high. The research further demonstrated significant differences in translucency ratings between the first and second exposures, suggesting learning of the symbols. A smaller difference was noted between Days 2 and 3. A correlation in findings was noted between the current study and the Dutch and US studies (Quist et al., 1998). / Dissertation (M (Augmentative and Alternative Communication))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / MA / unrestricted

Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit dem großen Oberthema der Ikonizität und ihrer Verbreitung auf verschiedenen linguistischen Ebenen. Ikonizität bezeichnet die Ähnlichkeit zwischen der sprachlichen Form und ihrer Bedeutung (vgl. Perniss und Vigliocco, 2014). So wie eine Skulptur einem Objekt oder einer Person ähnelt, kann auch der Klang oder die Form von Wörtern der Sache ähneln, auf die sie verweisen. Frühere theoretische Ansätze betonen, dass die Arbitrarität von sprachlichen Zeichen und deren Bedeutung ein Hauptmerkmal menschlicher Sprache ist und Ikonizität für die Sprachevolution eine Rolle gespielt haben mag, jedoch in der heutigen Sprache zu vernachlässigen ist. Im Gegensatz dazu ist das Hauptanliegen dieser Arbeit, das Potenzial und die Bedeutung von Ikonizität in der heutigen Sprache zu untersuchen. Die einzelnen Kapitel der Dissertation können als separate Teile betrachtet werden, die in ihrer Gesamtheit das umfassende Spektrum der Ikonizität sichtbar machen. Von der sprachevolutionären Debatte ausgehend wird in den einzelnen Kapiteln auf die unterschiedlichen Ebenen der Ikonizität eingegangen. Es werden experimentelle Untersuchungen zur Lautsymbolik, am Beispiel der deutschen Pokémon-Namen, zur ikonischen Prosodie und zu ikonischen Wörtern, den sogenannten Ideophonen, vorgestellt. Die Ergebnisse der einzelnen Untersuchungen deuten auf die weite Verbreitung der Ikonizität im heutigen Deutsch hin. Darüber hinaus entschlüsselt diese Dissertation das kommunikative Potenzial der Ikonizität als eine Kraft, die nicht nur die Entstehung der Sprache ermöglichte, sondern auch nach Jahrtausenden bestehen bleibt, sich immer wieder neu entfaltet und uns tagtäglich in mündlicher, schriftlicher Form und in Gesten begegnet. / This dissertation is concerned with the major theme of iconicity and its prevalence on different linguistic levels. Iconicity refers to a resemblance between the linguistic form and the meaning of a referent (cf. Perniss and Vigliocco, 2014). Just like a sculpture resembles an object or a model, so can the sound or shape of words resemble the thing they refer to. Previous theoretical approaches emphasize that arbitrariness of the linguistic sign is one of the main features of human language; iconicity, however, may have played a role for language evolution, but is negligible in contemporary language. In contrast, the main point of this thesis is to explore the potential and the importance of iconicity in the language nowadays. The individual chapters of the dissertation can be viewed as separate parts that, taken together, reveal the comprehensive spectrum of iconicity. Starting from the language evolutionary debate, the individual chapters address iconicity on different linguistic levels. I present experimental evidence on sound symbolism, using the example of German Pokémon names, on iconic prosody, and on iconic words, the so-called ideophones. The results of the individual investigations point to the widespread use of iconicity in contemporary German. Moreover, this dissertation deciphers the communicative potential of iconicity as a force that not only enabled the emergence of language, but also persists after millennia, unfolding again and again and encountering us every day in speech, writing, and gestures.