Semiotic Model of Symbolism
Project: the search for meaning “What is the meaning of this experience/word/statement/symbol?”
Communication takes place thru signs (C.S. Pierce’s usage; anthropologists generally use the word ‘symbol’)
I.
Meaning: communication takes place thru the exchange
1. Language
2. Signs
We use both language and non-linguistic signs to send, receive and interpret messages, whose content is meaning.
Interpretation is the act of extracting meaning from a message.
II.
Experience: Facts are true experiences
1. Belief
a. Conviction
b. Subjective
c. Value-laden
2. Knowledge
a. Proof
b. Objective
c. Value-free
3. Negation is non-sense (= not interpreted correctly)
Cognitive Model of Symbolism
Project: The search for (cultural) knowledge: “What do we know with symbols?”
Nils Bohr “Science is the study of what we can reasonably say about our experience of nature.”
WD Auden: Ar Poetica “A poem should not mean, but be.”
The use of symbols is an evolutionary property of human sociality
I. Language
1. Knowing what a word means vs knowing what experiences it applies to
2. Well-formed utterences vs nonsense
3. Problem of “being” and negative evidence
4. Contradiction forms negation
II. Knowledge is a formulation (in signs/language) of experience
A. Symbolic (figurative) knowledge
1. Categorization
2. Relations among categories
3. Untestable
4. Typically implicit
5. Opposition forms negation
6. Normative
7. Figurative
B. Encyclopedic (scientific) knowledge
1. Causal
2. Chains of causation as experience
3. Testable
4. As explicit as possible
5. Incompatibility forms negation
6. Value-free
7. Logical
Truth
Four forms of Truth
1. Correct interpretation
2. Reasoning from assumptions
3. The opposite of lies
4. Not-yet-falsified scientific formulations
What are Symbols?
Symbols are
Patterns of and for action that
Connect knowledge, emotion and value by
Establishing relations among categories of thought
Thru statements about the world of (possible?) experience
Analytic Pitfalls
1. “What does a symbol mean” is an emic, not an etic, question.
2. “Real” vs “symbolic” is an (our own) emic construction
3. Single symbols cannot be interpreted in isolation: each is a part of a local system of cultural knowledge
Symbols make it possible to
1. Attach emotion to representations (words, pictures, gestures, cultural objects, natural objects and phenomena) of
experience
2. Act with conviction in the face of cultural contradictions
a. By linking areas of strong knowledge to areas of weak knowledge
b. Figuratively (analogically) rather than literally
Separating Language and Symbols, Joined at the Word
Linguistic Data differ from Symbolic Data in four ways
Linguistic
1. Sharp limits: small and distinct group of auditory perceptions only
2. Exclusivity: auditory perceptions of linguistic data cluster as precise sets for each language
3. Separation: linguistic data from different languages form different languages in each person
4. Learning: early satisfactory performance threshold for all languages (approx. 4~7 yrs old)
5. Grammar: each language has its own grammar (by evolved descent/by family)
Symbolic
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
No perceptually defined limits (anything can be symbolic)
No set of perceptions exclusive to one symbolic mechanism (by culture)
Only one symbolic mechanism forms in each person regardless of the source of the data
No distinction between learning and use periods for symbolic mechanism (e.g., children practicing joke forms)
The symbolic mechanism has one form: A:B::C:D
Three Kinds of Knowledge
I.
II.
III.
Semantic/Analytic – knowledge of words, definitions, categories (a good dictionary provides everything there is to
know about a word’s denotative meaning)
a. The lion is an animal
b. The unicorn is an animal
c. A good knife cuts well
d. A single person is not married
Encyclopedic/Synthetic – knowledge of the world and its content (all true or false depending on the state of the
world, not semantics: some knowledge implies other knowledge; testable by more experience; avoids contradiction
a. The lion is a dangerous animal
b. The unicorn does not exist
c. A good knife is expensive
d. My wife’s name is Betsy
Symbolic/Figurative/Poetic – takes the linguistic shape of encyclopedic knowledge, but is not testable against
experience
a. The lion is the king of beasts
b. The unicorn can be tamed only by a virgin
c. A good knife has eyes of its own
d. A marriage is a sacred bond between two people