THE CONCEPTUAL OUTLINE OF PERCEPTION IN TERMS OF GREIMASSIAN SEMIOTIC THEORY

Anna Zaslonkina

Abstract


The current study addresses the nature of the relation between perceptual, cognitive, emotional processes, and linguistic experience within the observer framework. As an extension of the already conducted investigations into the semiotics of the sensible, the conceptual triad SENSE : FEELING : EMOTION is introduced. The study argues that the ternion in question is a component of human expressivity constituting the semiotic space of the thymic category. The synergism of cognitive-semantic characteristics of the three concepts under study corresponds to the basic level of categorisation in modern English. More significantly, the aim of the analysis is to consider the valency models of the names of the conceptual triad SENSE : FEELING : EMOTION as well as their collocability potential. The present paper highlights that the structures of predicate valency of conceptual dependencies FEELING → SENSE (the valency index equals 0,38) outnumber the analogous structures FEELING → EMOTION (the valency index equals 0,24). The structures of object valency of the combinations FEELING → EMOTION (the valency index is 0,9) prevail over the combinations SENSE → FEELING (with the valency index of 0,1). The data obtained confirm the idea that the correlation between observer and observable is twofold: cognitive-perceptual correlation denotes the observer’s outward perspective, whereas cognitive-emotional correlation denotes the observer’s inward perspective.

Keywords


category; concept; observable; observer; perception; lexical valency

Full Text:

PDF

References


Adams, D. (1991). The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. New York: Pocket Books.

Adams, D., Adams, R., Ahern, J., Aldiss, B., Alexander, L., Allston, A., … Zelazny, R. (2003). Biblioteka sovremennoj anglojazychnoj literatury (serija Master Media) [The library of modern English literature (Master Media series)]. [CD ROM]. St. Petersburg, Russia: BHV-Peterburg.

Apresjan, Y.D. (1995). Izbrannye trudy. V 2 tomah. Tom II: Integralnoe opisanie jazyka i sistemnaja leksikografija [Selected Works. In 2 Volumes. Vol. II: The integrated description of language and system lexicography]. Moscow, Russia: Jazyki slovjanskoj kultury.

Banks, I. (2002). Complicity. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Bell, D., Forster, K., & Drake Sh. (2015). Early semantic activation in a semantic categorization task with masked primes: Cascaded or not? Journal of Memory and Language, 85, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2015.06.007

Bickerton, D. (1990). Language and species. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Bova, B. (1989). Cyberbooks. New York: Tor Books.

Bova, B. (1991). Star Brother. New York: Tor Books.

Brdar, M. (2010). Review of the book New Directions in Cognitive Linguistics by V. Evans & S. Pourcel (Eds.). Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 8, 363 –375. https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.8.2.06brd

Brin, D. (1984). Startide Rising. New York: Spectra.

Brin, D. (1994). Glory Season. New York: Spectra.

Brooks, T. (1995). The Tangle Box. New York: Del Ray.

Brooks, T. (1997). First King of Shannara. New York: Del Rey.

Damasio, A. (1999). The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness. New York: Harcourt Brace.

Fauconnier, G. (1998). Mental Spaces: Aspects of Meaning Construction in Natural Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Free Online Thesaurus (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2017, from: http://www.thesaurus.com/

Gärdenfors, P. (2000). Conceptual Spaces: The Geometry of Thought. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

Greimas, A.J., & Fontanille, J. (2007). Semiotika strastej. Ot sostojanija veshchej k sostojaniju dushy [Semiotics of the sensible. From the state of matter to the state of mind] (I.G. Merkulova, Transl.). Moscow, Russia: URSS.

Hanczakowski, M., Beaman, C. Philip, & Jones, Dylan M. (2017). When distraction benefits memory through semantic similarity. Journal of Memory and Language, 94, 61-74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2016.11.005

Komlev, N.G. (2006). Komponenty soderzhatelnoj struktury slova [Components of the content structure of the word]. Moscow, Russia: KomKnyha.

Kosenko, Y.V. (2011). Osnovy teorii movnoi komunikacii [Fundamentals of linguistic communication theory]. Sumy, Ukraine: Sumy State University.

Levyckyj, V.V. (2004). Kvantitativnye metody v lingvistike. [Qantitative methods in linguistics]. Chernovtsy, Ukraine: Ruta

Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, B., & Wilson, P. (2010). A contrastive perspective on emotions: surprise. Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 8, 321-350. https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.8.2.04lew

Maturana, Humberto R. (1978). Biology of Language: The Epistemology of Reality. In G. Miller, E. Lenneberg (Eds.), Psychology and Biology of Language and Thought. New York: Academic Press. Retrieved 15 February, 2015, from Slide Share website, https://www.slideshare.net/Longsthride/78-biology-of-language-humberto-1978

Nikitin, M.V. (2009). Osnovy lingvisticheskoj teorii znachenija [Fundamentals of linguistic theory of meaning]. Moscow, Russia: Knizhnyj dom “LIBROKOM”.

Online English dictionary Wordnik (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2017, from http://www.wordnik.com

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English (2001). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Piers, A. & Farmer, Ph. J. (1992). The Caterpillar’s Question. New York: Ace Books.

Piers, A. & Margroff R. (1991). Dragon’s Gold. New York: Tor Books.

Piers, A. (1991). Virtual Mode. New York: Ace Books.

Piquer-Pz, & Alejo-Gonzz, R. (2016). Applying Cognitive Linguistics: Identifying some current research foci (figurative language in use, constructions and typology). Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 1, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.14.1.01piq

Power, N., Beattie, G., & McGuire, L. (2017). Mapping our underlying cognitions and emotions about good environmental behavior: Why we fail to act despite the best of intentions. Semiotica, 215, 193-234. https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2016-0035

Poznanski, R. (2002). Towards an integrative theory of cognition. Journal of Integrative Neuroscience, 01, 145-156. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219635202000086

Questia Online Library (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2017, from http://www.questia.com/

Rosch, E., & Lloyd, B.B. (1978). Cognition and Categorization. Hillslade, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Ruiz Moneva, A. (2010). Relevance-theoretical versus pragmatic and cognitive approaches to coherence: A survey. Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 8, 19-65. https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.8.1.02rui

Schleifer, R. (2017). The semiotics of sensation: A. J. Greimas and the experience of meaning. Semiotica, 214, 173-192. https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2016-0182

Shuman, V., Clark-Polner, E., Meuleman, B., Sander, D., & Scherer, Klaus R. (2015). Emotion perception from a componential perspective. Cognition and Emotion, 31, 47-56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2015.1075964

Sørensen, B.,Thellefsen, T., & Thellefsen M. (2016). The meaning creation process, information, emotion, knowledge, two objects, and significance-effects: Some Peircean remarks. Semiotica, 208, 211-34. https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2015-0117

The British National Corpus Database (n.d.) Retrieved July 18, 2017, from http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk

Ufimceva, A.A. (2004). Tipy slovesnyh znakov [Types of verbal signs]. Moscow, Russia: Editorial URSS.

Varela, F.J. (1992). Autopoiesis and a Biology of Intentionality. In B. McMullin, N. Murphy (Eds.), Autopoiesis and Perception: A Workshop with ESPRIT BRA 3352 (pp. 4–14). Dublin, Ireland: Dublin City University. Retrieved September 23, 2016, from CEPA.INFO website, http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/archive/fulltexts/1274.html

Wierzbicka, A. (1986). Vosprijatie: semantika abstraktnogo slovarja. [Perception: semantics of abstract vocabulary]. Novoe v zarubezhnoj lingvistike. Logicheskij analiz estestvennogo jazyka, XVIII, 336–369. Moscow, Russia: Progress.

Wierzbicka, A. (1996). Jazyk. Kultura. Poznanie [Language. Culture. Cognition]. Moscow, Russia: Russkie slovari. Retrieved December 12, 2016, from https://komyshkovaad.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/yazyk_kultura_poznanie.pdf

Wierzbicka, A. (1999). Semanticheskie universalii i opisanie jazykov. [Semantic universals and description of languages]. (A. Shmelev, Transl.). Moscow, Russia: Jazyki russkoj kultury.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.20535/2410-8286.109782

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2018 Anna Volodymyrivna Zaslonkina

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

ISSN 2410-8286 (Online), ISSN 2409-3351 (Print)