Open Access from 2024
Starting with Volume 2024 (Issue 256), Semiotica is transformed into a Diamond Open Access journal thanks to our subscribers participating in the Subscribe to Open (S2O) project. All current content will be published under a Creative Commons License (CC-BY 4.0) at no cost to authors and will be freely available to readers.
All authors retain copyright, unless – due to their local circumstances – their work is not copyrighted.
ObjectiveSemiotica is published in six annual issues, in two languages (English and French). From time to time, Special Issues, devoted to topics of particular interest, are assembled by Guest Editors. The publishers of
Semiotica offer an annual prize, the Mouton d'Or, to the author of the best article each year. The article is selected by an independent international jury.
Topics
We welcome papers reporting results of research in all branches of semiotic studies.
Article formats
Research articles, in-depth reviews, guest editorials, reports
Announcement: Winner of the 2023 Mouton d’Or Prize
The 2023 jury is composed of Donna West, Kristian Bankov, and Ekaterina Velmezova (Chair).
The committee has selected:
Jordan Zlatev, Simon Devylder, Rebecca Defina, Kalina Moskaluk and Linea Brink Andersen
"Analyzing polysemiosis: language, gesture, and depiction in two cultural practices with sand drawing"
Semiotica 2023; 253: 81–116
Presentation:
This study utilizes empirical findings via the authors’ own research to demonstrate the interplay between gesture and depictive skills. The findings indicate how indexical and iconic reference together give rise to communicative competence.
The paper is important because it elaborates on an entirely new analytic approach – the cognitive-semiotic framework – in a very detailed and systematic way. Building on earlier work by the first two authors, here the research is presented in a most accomplished version. On one hand, the framework is more exact for analytical purposes than the hyper-popular multimodal analysis. On the other hand, it constitutes via case studies the inner workings of polysemiotic communication; and it does so by illustrating responses to sand drawings from Australia and Vanuatu – a subject rarely considered in semiotic research. Finally, the article is interdisciplinary in the best sense of the word, showing the possibility, in semiotics, for the cooperation of diverse disciplines.
Présentation:
Cette étude s'appuie sur des résultats empiriques issus de la recherche des autrices et des auteurs pour démontrer l'interaction entre les compétences gestuelles et descriptives. Les résultats indiquent comment les références indexicales et iconiques donnent lieu à une compétence communicative.
L'article est important parce qu'il développe une approche analytique entièrement nouvelle - le cadre cognitivo-sémiotique - de manière très détaillée et systématique. S'appuyant sur les travaux antérieurs des deux premiers auteurs, la recherche est présentée ici dans une version plus aboutie. D'une part, le cadre est plus précis à des fins analytiques que l'analyse multimodale, aujourd’hui très à la mode. D'autre part, il décrit, par le biais d'études de cas, les rouages de la communication polysémiotique, et ce en illustrant les réponses à des dessins de sable provenant d'Australie et de Vanuatu - un sujet rarement pris en compte dans la recherche sémiotique. Enfin, l'article est interdisciplinaire dans le meilleur sens du terme, montrant la possibilité, en sémiotique, d'une coopération entre diverses disciplines.
