Analyzing polysemiosis: Language, gesture, and depiction in two cultural practices with sand drawing
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https://hdl.handle.net/10037/30734Date
2023-06-26Type
Journal articleTidsskriftartikkel
Peer reviewed
Abstract
Human communication is by default polysemiotic: it involves the spontaneous combination of two or more semiotic systems, the most important ones being
language, gesture, and depiction. We formulate an original cognitive-semiotic
framework for the analysis of polysemiosis, contrasting this with more familiar
systems based on the ambiguous term “multimodality.” To be fully explicit, we
developed a coding system for the analysis of polysemiotic utterances containing
speech, gesture, and drawing, and implemented this in the ELAN video annotation
software. We used this to analyze 23 video-recordings of sand drawing performances
on Paama, Vanuatu and 20 sand stories of the Pitjantjatjara culture in Central
Australia. Methodologically we used the conceptual-empirical loop of cognitive
semiotics: our theoretical framework guided general considerations, such as distinguishing between the “tiers” of gesture and depiction, and the three kinds of
semiotic grounds (iconic, indexical, symbolic), but the precise decisions on how to
operationalize these were made only after extensive work with the material. We
describe the coding system in detail and provide illustrative examples from the
Paamese and Pitjantjatjara data, remarking on both similarities and differences in
the polysemiosis of the two cultural practices. We conclude by summarizing the
contributions of the study and point to some directions for future research.
Publisher
De GruyterCitation
Zlatev, Devylder, Defina, Moskaluk, Andersen. Analyzing polysemiosis: Language, gesture, and depiction in two cultural practices with sand drawing. Semiotica: Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies. 2023Metadata
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