The notion of semiotics as a universal language that can encompass any object of perception makes it the focus of a revolutionary field of inquiry, the semiotics of art. This volume represents a unique gathering of semiotic approaches to art: from Saussurian linguistics to transformational grammar, from Prague School aesthetics to Peircean pragmatism, from structuralism to poststructuralism. Though concerned specifically with the semiotics of music and literature, the essays reveal the breadth of semiotics’ interdisciplinary appeal, involving specialists in musicology, ethnomusicology, jazz performance, literary criticism, poetics, aesthetics, rhetoric , linguistics, dance, and film. The diversity of authorial training and approach makes this collection a dramatic demonstration of the on-going debates in the field. In many ways the semiotics of art is the testing ground of sign theory as a whole, and work in this subject is as vital to the interests of theoretical semioticians as to students of the arts. It is to both these interests that this volume is addressed.

Provides a new perspective on important linguistic issues in philosophical and religious Daoism through the comparative lens of twentieth-century European philosophies of language. From its earliest origins in the Dao De Jing, Daoism has been known as a movement that is skeptical of the ability of language to fully express the truth. While many scholars have compared the earliest works of Daoism to language-skeptical movements in twentieth-century European philosophy and have debated to what degree early Daoism does or does not resemble these recent movements, Daniel Fried breaks new ground by examining a much broader array of Daoist materials from ancient and medieval China and showing how these works influenced ideas about language in medieval religion, literature, and politics. Through an extended comparison with a broad sample of European philosophical works, the book explores how ideas about language grow out of a given historical moment and advances a larger argument about how philosophical and religious ideas cannot be divided into “content” and “context.” “Fried combines the disciplines of semiotics with a largely philosophical approach, thus offering fresh insights into both disciplines, while looking at issues from multiple perspectives.” — Steven Burik, author of The End of Comparative Philosophy and the Task of Comparative Thinking: Heidegger, Derrida, and Daoism

This book presents the thoroughly refereed post-workshop proceedings of an International Workshop on Gesture and Sign Language in Human-Computer Interaction held in Bielefeld, Germany, in 1997. The book presents 25 revised papers together with two invited lectures. Recently, gesture and sign language have become key issues for advanced interface design in the humanization of computer interaction: AI, neural networks, pattern recognition, and agent techniques are having a significant impact on this area of research and development. The papers are organized in sections on semiotics for gesture movement, hidden Markov models, motion analysis and synthesis, multimodal interfaces, neural network methods, and applications.

In Ten Lectures on Cognitive Linguistics and the Unification of Spoken and Signed Languages Sherman Wilcox suggests that rather than abstracting away from the material substance of language, linguists can discover the deep connections between signed and spoken languages by taking an embodied view. This embodied solution reveals the patterns and principles that unite languages across modalities. Using a multidisciplinary approach, Wilcox explores such issues as the how to apply cognitive grammar to the study of signed languages, the pervasive conceptual iconicity present throughout the lexicon and grammar of signed languages, the relation of language and gesture, the grammaticization of signs, the significance of motion for understanding language as a dynamic system, and the integration of cognitive neuroscience and cognitive linguistics.

The book presents an empirical and theoretical investigation of lexical nonmanuals in German Sign Language including torso, head, and facial expressions. Three empirical studies demonstrate the relevance of nonmanuals for the wellformedness of signs, their meaning, and lexical processing. Moreover, implications for the theoretical implementation of lexical nonmanuals concerning, e.g., articulation patterns and phonological status are discussed.

This book defines the notion of applied sign linguistics by drawing on data from projects that have explored sign language in action in various domains. The book gives professionals working with sign languages, signed language teachers and students, research students and their supervisors, authoritative access to current ideas and practice.

Isaiah 7:14 is one of the most debated verses in all of Scripture. Scholars from all backgrounds have provided countless works on the interpretation of this one verse. Yet, there is no decisive material that confirms exactly what the verse means. The implications of this one verse carry into prophecy, biblical inspiration, biblical infallibility, and numerous other issues. This book analyzes the way the writers of the Old Testament used the Hebrew word'ot, which is often translated "sign." The author then takes that information and discusses the implications of that usage regarding Isaiah 7:14. For example, in some instances, the word referred to miraculous events. In others, it may have referred to something symbolic. Throughout the work, the writer analyzes various aspects of the usage of the word and seeks to determine if there is a relevant pattern to apply to the way the word is used in Isaiah 7:14.