Fétiche

Le terme « fétiche » et son utilisation en anthropologie. Le fétiche en psychologie et en sexologie. Le fétiche en sémiotique: un signe; un signe indiciaire; un signe incidiaire métonymique, généralement une synecdoque, généralement associé à des éléments iconiques et symboliques.The definition of « fetish » and its usage in anthropology. Fetish in psychology and sexology. Fetish in semiotics: a sign; an indexical sign; a metonymical indexical sign generally viewed as a synecdoche and associated with iconic and symbolic elements

El icono en la doctrina de signos

Texto legendario sobre categorías fundamentales de la semiótica

Los animales sabios: secretos del oficio

A partir de la distinción entre aprendizaje y amaestramiento, los autores se suman a las críticas de H. S. Terrace y su equipo respecto a la posibilidad de enseñar lenguaje a los animales. Señalan que parece surgir una dependencia de la guía humana en los entrenamientos con antropoides, los cuales realizan producciones correctas tras descubrir indicios no intencionados en el experimentador. Esta afirmación se justifica analizando los estudios con las chimpancés Sara y Washoe, centrándose en las posibilidades de comunicación �extralingüística� de los experimentos de doble ciego realizados con esta última. Seguidamente los autores critican las investigaciones de E. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh y colegas desde las mismas premisas y finalizan con algunas reflexiones en torno a la imposibilidad de realizar experimentos sin la presencia humana, subrayando que la acomodación de chimpancés, gorilas, investigadores y experimentadores a la situación experimental hace que los avances reales en la comunicación hombre-antropoide sean todavía materia de ficción.Starting from a distinction between learning and training, the authors add their critiques to those of H. S. Terrace in relation to the possibility of teaching language skills to animals. They point out that a dependency on human guidance seems to arise in anthropoid training, as they perform properly when discovering non deliberate clues from the investigators. This affirmation is justified by the analysis of the studies realized with the chimpanzees Sara and Washoe, focusing on the �extralinguistical� communication possibilities of double-blind experiments realized with the latter. With the same approach, the authors criticize then the investigations of E. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and colleagues offering some reflections about the impossibility of performing experiments without the presence of humans. Finally, it is highlighted that the accommodation of chimpanzees, gorillas, investigators and researchers to the experimental environment still makes real advances in human/anthropoid communication a matter of science-fictio

Materials for an Aymara Dictionary.

Sebeok Thomas A. Materials for an Aymara Dictionary.. In: Journal de la Société des Américanistes. Tome 40, 1951. pp. 89-151

A Sign is Just a Sign

Signs are the basis of all communication. Semiotics—the study of signs—has increasingly become an area of intellectual inquiry, and the word itself is now even known to the general public, thanks to the popularity ofnovels by David Lodge and the fame of Umberto Eco. No one has done more to advance the study of signs than Thomas A. Sebeok. In countless books and articles, he has written in a fascinating and erudite manner about almost every conceivable type of sign activity. This volume gathers some of his most accessibie essays, all dealing with fundamental problems of contemporary semiotics, or what Locke and Peirce, following medieval tradition, called the Doctrine of Signs. The first chapter constitutes an overview. Successive chapters consider the special relationships of semiotics to communication, linguistics, and the marketplace. Sebeok also discusses the evolution of semiosis and the natural history of language as a modeling system and superstructural modeling systems in a semiotic framework. The notion of "animal" is looked at from both a biological and a semiotic perspective, and the Clever Hans phenomenon is restudied in a historical context. Also examined are three important semiotic categories—the index, the fetish, and the second self. Sebeok concludes with some speculations about the future of semiotics and semiosis

Domaine et objet de la sémiotique [Scope and aims of semiotics]

In the context of the semiotic field, the author first defines the functional area of message exchange and the structural area of subjacent sign systems, each of which implies the other. He then goes on to set out the criteria which enable one to make a classification of signs in a synchronic perspective from an extrinsic viewpoint — i.e. from the point of view of communications functions — as well as from an intrinsic standpoint — from the point of view of their structure. (The possibility of a diachronic form of classification if not entered into.) First the criteria which would probably be useful in an extrinsic synchronic sign classification system are set out in the framework of a simple communication model consisting of a transmitter and a receiver linked by various channels transmitting a coded message within a given context. With reference to the codifier, i.e. the transmitter, the author distinguishes between transmitters consisting of inorganic objects (natural or manufactured) and of terrestrial (men and animals) or extraterrestrial organic objects, as well as between these and transmitters consisting in part or in entirety of an organism. When speaking of the transmitter-receiver unit, he distinguishes animal communication from human communication, which can be intra-, inter- or pluri-personal. Dealing next with the channels, he distinguishes between matter-channels and energy-channels. With regard to the overall features of the pattern, he differentiates between human and animal communication with or without the use of an instrument as medium bringing into play signs produced either by the subject himself or by means of an instrument. Finally, he remarks that superior organised beings, including man, enjoy the ability to use several semiotic systems simultaneously. An intrinsic synchronic system of sign classification brings one back to the problem of the sign and the relationship between content and expression. This is the concern of semantics, a field of study which poses two fundamental questions concerning the reference of a «token» and the meaning of a «type» (to use Peirce's terminology) and the distinction to be made between relationships of references and of designation. Proceeding from these notions, the author sets out a sign classification system or, to be more precise, a system for classifying the superior aspects of signs which are used to refer to them and which differentiates signals, symptoms, syndromes, icons, indexes, symbols and names.Sebeok Thomas A. Domaine et objet de la sémiotique [Scope and aims of semiotics]. In: Ethnies, volume 3, 1973. Linguistique et relations interethniques. pp. 69-80