Claudia Cicerchia and Natalia Basalaeva will present the talks they (and their co-authors) gave during the IACS6 conference in June. Each talk will be 30 minutes, followed by 20 minutes discussion. Despite very different topics, both apply versions of the Semiotic Hierarchy mode. Titles and abstracts are below.

Reframing “the Semiotic Threshold” through Cognitive Semiotics (Claudia Cicerchia, Jordan Zlatev, Filimena Diodato)

This presentation offers a slightly extended version of the talk delivered at the IACS6 conference in Rome. We discuss Umberto Eco’s notion of the “semiotic threshold” (1976) through the lens of cognitive semiotics, contending that Eco’s sign-centered and culture-bound definition of semiosis is unduly restrictive, and, ultimately, the result of a conflation of meaning-making with culturally established sign use. This latter deadlock risks overlooking both pre-linguistic (in the development of human beings) and non-human forms of semiosis (in the vast plurality of non-human animals relationships with the environment).

Drawing on some critiques of the semiotic threshold we defend the idea that conventionality alone is insufficient to delimit the boundaries of a true general theory of semiosis. In its place, we propose the model of the Semiotic Hierarchy elaborated within cognitive semiotics (Zlatev, in press), in which meaning-making is, instead, grounded in subjectivity as its foundational level (rather than in socially instituted sign systems, for example). Levels of semiosis are shown to stem, phenomenologically, from a first-person givenness. Ultimately, it is this foundational relationship with the world, the one allowing animals to experience and interpret the world from a personal perspective, mediated by a value, that makes meaning possible in the first place. The discussion is further supported with Burghardt’s (1997) “fifth aim” of ethology: to include the “private experience” and inner life of animals.

Burghardt, G. M. (1997). Amending Tinbergen: A fifth aim for ethology. Advances in the Study of Behavior, 26, 385–39Zlatev, J. (in press). Five Pillars of Cognitive Semiotics. Open Semiotics.

Stability and variation in selfhood in Russian-Swedish bilinguals )(Natalia Baselaeva, Alexandra Mouratidou, Jordan Zlatev)

Bilingual speakers often report feeling different when using their first and second languages. Although this phenomenon has been widely studied, research remains conceptually fragmented, with terms such as “self”, “identity”, and “personality” often used interchangeably. Moreover, most studies rely on psychometric or behavioural methods, while relatively few explore the lived experience of bilingualism.

Using a cognitive-semiotic framework, we examined whether Russian–Swedish bilinguals living in Sweden experience themselves as the same or different persons across languages. Drawing on a revised version of the Semiotic Hierarchy (Zlatev & Konderak, 2023), we distinguished between three basic levels of selfhood: bodily, enculturated, and linguistic. Phenomenological interviews were conducted with 13 participants to investigate how they experienced themselves at each level and how changes occurred over time.The results showed more stability on the bodily level, more variance of features related to selfhood on the linguistic level, with the enculturated level falling, predictably, in between. These findings support a view of bilingual selfhood as based on processes of continuous negotiation, giving rise to hybrid selves marked by both continuity and transformation.

Zlatev, J., & Konderak, P. (2023). Consciousness and Semiosis. In J. Pelkey (Ed.) Bloomsbury Semiotics Volume 1: History and Semiosis, 169-192. Bloomsbury Academic.