Search

From the 1980s, the notion of iconicity is frequently used in linguistics to describe the motivated relationship between the forms of the object and their meanings. Over the past hundred years, researchers from various countries have successively discovered iconic relationships between specific linguistic structures and structures of human experience, observable phenomena in various languages. As an ideographic script, linguistic studies always consider Chinese script as a special case compared to other scripts in linguistic study. Therefore, the problems of iconicity are mentioned much less regarding Chinese writing. In fact, by discovering the origin of the characters of this writing, we realize that the problem of graphic iconicity deserves further study. Our studies are therefore interested in exposing the phenomena of iconicity in Chinese writing and especially the degree and the different types of iconicity in the different styles of Chinese writing, and in particular in the Six Classifications (liùshū 六书), the most orthodox classification of writing that has existed for over two thousand years in China. How the typology of graphic iconicity is marked in Chinese writing is one of the main questions we discuss in this thesis. From the point of view of iconicity, we then bring a coordinated (common) reflection on the question of sinographic typology which could help to consider the current taxonomic conflict on the true nature of Chinese characters. By analyzing the extent of the semantic motivation of the Chinese character, we first have an overview of the typology of iconicity in this ideographic script. The in-depth analyzes lead us to reinterpret the different types of Chinese characters, which examine the characteristics of the sinograms from the angle of iconicity and then to perform a deconstruction of the Chinese characters. Finally, a reconstruction is necessary, which leads us to study the relevance of the representation of the nature of the Chinese language in the teaching of foreign languages., À partir des années 1980, la notion d’iconicité est employée fréquemment en linguistique pour décrire la relation motivée entre les formes de l’objet et leurs significations. Au cours des cent dernières années, des chercheurs de divers pays ont successivement découvert des relations iconiques entre des structures linguistiques spécifiques et des structures d'expériences humaine, phénomènes observables dans diverses langues. En tant qu’une écriture idéographique, les études linguistiques regardent toujours l’écriture chinoise comme un cas spécifique par rapport à d’autres écritures en étude linguistique. C’est pourquoi les sujets liés à l’iconicité sont largement moins évoqués à propos de l’écriture chinoise. En réalité, en croisant la question de l’iconicité et celle de la singularité de ce système d’écriture, on réaliste que le problème d’iconicité graphique mérite des études plus avancées. Notre étude porte sur les phénomènes d’iconicité dans l’écriture chinoise et le degré et les divers types d’iconicité dans les différents styles d’écriture chinoise, et surtout dans les Six Classes (liùshū 六书), la classification de l’écriture la plus orthodoxe qui existe depuis plus de deux milles ans en Chine. Comment la typologie de l’iconicité graphique s’inscrit dans l’écriture chinoise est une des questions principales que nous discutons dans cette thèse. Dans la perspective de l’iconicité, nous amenons ensuite une réflexion coordonnée (commune) sur la question de la typologie sinographique qui pourrait aider à envisager le conflit taxinomique actuel sur la vraie nature des caractères chinois. En analysant l’étendue de la motivation sémantique du caractère chinois, nous avons d’abord un aperçu sur la typologie d’iconicité dans cette écriture idéographique. Les analyses approfondies nous amènent à réinterpréter les différents types de caractères chinois, qui examinent les caractéristiques des sinogrammes sous l’angle de l’iconicité et à effectuer ensuite une déconstruction des caractères chinois. Enfin, une reconstruction s’impose, qui nous emmène à étudier la pertinence de la représentation de la nature de la langue chinoise dans l’enseignement des langues étrangères.

International audience; Mathematical narrative is a concept that has gradually been attracting the attention of school teachers and mathematics educators in especially recent years. The term ‘mathematical narrative' in this workshop proposal refers to a form of narrative that is used to communicate or construct mathematical meaning or understanding. By introducing certain metaphors, a narrator may induce or promote learners' or listeners' mathematical understanding. This teaching tool can be used, for instance, to encourage further reflections upon some mathematical concepts or for alternative remedial learning, especially after conventional classroom teaching. Moreover, this can be applied in liberal arts courses at the university level. One straight forward way to introduce mathematical narrative into teaching is to use stories, arguments, problems, and their solutions from history, but one can also use literary metaphors to improve understanding. In this workshop, two school teachers and two mathematics educators will share their experiences in using mathematical narrative in their teaching, and also exchange teaching ideas with other participants in the workshop. The four presenters and the topics they will be discussing are described below. Presenter 1: Yi-Wen Su, Department of Mathematics, University of Taipei. The starting point of HPM is always history, and so is the beginning of this workshop. The first presenter is also the organiser of this workshop, and she shall share her experiences on how to design an activity to help improve undergraduate mathematics majors' reading comprehension using pre-modern mathematical arguments. The main material in this activity is the original proof of Heron's formula by Heron, and also another procedure that is equivalent to Heron's formula found in a thirteenth-century Chinese mathematical text written by Qin Jiushao. Presenter 2: Jyun-Wei Huang, Taipei Municipal Heping High School. The second presenter shall discuss his teaching in an elective mathematics course in senior high school in Taiwan (10th–12th grade). The core of this course is the use of the five most beautiful mathematical equations. The teacher tries to integrate mathematics discourse and mathematics writing in his teaching, and guides students in creating artistic works such as mathematical fictions, poems, games, and movies. In this way, he can help his students discover the beauty of mathematics and enhance their motives in learning. Presenter 3: Yuh-Fen Chen, New Taipei Municipal Mingder High School. The third presenter mainly teaches junior high school in Taiwan (7th–9th grade). She will share many activities designed by the team of mathematics teachers in her school, including publishing a school mathematical magazine, engaging students in mathematical games they created, decorating the school with ‘mathematical tablets' that have their origins in the mathematical writings from Japan's Edo period, and encouraging students to write popular science novels after some mathematical reading. Presenter 4: Wann-Sheng Horng, Department of Mathematics, National Taiwan Normal University. Last but definitely not the least, history is transformed into narratives. The final presenter will introduce his experience in combining literary metaphor in teaching for undergraduate liberal art courses in mathematics. The main example he shall use is a questionnaire he employs to help students reflect upon mathematical concepts. He uses a metaphor quoted from Eli Maor's popular work, The Pythagorean Theorem: A 4,000-Year History. Maor uses the metaphor of ‘democracy' to talk about a theorem related to chords in a circle. The presenter's questionnaire guides students to reflect upon many aspects of Euclidean geometry and helps many university students, who are relatively weak in mathematics, to gain a new perspective about the discipline. Keywords: mathematical narrative, history of mathematics, reading, HPM