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The traditional ornaments, characteristic for the Latvian and Lithuanian ethnographic regions, are an essential part of traditional Baltic culture. Since the 19th century researchers have studied their technical aspects and semiotics (Brastiņš, 1923; Dzērvīts, 1925; Celms 2007) but little attention has been paid to empirical terminology. The name is an integral part of the sign, it often carries semantic information helping to reveal its usage and significance. In Latvia, the names of traditional signs have been influenced by the work of Brastiņš and dievturi (“Keepers of Dievs”) who attributed the names of Baltic mythological deities to ornaments linking them to the manifestations of the deity mentioned in the denominations. While these denominations are very popular in Latvia, in Lithuania very similar ornaments are called and interpreted differently. This research focuses on collecting and analysing Baltic ornament nomenclature published in Latvia and Lithuania in the first half of the 20th century. It compares the ornament naming traditions in both countries and highlights the main parallels and differences. It also reviews previous research of ornament in Latvia and Lithuania where significant differences can be seen – while semiotic research dominates in Latvia, in Lithuania more attention has been paid to the nomenclature, although in both countries the nomenclature has often been viewed separately from the visual form, making the research of ornament evolution and typology difficult. It has been found that the spectrum of ornament nomenclature at the beginning of the 20th century in Latvia was more diverse than it is now; that it is common for Latvians and Lithuanians to view ornament as a pattern rather than separate graphic elements and that geometric, plant, animal, artefact and celestial body denominations dominate the nomenclature of both languages. Symbols appearing in Baltic culture are also present in ornament nomenclature.

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The paper focuses on the book of poetry immersion (2017) by Lithuanian poet Gytis Norvilas, maps the strategies of its reading within the framework of the semiotic-pragmatic approach, and considers the theoretical issues of the mapping. Despite the book cannot be unambiguously defined as an example of patterned poetry, it is configured in a specific way which exposes the functionality of the structural visual layer in written / printed poetry. This feature of the text in question inspires to revise the interpretation of the issue of iconicity and the configuration of the model of reading literature, proposed by the semiotic-pragmatic approach. The semiotic-pragmatic modelling combines Peircean and Jakobsonian ideas with minor insertions of Lotmanian thought (i.e. Johansen 2002), thus it links the ideas from the conceptual systems, based on different epistemological grounds (Peircean vs Saussurean notion of sign). It creates theoretical tensions that force to raise the question of how the transference of notions from one system to another changes their meaning, and where one could find the basis for overcoming or bypassing the controversies. The first part of the paper explores the theoretical tensions between Peircean, Jakobsonian and Lotmanian approaches to the issues of iconicity and attempts at revealing the fields of theoretical reasoning that help to define the ground of contradictions and see the way of their bypassing. Besides, it relates the discussion of iconicity with a discussion of the semiotic-pragmatic model of reading as iconization, based on the Jakobsonian idea of intersemiotic translation, and revises the model concerning the printed poetic text. The second part of the paper exemplifies the theoretical issues in the analysis of the book of poetry immersion. It examines the process of diagrammatization – the reading strategy, which makes the syntax of the text and that of the book the meaning-making devices, shows how diagrammatization semantizes the structure of the book, transforms the process of imaginization, and helps to identify the role of the book’s dialogue with hypotext to which both intertextual references and the structure of the text refer.

The article discusses the semiotics of greeting card with focus on the discursive configuration of the recto side. The aim is twofold: to examine the possible ways image and verbal text are combined and identify the meaning produced by its different configurations. Soviet Lithuanian New Year greeting cards (dated from the late 1950s to 1989) are analyzed to accomplish the study. The methodological approach is compound. The guidelines of Greimasian theory of semiotics and Tartu-Moscow semiotic school as well as the ideas of Jacques Fontanille and Jean-Marie Floch are used to perform the study. The discourse analysis revealed that when placed on the recto side greeting text both anchors the content of the image and acts as a performative utterance. Depending on the specific configuration of the recto side and the material aspects of a greeting card, the role of enunciator can be subjected either to the artist or image figures. However, in some cases the performative function becomes secondary. For example, when playfulness established by the interrelation of image and verbal text is given priority over the greeting act.

The article discusses the semiotics of greeting card with focus on the discursive configuration of the recto side. The aim is twofold: to examine the possible ways image and verbal text are combined and identify the meaning produced by its different configurations. Soviet Lithuanian New Year greeting cards (dated from the late 1950s to 1989) are analyzed to accomplish the study. The methodological approach is compound. The guidelines of Greimasian theory of semiotics and Tartu-Moscow semiotic school as well as the ideas of Jacques Fontanille and Jean-Marie Floch are used to perform the study. The discourse analysis revealed that when placed on the recto side greeting text both anchors the content of the image and acts as a performative utterance. Depending on the specific configuration of the recto side and the material aspects of a greeting card, the role of enunciator can be subjected either to the artist or image figures. However, in some cases the performative function becomes secondary. For example, when playfulness established by the interrelation of image and verbal text is given priority over the greeting act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the book of poetry immersion (2017) by Lithuanian poet Gytis Norvilas, maps the strategies of its reading within the framework of the semiotic-pragmatic approach, and considers the theoretical issues of the mapping. Despite the book cannot be unambiguously defined as an example of patterned poetry, it is configured in a specific way which exposes the functionality of the structural visual layer in written / printed poetry. This feature of the text in question inspires to revise the interpretation of the issue of iconicity and the configuration of the model of reading literature, proposed by the semiotic-pragmatic approach. The semiotic-pragmatic modelling combines Peircean and Jakobsonian ideas with minor insertions of Lotmanian thought (i.e. Johansen 2002), thus it links the ideas from the conceptual systems, based on different epistemological grounds (Peircean vs Saussurean notion of sign). It creates theoretical tensions that force to raise the question of how the transference of notions from one system to another changes their meaning, and where one could find the basis for overcoming or bypassing the controversies. The first part of the paper explores the theoretical tensions between Peircean, Jakobsonian and Lotmanian approaches to the issues of iconicity and attempts at revealing the fields of theoretical reasoning that help to define the ground of contradictions and see the way of their bypassing. Besides, it relates the discussion of iconicity with a discussion of the semiotic-pragmatic model of reading as iconization, based on the Jakobsonian idea of intersemiotic translation, and revises the model concerning the printed poetic text. The second part of the paper exemplifies the theoretical issues in the analysis of the book of poetry immersion. It examines the process of diagrammatization - the reading strategy, which makes the syntax of the text and that of the book the meaning-making devices, shows how diagrammatization semantizes the structure of the book, transforms the process of imaginization, and helps to identify the role of the book's dialogue with hypotext to which both intertextual references and the structure of the text refer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This research was inspired by the anniversaries of Algirdas Julius Greimas, Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas and Kęstutis Nastopka that encouraged rethinking the relationship with tradition, while viewing it from several perspectives: biographical-cultural links, reception of classical literature, and history of Lithuanian semiotics. The paper reviews the works of semioticians’, analysing Vaižgantas’ oeuvre, attempting to find the trajectory of the evolving Lithuanian semiotic tradition in the most representative examples. It also presents a new interpretation of Vaižgantas’ novella, “Dėdės ir Dėdienės” (“Uncles and aunts”, 1929), while searching for the mythological reasons behind the motivations for its characters’ choices and referring to the arch-plot of Perkūnas-Velnias-Laumė. The entanglement of the planes of the hierogamy (the holy marriage) isotopy and the biblical one allows for interpreting this novella as a variation of the Exodus Myth. The problematics of parable discourse is exposed in considering the question of Vaižgantas’ semiotic originality.

Semiotics and philosophy both claim the status of a meta-language, hence enter into a dialogue with one another and each tries to translate the other into its own language. Contemporary analysis of material culture is informed by the so-called linguistic turn, which was performed by structuralism and affected all humanities. Ferdinand de Saussure’s semiology and the semiotics of Algirdas Julien Greimas and his colleagues work in this area by extrapolating the notion of the text to various fields of inquiry. The problematics of archeology, architecture, and other artifacts demand thinking through the issue of the matter. The paper provides proof that, in its attempts to respond to this demand, semiotics either stays within the frame of the idealistic semiotic existence of an indeterminate status or deploys metaphysical rudiments-and-supplements.

This research was inspired by the anniversaries of Algirdas Julius Greimas, Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas and Kęstutis Nastopka that encouraged rethinking the relationship with tradition, while viewing it from several perspectives: biographical-cultural links, reception of classical literature, and history of Lithuanian semiotics. The paper reviews the works of semioticians', analysing Vaižgantas' oeuvre, attempting to find the trajectory of the evolving Lithuanian semiotic tradition in the most representative examples. It also presents a new interpretation of Vaižgantas' novella, "Dėdės ir Dėdienės" ("Uncles and aunts", 1929), while searching for the mythological reasons behind the motivations for its characters' choices and referring to the arch-plot of Perkūnas-Velnias-Laumė. The entanglement of the planes of the hierogamy (the holy marriage) isotopy and the biblical one allows for interpreting this novella as a variation of the Exodus Myth. The problematics of parable discourse is exposed in considering the question of Vaižgantas' semiotic originality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semiotics and philosophy both claim the status of a meta-language, hence enter into a dialogue with one another and each tries to translate the other into its own language. Contemporary analysis of material culture is informed by the so-called linguistic turn, which was performed by structuralism and affected all humanities. Ferdinand de Saussure's semiology and the semiotics of Algirdas Julien Greimas and his colleagues work in this area by extrapolating the notion of the text to various fields of inquiry. The problematics of archeology, architecture, and other artifacts demand thinking through the issue of the matter. The paper provides proof that, in its attempts to respond to this demand, semiotics either stays within the frame of the idealistic semiotic existence of an indeterminate status or deploys metaphysical rudiments-and-supplements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the peculiarities of the creation, representation and persuasion of scientific abstract and mythical figurative knowing in A. J. Greimas’ reconstruction of Lithuanian mythology. Mythical knowing is understood in two ways: as a cultural construct, a part of cultural knowledge that is limited to the existential and discoursive experience of the reader, and as a special ability or skill of the mythical gods. In order to explain the similarities and differences between mythical and scientific knowing, the concepts of narrativity and believing are used. Narrative structures imply the fundamental patterns of thinking about man and the world (existence/action, death/life, nature/culture) and convert individual understanding into a collective one. The emphasis on the rational and rhetorical point in the concept of believing partially reduces the contradiction between the strict methodological reason of the semiotical tradition and the practical and cunning reason of an mythical textual tradition.

Greimas’s semiotics is characterized by an inner duality. This is the inner tension between structuralism and phenomenology. The aim of the paper is to reveal the relationship between structuralism and phenomenology in semiotics. Structuralism and phenomenology have a different understanding of the role of the subject in creating and understanding meanings. Early Greimas understood value systems through the linguistic prism and eliminated the discursive system’s subject itself. Late Greimas’s approach to the subject changed and coincided with the subject of daily experience, who was involved in the selection and creation of meanings. Greimas’s semiotics came closer to phenomenology, but only partially. The concept of bodily and sensory experience in Greimas’s semiotics is constructed from objectivistic positions of science. The body and sensual perception are understood as intermediaries between the inner and outer worlds.

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Copyright of Colloquia is the property of Institute of Lithuanian Literature & Folklore and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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Copyright of Colloquia is the property of Institute of Lithuanian Literature & Folklore and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of this analysis is to show the way of sin formation in one’s mind. As illustration for it, the biblical text is chosen. The story of original sin is quite short, but mysterious. How does it happen that Adam and Eve choose evil instead of God? Are they thrown into the sin or construct it by their selves? Using the semiotics of passions the author of the article tries to show the mechanism of transformation of the subject’s conscious-ness. The doubt about God makes subject to choose another axio-logical system. What is more, he is trying to become god himself. The formation of sin goes through the main phases: communica-tion with the tempter and interest → the doubt about God → eu-phoric visions of the future → rebellion against God → rebellious action. The consequences of sin are painful and not such euphoric as it seemed before. The person loses the harmony with everything in the world, he can only feel his own nakedness and vulnerability. However, notwithstanding human betrayal, God makes everything to save the mankind.

This article presents the influence of Claude Lévi-Strauss’s research in the field of cultural antro­pology on the guidelines and concepts of semiotics. Much empirical research in semiotics, connected with different systems of signs and revealing their functions in archaic human cultures, has been con­ducted on the ground of structural analysis. They are connected, among other things, with different cultures and societies, diversified both spatially and temporally. Thus, the integrating role of myth, as well as its uniting functions in the case of the organization of an individual consciousness, have a primeval modeling impact on the semiotic systems. According to Lévi-Strauss, there is a certain regu­larity of behaviors that stand for the mechanism of human symbolic communication. This regularity exists as an extention of the theory of signs that was previously worked out in the fields of structural linguistics and semiology. Lévi-Strauss’s theory concerns the collective unconscious of “the human mind” and is devoted to the unconscious nature of cultural phenomena, with a focus on searching for universal rules of thinking that are appropriate to all human minds. The subject of semiotics is a group of sign systems developed in different cultures. A cultural text presents a certain model of the world that we read using codes. The system of mythologi­cal signs reveals the cosmological concept of reality with relation to the mythopoetic view of the world.

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Copyright of Darbai ir Dienos is the property of Vytautas Magnus University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Les relations de Greimas avec la psychanalyse n'ont pas suscité jusqu‘à présent d’étude systématique. Et pourtant, dès «Sémantique structurale» (1966), Greimas construit ses premiers modèles sémiotiques (ainsi le célèbre modèle actantiel) dans le dialogue, quelquefois, certes, très polémique, avec la psychanalyse (cf. sa sévère critique de la psychocritique de Ch. Mauron); il va même jusqu’à évaluer son modèle narratif transformationnel en analysant des séances de psychodrame psychanalytique (avec l’aide de M. Safouan). On s’efforcera donc de préciser à la fois les emprunts à la psychanalyse mais aussi les différences fermement affirmées qui ont permis à Greimas de poser l’identité de la discipline, la sémiotique, qu’il créait, dépassant de fort loin son projet initial de fonder une sémantique. On découvrira chemin faisant les influences, les échos, les homologations suscitées essentiellement par la lecture, sur une longue période, du texte de Freud le plus important à ses yeux, soit la « Traumdeutung ». Et même si les références à la psychanalyse, dès après «Sémantique structurale», s’appauvrissent au point de finir par disparaître totalement. Enfin, les rares allusions de Greimas aux apports de Lacan (ainsi le concept d’ «assomption») permettront de clarifier ses rapports avec celui qui, en psychanalyse, fut constamment le partenaire le plus attentif mais aussi le plus critique des linguistes.

Subject to the communication paradigm, the article focuses on the curriculum as an object of culture, semiotics and communication. The pervasive media culture is increasingly penetrating various areas which, at first sight, have nothing to do with the media. Application of mediology for the specific objects “lifts” them to the level of culture and society. Subject to its importance in the society and the role in the historical and political transformations, curriculum can be attributed to the phenomenon of culture. This was the concept of the curriculum during the restoration of independence of Lithuania (in 1990). Later, the role of curriculum became less important and simply turned into a standard document that had to be executed uncritically. However, the relation between the teacher and the curriculum is rather complicated. The text of curriculum can be interpreted as a semiotic system of symbols. The content of curriculum, provided concepts, definitions and statements can be interpreted in various educational contexts and discourses. Curriculum - same as the entire system of education - is a selforganisational semiotic-synergetic system influenced by internal and external factors. In terms of communication, curriculum is a mediator - a medium - between all participants of the education process. In the education process, cognitive, spiritual and activity objects acquire certain meanings and scopes through the communication relation to the curriculum content (symbols). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Colloquia is the property of Institute of Lithuanian Literature & Folklore and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The essay provides a critical assessment of the debates concerning the concepts of fake and original (authentic) in the context of semiotics (Ch.S. Peirce, T. de Lauretis, U. Eco, M. Bal), philosophy (N. Goodman, J. Baudrillard, S. Žižek), art theory (W Benjamin, I. Haywood, N. Bryson), history (C. Ginzburg). It is an attempt to represent the problem of reproduction of cultural artefacts as a multifaceted issue which embraces the whole series of related notions (fake, forgery, imitation, reproduction, replication, remake, copy, pastiche, etc.) along with their different meanings and implications for various cultural practices (fine arts, history, architecture, cinema, social and cultural ‘apparatuses’ of identification). The main aim of the text is to provide an interdisciplinary frame of interpretation of the phenomenon of forgery, to reveal how aesthetic judgments on the originality (and aura) of the work of art are determined by economical and political factors and to show how the 'ideology of original' is related to the power-knowledge system and the issues of political economy in contemporary Western culture. Semiotics (particularly, in U. Eco’s version) is chosen here as the most promising and efficient tool for the analysis of this complex phenomenon.

Nowadays one can see increase in analysis of mathematical textbooks. Even special conferences are running for this topic. Both authors of this article are taking part in Nordisk Network for research on mathematics textbooks in the Nordic countries. In this article semiotics of A.J. Greimas is being applied for analysis two mathematical texts about positive and negative numbers for grade 6 from different books. Analysis allows evaluate the quality of texts.

Aesopian language is traditionally considered as a textually-mediated transmission of 'secret' yet essentially unambiguous messages of the so-called "silent resistance" via the means of allusion, suggestion and similar means. When such a conception is used to explain and interpret literature and other kinds of works, the question of the status of textual production and consumption naturally comes up. From a semiotic point of view, an attentive consideration of the Aesopian self-conception reveals that Aesopian communication always implies an expression and recognition of a public stance, and thus makes the text an arena for the formulation of identity utterances. This, in turn, leads us to consider traditional "interpretations" of Aesopian texts as simple continuations of the Aesopian language paradigm, as an expansion of the discourse that this paradigm represents. Accordingly, in terms of textual meaning there are no grounds for an a priori distinction between the Aesopian and the censorial - they are both mutually interacting dimensions. In taking these inferences as a foundation to freshly consider the processes of Aesopian signification from the perspective of general textual semiotics, it can be shown that in Aesopian language the textual plane of content is actually removed and neutralised to make way for a circulation of public stereotypes, which in turn is enabled via a secondary articulation of what is here called the field of textual presence. This is further elaborated via analyses of a particular censorship related situation and one of the series of widely acknowledged Aesopian poems by the Lithuanian author Marcelijus Martinaitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The rapid technological growth of the past few decades has introduced dramatic changes in publishing technology, accompanied by an ever-increasing access to that technology. Publishing has largely moved from the print shop to desktop. With more people having to deal with publication design (whether in MS Word or in professional design software), general knowledge of typography has become more significant in their work. In addition, typography has been facing new challenges as "page media" (books, magazines etc.) are becoming increasingly visual in order to serve the needs of a visually mediated society. These changes caused the emergence of new approaches dealing with typography as a visual medium. The object of this article is the impact of typography on the visual communication of a book. The theoretical part describes the history of typography and visual communication theories. The analysis showed that typographic elements can carry symbolic meanings and for this reason, typography has to be analyzed in the fields of semiotics and medium theory. Conducted qualitative research was designated to determine the predominant viewpoint amongst Lithuanian book designers on the topic. The following conclusions have been drawn: typography has a strong pictorial potential, various typefaces (or fonts) carry different connotations and have diverse influences on the readability, assimilation, interpretation, and impact of the words and concepts they represent. Thus, if a document is a perceptual object, readers actively make judgments as they look at the page. Their perceptions of that page and its typeface(s) are determined in part by their prior experiences and by the associations connected with those experiences. It follows logically that readers could ascribe persona to both the typeface and the text itself based on these perceptions and associations. Additionally, it has been observed that Lithuanian book designers use such techniques in their works. Nevertheless, Lithuania has not developed a strong typographic culture yet due to the lack of typographic traditions and theoretical works regarding this field. This article can be useful for publishing houses and their book designers, students and teachers of book graphics, book design and typography. Based on the theoretical and empirical material collected in this work, further researches can be made analyzing typographic culture in Lithuania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article explores the problem of visual narrativity, asking what concept of narrativity could be efficiently employed to analyze works of art, thus enriching our comprehension of visual texts. Of course, narrativity may be quite easily revealed in images that consist of several distinct scenes, depicting a sequence of events perceived as a story; especially so when the story represented has a known verbal prototype. However, methodological problems concerning visual narrativity arise when trying to interpret images that depict just a single moment of time and are not based on any pre-existing story that could serve as a reliable source for interpretation. Aiming to avoid interpreter's misconceptions and searching for narrative signs in the structure of the visual text itself, the article takes the semiotic theory of narrativity as a starting point. The functioning of the narrative grammar in static visual texts (the ones without time sequences or state transformations) is discussed and exemplified examining the paintings of šarūnas Sauka. Three properties allowing for narrative reading of a static visual text are highlighted. First, it is revealed that the semiotic theory of narrativity is relevant when analysing visual texts that imply transformation, movement, a stage preceding or ensuing the depicted scene. Second, it is demonstrated that narrative structure is also observable in the visual texts that imply a possibility of transformation, in cases when the figures of the text are related among themselves by an active and intentional look or gesture, presupposing their actantial roles. Finally, it is suggested that an additional narrative dimension can be revealed in images that involve the viewer into a certain "game". Narrative grammar serves as an organizing principle of the communication between the viewer and the figures of the text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Man & the Word / Zmogus ir zodis is the property of Vytautas Magnus University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Cartographic publications, such as maps, various thematic atlases, wall maps, have always been one of the most important teaching and learning means in geography lessons. These and other cartographic publications allow students consistently consolidating various knowledge, to begin with the analysis of natural conditions and up to the national or regional economic analysis. Cartographic publications are an important integral part of educational process at common education schools. hey provide a possibility to display the children's perception of geographic space, which is reflected in the sense of perception of territorial and thematic elements. Therefore, the quality of cartographic publications becomes a very important issue. Unfortunately, the majority of cartographic publications, especially atlases, are not very well designed because they lack some semiotic principles. In order to develop students' trust in cartographic publications, especially in school atlases, and to increase their importance in educational process, it is necessary to take into consideration quality requirements for these publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Implied Meanings / Teksto Slėpiniai is the property of Vytautas Magnus University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)