Bilyana Martinovski,Gothenburg University, Dept. of Linguistics, 1995.
This paper offers a short analysis of the interactive functions
of some deictic signs used in www in relation to written and spoken
languageas well as a discussion on the semiotic nature of deictic
signs used in world-wide-web pages and their educative functions.
The theoretical starting point is R. Jakobson's (1963) notion
of shifters (deictic expression) defined as indicial symbols
representing conventionally and referring existentially to an
utterance. In the following text I will observe that this definition
is also applicable to the function of some deictic signs in www.
Jakobson did not give his definition for the shifters in www,
but for the shifters in the spoken and the written media. However,
the new media examined here gives new possibilities of referring
to it's own reality.
The www-environment is quite visualized. The possibility of using
images instead of linguistic expression tends not only to iconize
but also to "indexalize" and "metaphorize"
the interaction. In this regard it is interesting to see how the
www-deictic expressions or tools are related to the written and
spoken language deictic expressions and what can there educative
function be.
Keywords: indexicality, semiotics, www, deixis, linguistics.
1. Introduction
This paper consists of two main parts:
(i) a short analysis of the interactive functions of some deictic signs used in www in relation to written and spoken language;
(ii) discussion on the semiotic nature of deictic signs used
in world-wide-web pages.
Let us start with the terms used in the title. The syntax of a
human language is to a great extend deictic, it gives us an orientation
in space and time with reference to the sender's and the receiver's
positions. We distinguish between temporal, spatial, demonstrative
and directional kinds of deixis (Lyons'77). Following Otto Jespersen
(1922) R. Jakobson (1963) calls deictic categories for shifters
in the sense that deixis is the link between the langue,
the ritual, the code and the discourse, the actual, the message.
The shifters are defined as indicial symbols because they
represent conventionally and refer existentially to the utterance.
In the following text I will observe that this definition is also
applicable to the function of some deictic signs in www. Jakobson
did not give his definition for the shifters in www, but for the
shifters in the spoken and the written media. However, the new
media examined here give new possibilities of referring to it's
own reality.
The www-environment is quite visualized. The possibility of using images instead of linguistic expression tends not only to iconize but also to "indexalize" and "metaphorize" the interaction. In this regard it is interesting to see how the www-deictic expressions or tools are related to the written and spoken language deictic expressions.
In the context of the growing interest in using the internet for
educational purpose it can be useful to study the sign types used
in the new media and their semiotic character, which influence
their educative function. In order to do that I will examine the
use of traffic signals.
2. Traffic signals
One may distinguish the level of the narrative content from the level of narrative management. By narrative management is meant the strategies one makes use of in order to direct the readers or the listeners attention to actualized moments in the argumentation structure or the objective narrative content of the text. The traffic signals to be discussed below are part of the narrative management system. Examples of these are deictic expressions such as "...as I mentioned above...", "...later in the text...", "shortly", "further on", etc. Their main function is to guide the listener or the reader through the narrative content by providing information about the organization of a text, usually by means of anaphoric and cataphoric cross-references. These indexical devices typically involve spatial and temporal expressions like tense and deictic adverbs. In this context one may ask himself: do we conceptualize written and spoken language in the same way?
S. Fleischman's answer (1991:295) is given in Table 1:
| Discourse as time | speech & writing | earlier/later
in a minute, before now/then |
| Discourse as space | writing | above
below further on here/there |
Table 1
Written texts which are not supposed to be read infront of an
audience, tend to use space referring expression, whereas spoken
language and texts which are to be presented infront of an audience,
like conference papers, use mainly time oriented traffic signals.
The latter are also used in the written media.
From a diachronic point of view, it appears that the Guttenberg
innovation has influenced the conceptualization of texts in a
way which gives preference to the spatially oriented traffic signals.
One may say that the visual reception is related to the spatial
conceptualization of texts and the auditory reception is related
to the temporal conceptualization of speech. This observation
may be supported also by Jakobson's distinction between visual
sign systems which he defines as spatial and audible sign systems
which are temporal.
The internet media exploits both spatial and temporal traffic
signals, that is, it exhibits both written and spoken language
deictic features. To do that it uses linguistic expressions, pictures,
numerals, colors, abstract signs. Instead of saying "here"
or "this" this media uses an arrow, a hand, underlining,
or color. Instead of saying "soon" it shows a clock
which is blinking, and at the same time in another place on the
screen - changing numbers. In Picture 1 below we have a clear
example of the function of color change, namely, to show what
is clickable, where can we find more information and to keep track
of what has been already activated. The pointing hand, which usually
has another form but turns to a hand when it is near (gets a contiguity
relation to) a relevant text, is not a simple ostensive sign,
it shows also that the pointed text contains information.
Picture 1
The indexical character of these signs which function also as whole expressions turns them into something more than traffic signals - it changes also their illocutionary force or gives the possibility to encapsulate in one sign more than one illocutionary acts. Pointing to something with a hand activates an information base and leads to another part of the text. It is not just a statement it is also a performance act. The main difference then between spoken/written language media and www media, with respect to the use of traffic signals, is the tendency to associate the www-discourse both with the concept of time and the concept of space by extended use of indexical signs, performing a number of acts simultaneously.
3. Signs and Relations
The second purpose of this paper is to examine the kind of "narrative
management" signs used in www and to relate them to Peirce's
semiotic system of signs and relations. I have put the term "narrative
management" in quotation marks because, as discussed below,
the internet media is not a narrative in the sense of a chronologically
organized book or text. The following discussion will show that
the internet media use many types of signs representing reality
but the dominating type is the index.
3.1. The semiotic background
Let me first give a very brief description of Peirce's semiotic
system.
Peirce's relations and signs
| Relations: | Sign |
| resemblance: | icon |
| causality, contiguity, existential relation: | index |
| intentional-referential: | degenerated index |
| convention: | symbol |
Table 2
A sign is something which stands to somebody for something in
some respect or capacity. What it represents is it's object.
The result of this representation is it's interpretant,
which is also used to denote the interpreter. The sign represents
it's object in a certain respect which is the ground of
the relation between the sign and it's object. Thus the sign conveys
information only on the basis of the relation to it's object on
a certain ground. Consequently, types of signs are based on types
of relations.
The signs are rarely of one type, the distinctions are thus theoretical.
However, one of the relations may be dominating. Thus, for example,
a photo-portrait is an icon, a footprint - an index, a word -
a symbol. Short definitions of the signs would do for our purpose:
"A Symbol is a sign which refers to the Object that it denotes
by virtue of a law, usually an association of general ideas, which
operates to cause the Symbol to be interpreted as referring to
that Object." (Peirce 1932:2.247)
"Anything whatever, be it quality, existent individual, or
law, is an Icon of anything, in so far as it is like that thing
and used as a sign of it." (Peirce1932:2.247)
What is most interesting for us is the character of the index.
Peirce gives the following definition:
"An Index is a sign which refers to the Object that it denotes
merely by virtue of being really affected by that Object."
(Peirce 1932:2.247)
But there are also degenerated indices, that are anything which
focuses attention (cf. Peirce 1932:2.265). Degenerated indices
are not causal effects of objects, but devices which enable the
interpreter to place himself in direct experiential or other connection
with the thing meant.
Recognizing the impure character of the (second trichotomy of)
signs Sebeok (1994:68) quotes Peirce: "it would be difficult
if not impossible, to instance an absolutely pure index, or to
find any sign absolutely devoid of the indexical quality"
(1932:2.306), demonstratives and relative pronouns being the only
potential exceptions (although they are linguistic signs, that
is, symbols).
Sebeok (1994) discusses briefly two types of indices in Peirce:
designators and reagents.
"Deictics of various sorts, including tenses, constitute
perhaps the most clear-cut examples of designations" (Sebeok
1994:63).
An example of reagent would be "a piece of mould with a bullet-hole
in it as a sign of a shot; for without a shot there would have
been no hole, but there is a hole there, whether anybody has the
sense to attribute it to a shot or not" (Peirce1932, 2:304).
Thus, the degenerated indexes are here called designators and
the reagents are indexes. The last quotation suggests that the
index (reagent) does not lose it's sign quality if there is no
interpreting "mind", which is in a sense contradicting
the initial definition of a sign (or my understanding of it).
However, I will not speculate on this problem here.
There are number of other terms which have been associated with
the concept of index.
"Such words as symptom, cue, clue, track, trail, and so forth, are among the high number of English quasi-synonyms of index." (Sebeok 1994:71)
We may now construct the following tentative delineation, which is a
mixture of Peirce's and interpretations of Peirce's definitions:
| sign
relation | ||||
| resemblance | ||||
| causalitity (exist.) | ||||
| contiguity | ||||
| convention | ||||
| intention | ||||
| ostentation | ||||
| reference |
Table 3
3.2. The www-environment
Before relating the www traffic signals to the semiotic description
from above let us first see what do we usually do when we connect
to internet. As users of www we may have two basic types of behavior:
- we may search for something specific;
- we may "surf" or "stroll" in the electronic
space without specific aim.
These search routines make use of different search tools. The
above mentioned traffic signals, which in the internet media are
often iconic signs, have a special function different from the
function of the traffic signals in spoken and written discourse
- they are predominantly search tools. The internet text is not
physically organized as a book, it is not two-dimensional, but
multi-dimensional or at least three-dimensional (like Escher's
stairs which are connected in circles). Accordingly, as already
mentioned, it exhibits features of a mixed spaciotemporal sign
system. However, normally, not very experienced users tend to
apply the image of a book, skimming through different pages. What
kind of semiotic tools are we offered in order to search for specific
information or just "surf"?
Following the definitions given above we may describe some of
the www- signs and their types in the following manner:
language - symbols.
images - icons and indexes.
colors - index which may function as morphological endings having different meaning by convention or as anaphoric signs for already checked references.
underlining - symbol for possibility for further search or activation; its deictic character follows of its relation to other parts of the text which are not underlined and from the fact that it ostensively shows which parts are to be activated; thus it is also a degenerated indexical sign which we must pay attention to.
box organization - also a blend of symbol and index.
bold- style - functions as degenerated indexical sign.
flash - again degenerated indexical sign.
pointing hand - ostensive deictic sign, degenerated index, icon, symbol for "take".
arrow - spatial deixis, ostensive, icon, symbol.
clock - icon, temporal deixis, index, symbol (adverbial)
counter - numbers - symbol, index
Applying Table 3 on the www-signs and their functions I have constructed
another table which describes in semiotic terms the character
of the observed interaction managing www-signs.
| sign
traffic signal |
||||
| language | ||||
| images | ||||
| underline | ||||
| boxes | ||||
| bold style | ||||
| flash | ||||
| color | ||||
| arrow | ||||
| hand | ||||
| clock | ||||
| counter |
Table 4
Www obviously uses all kinds of blends of signs, but most of the
traffic signals are indexes, both designators and reagents, that
is, they are not only calling for attention but also "forcing
the agent to accord them" (Peirce 1932:2.289). Unlike icons
and symbols, indexicality is based on association by contiguity.
Indices, "whose relation to their object consists in a correspondence
in fact ... direct the attention to their objects by blind compulsion"
(Peirce 1932:1.558).
The www-environment catches exactly this quality of the indicess,
because the interaction proceeds quickly should and because of
the immense amount of information in it. When searching something
specific in the net we need management tools (traffic signal)
which are easy to understand and which help us to deduct where
to find the seeked information. In reality, however, we are often
lost wondering which interpretation, which alternative of possibilities
is to be chosen and in these cases we use reasoning to the best
explanation (abductive inference), which does not give us any
guaranties that we are on the right track. In the case of traffic
signals this character of the interaction is also visualized and
metaphorized (with associations to Sherloch Holmes' kind of experience)
by the use of magnifying glasses, keys, footprints, pointing hands,
changes of colors, arrows, as well as much more elaborated pictures,
as illustrated on Picture 2:
Picture 2
Here we have a different menu picture which relies on metaphoric
interpretation of icons with indexical function. The concept of
traffic signals is used both literally and metaphorically. Each
of the images is clickable, that is, it is also an index, although
this fact is not clear for a newcomer. The pointing hand helps
us to understand what may be activated. We can activate the
traffic signs - the car, the side signs, the post box, the sky,
depicting the whirling information, etc.. If we have www-experience,
we can guess what kind of information is hidden there, but not
for all images. For example, we can not know what kind of information
we can get from the "sky" or by clicking on the computer-building.
We have to infer deductively and abductively a great deal of information.The
indexical signs denote by virtue of being really affected by that
object, the reality here being the cyberworld, manifesting its
principles by these signs which the users try to decipher. Indexicalization
triggers deduction, which consists of inferring important conclusions
from seemingly insignificant clues (including our traffic signals
which are associated with indexical topographical signs) in the
process of locating information.
4. Conclusion
After examining www's interaction-managing signs we may now list
the following characteristics of the www's interactive sign system:
- use of mixed spoken and written language features;
- mixed spacio-temporal conceptualization of the www-text;
- most traffic signals and procedures are indexical, trying to attract attention by blind compulsion and forcing the agent to accord them;
- the preferred representation of and interaction in the cyberreality is based on existential relations of contiguity and causality often in combination with resemblance;
- visualization metaphorizes the interpretation;
- the usual metaphor used in choosing icons for traffic signal
is the detective metaphor.
The www interactive procedures are basically indexical, relying
on abductive and deductive reasoning, based on existential relation
of contiguity and causality. The new media exhibit both written
and spoken language features, which, together with its visualization,
define it as a mixed spatio-temporal sign system. It also gives
excellent possibilities for metaphorization of discourse. All
this features will influence the learning process through www,
which means that internet courses can make use of them directing
the human perception according to the demands of the media. Futher
reseach will be necessary to compare these semiotic features,
the inferencial processes I meantioned stimulated by the media
and the experiences of the users of intrenet courses, as well
as to draw conclusions about the process of perception and learning,
which is changing right in front of our eyes.
References
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