Brain, mind and the signifying body : an ecosocial semiotic theory / Paul J. Thibault ; with a foreword by M.A.K. Halliday.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Thibault, Paul J.

Series:

Open linguistics series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Semiotics--Social aspects.

Semiotics.

Physical Description:

xvi,344 p ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

London : Continuum, 2004.

Summary:

Brain, Mind and the Signifying Body is an exploration of a multimodal theory of cognitive science. Using linguistic theories first developed by Saussure and more latterly by M. A. K. Halliday, Paul Thibault analyses how social and biological systems interact to produce meaning.

Contents:

1 The Body-brain System, Meaning-making Activity, and Ecosocial Environment: Building a New, Unified Discourse 3

2 The Conceptual Framework of the Ecosocial Semiotic Perspective 8

3 Gibson's Ecological Theory of Perception and the Three-level Scalar Hierarchy View of Organism-plus-Environment Transactions 11

4 The Brain as Regulator of Sensori-motor Activity: Implications for Social Semiosis 18

5 Topological and Typological Modes of Semiotic-material Interdependence 23

6 Contextualization and Meta-redundancy 26

7 A Critique of the Causal View of Brain-mind Relations 30

8 Defining and Extending the Notion of Meaning in Terms of the Three-level Hierarchy and the Specification Hierarchy 34

9 The Signifying Body: Rethinking the Stratified view of Semiosis in Terms of the Three-level Scalar Hierarchy 39

10 Systemic-functional Linguistic Theory: Bringing Together the Intra-organism and Inter-organism Perspectives on Meaning-making 46

11 Reconnecting the Semiotic Concept of Value to the Body-brain System and to Meaning-making Activity 49

Chapter 2 Sensori-motor Activity, Movement, and Social Meaning-making: Rethinking the Expression Plane of Semiosis

1 Some Early Signposts from Saussure and Hjelmslev: The Expression Plane as Embodied Articulatory Movement 59

2 Energy Exchange and the Complementarity of Interacting Body-brains 68

3 The Stratified Model of Semiosis: The Problem of Conceptual Abstractness and Scalar Homogeneity 69

4 Blackboxing the Sensori-motor Dimension: Language Seen as Modality-independent Centralized Processing Mechanism 72

5 The Intentional Character of 'Inner' and 'Outer' Sensori-motor Activity: Towards a Unified Account 75

6 The Symbolic Possibilities of Bodily Movement 77

7 Articulatory Movement Seen as Actional Semiotic, Not Physical Behaviour 78

8 Inner and Outer Body States and Social Semiosis 81

9 The Semiotic Mediation and Entraining of Embodied Bio-kinematic Potential 83

10 Metafunctional Diversity on the Expression Plane 86

11 The Expression Plane is the Interface between Body and Ecosocial Environment 87

12 The Metafunctional Basis of Vocal-tract Articulatory Activity 90

13 Subjectivity, Agency, and the Prosodic Realization of Interpersonal Meaning 94

14 Vocal-tract Gestures and Grammar: Symptom and/or Supervenience? 98

15 The Intentional Character of Articulatory Activity 100

16 Embodying the Metafunctions: The Example of Vocal-tract Articulatory Activity 103

17 The Metafunctional Basis of Space and of Bodily Movement in Ecosocial Space-time 105

Chapter 3 Body Dynamics, Meaning-making, and Scale Heterogeneity: Expression and Content as Cross-scalar Semiotic Processes Embedding the Body-brain in its Ecosocial Environment

1 The Dynamical Character of Expression and Content and the Cross-coupling of Diverse Scalar Levels of Semiotic Organization 108

2 The Expression Stratum and the Principle of Alternation 109

3 Stratification in Relation to Expression and Content 116

4 The Integration of Iconic, Indexical and Symbolic Modes of Meaning in Phonology 118

5 Rhythm and the Foot 120

6 The Metafunctional Organization of Phonology as seen from the Perspective of Rhythm and the Foot 122

7 The Integration of Iconic, Indexical and Symbolic Modes of Meaning in Lexicogrammar 126

8 Language as Particle, Wave, and Field 134

9 The Brain as Selective Recognition System: Language and Edelman's Theory of Recategorization 139

10 The Integration of Individuals to their Semiotic Trajectories 146

11 The Intrinsically Time-bound Nature of Semiosis: The Integration of Temporal Dynamics Across Scales of Expression and Content 148

12 Scalar Heterogeneity and the Phonological and Lexicogrammatical Rank Scales 154

13 The Emergence of Linguistic Categories from the Child's Primary Forceful Interactions with its Environment 162

Chapter 4 The Semiotic Basis of Consciousness

1 First-person and Third-person Accounts of Consciousness 171

2 The Representation of Subjective Experience in Consciousness in Relation to the Higher-scalar Environment of the Individual 173

3 Locating the Seat of Consciousness 176

4 The Meaning-making Capacity of the Body-brain Complex through the Discrimination of Difference 184

5 Language Functions and the Cortical Organization of the Brain: Implications for Higher-order Consciousness 189

6 Experiential Meaning and the Assimilation of the Phenomena of Experience to Knowable Categories 195

7 Interpersonal Meaning as Exploratory and Orienting Activity in Relation to the Ground 198

8 The Textual Metafunction as Semiotic Means for Giving Unity and Wholeness to Meaning-making 200

9 Experiential and Interpersonal Meaning in Gaze 201

10 Proto-interpersonal Meaning and the Child's Exploration of its Environment 202

11 Bogdan's Theory of Mental Sharing and Topical Predication 205

12 Interpersonal Meaning, Value, and Action 209

13 Procedural Knowledge, Declarative Knowledge and the Semiotic Spiral towards Symbolic Consciousness 212

14 Interpersonal Meaning, Goal-seeking Activity, and the Goal Hierarchy 215

15 Consciousness and Semiotic Stratification 217

16 An Alternative Reading of Descartes in the Internalist Perspective of Interpretive Activity 224

17 The Entropic Character of Meaning 226

18 Consciousness as the Contextualization of Experience in the Perspective of the Self 227

19 The Embedding of Consciousness in a Higher-scalar System of Interpretance 231

Chapter 5 The Metafunctional Character of Consciousness: Some Correlations Between the Neurobiological and Semiotic Dimensions

1 The Contextual Character of Consciousness 236

2 The Metafunctions and the Shape of Consciousness 238

3 Vague Contours of the Metafunctions in the Infant's Early Perceptual-motor Engagements with the Environment 241

4 The Structure of (Self) Consciousness in Perceptual Awareness 246

5 Damasio's Neurobiological Theory of Consciousness 248

6 The Proto-metafunctional Structure of Core and Extended Consciousness 257

7 Integrating the Interaction System and the Meaning System Perspectives on (Self) Consciousnes 264

8 Minding the Gap between Minds: Mirror Neurons and Interpersonal Meaning 267

9 Inner Speech as Linguistically Realized Higher-order Thinking 271

10 The Metafunctional Character of Inner Speech as Linguistically Constituted Thought 272

11 The Re-grounding of the Perspectives of Self and Other in Symbolic Consciousness 276

12 Text, Social Meaning-making Practices and Higher-order Consciousness 277

Chapter 6 Brain, Meaning, and Consciousness

1 Biological and Socio-cultural Factors Form a Single System of Complexly Related and Interacting Factors: Putting Time and Activity Back into the Picture 281

2 Re-interpreting Flohr's Brain-based Theory of Phenomenal Awareness: A Three-level Hierarchy View of the Emergence of Proto-meaning in the Brain 283

3 Brain, Meaning, and Symbolic Consciousness 289

4 The Embodiment of the Material and the Conscious Modes in Expression and Content 290

5 Periodicity and the Intrinsic Temporal Organization of the Expression Stratum of Speech on Diverse Scalar Levels 295

6 The Creation of Symbolic Objects of Consciousness in Semantic Neural Space 296

7 Contextualizing Relations, the Principle of Meta-redundancy, and the Brain as Contextualizing Tool 300

8 A Definition of Consciousness in Terms of the Semiosis that Occurs Within the Brain 302

9 The Three-level Hierarchy, Neuronal Activity, and the Emergence of the Self-perspective 310.

ISBN:

0826469655

OCLC:

55910641