Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

The cognitive semiotics of the picture sign

Sonesson, Göran LU orcid (2014) p.23-50
Abstract

The picture is as original a human creation as language, and yet there has not been any study of pictures as such until recently. In the sixties of the last century, the picture was discovered as a subject of study at the same time, but independently, by French structuralism and by perceptual psychology in the tradition of James Gibson. My own contribution has consisted, from the beginning, in bringing these two traditions to bear on each other, adding the inspiration from those few philosophers, notably Edmund Husserl, who have taken a serious interest in pictures. More recently, it has been possible to realise some experimental studies with children and apes from a semiotical point of view. The present chapter describes some of the... (More)

The picture is as original a human creation as language, and yet there has not been any study of pictures as such until recently. In the sixties of the last century, the picture was discovered as a subject of study at the same time, but independently, by French structuralism and by perceptual psychology in the tradition of James Gibson. My own contribution has consisted, from the beginning, in bringing these two traditions to bear on each other, adding the inspiration from those few philosophers, notably Edmund Husserl, who have taken a serious interest in pictures. More recently, it has been possible to realise some experimental studies with children and apes from a semiotical point of view. The present chapter describes some of the main methods and traditions of pictorial semiotics and then goes on to illustrate a cognitive semiotic approach, consisting, in this case, of a detailed text analysis of a picture by Rothko, which is based on results from psychology.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
Visual Communication
editor
Machin, David
pages
28 pages
publisher
De Gruyter
external identifiers
  • wos:000341975000003
  • scopus:85119104187
ISBN
9783110255485
9783110255492
DOI
10.1515/9783110255492.23
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
7e6944e7-9ae1-4e96-8394-b5dc70d1d864 (old id 4810257)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 10:49:19
date last changed
2024-02-28 17:12:46
@inbook{7e6944e7-9ae1-4e96-8394-b5dc70d1d864,
  abstract     = {{<p>The picture is as original a human creation as language, and yet there has not been any study of pictures as such until recently. In the sixties of the last century, the picture was discovered as a subject of study at the same time, but independently, by French structuralism and by perceptual psychology in the tradition of James Gibson. My own contribution has consisted, from the beginning, in bringing these two traditions to bear on each other, adding the inspiration from those few philosophers, notably Edmund Husserl, who have taken a serious interest in pictures. More recently, it has been possible to realise some experimental studies with children and apes from a semiotical point of view. The present chapter describes some of the main methods and traditions of pictorial semiotics and then goes on to illustrate a cognitive semiotic approach, consisting, in this case, of a detailed text analysis of a picture by Rothko, which is based on results from psychology.</p>}},
  author       = {{Sonesson, Göran}},
  booktitle    = {{Visual Communication}},
  editor       = {{Machin, David}},
  isbn         = {{9783110255485}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{23--50}},
  publisher    = {{De Gruyter}},
  title        = {{The cognitive semiotics of the picture sign}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110255492.23}},
  doi          = {{10.1515/9783110255492.23}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}