Title: Wolfgang Wildgen Semiosis based on the principles saillance and prgnance
1Wolfgang WildgenSemiosis based on the
principles saillance and prégnance
- 18-19-20 luglio 2005
- Semiosi e catastrofi. Leredità semiotica di René
Thom/ Semiosis et catastrophes. Lhéritage
sémiotique de René Thom/ Semiosis and
Catastrophes. René Thom's semiotic heritage.
2Thoms itinerary towards semiophysics
- In the sequel of a letter exchange with the
biologist Waddington Thom saw language in a quasi
continuity with biological development
(morphogenesis). - The model proposed by Waddington and elaborated
by Thom was rather global and concerned the major
topological features and the process of
differentiation as such (bifurcations, appearance
of barriers, separation of specific organs and
subfunctions, etc.). - In this realm, Thom could apply the new results
obtained in catastrophe theory based on the
classification theorem.
3Controversies
- At this point the geometry of the umbilics was
not yet known in detail and in the second version
Thom added some remarks concerning the umbilics,
but he did not modify the list of semantic
archetypes, although those derived from the
umbilics could not be maintained under the new
insights. - The classification of paths which had been done
intuitively by Thom was also problematic for all
catastrophes beyond the cusp . - Meanwhile, the catastrophe controversy which
regarded mainly the applications proposed by
Christopher Zeeman (cf. Sussmann and Zahler,
1978) had weakened the international interest in
applications.
4Thoms model of semiosis
- In the same period (after 1978) Thom went one
step further and tried to specify the forces
which govern the process of semiosis and not only
the topology of its outcomes. - Thom first tried to link the forces of the
morphogenesis of meaning to known basic forces
like gravitation, radiation (light), etc. These
universal fields embed the living beings and
govern their environment (ecology). They are
naturally the background of all perceptual and
motor processes. - In perception, light is at the basis of our
visual perception gravitation underlies human
and animal motor-processes and the sensation of
pressure and weight sound waves are registered
by the ear and chemical substances evoke
reactions of our taste and smell organ.
5Semiophysics
- As the dynamics of such fields (e.g., light) have
been the topic of physics since Newton, and wave
dynamics were the topic of specific mathematical
treatments since Maxwell, it was straightforward
for Thom to postulate a specific field that is
registered and filtered by our sensory organs. He
called it saillance, i.e., those effects which
stand out, may be selected as informative in a
psychophysical field. - His program was to extract as much systematic
content as he could from the analogy between
physical fields and perceptual fields. - Insofar as perception is the basic stratum of
semiosis, any perceptually basis symbolic
structure elaborates the psychophysical fields of
our sensory systems.
6Remaining gap
- Although this strategy from physics to semiotics
allowed for the transfer of many mathematical
techniques, which had been shown to be successful
in physics, there remained a large gap between
psychophysics (the level of perception) and
linguistic (or cultural) semiosis. - The term prégnance had to fill this gap and to
explain the transition between very basic
perceptual reactions and language.
7The concept of prégnance
- The basic meaning of the term introduced by Thom
comes from German Prägnanz, which has been
internationalized by gestalt-psychology. In
German the adjective prägnant means that
something perceived, enounced, remembered has
outstanding properties, which catch attention,
makes it relevant, important in a specific
situation one also associates brevity (laconism)
and sudden effect as in jokes or aphorisms with
it. - Other words, that may be associated to this
lexical field, are prägen, Prägung, i.e., the
coining of piece of money or the imprinting of a
sign on an object. - Prägnanz has a positive value in
gestalt-psychology insofar as the term gute
Gestalt (optimal form) refers also to
Prägnanz.
8- Prägnanz has a positive value in
gestalt-psychology insofar as the term gute
Gestalt (optimal form) refers also to
Prägnanz. - The term in French prégnance (or even less
evident in English pregnance) should be
understood as a lean-translation with the lexical
content of German Prägnanz.
9The scientific use of the concept
- In Pavlovs experiments with dogs, they salivate
if presented with meat and learn the
conditioned reflex of an associated bell. - Konrad Lorenz observed the process called
Prägnanz (imprinting) in birds (ants, geese,
etc.). During a short period after they left the
egg, many birds select rather unspecific stimuli
in their environment and quickly elaborate basic
concepts like that of a mother bird. - Jakob von Uexküll. A similar concept of
Bedeutungswelt (meaningful universe) was
proposed by another biologist, Jakob von Uexküll.
For Uexküll every animal creates its own
Bedeutungswelt which depends first on its
windows of perception and then on its vital need.
10- In the realm of psychology Gibson elaborated the
concepts of prägnante Gestalt and Valenz of
his teacher Koffka and coined the term of
affordance. Any object or process in our
environment may have affordances thus a chair
allows for sitting, a bed for sleeping, etc. - Cassirer generalized the perceptual/motoric
Prägnanz to symbolische Prägnanz as
perception is the first level of semiosis (symbol
creation) in his system. - The application of the concept Prägnanz
(imprinting) to language acquisition was proposed
by William Stern, who recognized a type of
goal-oriented, internally controlled process in
language acquisition.
11Thom adds two new ideas
- The salience (saillance) effect in perception
may be linked via psycho-physical laws to the
dynamics of objective fields in physics and
chemistry . - The prégnance effect applies to the topology of
salient objects and events via a process called
diffusion de prégnance (channeling of
prégnance). In this channeling the multiple
forms of (perceptual) saillance are molded into
the instinctive and inborn (poor) forms and
elaborate them to rich and context-dependent
fields of categorical perception and behavior.
12Where mathematics come in
- It was clear (for Thom) that the psychophysical
transition calls for the application of the laws
of physical dynamics - The first line has been further elaborated by the
group of Turvey, Kelso and others and in my own
work. - The second line (diffusion of prégnance), calls
for something like fluid dynamics and models of
growth in space and time. - One may ask however if the generalization of
mathematical models from physics to psychology
(neuropsychology) and from there for linguistics
(semiotic systems) is philosophically sound. The
work of Cassirer (mainly after 1935) may guide
this inquiry.
13Mathematics in psychology and semiotics
Cassirers scepsis
- The basic question are
- How is the mathematical study of the physical
world related to the study of the mental and the
cultural word? - Is there continuity such that the concepts of
mathematics successful in the scientific capture
of features in the objective world may be applied
(with the same success) to the mental and the
cultural world?
14Answers
- In mathematical Platonism, the mathematical model
has an existence of its own right and its
application to physics is just one possible field
among many. - A more synthetic view of mathematics assumes a
specific adaptation to major problems of physics
and technology in the course of millennia - An even more radical view (Lakoff) may even state
that mathematics are a specialized deformation of
natural (language) reasoning and thus are biased
for the analysis of language and culture.
15Cassirers position
- Cassirer argued in several articles written
towards the end of his life, that mathematics
(mainly Kleins geometry and topology) describe
only a realm of possibilities (e.g., possible
Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometries) and that
an empirical study of visual perception can at
its best select, specify, even combine these
geometries or their features. - The basic selection must be made based on
empirical arguments. The fact that certain
mathematical structures have been invented
historically does not allow any statement about
the structure of visual perception.
16Leytons critique of the Klein (Erlangen) Program
- Leyton (2001) even argues that the invariant
structures arrived at by Felix Klein have
eliminated the memory and thus the information
contained in visual and linguistic (symbolic)
forms. - Leytons criticism affects Thoms models insofar
as elementary catastrophes correspond to the
geometrical groups of regular polygons, Platonic
solids, etc. (cf. Slodowy, 1995). Therefore, one
may assume that the elementary catastrophes are
structures stripped off their (semantic)
information and that via deformation, breaking of
symmetry and combination of the catastrophe
schemata the information may be recovered or
reconstructed.
17A new perspective on Thoms proposals
- This puts a new interpretation on Thoms
semiophysics but the major concern is now, not
how to find (or construct) the archetypes, but
how to describe the modes of accumulating
meaning, starting from these meaningless forms. - The process of diffusion de prégnance is now
rather a process of meaning creation than of
meaning distribution from an original source full
of (pregnant with) meaning. - This puts Thoms semiophysics from its head to
its feet and at the same time it diminishes the
role of basic releasers
18The propagation of prégnance and the dynamics
of language
- All basic meanings are theoretical entities,
i.e., they are difficult or impossible to
observe, but must be assumed in order to
understand the observable effects. - We may observe basic behavioral categories in
babies, register the semantic structures in
one-word or two-word utterances and finally
describe the lexicon and syntax of the adult
language.
The theoretical starting level S0 must evolve
regularly given a human genome and normal
conditions of maturation (before birth).
19- At birth only some auditory capacities already
developed in the womb exist the first period of
development concerns our other sensory organs and
basic motor programs (cf. Piagets senso-motor
level of cognitive development). - The genome cannot code for specific sensory forms
or motor-patterns, i.e., it can only fix some
gradients that allow the detection of relevant
input in order to trigger the process of
elaboration (intrinsic) and learning (extrinsic).
- Parallel to these basic gradient-fields the
sensory capacities and corresponding categorical
and memory capacities evolve. For simplicity
sake, I assume only one basic (inborn) gradient
(a correlate could be found in the genetic code)
called P (prégnance).
20- A first division of P may be due to the
multiplicity of Si. If the different sense organs
evolve in a consecutive order, e.g., Sau(ditive)
? Svi(sual), the types of P invested by Sau may
condition the structure of P invested by Svi.
This leads to a cascade of Pk invested by Si
- The same thing may occur with all sensory fields
(whose number is open, traditionally five,
maximally 30). If the first investments prefigure
the later, we obtain a more complicated net
21Evolutionary dynamics of language
- A new level is reached in alarm calls, i.e.,
perception is coupled to a behavior which is able
to redistribute the perception and triggered
action to a community (independent of
consciousness, free will or intentionality). - In this case, the category of interpretant begins
to surface in behavior (not yet in
consciousness). If the propagation of P is the
base line which links perception and action, than
the alarm is caused by the stability of the link
between both which causes thirdness (the
interpretant).
22The alarm-call is perceived and causes action (in
adult animals who have learned the rule) and we
can proceed further in the hierarchy of semiosis.
The circular process of semiosis begins.
23Selforganization of complex systems
- If call-repertoires beyond the number of two,
three, four evolve this may be assumed as soon
as bodily group communication (e.g., lousing) is
replaced by call patterns (cf. the work of
Dunbar). - A new type of phenomenon occurs which may be
called the denotational and connotational fields.
The set of external and social meanings is now
organized by criteria of parsimony and distance
in a semantic space. - For the denotational space, processes of
metonymical and metaphorical generalization have
been shown to be crucial cf. Lakoff and Johnson
(1980). - In the case of social meanings Osgood was able to
show that an abstract space E (Evaluation), P
(Potency) and A (Activity) may be assumed.
24Propagation of prégnance P into more and more
segmented attractor fields
- The simple propagation of prégnance typically
produces a cascade of attractors with diminishing
energy,
25Valence patterns
- In the case of valence we must assume two stages
- A bifurcation into two categorically opposed
fields e.g., subjectpredicate (or
topiccomment figureground trajectorylandmark)
. - In the next stage a bifurcation of one nominal
role (NP) into two or three (in extreme cases
four). - The valence pattern is described by a conflict of
prégnances in Thom (1978c 76). If these
conflicts are stripped off their specific
intentional and real-life content, a formal
topologico-dynamic pattern is left, which can be
matched against the hierarchy of elementary
catastrophes in Thom (1972).
26Is there a pragmatic prégnance?
- The fact that full linguistic competence is
neither achieved under extreme social depravation
as in Kaspar-Hauser cases suggests the necessary
maturation of a specifically human social
competence. - If autism has genetic sources, there may even be
a genetic basis for this maturation i.e. genes
and social context must be guaranteed in order to
allow for language acquisition.
27- This type of imprinting may be specific for
humans, although precursors may exist in other
social mammals, and more specifically primates
(cf. bonobos). It could have evolved out either
of more primitive sexual and/or child rearing
instincts. - A neural precondition were probably the mirror
neurons which allow for motor imitation and
sympathy effects with the other - The ethic principle love your next is perhaps
the best compression of this prégnance feature.
28Linguistic/cognitive consequences
- Multi-agent systems and conflicts/alliances
between agents presuppose a social schema which
goes beyond perceptual saillance
(center/periphery and prototype effects may
generalize based on saillance). - The agent/patient opposition makes use of the
basic consciousness of self/other. - Causal cognition elaborates the effect Ego
has/intends to have on others and reinterprets
the interaction with objects in this
agent/patient light. - The instrumental relation is further elaborated
in the context of early tool industries or it
gives rise to these industries and thus to modern
technology and science.
29Conjecture on the source of valence patterns
- The complexity of valence patterns and basically
already the possibility of predication ask for
something beyond animal instincts (hunger,
thirst, sex) and sensory categorization and make
up the basic human nature of natural languages. - The genetic disposition for this faculty is still
open, but a morphosemiosis without such a factor
remains incomplete.
30Conclusions
- If we remember the skeptical remarks by Cassirer
concerning the psychology of perception, we can
say that the mathematically derived archetypes
are only an abstract set of possible schemata,
which may find applications in rather divergent
fields. - The specific choice, elaboration and filling is
an empirical task in semiotics. - The empirical specification may be found at
different levels - classificatory procedures of descriptive
linguistics, which specify semantic roles and
frames (valence patterns), - experimental psycholinguistics and developmental
results concerning the formation and
interpretation of sentences, - neurolinguistics and neurodynamics of sentence
production and understanding, - evolutionary anthropology and genetics (which
have to include a social factor).