Todd Oakley, English

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Todd Oakley, English Cognitive SciencePer
Aage Brandt, Modern Languages Cognitive Science

• Case Western Reserve University
• Cleveland, Ohio
• USA

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Meta-Representation, Mind Reading, and Fictive
Interaction

• A Collectors Conceit

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How to Produce a Fiction
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How to Produce a Fiction

• Presentation
• A present perception resonates as a remembered
  present

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How to Produce a Fiction

• Presentation
• A present perception resonates as a remembered
  present
• What is

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How to Produce a Fiction

• Presentation
• A present perception that resonates as a
  remembered present
• What is
• Representation
• An Imaginative variation that creates
  hypothetical or counterfactual events, states, or
  processes

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How to Produce a Fiction

• Presentation
• A present perception that resonates as a
  remembered present of the here-and-now
• What is
• Representation
• An Imaginative variation that creates a
  hypothetical or counterfactual events, states, or
  processes of the there-and-then
• What if?

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How to Produce a Fiction

• Presentation
• A present perception that resonates as a
  remembered present of the here-and-now
• What is
• Representation
• An Imaginative variation that creates a
  hypothetical or counterfactual events, states, or
  processes of the there-and-then
• What if?
• Meta-Representation
• A fictional representation that projects a
  there-and-then into the perceptual here-and-now

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How to Produce a Fiction

• Presentation
• A present perception that resonates as a
  remembered present of the here-and-now
• What is
• Representation
• An Imaginative variation that creates a
  hypothetical or counterfactual events, states, or
  processes of the there-and-then
• What if?
• Meta-Representation
• A fictional representation that projects a
  there-and-then into the perceptual here-and-now
• As if

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Hypotyposis

• Classical rhetorical theorists call this as if
  phenomenon hypotyposis or enargia
• Aristotle calls is a tactic of visualization pro
  ommaton poiein, or bringing before the eyes

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Hypotyposis

• Classical rhetorical theorists call this as if
  phenomenon hypotyposis or enargia
• Aristotle calls is a tactic of visualization pro
  ommaton poiein, or bringing before the eyes
• Cognitive Linguists call these fictive
  realities
• Fictive motion
• The wainscoting runs along the perimeter of the
  room
• Fictive action
• The French doors open onto a terra cotta patio
• Fictive reference
• The kettle is boiling
• Fictive interaction (E Pascual 2002)
• We need to avoid creating he-said-she-said-situati
  ons
• Among others

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Attention Intersubjectivity

• Claim meta-representations so defined are
  necessarily intersubjective.

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Intersubjectivity

• Claim meta-representations so defined are
  necessarily intersubjective.
• Cognizers must (at least) tacitly know how to
  represent the conditions of mutual
  intelligibility and interaction in order to use
  them in imaginative variation

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Intersubjectivity

• Claim meta-representations so defined are
  necessarily intersubjective
• Cognizers must (at least) tacitly know that how
  to represent the conditions of mutual
  intelligibility and interaction in order to use
  them for imaginative variation
• This fact is captured most strikingly in
  instances of hypotyposis in discourse, in
  pictorial representation, and in curatorship

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Cinematic Model

• Fictional representations are staged in time and
  space

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Cinematic Model

• Fictional representations are staged in time and
  space
• The scene of fictional representations has a
  complex attentional and intersubjective structure

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Cinematic Model

• Fictional representations are staged in time and
  space
• The scene of fictional representations has a
  complex attentional and intersubjective structure
• Scenarial integration of fictional
  representations can be approached by using the
  cinema as a model

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Cinematic Model

• Components of the Model
• The screen
• a focal area within a bounded site

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Cinematic Model

• Components of the Model
• A screen
• focal area within a bounded site
• A projectionist
• presupposed agent doing the screening

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Cinematic Model

• Components of the Model
• A screen
• focal area within a bounded site
• A projectionist
• presupposed agent doing the screening
• An audience
• perceives the events on the screen as
  representing something beyond the screen

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Attention

• One person attends to the story the film
  tells through the optical events on the screen.
  This is called primary (deictic) attention

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Attention

• One person attends to the story the film
  tells through the optical events on the screen.
  This is called primary (deictic) attention
• Another person attends to the first person. This
  is called secondary (refracted) attention

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Attention

• One person attends to the story the film
  tells through the optical events on the screen.
  This is called primary (deictic) attention
• A second person attends to the first person. This
  is called secondary (refracted) attention
• The second person attends to what the first
  person is attending to. This is called tertiary
  (harmonic) attention

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From Attention to Intention

• The projectionistthe presenter of the fictionis
  the agent who intends the audience to attend to
  the show

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From Attention to Intention

• The projectionistthe presenter of the fictionis
  the agent who intends the audience to attend to
  the show
• This intentional instance requires the strategic
  use of representational resources for
  interactivity, both of conversation and mentation

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Mental Spaces

• These features of the cinematic model can be
  formally modeled semiotically by a modified
  version of the Mental Spaces framework developed
  by Fauconnier Turner (2002)

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Mental Spaces

• We adopt the mode of analysis developed by Line
  Brandt Per Aage Brandt (2005), and Line Brandt
  (2006)

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Mental Spaces

• We adopt the mode of analysis developed by Line
  Brandt Per Aage Brandt (2005), and Line Brandt
  (2006)
• To review
• Mental spaces are scenes and scenario or facets
  of scenes and scenarios representing past,
  present, future, and otherwise imagined events,
  processes, and states
• Meaning arises when scenes and scenarios are
  activated and sometimes blended
• Mental space networks are ontologically grounded
  in a semiotic base space

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A Famous Example of Fictive Interaction in
Discourse

• The Debate With Kant
• A philosophy professor leading a seminar on the
  philosophy of mind is reported as saying the
  following

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• I claim that reason is a self-developing
  capacity. Kant disagrees with me on this point.
  He says its innate, but I answer that thats
  begging the question, to which he counters, in
  Critique of Pure Reason, that only innate ideas
  have power. But I say to that, What about
  neuronal group selection? And he gives no answer.
• From Fauconnier Turner (2002 59-60)

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Semiotic
Participants
Philosophy Professor Students
Situation
Setting
Persons unbound of time and space, primarily
through modes of written communication
A university classroom with tables, chairs,
chalkboards, etc.

Intelligibility Condition
Situational relevance

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Semiotic
Presentation space
Reference space
Kants philosophical writings on mind (as they
appear in translation)
Participants
Oral debate as format of teaching
Philosophy Professor Students
Situation
Setting
Persons unbound of time and space, primarily
through modes of written communication
A university classroom with tables, chairs,
chalkboards, etc.

Exhibitory Condition
Situational relevance

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Semiotic
Presentation space
Reference space
Kants philosophical writings on mind (as they
appear in translation)
Participants
Professor Oral debate as format of teaching
Philosophy Professor Students
Situation
Setting
Virtual space 1 Fictive debate 1st person plural
Persons unbound of time and space, primarily
through modes of written communication
A university classroom with tables, chairs,
chalkboards, etc.
Kant with Professor

Exhibitory Condition
Situational relevance

Virtual space 2 1st person plural with 3rd
person viewpoint
Students witness Kants error against the truth
of the professors views
Pragmatic implication Contemporary significance
of a fictive debate with Kant
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Magrittes Tentative de limpossible (1928)
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Semiotic
Presentation space
Reference space
Representation of a nude woman on canvas
Participants
Easel painting Artist working with a nude
model. The model posses for the artist.
Rene Magritte Model Viewer
Situation
Setting
Virtual space 1 Fictional 1st person plural
Expression and content merge usual objects in
very unusual contexts
The viewer is looking through a catalogue of the
artists work
The artist paints the woman into being Uses
paint, brushes palette to create a 3D woman

Exhibitory Condition
Situational relevance

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Semiotic
Presentation space
Reference space
Representation of a nude woman on canvas
Participants
Easel painting Artist working with a nude
model. The model posses for the artist.
Rene Magritte Model Viewer
Situation
Setting
Virtual space 1 Fictional 1st person plural
Expression and content merge
The viewer is looking through a catalogue of the
artists work
The artist paints the woman into being Uses
paint, brushes palette to create a 3D woman

Exhibitory Condition
Situational relevance

The artist knows that the viewer knows this is an
impossible state of affairs
Pragmatic implication Artists do bring there
subjects into being!
Metarepresentation space
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Henry Clay Frick Hans Holbein A Curators
Conceit
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Semiotic space
Participants
museum patrons security guards
Situation
Setting
Patrons walk through the gallery looking at the
collection and listening to commentary
The Living Hall at the Frick mansion on 5th
Avenue in NYC depictions of St. Jerome and St.
Paul, among others.

Situational relevance
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Semiotic space
Presentation space
Participants
Hans Holbein, the Younger Portrait of Thomas More
(1527) Enface position Portrait of Thomas
Cromwell (1532) Profile position Henry C. Frick
Protagonist
museum patrons security guards
Situation
Setting
Patrons walk through the gallery looking at the
collection and listening to commentary
The Living Hall at the Frick mansion on 5th
Avenue in NYC depictions of St. Jerome and St.
Paul, among others.

Situational relevance
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Grounding
Presentation space
Reference space
Thomas More (protagonist) Thomas
Cromwell (antagonist) Political rivals in the
Tudor Court of Henry VIII
Participants
Hans Holbein, the Younger Portrait of Thomas More
(1527) Enface position Portrait of Thomas
Cromwell (1532) Profile position Henry C. Frick
Protagonist
museum patrons security guards
Situation
Setting
Patrons walk through the gallery looking at the
collection and listening to commentary
The Living Hall at the Frick mansion on 5th
Avenue in NYC depictions of St. Jerome and St.
Paul, among others.

Situational relevance
41
Grounding
Presentation space
Reference space
Thomas More (protagonist) Thomas
Cromwell (antagonist) Political rivals in the
Tudor Court of Henry VIII
Participants
Hans Holbein, the Younger Portrait of Thomas More
(1527) Enface position Portrait of Thomas
Cromwell (1532) Profile position Henry C. Frick
Protagonist
museum patrons security guards
Situation
Setting
Virtual space 1 1st person singular experience
of a fictive 3rd person viewpoint
Patrons walk through the gallery looking at the
collection and listening to commentary
The Living Hall at the Frick mansion on 5th
Avenue in NYC depictions of St. Jerome and St.
Paul, among others.

Situational relevance
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Semiotic Space
Presentation space
Reference space
Thomas More (protagonist) Thomas
Cromwell (antagonist) Political rivals in the
Tudor Court of Henry VIII
Participants
Hans Holbein, the Younger Portrait of Thomas More
(1527) Enface position Portrait of Thomas
Cromwell (1532) Profile position Henry C. Frick
Protagonist
museum patrons security guards
Situation
Setting
Virtual space 1 1st person singular experience
of a fictive 3rd person viewpoint
Patrons walk through the gallery looking at the
collection and listening to commentary
The Living Hall at the Frick mansion on 5th
Avenue in NYC depictions of St. Jerome and St.
Paul, among others.

Situational relevance
Illocutionary Force Look at this!
Virtual space 2 1st person plural experience of
a fictive 3rd person viewpoint
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Grounding
Presentation space
Reference space
Thomas More (protagonist) Thomas
Cromwell (antagonist) Political rivals in the
Tudor Court of Henry VIII
Participants
Hans Holbein, the Younger Portrait of Thomas More
(1527) Enface position Portrait of Thomas
Cromwell (1532) Profile position Henry C. Frick
Protagonist
museum patrons security guards
Situation
Setting
Virtual space 1 1st person singular experience
of a fictive 3rd person viewpoint
Patrons walk through the gallery looking at the
collection and listening to commentary
The Living Hall at the Frick mansion on 5th
Avenue in NYC depictions of St. Jerome and St.
Paul, among others.

Situational relevance
Illocutionary Force Look at this!
Virtual space 2 1st person plural experience of
a fictive 3rd person viewpoint
Pragmatic implication Frick was a clever
collector
Metarepresentation space fictive 3rd person
omnipotent perspective
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Discussion

• Reconsider representation and metarepresentation
  in light of a cognitive semiotic analysis

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Discussion

• Various forms of interaction are fundamental to
  the formation of fictional representations

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Discussion

• Shared attention as it relates to intentional
  meaning needs to be explicitly modeled in these
  instances

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Discussion

• Weve attempted this by integrating mental spaces
  theory with a cinematic model of attention, for
  understanding a three step process from
  presentation to representation to
  metarepresentation

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Discussion

• this model offers a systematic means of
  accounting for the richly intesubjective nature
  of fictional interactions and, we think, offers
  an important addition to mental spaces framework

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Discussion

• Our goal was to analyze properly the nature of
  meaning as it relates to these issues

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Discussion

• Our goal was to analyze properly the nature of
  meaning as it relates to these issues
• We have said nothing about how these processes
  evolved or developed. Perhaps this workshop can
  point us in a fruitful direction