Signs, deixis, and the emergence of scientific explanation

A semiotic model is proposed to study the relationship between gesture & speech in the ontogenesis of scientific language among students (N unspecified) in a school laboratory setting. Focus is on semantic & pragmatic mechanisms of deixis deployed by Ss in the face of unfamiliar phenomena th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Semiotica 2002-01, Vol.138 (138), p.95-130
Main Authors: ROTH, Wolff-Michael, LAWLESS, Daniel V
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Codes. Signals. Signs
Communication
Gestures
Linguistics
Science
Scientific thought
Semiotics
Semiotics and communication
Signs
Speech
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Summary:A semiotic model is proposed to study the relationship between gesture & speech in the ontogenesis of scientific language among students (N unspecified) in a school laboratory setting. Focus is on semantic & pragmatic mechanisms of deixis deployed by Ss in the face of unfamiliar phenomena that must be observed & explained; changes in sign production are analyzed in the modalities of percept, gesture, & speech on the assumption that structures of real-world experience are signs. Ss' learning trajectories begin with communicative efforts based on perception & a variety of talk characterized as muddled, chaotic, & nearly incomprehensible; gestural & verbal deixis provides intermodal linkage, & the frequency of gestures decreases as consistent verbal representations of entities emerge. A mutually motivating relation between gestures & perceptions makes intrasubjective events intersubjectively accessible. 11 Figures, 1 Appendix, 48 References. J. Hitchcock
ISSN:0037-1998
1613-3692
DOI:10.1515/semi.2002.016