Brain, Mind and the Signifying Body An Ecosocial Semiotic Theory

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ISBN: 9780826492531 | 0826492533
Cover: Paperback
Copyright: 11/17/2006

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This cutting-edge study of linguistic theory by one of the world's leading authors in the field of semiotics will be of interest to academics and postgraduates researching applied linguistics and advanced semiotics. In his foreword M. A. K. Halliday explains the importance of Paul J. Thibault's work to linguistics. Book jacket.

List of Figures	p. ix
List of Tables	p. x
Foreword	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii

Introduction
The Body-brain System, Meaning-making Activity, and Ecosocial Environment: Building a New, Unified Discourse	p. 3
The Conceptual Framework of the Ecosocial Semiotic Perspective	p. 8
Gibson's Ecological Theory of Perception and the Three-level Scalar Hierarchy View of Organism-plus-Environment Transactions	p. 11
The Brain as Regulator of Sensori-motor Activity: Implications for Social Semiosis	p. 18
Topological and Typological Modes of Semiotic-material Interdependence	p. 23
Contextualization and Meta-redundancy	p. 26
A Critique of the Causal View of Brain-mind Relations	p. 30
Defining and Extending the Notion of Meaning in Terms of the Three-level Hierarchy and the Specification Hierarchy	p. 34
The Signifying Body: Rethinking the Stratified view of Semiosis in Terms of the Three-level Scalar Hierarchy	p. 39
Systemic-functional Linguistic Theory: Bringing Together the Intra-organism and Inter-organism Perspectives on Meaning-making	p. 46
Reconnecting the Semiotic Concept of Value to the Body-brain System and to Meaning-making Activity	p. 49
A Thumbnail Sketch of the Book	p. 54

Sensori-motor Activity, Movement, and Social Meaning-making: Rethinking the Expression Plane of Semiosis
Some Early Signposts from Saussure and Hjelmslev: The Expression Plane as Embodied Articulatory Movement	p. 59
Energy Exchange and the Complementarity of Interacting Body-brains	p. 68
The Stratified Model of Semiosis: The Problem of Conceptual Abstractness and Scalar Homogeneity	p. 69
Blackboxing the Sensori-motor Dimension: Language Seen as Modality-independent Centralized Processing Mechanism	p. 72
The Intentional Character of 'Inner' and 'Outer' Sensori-motor Activity: Towards a Unified Account	p. 75
The Symbolic Possibilities of Bodily Movement	p. 77
Articulatory Movement Seen as Actional Semiotic, Not Physical Behaviour	p. 78
Inner and Outer Body States and Social Semiosis	p. 81
The Semiotic Mediation and Entraining of Embodied Bio-kinematic Potential	p. 83
Metafunctional Diversity on the Expression Plane	p. 86
The Expression Plane is the Interface between Body and Ecosocial Environment	p. 87
The Metafunctional Basis of Vocal-tract Articulatory Activity	p. 90
Subjectivity, Agency, and the Prosodic Realization of Interpersonal Meaning	p. 94
Vocal-tract Gestures and Grammar: Symptom and/or Supervenience?	p. 98
The Intentional Character of Articulatory Activity	p. 100
Embodying the Metafunctions: The Example of Vocal-tract Articulatory Activity	p. 103
The Metafunctional Basis of Space and of Bodily Movement in Ecosocial Space-time	p. 105
Body Dynamics, Meaning-making, and Scale Heterogeneity: Expression and Content as Cross-scalar Semiotic Processes Embedding the Body-brain in its Ecosocial Environment
The Dynamical Character of Expression and Content and the Cross-coupling of Diverse Scalar Levels of Semiotic Organization	p. 108
The Expression Stratum and the Principle of Alternation	p. 109
Stratification in Relation to Expression and Content	p. 116
The Integration of Iconic, Indexical and Symbolic Modes of Meaning in Phonology	p. 118
Rhythm and the Foot	p. 120
The Metafunctional Organization of Phonology as seen from the Perspective of Rhythm and the Foot	p. 122
The Integration of Iconic, Indexical and Symbolic Modes of Meaning in Lexicogrammar	p. 126
Language as Particle, Wave, and Field	p. 134
The Brain as Selective Recognition System: Language and Edelman's Theory of Recategorization	p. 139
The Integration of Individuals to their Semiotic Trajectories	p. 146
The Intrinsically Time-bound Nature of Semiosis: The Integration of Temporal Dynamics Across Scales of Expression and Content	p. 148
Scalar Heterogeneity and the Phonological and Lexicogrammatical Rank Scales	p. 154
The Emergence of Linguistic Categories from the Child's Primary Forceful Interactions with its Environment	p. 162

The Semiotic Basis of Consciousness
First-person and Third-person Accounts of Consciousness	p. 171
The Representation of Subjective Experience in Consciousness in Relation to the Higher-scalar Environment of the Individual	p. 173
Locating the Seat of Consciousness	p. 176
The Meaning-making Capacity of the Body-brain Complex through the Discrimination of Difference	p. 184
Language Functions and the Cortical Organization of the Brain: Implications for Higher-order Consciousness	p. 189
Experiential Meaning and the Assimilation of the Phenomena of Experience to Knowable Categories	p. 195
Interpersonal Meaning as Exploratory and Orienting Activity in Relation to the Ground	p. 198
The Textual Metafunction as Semiotic Means for Giving Unity and Wholeness to Meaning-making	p. 200
Experiential and Interpersonal Meaning in Gaze	p. 201
Proto-interpersonal Meaning and the Child's Exploration of its Environment	p. 202
Bogdan's Theory of Mental Sharing and Topical Predication	p. 205
Interpersonal Meaning, Value, and Action	p. 209
Procedural Knowledge, Declarative Knowledge and the Semiotic Spiral towards Symbolic Consciousness	p. 212
Interpersonal Meaning, Goal-seeking Activity, and the Goal Hierarchy	p. 215
Consciousness and Semiotic Stratification	p. 217
An Alternative Reading of Descartes in the Internalist Perspective of Interpretive Activity	p. 224
The Entropic Character of Meaning	p. 226
Consciousness as the Contextualization of Experience in the Perspective of the Self	p. 227
The Embedding of Consciousness in a Higher-scalar System of Interpretance	p. 231
The Metafunctional Character of Consciousness: Some Correlations Between the Neurobiological and Semiotic Dimensions
The Contextual Character of Consciousness	p. 236
The Metafunctions and the Shape of Consciousness	p. 238
Vague Contours of the Metafunctions in the Infant's Early Perceptual-motor Engagements with the Environment	p. 241
The Structure of (Self) Consciousness in Perceptual Awareness	p. 246
Damasio's Neurobiological Theory of Consciousness	p. 248
The Proto-metafunctional Structure of Core and Extended Consciousness	p. 257
Integrating the Interaction System and the Meaning System Perspectives on (Self) Consciousness	p. 264
Minding the Gap between Minds: Mirror Neurons and Interpersonal Meaning	p. 267
Inner Speech as Linguistically Realized Higher-order Thinking	p. 271
The Metafunctional Character of Inner Speech as Linguistically Constituted Thought	p. 272
The Re-grounding of the Perspectives of Self and Other in Symbolic Consciousness	p. 276
Text, Social Meaning-making Practices and Higher-order Consciousness	p. 277
Brain, Meaning, and Consciousness
Biological and Socio-cultural Factors Form a Single System of Complexly Related and Interacting Factors: Putting Time and Activity Back into the Picture	p. 281
Re-interpreting Flohr's Brain-based Theory of Phenomenal Awareness: A Three-level Hierarchy View of the Emergence of Proto-meaning in the Brain	p. 283
Brain, Meaning, and Symbolic Consciousness	p. 289
The Embodiment of the Material and the Conscious Modes in Expression and Content	p. 290
Periodicity and the Intrinsic Temporal Organization of the Expression Stratum of Speech on Diverse Scalar Levels	p. 295
The Creation of Symbolic Objects of Consciousness in Semantic Neural Space	p. 296
Contextualizing Relations, the Principle of Meta-redundancy, and the Brain as Contextualizing Tool	p. 300
A Definition of Consciousness in Terms of the Semiosis that Occurs Within the Brain	p. 302
The Three-level Hierarchy, Neuronal Activity, and the Emergence of the Self-perspective	p. 310
Epilogue	p. 314
References	p. 318
Name Index	p. 331
Subject Index	p. 334
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Brain, Mind and the Signifying Body An Ecosocial Semiotic Theory

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