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Showing posts from September, 2026

Semiotic space and semiotic act

A schema consisting of addresser, addressee and the channel linking them together is not yet a working system. For it to work it has to be ‘immersed’ in semiotic space. All participants in the communicative act must have some experience of communication, be familiar with semiosis. So, paradoxically, semiotic experience precedes the semiotic act. - Yuri Lotman   Yuri Lotman’s quote critiques the limitations of the basic linear model of communication and introduces the necessity of a surrounding “semiotic space” what he calls the semiosphere .   The standard schema—addresser (sender), addressee (receiver), and a channel connecting them—is the classic model familiar from information theory (Shannon–Weaver) and Roman Jakobson’s semiotic version of it. Lotman argues that this isolated, atomistic setup is not yet a working system . On its own it can at best transmit very simple signals; it cannot generate or sustain meaningful, complex communication , especially cultural or creative...