Encyclopedia of semiotics

Review article Encyclopedia of semiotics* FRANK NUESSEL Abstract The third edition of the now classic and basic reference work for semiotic research, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics (published by Mouton de Gruyter), first edited by the world-renowned semiotician, Thomas A. Sebeok in 1986 and revised by him in 1994 has undergone a significant revamping by University of Toronto scholar and Editor-in-Chief of Semiotica, Marcel Danesi. Newly published in 2010, this basic research tool for semiotics remains the quintessential reference work for every scholar in this field. It would be hard to imagine that any researcher would be able to engage in meaningful scholarship without it. Keywords: dictionary; encyclopedia; semiotics; reference work; revision 1. Introduction Now in its third edition, the revised and updated three-volume edition of Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics (Sebeok and Danesi 2010) has added a new editor, Marcel Danesi, now in his second term as Editor-in-Chief of Semiotica, the Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies, and recognized as the premiere journal in the field of semiotics, also published by Mouton de Gruyter. It is indeed appropriate that Danesi be a co-editor of the third edition of this major reference work for several reasons. First, he and Thomas A. Sebeok collaborated on a very important work on semiotics entitled The Forms of Meaning: Modeling Systems Theory and Semiotic Analysis (Sebeok and Danesi 2000). Second, he edited and contributed to The Invention of Global Semiotics: A Collection of Essays on the Life and Work of Thomas A. Sebeok (Danesi 2001). Third, he is now in his second term as Editor-in-Chief of Semiotica, the journal founded by Thomas A. Sebeok in 1969. Finally, he has authored an Semiotica 190–1/4 (2012), 285 – 293 DOI 10.1515/sem-2012-0050 0037–1998/12/0190–0285 © Walter de Gruyter Brought to you by | University of Louisville Authenticated Download Date | 5/18/15 4:09 PM 286 F. Nuessel astonishing number of scholarly articles and books on semiotics and related matters in the past four decades. In fact, it would now be possible to publish a book-length bibliography of all of Danesi’s significant publications akin to the one compiled by John Deely for Thomas A. Sebeok (Deely 1995). This encyclopedia is the basic reference resource for anyone who works in the field of semiotics. Its three volumes consist of two content volumes in alphabetical order: A–M, and N–Z. The third volume is a comprehensive bibliography of works in semiotics. This monumental and essential research tool is a tribute to its prime mover, Thomas A. Sebeok, 9 November, 1920 [Budapest, Hungary] — 21 December, 2001 [Bloomington, Indiana]), who first envisioned the need for such a work more than a quarter of a century ago. Its first two editions appeared in 1986 and 1993 (Sebeok 1986, 1994) under the able general editorship of that amiable and erudite scholar. 2. Thomas A. Sebeok Although Thomas A. Sebeok passed away on December 21, 2001 in Bloomington, Indiana where he spent his entire illustrious academic career, and he was thus unable to participate in the preparation of the third edition with Marcel Danesi (1946 –), his spirit remains in this remarkable volume. Much has been written about Thomas A. Sebeok, the man, the semiotician, the linguist, and the mentor of many generations of scholars during his long tenure at Indiana University at Bloomington. John Deely (1995) commemorated Sebeok’s remarkable groundbreaking scholarly contributions to semiotics in his volume on Sebeok’s writings from 1942 to 1995. To be sure, Sebeok would continue to write influential works in this field until the very end of his productive and fruitful career. Marcel Danesi (2001) also edited a volume of essays about Thomas A. Sebeok, which included contributions by Thomas A. Sebeok on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, and essays by Marcel Danesi, Frank Nuessel (University of Louisville; see Nuessel 2001), W. C. Watt (University of California, Irvine), Solomon Marcus (Romanian Academy, Mathematics), Nathan Houser (Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis), Albert Valdman (Indiana University, Bloomington), Lucia Santaella Braga (São Paolo Catholic University), Susan Petrilli (University of Bari, Italy), and Laura A. M. Shintani (University of Toronto). 3. Prefaces to first, second, and third editions It should be noted that the third edition reproduces the prefaces to the first edition (Sebeok 1986: vii–x) and the second edition (Sebeok 1994: x). The pref- Brought to you by | University of Louisville Authenticated Download Date | 5/18/15 4:09 PM Encyclopedia of semiotics 287 ace to the third edition (Sebeok and Danesi 2010: v–vi) provides information about how the current work is configured and mentions changes to it. At this juncture, it is worth commenting on the prefaces to the first, second, and third editions, respectively, because they provide a historical overview of this monumental reference work. The very first preface (Sebeok 1986) provides an insightful look into how this opus magnum saw its way into print from Sebeok’s initial impulse to carry out such a project until its fruition in the three volume encyclopedia of 1986 (Sebeok 1986). In his preface to the first edition, Sebeok states that The embryonic idea for some kind of reference guide to semiotics came to me in 1973, while I was a Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences. As Klaus Oehler later insightfully espied, I was animated to develop a project of this sort . . . Initially, I had an amorphous conception of a reasonably comprehensive, one-volume venture — that, on the one hand, would attempt to answer relatively specific, narrow questions, but that would also, on the other hand, encourage its users to distend their horizons. In short, the handbook I imagined would aim to satisfy both demands of the mind: for direct problem-solving as well as for the harvest of its peripheral vision. (p. vii) In his first preface, Sebeok states that he . . . firmly rejected the notion of constructing a work representing any particular “school of semiotic thought,” thereby promoting the normative criteria of a single position “into a principle unifying all other positions” . . . This renunciation had as its corollary the requirement to seek for the widest possible support throughout the international community of semiotic practitioners and representatives of workshops located in various parts of the world. (p. vii) As Sebeok further describes the development of the encyclopedia, he notes that while at the First Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies in Milan in June 1974, he consulted with Umberto Eco, the organizer of the congress. During a period set aside for an informal discussion of his plan, Sebeok reports that approximately one hundred people appeared during the course of this open session. Sebeok set forth the following three categories of “interlaced” citations and “interalphabetized” articles. (A) entries tracing the historical background and range of the present usage of terms — seme, for instance — with recommendations, where appropriate, for standardizing current convention. (B) evaluative biographical sketches of leading figures in semiotic studies, such as Charles Morris; and assessments of aspects of the work of others, such as Aristotle, who made pivotal contributions to semiotic studies, yet are not commonly thought of in this context; Brought to you by | University of Louisville Authenticated Download Date | 5/18/15 4:09 PM 288 F. Nuessel (C) expositions of the impact of semiotics on various traditional arts and sciences, say Architecture, Mathematics, Music, and the like; and of the penetration of semiotic methods of inquiry into the study of established academic fields of study, such as the Philosophy of Language, Logic, and the like. (pp. vii–viii) After several long hours of discussion and debate, Thomas A. Sebeok was named Editor-in-Chief of this massive project. His immediate assignments were the following: (1) (2) (3) to form an International Editorial Board; to procure the required financing; and to commit the eventual book to a suitable publisher. (p. viii) Sebeok poses the rhetorical question (p. viii) “why did thirteen years elapse between the conception of the realization of this work?” As Sebeok points out, there were several reasons, but the most compelling one was finding the funding for the project. Ultimately, the funds for a U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities challenge grant came from The Rockefeller Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and supported by donations from the Indiana University Foundation, the Indiana University Division of Research and Graduate Development, the Indiana University Press, and the Technologische Universität Berlin (pp. viii–ix). Moreover, the renowned publishing house Mouton de Gruyter agreed to publish this three-volume encyclopedia. After a protracted time, Sebeok finalized an agreement with Mouton de Gruyter to publish Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics. Based on the original project description, Sebeok enumerates the original description of the Editorial Board’s duties reproduced here. (a) Select the entries to be included, i.e., the technical terms, names of major contributors to semiotics, fields with which semiotics interacts and the aspects of that interaction. (b) Assign priorities to the topics, determining the relative number of words or amount of space devoted to each. (c) Arrive at a consensus concerning the best possible contributor for each entry, and a list of possible alternates. Collaboration by two or more authors may be considered for complex entries. (d) Outline the technical specifications, that is, produce a style sheet, with the advice of the publisher’s representative. (p. ix) Sebeok (p. ix) also cites certain limitations attendant to the first edition: (1) minimization of entries on linguistics since comparable works in this field already existed on this area (verbal signs); (2) failure to find satisfactory entries on certain topics; (3) exclusion of biographical sketches of living persons; Brought to you by | University of Louisville Authenticated Download Date | 5/18/15 4:09 PM Encyclopedia of semiotics 289 and (4) issues in securing materials from people in nations where censorship prevails. The preface to the second edition (Sebeok 1994) is, in fact, quite brief. In it, Sebeok points out that in the eight years since the first edition was published, all copies were sold. As a result, Sebeok (p. x) stated he was faced with three choices “. . . to reprint the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics as it is, to revise it to a degree, or to prepare an entirely new, massively refigured edition.” Ultimately, Sebeok chose the second option. He then consulted with the original authors “when reachable” (p. x) to ask them to revise and update short articles, or to revise the bibliographies or both. A total of forty-five authors submitted changes. Sebeok (p. x) also noted that a major revision needed to be done, but not until the end of the century. Marcel Danesi is the person who edited and revised the third edition (Sebeok and Danesi 2010) of this basic reference work nine years after Thomas A. Sebeok’s death in 2001. In fact, no other person has the encyclopedic knowledge and the analytic and synthetic abilities to accomplish this enormous achievement. In his preface to the third edition (2010), Danesi states with characteristic modesty that: When I was contacted by Mouton de Gruyter to revise and update the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics (EDS ), contrived and put together by the late Thomas A. Sebeok, one of the greatest semioticians of the twentieth century, I accepted with trepidation. How can one update what is, to this day, a reference tool that is the most exhaustive and comprehensive in the history of semiotics? The task has, in fact, been both a daunting and an exhilarating one. It has been daunting because I was faced with looking over entries written by some of the most famous semioticians of all time, themselves contemporary makers of semiotics, or else with some of the leading figures in cognate fields. In effect, the dictionary was written by the “who’s who” of semiotics and related fields. It has been exhilarating for the same reason; that is, I was thrilled to have been given the unique opportunity to become a student again and learn from the masters by reading them closely. (p. v) Danesi further notes (p. v) that little has changed in semiotics entries in the second edition because of two basic factors. First, each entry is thorough and authored by major experts in the field. Second, there have been no basic paradigmatic changes in the theoretical materials or their applications. The one exception, according to Danesi, is the significant global spread of biosemiotics during the past several decades. For this reason, Danesi has added several entries that relate to this burgeoning area of semiotics. With the supplementary editorial assistance of Eugenia Tsao, Emma Varley, and Mariana Bockarova of the University of Toronto (p. v), Danesi enumerates his revisions to this edition as follows: Brought to you by | University of Louisville Authenticated Download Date | 5/18/15 4:09 PM 290 F. Nuessel 1. I have left the original entries virtually untouched. All them are masterfully written, varying in length according to the nature of the topic. Some are much more than simple encyclopedia entries. I would describe them as veritable treatises. And some of the most important names in semiotics (Umberto Eco, John Deely, and others) are to be found among the signatories. Many entries are thorough expositions and self-standing texts that have, themselves, contributed to the development of semiotics over the years. All authors were contacted to update their entries. A substantive number of them are no longer with us, or are in retirement. So many of the entries have remained as originally written. However, a number of authors responded and have updated their particular entries. 2. I have made minor changes, involving stylistic matters (whenever these were deemed to be necessary). For example, at times, within the subject matter of a topic several contributors were responsible for different themes or aspects of the topic. I have separated these into self-standing entries signed by the appropriate contributors. I have also integrated the supplementary revised materials included at the end of the three second edition volumes, making the work more unitary. Finally, I have made changes to the style that nowadays are considered necessary in English at least: for example, B.C. is changed to BCE, A.D. to CE, man to humanity, he to he/she, and so on. These are kept, of course, in cited materials, and when part of the content (as illustrations, as items of analysis, etc.). I have also cut down on the huge number of cross-references (signaled with *), since many were somewhat superfluous. 3. I have written out the full name of each contributor at the end of the entry, rather than just using his or her initials. I have also bolstered the Editorial Board with several semioticians, who have, since the first edition, become prominent. They have also assisted me whenever I had questions or whenever I needed advice. [The Editorial Board for the third edition includes the following people: Myrdene Anderson, Paul Bouissac, Paul Cobley, Umberto Eco, Kalevi Kull, Jerzy Pelc, Susan Petrilli, Roland Posner, Eddo Rigotti, Alain Rey, and Ann Shukman, p. iii. The members of the first edition (Sebeok 1986) of the editorial board included Paul Bouissac, Umberto Eco, Jerzy Pelc, Roland Posner, Alain Rey, and Ann Shumaker.] 4. I have included the additional references in the second edition into a section after the contributor’s name. I have myself added references, wherever I felt that this was necessary, so as to alert the user to interesting work done on the topic since the publication of the second edition. 5. I have added a number of entries myself that either reflect changes in the world (e.g., Internet [v. 1, p. 394], hypertext [v. 1 pp. 335–336], and the like) or else that I thought would fill the few gaps that the EDS may have left (e.g., semantic differential [v. 2, p. 880], conceptual metaphor [v. 1, pp. 148–152], etc.). I have kept these very brief since the EDS is already very large as it is. The idea is simply to provide basic information on topics that semioticians have started to investigate, or else have been investigating, but were not covered in the previous two editions. 6. Finally, I decided to include entries on a few living semioticians or scholars including some of the contributors to EDS (Eco [v. 1, p. 223], Deely [v. 1, p. 184], Sebeok [v. 2, pp. 887–888], etc.). I felt that users of the dictionary would need to know a little about them, given their enormous importance to the field. Again, I have made these very brief, providing only basic information or else focusing on a specific aspect of the scholar’s work. (pp. v–vi) Brought to you by | University of Louisville Authenticated Download Date | 5/18/15 4:09 PM Encyclopedia of semiotics 291 In his closing remarks to his preface of the third edition of EDS, Danesi (p. vi) states that “[m]y hope is that Tom would be happy with what I have done. He and I became very close collaborators over the years. I miss him, as I am sure do many of the contributors to this dictionary. This revision is dedicated to his memory.” There can be no doubt in anyone’s mind that Thomas A. Sebeok would, indeed, be happy and proud of Marcel Danesi’s third edition of this major semiotic reference work. This three-volume work is both a tribute to Thomas A. Sebeok and to Marcel Danesi. The “List of Contributors” (pp. xi–xiv), as Danesi observes (p. v), reads like a “who’s who” of prominent semiotic scholars. Every one of these authors are well-known in their own right, and their contribution(s) add luster to this volume. 4. Volumes 1 and 2 A thorough comparative review of the third edition of Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics (2010) with its two predecessors reveals that every change that Danesi indicated that he made (see statement above in the section entitled “Prefaces to First, Second, and Third Editions”) has been carried assiduously and diligently as one would expect in any work by Marcel Danesi. In his prefatory statement, Danesi alludes to seven contributions made by him (hypertext, semantic differential, semantic differential, conceptual metaphor, Eco, Deely, and Sebeok, p. vi), Danesi, in fact, contributed thirty of his own entries in order to update the third edition. Among the contributions by Danesi himself are the following in volume 1: (1) “Advertising Forms and Techniques” (pp. 14 –15); (2) “Alphabets” (p. 25); (3) “Anthroposemiotics” (pp. 37–38); (4) “Baudrillard, Jean (1929–2007)” (p. 78); (5) “Biosemiotics” (pp. 86 –87); (6) “Brands” (pp. 91–92); (7) “Cartoon” (pp. 104 –105); (8) “Color” (pp. 139–140); (9) “Computational Approaches” (p. 146); (10) “Conceptual Metaphor” (pp. 148–152); (11) “Cybersemiotics” (p. 177); (12) “Deely, John (b. 1942)” (p. 184); (13) “Derrida, Jacques (1930 –2004)” (pp. 191–192); (14) “Eco, Umberto (b. 1932)” (p. 223); (15) “Enigmatology” (pp. 234 –237); (16) “Hypertext” (pp. 335–336); (17) “Internet” (p. 394); (18) “Lévi-Strauss, Claude (1908–2009)” (pp. 452– 453); (19) “Logo” (p. 481); (20) “Lotman, Juri (1922–1993)” (pp. 481– 482); (21) “McLuhan, Marshall (1911–1981)” (pp. 502–503); and (22) “Media Semiotics” (pp. 529–530). In volume 2, Danesi has also added the following contributions: (1) “Netlingo” (pp. 612– 613); (2) “Sebeok, Thomas A. (1920 –2001)” (pp. 877– 878); (3) “Semantic Differential” (p. 880); (4) “Syntax, Cognitivist” (p. 1067); Brought to you by | University of Louisville Authenticated Download Date | 5/18/15 4:09 PM 292 F. Nuessel (5) “Virtual Reality” (p. 1165); (6) “Visual Semiotics” (pp. 1172–1173); (7) “World Wide Web” (p. 1180); (8) “Zipf’s Law” (pp. 1193–1194). 5. Volume 3: Bibliography Marcel Danesi’s hand is once again visible in volume 3 (“Bibliography”) of the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics. He has updated this invaluable collection of citations published in the previous two editions. Danesi has chosen to include some of the most influential publications that have appeared in the past two decades. In this regard, his bibliographic judgment is entirely appropriate. 6. Concluding remarks Marcel Danesi is, to be sure, the ideal scholar to revise and update the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics given his close academic relationship with Thomas A. Sebeok and his own renowned stature in the field of semiotics. Moreover, Danesi himself has authored two important related encyclopedias, namely, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics, Media, and Communications (Danesi 2000) and Dictionary of Media and Communications (Danesi 2009). Furthermore, Danesi was in charge of all of the semiotic entries in Keith Brown’s (2006) monumental fourteen volume second edition of Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. One cannot, of course, ignore the Encyclopedia of Semiotics by Paul Bouissac (1998), himself a multiple contributor to the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics. Marcel Danesi’s dexterous and subtle imprint is everywhere apparent in this masterly revision of Thomas A. Sebeok’s Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics. Indeed, Sebeok would be pleased by Danesi’s deft and skillful modifications of the previous two editions. The changes made in the third edition honor the traditions of the first two editions and make the third edition even more readable and usable for twenty-first century scholars. This revision is a landmark work by one of the greatest semioticians in the world today. Re-reading entries from the previous two editions of this venerable reference work (one that I have consulted on numerous occasions in the past) has been a veritable trip down memory lane because the names of the authors and the names of the people with individual citations reminds me and every person who will consult the 2010 edition of the major figures and their significant contributions to the study of semiotics. We all owe Marcel Danesi a debt of gratitude for undertaking this major academic endeavor. Brought to you by | University of Louisville Authenticated Download Date | 5/18/15 4:09 PM Encyclopedia of semiotics 293 Because of the essential interdisciplinary nature of semiotics, this volume belongs in every library in North America that deems to call itself a research institution. It is indeed impossible to imagine scholars in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences in any major college or university not having access to this basic reference work. Note * Thomas A. Sebeok & Marcel Danesi (eds.), Encyclopedic dictionary of semiotics, 3rd edn. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2010. References Brown, K. 2006. Encyclopedia of language and linguistics, 2nd edn, 14 vols. London: Elsevier. Bouissac, P. 1998. Encyclopedia of semiotics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Danesi, M. 2000. Encyclopedic dictionary of semiotics, media, and communications. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Danesi, M. 2009. Dictionary of media and communications. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe. Danesi, M. (ed.). 2001. The invention of global semiotics: A collection of essays on the life and work of Thomas A. Sebeok. Ottawa: Legas. Deely, J. 1995. Thomas A. Sebeok bibliography. 1942–1995. Bloomington, IN: Eurolingua. Nuessel, F. 2001. Thomas A. Seboek: A review of his contributions to semiotics. In S. Simpkins & J. Deely (eds.), Semiotics 2000: “Sebeok’s century,” 3–17. Ottawa: Legas. Sebeok, T. A. (ed.). 1986. Encyclopedic dictionary of semiotics, 3 vols. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Sebeok, T. A. (ed.). 1994. Encyclopedic dictionary of semiotics, 2nd edn, 3 vols. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Sebeok, T. A. and M. Danesi. 2000. The forms of meaning: Modeling systems theory and semiotic analysis. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Sebeok, T. A. and M. Danesi. 2010. Encyclopedic dictionary of semiotics, 3 vols. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Frank Nuessel (b. 1943) is a professor at the University of Louisville 〈fhnues01@louisville.edu〉. His research interests include Italian studies, Hispanic linguistics, gerontology, and onomastics. His recent publications include Linguistic approaches to Hispanic literature (2000), Selected literary commentary in the literature of Spain (with A. Cedeño, 2004), and entries in the Encyclopedia of language and linguistics (2006). Frank Nuessel was President of the Semiotic Society of America (2011). He is President of the American Association of Teachers of Italian (2012). Brought to you by | University of Louisville Authenticated Download Date | 5/18/15 4:09 PM Brought to you by | University of Louisville Authenticated Download Date | 5/18/15 4:09 PM