Place-lore, which has been systematically collected and archived in Estonia since the 19th century, is a part of various national, communal and institutional practices. Until now, Estonian researchers have resorted to conceptualizing place-lore from the perspective of archival texts, and the focus has been on collecting and archiving the material. At the same time, theoretical study of place-lore has remained in the background. In the article I approach place-lore from the perspective of ecosemiotics and suggest a new definition of place-lore that is based on semiotic relations these narratives have with the environment they represent. Outlining different ways of how vernacular tradition and the environment it represents are semiotically related, and analysing the ways in which these relations are expressed in place-related folklore allows seeing how place-lore can be defined through (1) localizability, (2) representation of the characteristics of a place, and (3) manifestation of place experience. Defining place-lore and presenting the preliminary conceptual tools is much needed in practical collection work and archiving and serves as an important prerequisite for studying the place-related folklore in the context of contemporary challenges, such as changing textual practices, cultural disruptions, and environmental crisis. Examples are drawn from folklore associated with mires, specifically from narratives about the Kakerdaja Bog in northern Estonia.

If the significance of nature is a crucial phenomenon in understanding the forms of relations societies establish with the environment, in what way is this significance built? This paper presents the results of a case study focused on exploring how the meanings of nature and socioecological relationships relate to each other in an indigenous population. The first part of the article explains the theoretical scaffolding used to collect and analyse data, based on ecological anthropology and Ogden and Richards’ semiotic scheme. The second part describes the methodological procedures and the first findings, that is, the elements and dimensions that integrate the meanings of nature and land for the inhabitants of this population. It is also explained how those meanings are built and how they are fused to local socioecological relationships in an ontological way. The findings reveal that the inhabitants of this community configure their meanings of ‘nature’ from multiple references of biological, spiritual, axiological, and cultural character, often represented by its referent ‘land’. The notion of ‘nature’ (as land) is created from subjective and social experiences with the environment and the territory, and in turn provides meaning to the biocultural identity of the population. However, historical learning, worldview, and social organization also emerge as the main structuring elements of the social meanings of nature and land.

How do arbitrary signs occur? The article suggests that the basis of arbitrariness is the liberation of the signified from a rigid connection with the signifier. An important role is played by the psychological present. The psychological present is not one-dimensional but is represented by dimensions of sequence, simultaneity, and duration. Non-arbitrary signs are as if one-dimensional: the signifier and the signified are in undifferentiated unity – in one dimension of the present time. When forming arbitrary signs, the signified and the signifier are separated from each other and are embodied in different dimensions – the levels of the psychological present tense, invariant and variable. At the same time, the signified occupies an invariant level, and the signifier is variable so that the signified remains constant with any change in the signifier. Therefore, different signifiers can be applied to the same object at will, and the content of the designated object does not change. The signified thus becomes relatively independent and free from the signifier.

Opposition theory is one of the main outcomes of structural linguistics of the last century. While it is still valid and used in the field of phonology, it has not had the same fortune in other linguistic disciplines and has been replaced by other theoretical concepts. The present paper aims to revisit the opposition theory, particularly Louis Hjelmslev’s theory of participative opposition. Participative oppo si tion seems to have a high application potential not only in linguistics but also in other scientific fields. The first part of the paper outlines a brief history of the binary opposition theory within structural linguistics, while the second part introduces the somewhat forgotten concept of participative opposition, shows its explanatory power and, finally, its possible applicability in biology.

Inner speech plays a significant role in various cognitive processes as internalized social speech and a unique form of sign-using activity. While previous research has already emphasized the role of inner speech in the formation of meanings and interpretation, few attempts have been made to establish a semiotic account of inner speech as a mechanism of meaning-making. The study aims to establish a semiotic account of the concept of inner speech as internalized social speech and as a form of inner communication embodied in artistic discourse. Thus, the paper addresses the meaning-making functions of inner speech at the levels of verbal (inter- and intrapersonal communication) and artistic discourses (manifestation of inner communication in artistic texts). It identifies the role of inner speech in the formation and development of individual meanings that originate from the nature, phenomenology and individual development of internalized verbal language. This development of meanings follows specific laws, which include the internalization of verbal communication, socio-cultural experience and external representations of different modalities. The role of inner speech in meaning-making in artistic narration is addressed by analysing the manifestation of inner communication in artistic discourse and intentional adaptation of the concept of inner speech. The study identifies how the evolution of cultural communication processes shapes the ontology and manifestation of the artistic inner monologue in contemporary culture.

We present a cognitive semiotic case study of the narrative potential of the statue Den lille Havfrue (‘the little mermaid’) by Edvard Eriksen in Copenhagen. On the basis of theoretical analysis and a survey in which 20 European and 19 Chinese participants replied to questions concerning this statue we argue that it, and similar statues, may be considered as products of intersemiotic translation, but only if we dispense with any requirements of “equivalence” between source and target, since statues are necessarily semiotically highly reduced. While the source narratives constitute cases of primary narrativity, with narrations providing the audiences with stories, statues may partake only of secondary narrativity, where a prior story is needed for the statue to be understood as narration. In our study, this was reflected by correlations between reported prior knowledge and narrative (and possibly even non-narrative) interpretations of Den lille Havfrue. Finally, we relate the discussion to present-day cultural and political “settings”, where many statues, including Den lille Havfrue, have become part of a global anti-racism narrative.

The idea that translation involves revealing and discovery of information from the source has been discussed in a few fields of study, especially creative translation and intersemiotic translation. These operations are fundamentally dependent on iconic properties. An operational criterion detrivializes the common description of the icon as a sign of similarity to define more precisely iconic processes as a sign through which it is possible to discover or reveal new information about its object. This idea becomes particularly interesting when we think about multiple translations of the same source, each revealing such distinct traits that some may consider as opposing one another. As an example to be discussed in our case study, we have selected Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, both of which have been widely translated. Until now there has been no systematic analysis in the field of intersemiotic translation studies of the relationship between one source and multiple targets. We compare two intersemiotic translations of the Alice novels: a 1980 TV episode from The Muppet Show by Jim Henson and the 1988 feature film Něco z Alenky by Jan Švankmajer, both displaying distinct characteristics of their own and revealing different information about the works of Carroll.

Saeta (Spanish: ‘arrow’) is nowadays identified as a religious modality of flamenco singing, performed during Holy Week celebrations. The textual fabric of a saeta comprises both melody, manner of singing, and verbal texts, as well as the inherent spatiality of a communicative act. Due to the multifaceted nature of this cultural phenomenon, the semiotic perspective is optimal to capture “a psychosocial connection” through investigated signage. In particular, the analysis will draw on Juri Lotman’s concept of the semiosphere, focusing on its fraction relating to religious experience, namely, the sacrosphere. The results point to transactional tectonics and posit an analytical entity of a vacuous interlocutor as a hieratic proxy, having the status of being in a floating structural position within the posited level of what we shall call here [saeta]2.

The following is a brief synopsis of the 2021 summer Semiosalong event titled “Funktionskreis and the biosemiotic signifieds”, held at the Karl Ernst von Baer House, Tartu, Estonia, with presentations by the authors of this review. The included talks revolve around the idea of a ‘second major turn in biosemiotics’ following the more ‘Peircean inspired biology’ turn of the last few decades of the 20th century, and reconciling its findings with other theoretical foundations of general semiotics, such as structural semiology. The aesthetic and textual concerns of the latter invite commentary from the biosemiotic perspective.