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1. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 37 > Issue: 3/4
Dario Martinelli Introduction
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2. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 37 > Issue: 3/4
Otto Lehto Studying the cognitive states of animals: Epistemology, ethology and ethics
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The question of cognitive endowment in animals has been fiercely debated in the scientific community during the last couple of decades (for example, in cognitive ethology and behaviourism), and indeed, all throughout the long history of natural philosophy (from Plato and Aristotle, via Descartes, to Darwin). The scientific quest for an empirical, evolutionary account of the development and emergence of cognition has met with many philosophical objections, blind alleys and epistemological quandaries. I will argue that we are dealing with conflicting philosophical world views as well as conflicting empirical paradigms of research. After looking at some examples from the relevant literature of animal studies to elucidate the nature of the conflicts that arise, I propose, in strict Darwinian orthodoxy, that cognitive endowments in nature are subject to the sort of continuum and gradation that natural selection of fit variant forms tends to generate. Somewhere between the myth of “free” humans and the myth of “behaviourally conditioned” animals lies the reality of animal behaviour and cognition. In the end, I hope to have softened up some of those deep-seated philosophical problems (and many quasi-problems) that puzzle and dazzle laymen, scientists and philosophers alike in their quest for knowledge about the natural world.
3. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 37 > Issue: 3/4
Otto Lehto Изучая когнитивность животных: эпистемология, этология и этика. Резюме
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4. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 37 > Issue: 3/4
Otto Lehto Loomade kognitiivsust uurides: epistemoloogia, etoloogia ja eetika. Kokkuvõte
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5. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 37 > Issue: 3/4
Gisela Kaplan Animals and music: Between cultural definitions and sensory evidence
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It was once thought that solely humans were capable of complex cognition but research has produced substantial evidence to the contrary. Art and music, however, are largely seen as unique to humans and the evidence seems to be overwhelming, or is it? Art indicates the creation of something novel, not naturallyoccurring in the environment. To prove its presence or absence in animals is difficult. Moreover, connections between music and language at a neuroscientific as well as a behavioural level are not fully explored to date. Even more problematic is the notion of an aesthetic sense. Music, so it is said, can be mimetic, whereas birdsong is not commonly thought of as being mimetic but as either imitation or mimicry and, in the latter case, as a ‘mindless’ act (parrots parroting). This paper will present a number of examples in which animals show signs of responsiveness to music and even engage in musical activity and this will be discussed from an ethological perspective. A growing body of research now reports that auditory memory and auditory mechanisms in animals are not as simplistic as once thought and evidence suggests, in some cases, the presence of musical abilities in animals.
6. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 37 > Issue: 3/4
Gisela Kaplan Loomad ja muusika: kultuurilised määratlused ja sensoorne tõendusmaterjal. Kokkuvõte
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7. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 37 > Issue: 3/4
Gisela Kaplan Животные и музыка: культурные определения и сенсорные доказательства. Резюме
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8. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 37 > Issue: 3/4
Karel Kleisner, Marco Stella Monsters we met, monsters we made: On the parallel emergence of phenotypic similarity under domestication
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Creatures living under the rule of domestication form a communicative union based on shared morphological, behavioural, cognitive, and immunologicalresemblances. Domestic animals live under particular conditions that substantially differ from the original (natural) settings of their wild relatives. Here we focus on the fact that many parallel characters have appeared in various domestic forms that had been selected for different purposes. These characters are often unique for domestic animals and do not exist in wild forms. We argue that parallel similarities appear in different groups in response to their interaction with theumwelt of a particular host. In zoosemiotic sense, the process of domestication represents a kind of interaction in which both sides are affected and eventuallytransformed in such a way that one is more integrated with the other than in the time of initial encounter.
9. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 37 > Issue: 3/4
Karel Kleisner, Marco Stella Чудовища, которых встречали, чудовища, которых создали: о параллельном влиянии на фенотипическое подобие в ходе одомашнивания. Резюме
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10. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 37 > Issue: 3/4
Karel Kleisner, Marco Stella Koletised, keda kohtasime, koletised, kelle lõime: fenotüüpilise sarnasuse paralleelsest tekkest kodustamise käigus
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11. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 37 > Issue: 3/4
Timo Maran John Maynard Smith’s typology of animal signals: A view from semiotics
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Approaches to animal communication have for the most part been quite different in semiotics and evolutionary biology. In this context the writings of a leading evolutionary biologist who has also been attracted to semiotics — John Maynard Smith — are an interesting exception and object of study. The present article focuses on the use and adaptation of semiotic terminology in Maynard Smith’s works with reference to general theoretical premises both in semiotics and evolutionary biology. In developing a typology of animal signals, Maynard Smith employs the concepts of icon, index and symbol to denote distinct signal classes.He uses “indices” or “indexes” to express a signal type where the relation between signal properties and meaning is restricted because of physical characteristics. Such approach also points out the issue of the motivatedness of signs, which has had a long history in semiotics. In the final part of the article the usage and content of the concepts of signal form and meaning in Maynard Smith’s writings are analysed. It appears that in evolutionary biology, the “signal” is a vague concept that may denote a variety of things from an animal’s specific physiological status to artificial theoretical constructs. It also becomes evident that in actual usage the concept of signal often includes references to the receiver’s activity and interpretation, which belong rather to the characteristics of sign process. The positive influence of Maynard Smith’s works on semiotics could lie in paying attention to the role of physical necessities in animal communication. Physicalconstraints and relations also seem to have a significant role in semiotic processes although this is not always sufficiently studied or understood in semiotics.
12. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 37 > Issue: 3/4
Timo Maran Типология сигналов животных Джона Мейнарда Смита с семиотической точки зрения. Резюме
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13. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 37 > Issue: 3/4
Timo Maran John Maynard Smithi loomasignaalide tüpoloogia semiootilisest vaatenurgast. Kokkuvõte
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14. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 37 > Issue: 3/4
Stephen Pain From biorhetorics to zoorhetorics
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The present article aims to introduce the field of “Zoorhetorics”, as a particular case of Biorhetorics, earlier introduced by the author in the academic world. A brief explanation will be provided of its aims, methods and models, while particular attention will be devoted to the concept of “sustainable good”, considered crucial in both the “Bio-” and “Zoorhetorics” formulations.
15. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 37 > Issue: 3/4
Stephen Pain От биориторики до зоориторики. Резюме
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16. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 37 > Issue: 3/4
Stephen Pain Bioretoorikast zooretoorikani. Kokkuvõte
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17. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 37 > Issue: 3/4
Regina Rottner Are “non-human sounds/music” lesser than human music? A comparison from a biological and musicological perspective
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The complexity and variation of sound emission by members of the animal kingdom, primarily produced by the orders Passeriformes (songbirds), Cetacea (whales), but also reported in species belonging to the Exopterygota (insects) and Carnivora (mammals), has attracted human attention since the Middle Ages, where birds’ calls were used in compositions of that time. However, the focus of this paper will be on sound productions of birds and whales, as recent scientific and musicological research concentrates on these two animals.
18. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 37 > Issue: 3/4
Regina Rottner Являются ли ≪звуки/музыка животного мира≫ менее ценными, чем музыка людей? Сравнение с биологической и музыкологической точки зрения. Резюме
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19. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 37 > Issue: 3/4
Regina Rottner Kas "mitte-inimliikide“ helid/ muusika on vähem vaartuslik kui inimeste oma? Võrdlus bioloogilisest ja musikoloogilisest väätepunktist.Kokkuvõte
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20. Sign Systems Studies: Volume > 37 > Issue: 3/4
William Sayers Animal vocalization and human polyglossia in Walter of Bibbesworth’s thirteenth-century domestic treatise in Anglo-Norman French and Middle English
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Walter of Bibbesworth’s late thirteenth-century versified treatise on French vocabulary relevant to the management of estates in Britain has the first extensive list of animal vocalizations in a European vernacular. Many of the Anglo-Norman French names for animals and their sounds are glossed in Middle English, inviting both diachronic and synchronic views of the capacity of these languages for onomatopoetic formation and reflection on the interest of these social and linguistic communities in zoosemiotics.