In this interview Boris Gasparov talks about the history of the Tartu– Moscow School of Semiotics and about his own works on linguistics and musicology. Particular attention is paid to the understanding of the notion of sign as it relates to semiotics and structuralism.
Proceeding from the subject and the aim of teaching, it is possible to distinguish the following levels or aspects: object language, metalanguage, syntax and semantics. The interrelations and the structure of these levels are studied here. Several examples of mathematical subjects (arithmetic, ALGOL-60) and other topics are presented from the semiotic aspect. The semiotic approach is expedient in cases when mathematical methods are to be applied in the optimizing of the teaching process. It is especially essential in programmed learning. This article by Ivar Kull (1928–1989) was originally published as “Семиотика и обучение” (1965) in Sign Systems Studies 2: 11–21.
Review of The Bloomsbury Handbook of Saussure. (Joseph, John E., ed.), 2025. London, New York, Oxford, New Delhi, Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic, 370 pp.
At first glance, there does not seem to be much explicit interest in the semiotics of learning and education as regards the Tartu–Moscow School of Semiotics in the 20th century, yet at the same time the field of learning and teaching emerges as extremely important from the point of view of general semiotics. The article presents some reflections on problems of learning and education as published in the journal Sign Systems Studies and discussed in the Tartu School of Semiotics in various epochs, as well as in the academic context surrounding it. It takes a particular interest in how the issues related to education were approached by the School’s leading figures Juri Lotman, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Boris Uspenskij. It also appears that several scholars who have closely collaborated with Tartu semioticians (Paul Cobley, Myrdene Anderson, etc.), have also displayed an interest in learning and education. The rise of interest in this field can be explained by the influence of cognitive semiotics which has been advancing considerably in the 21st century.
This paper will start by explaining both the nature and importance of irreducibility in the process of semiosis. Specifically, it will demonstrate how this concept is necessary to Peirce’s triadic approach to semiosis, Uexküll’s ‘functional circle’ and Lotman’s ‘creative function’ in human meaning making. These models will then be further elucidated through the non-semiotic lens of Bergson’s concept of ‘image’. All of these interrelated concepts of semiosis, including image, will then be explained via a novel, buildable and testable technology, which will ground semiosis in a physical process involving self-biasing circuits immersed in their own shared milieu of noise. Based on these arguments, the paper will conclude that semiosis can be understood as an irreducible image. This novel approach to semiosis can transform how the process of learning is understood and taught.
