Linguistic sign and reading as text creating activity

XLinguae. 2017. Vol. 10. No. 1. P. 2–11.

Karamalak O., Pesina S.

The article is devoted to the theoretical understanding of linguistic sign functioning in the process of semiosis within the framework of cognitive paradigm. It discusses the process of sign formation from the anthropological perspective, reviews the traditional treatment of a linguistic sign theory, postulating the continuity of the signified and the signifier, presents a critic argument concerning “information transfer”. Moreover, it expands F. de Saussure’s understanding of a linguistic sign and reconsiders the psychological part of a linguistic sign into a mnemonic structure, explaining semiosis differently. The current paper criticizes the viewpoint according to which a reader is considered as a passive recipient. On the opposite it suggests that a reader is an active member of the interpretation process who generates the meaning of the linguistic sign in a personal and creative way. Reading is realized as a complex psychological process, connected with speech and different kinds of perception (acoustic, visual, spatial, cognitive, and so on.). This implies an action from the part of the reader. The process of reading integrates perception, attention, memory, and thinking. Obviously, reading is a hyper active phenomenon.

Keywords: reading, text, semiosis, affordance, linguistic sign, mneumonic structure, active reader