Steven Bonta
Biographic Data
| ID | 1342282 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Steven Bonta |
| GIVEN NAMES | Steven |
| FAMILY NAME | Bonta |
| SIGNATURE | BONTA S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Penn State University , Altoona , PA , USA |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 9 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
A semiotic grammar of Vedic Sanskrit
In this study, we apply the methodology of semiotic or interpretive grammar, based on the Peircean ontological Categories and developed in previous work with respect to Mandarin Chinese, to Vedic Sanskrit, a language whose grammar we have previously shown to be constrained by Peircean Thirdness or [+3]. We show the Peircean Category of Thirdness, with all of the paradigmatic and syntagmatic configurations implied thereby, to be richly exemplified…
The primordiality of representation
The ontological implications of the Peircean Categories, as set forth most clearly in Peirce's summative architectonic statement, "New Elements," and referenced elsewhere in Peirce's body of writings, are examined with reference to the existent or physical universe. The Peircean universal ontological Categories Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness are shown to give rise to a cosmos that is triadic and representational in essence. This immanently …
The Representation of Semiotic Structures in Language
Based on previous published work on (Mandarin) Chinese, and following a discussion of the properties of the Peircean ontological Categories Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness (as well as their "degenerate" or derivative versions) and their applicability to sign systems, in general, I examine evidence for paradigmatic and syntagmatic structuring, conditioned by these Categories, in Mandarin Chinese, Sora, Tamil, and Sanskrit, languages chosen be…
The Peircean Sign as a Model for Interpreting Semiotic Structures in Mandarin Chinese
The notion that language is a system of signs is explored in the context of Mandarin Chinese. We use the Peircean Sign, derived from the Peircean ontological categories Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness, as an interpretive framework. Because Mandarin Chinese is both well-documented and comparatively opaque to foreign influences, it presents an ideal case study for the formation of semiotic structures based on the operation of a single Peircean…
The dagoba and the gopuram: A semiotic contrastive study of the Sinhalese Buddhist and Tamil Hindu cultures
Having shown previously how a culture type can be given a unitary description in terms of a semiotic "lens" constrained by one of the Peircean Categories ("Shamanic" culture, by Firstness), we apply this methodology to a more "fine-grained" level of analysis, by comparing the Tamil and Sinhalese cultures under the assumption that one of them (Sinhalese) is in fact a "hybrid" culture-sign. Having shown in previous work that the greater South Asian…
The lens of firstness: Shamanic/Aboriginal culture as cosmos-sign
Having identified previously (Bonta 2015) the Peircean Category Firstness as the semiotic basis (or cultural Prime Symbol) for Australian Aboriginal culture, this paper examines the "lens" of Firstness as it is manifest in a variety of aboriginal (or "Shamanic") cultures worldwide. By studying the semiotic contours of religion, language, social organization, and art, we find systemic prioritization of Firstness in its various manifestations, acro…
A Peircean typology of cultural prime symbols: Culture as category
Oswald Spengler first showed that every macroculture can be conceived of as an accretion of signs representing in various contexts a single abstract Prime Symbol. But this semiotic model of culture is not confined to the so-called "great civilizations"; it is applicable to every culture. In seeking a typology of Prime Symbols (and hence, a semiotic typology of cultures), we show that that the Peircean Categories Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdne…
Towards a semiotic theory of historico-cultural cycles: "The semiotic contours of Spengler's "prime symbols
Oswald Spengler's theory of historico-cultural cycles is based on the notion of the “prime symbol,” an abstract metaphor for space/extension manifested in the art, science, and religion of a given culture. This paper is a preliminary reconciliation of the Spenglerian semiotic anatomy of culture writ large with a few of the semiotic insights of Peirce. I propose that the developmental cycle of a given culture does not contain the Spenglerian Prime…
Negombo Fishermen's Tamil: A Case of Indo-Aryan Contact-Induced Change in a Dravidian Dialect
Negombo Fishermen's Tamil, a dialect of Tamil from coastal Sri Lanka spoken by bilingual Catholic fishermen, exhibits many features of contact-induced change. Based on data collected in the Negombo area during 2000 and 2001, I conclude that Negombo Fishermen's Tamil has undergone significant amounts of borrowing and grammatical realignment under the influence of Colloquial Sinhala, an unusual instance of South Asian contact-induced change in the …
The lens of firstness: Shamanic/Aboriginal culture as cosmos-sign
Having identified previously (Bonta 2015) the Peircean Category Firstness as the semiotic basis (or cultural Prime Symbol) for Australian Aboriginal culture, this paper examines the "lens" of Firstness as it is manifest in a variety of aboriginal (or "Shamanic") cultures worldwide. By studying the semiotic contours of religion, language, social organization, and art, we find systemic prioritization of Firstness in its various manifestations, acro…
A Peircean typology of cultural prime symbols: Culture as category
Oswald Spengler first showed that every macroculture can be conceived of as an accretion of signs representing in various contexts a single abstract Prime Symbol. But this semiotic model of culture is not confined to the so-called "great civilizations"; it is applicable to every culture. In seeking a typology of Prime Symbols (and hence, a semiotic typology of cultures), we show that that the Peircean Categories Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdne…
The primordiality of representation
The ontological implications of the Peircean Categories, as set forth most clearly in Peirce's summative architectonic statement, "New Elements," and referenced elsewhere in Peirce's body of writings, are examined with reference to the existent or physical universe. The Peircean universal ontological Categories Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness are shown to give rise to a cosmos that is triadic and representational in essence. This immanently …
The Representation of Semiotic Structures in Language
Based on previous published work on (Mandarin) Chinese, and following a discussion of the properties of the Peircean ontological Categories Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness (as well as their "degenerate" or derivative versions) and their applicability to sign systems, in general, I examine evidence for paradigmatic and syntagmatic structuring, conditioned by these Categories, in Mandarin Chinese, Sora, Tamil, and Sanskrit, languages chosen be…
The Peircean Sign as a Model for Interpreting Semiotic Structures in Mandarin Chinese
The notion that language is a system of signs is explored in the context of Mandarin Chinese. We use the Peircean Sign, derived from the Peircean ontological categories Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness, as an interpretive framework. Because Mandarin Chinese is both well-documented and comparatively opaque to foreign influences, it presents an ideal case study for the formation of semiotic structures based on the operation of a single Peircean…
The dagoba and the gopuram: A semiotic contrastive study of the Sinhalese Buddhist and Tamil Hindu cultures
Having shown previously how a culture type can be given a unitary description in terms of a semiotic "lens" constrained by one of the Peircean Categories ("Shamanic" culture, by Firstness), we apply this methodology to a more "fine-grained" level of analysis, by comparing the Tamil and Sinhalese cultures under the assumption that one of them (Sinhalese) is in fact a "hybrid" culture-sign. Having shown in previous work that the greater South Asian…
Towards a semiotic theory of historico-cultural cycles: "The semiotic contours of Spengler's "prime symbols
Oswald Spengler's theory of historico-cultural cycles is based on the notion of the “prime symbol,” an abstract metaphor for space/extension manifested in the art, science, and religion of a given culture. This paper is a preliminary reconciliation of the Spenglerian semiotic anatomy of culture writ large with a few of the semiotic insights of Peirce. I propose that the developmental cycle of a given culture does not contain the Spenglerian Prime…
Negombo Fishermen's Tamil: A Case of Indo-Aryan Contact-Induced Change in a Dravidian Dialect
Negombo Fishermen's Tamil, a dialect of Tamil from coastal Sri Lanka spoken by bilingual Catholic fishermen, exhibits many features of contact-induced change. Based on data collected in the Negombo area during 2000 and 2001, I conclude that Negombo Fishermen's Tamil has undergone significant amounts of borrowing and grammatical realignment under the influence of Colloquial Sinhala, an unusual instance of South Asian contact-induced change in the …
Negombo Fishermen's Tamil: A Case of Indo-Aryan Contact-Induced Change in a Dravidian Dialect
Negombo Fishermen's Tamil, a dialect of Tamil from coastal Sri Lanka spoken by bilingual Catholic fishermen, exhibits many features of contact-induced change. Based on data collected in the Negombo area during 2000 and 2001, I conclude that Negombo Fishermen's Tamil has undergone significant amounts of borrowing and grammatical realignment under the influence of Colloquial Sinhala, an unusual instance of South Asian contact-induced change in the …
Towards a semiotic theory of historico-cultural cycles: "The semiotic contours of Spengler's "prime symbols
Oswald Spengler's theory of historico-cultural cycles is based on the notion of the “prime symbol,” an abstract metaphor for space/extension manifested in the art, science, and religion of a given culture. This paper is a preliminary reconciliation of the Spenglerian semiotic anatomy of culture writ large with a few of the semiotic insights of Peirce. I propose that the developmental cycle of a given culture does not contain the Spenglerian Prime…
A Peircean typology of cultural prime symbols: Culture as category
Oswald Spengler first showed that every macroculture can be conceived of as an accretion of signs representing in various contexts a single abstract Prime Symbol. But this semiotic model of culture is not confined to the so-called "great civilizations"; it is applicable to every culture. In seeking a typology of Prime Symbols (and hence, a semiotic typology of cultures), we show that that the Peircean Categories Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdne…
The lens of firstness: Shamanic/Aboriginal culture as cosmos-sign
Having identified previously (Bonta 2015) the Peircean Category Firstness as the semiotic basis (or cultural Prime Symbol) for Australian Aboriginal culture, this paper examines the "lens" of Firstness as it is manifest in a variety of aboriginal (or "Shamanic") cultures worldwide. By studying the semiotic contours of religion, language, social organization, and art, we find systemic prioritization of Firstness in its various manifestations, acro…
The Peircean Sign as a Model for Interpreting Semiotic Structures in Mandarin Chinese
The notion that language is a system of signs is explored in the context of Mandarin Chinese. We use the Peircean Sign, derived from the Peircean ontological categories Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness, as an interpretive framework. Because Mandarin Chinese is both well-documented and comparatively opaque to foreign influences, it presents an ideal case study for the formation of semiotic structures based on the operation of a single Peircean…
The dagoba and the gopuram: A semiotic contrastive study of the Sinhalese Buddhist and Tamil Hindu cultures
Having shown previously how a culture type can be given a unitary description in terms of a semiotic "lens" constrained by one of the Peircean Categories ("Shamanic" culture, by Firstness), we apply this methodology to a more "fine-grained" level of analysis, by comparing the Tamil and Sinhalese cultures under the assumption that one of them (Sinhalese) is in fact a "hybrid" culture-sign. Having shown in previous work that the greater South Asian…
The Representation of Semiotic Structures in Language
Based on previous published work on (Mandarin) Chinese, and following a discussion of the properties of the Peircean ontological Categories Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness (as well as their "degenerate" or derivative versions) and their applicability to sign systems, in general, I examine evidence for paradigmatic and syntagmatic structuring, conditioned by these Categories, in Mandarin Chinese, Sora, Tamil, and Sanskrit, languages chosen be…
The primordiality of representation
The ontological implications of the Peircean Categories, as set forth most clearly in Peirce's summative architectonic statement, "New Elements," and referenced elsewhere in Peirce's body of writings, are examined with reference to the existent or physical universe. The Peircean universal ontological Categories Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness are shown to give rise to a cosmos that is triadic and representational in essence. This immanently …
A semiotic grammar of Vedic Sanskrit
In this study, we apply the methodology of semiotic or interpretive grammar, based on the Peircean ontological Categories and developed in previous work with respect to Mandarin Chinese, to Vedic Sanskrit, a language whose grammar we have previously shown to be constrained by Peircean Thirdness or [+3]. We show the Peircean Category of Thirdness, with all of the paradigmatic and syntagmatic configurations implied thereby, to be richly exemplified…
Philosophy (9 works) · Linguistics (8 works) · Semiotics (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Mathematics (4 works) · Sociology (3 works) · Anthropology (2 works) · Buddhism (2 works) · Combinatorics (2 works) · Epistemology (2 works)