Theory Xibiaoke Modeling System

In most academic attempts to adopt a semiotic approach to complex diverse human cultural phenomena, the intelligentsia, both at home and abroad, generally tend to choose discretely from the Peircean and the Saussurean traditions and conduct dispersive analyses from isolated perspectives via such basic concepts as sign, text, code and metaphor. This practice not only leads to the frequent occurrence of repetitions, contradictions and partiality, but also excludes the semiosic Subject. However, the late world-renowned American scholar Thomas Albert Sebeok (1920-2001), with his unique "modeling systems theory", created an integrated research framework and provided semiotics with a united theoretical system that transcends both traditions and particularly accentuates the dynamic pluralism of the Subject.One of the most important contemporary semioticians, linguists and masters of cultural studies, Sebeok made enormous contributions to the progress of world semiotics through his distinguished theoretical achievements and practical activities, which have extended a determinative influence on laying the groundwork and pointing out the directions for the development of semiotics, especially biosemiotics, in the second half of the20th century. The scope of Sebeok’s trans-disciplinary semiotic thoughts is extraordinarily large, in the center of which lies his Modeling Systems Theory. This theory has perfectly demonstrated a dialectic globality and an open dialogism and has already become a significant subject matter of contemporary international semiotic studies.This thesis aims to critically analyze and comprehensively grasp the foundations, transformation, characteristics, contents and drawbacks of Modeling Systems Theory by means of literature review, introspection, diachronic discussions and horizonta-vertical comparisons. Different from previous semiotic theories, Modeling Systems Theory, with Umwelt and semiosis as its theoretical groundwork and "modeling" and "model" as its central concepts, approaches complex semiotic phenomena and the generative mechanism of meaning from an innovative perspective of life science and neurocognition, epitomizing the anti-anthropocentric standpoint of Sebeok’s semiotics and its anti-glottocentric pluralistic view of signs. Research findings in this thesis have indicated that Sebeok’s Modeling Systems Theory had effectively undergone two critical phases of transformation from the early responses to the Moscow—Tartu School to the eventual proposal of models as the forms of meaning. In addition, through a diachronic contrast between the two developmental phases of the Sebeokian view of modeling, and in-depth analyses of the taxonomy and the dimensionality of modeling, this thesis has also found that Modeling Systems Theory has achieved the first genuine systematic merging and creative transcendence of the Saussurean and the Peircean traditions in the history of semiotic inquiries, successfully actualizing an internal-external semiosic integration.Modeling Systems Theory views meaning as an internal model and the generation of the former as the working of the latter. Based on this ground and the latest relevant findings of neurocognitive sciences and social psychology, this thesis has reached a final conclusion that the generation of meaning is a dynamic Subjective process of semiosis. This conclusion consists of two closely interrelated facets: the semi-autonomy of meaning generation and the deep dynamic co-shaping effect between the Subject and its models in meaning generation. Extending this conclusion, this thesis proceeds to argue that there is a relationship of co-shaping coevolution between culture and humans. Furthermore, this thesis has commented on and analyzed the methodological features of Modeling Systems Theory and Sebeok’s contradiction and also provided a corresponding solution as well as directions for future research.