General audience summary
The Orisem project sought to expand the boundaries of formal semantics, the contemporary study of meaning. It did so in four directions: it fully integrated sign languages (in their grammatical, logical and pictorial aspects) to the study of meaning; it did the same thing for gestures that accompany spoken languages; it developed the study of animal meanings in diverse species (from primates to birds and bees) as part of “animal linguistics”; and it even developed an analysis of the meaning of music. Overall, it offered a decisive contribution to the generalized study of meaning in nature, a project that falls under what is now called “Super Linguistics”.
Technical summary
Original project: While formal semantics, the study of meaning, has established itself as a rigorous field, its impact on the broader cognitive sciences has remained suboptimal. Besides the inherent complexity of formal theories, the reason might be that the data explained are narrowly linguistic. We proposed to extend the breadth and explanatory depth of formal semantic theories by testing them against understudied objects. Within language, we studied spoken language gestures as well as sign languages, especially in their iconic dimension. Beyond language, we investigated primate gestural and vocal communication, and semantic effects in music. Our goal was threefold. I. First, we wished to investigate how the typology of semantic operations extends to these new objects. II. Second, we set out to explore the cognitive underpinnings of these operations in two types of cases: when the extension of a rule to a new type of object provides new constraints on the form of this rule (e.g. the existence of a presupposition triggering mechanism in iconic constructions); and when an expression has cognitive uses beyond language (e.g. raised eyebrows, or increased loudness). III. Third, we proposed to explore possible evolutionary connections among operations found in speech, sign, human and non-human gestures, and music.
We thus endeavored to (i) explore gestural counterparts of formal semantic operations found in sign language, (ii) investigate how the rich typology of inferences uncovered by semantics extends to iconic gestures, and (iii) conduct a comparative investigation of this typology for iconic vs. non-iconic inferences in sign language. We further sought to (iv) extend the enterprise beyond humans by exploring how a particular operation, implicatures, extends in animal linguistics, and whether human gestural expressions have counterparts in apes; and we endeavored to (v) develop a generalization of iconic semantics that accounts for semantic effects in music.
Conclusions of the project:
The first goal was fully reached: the typology of semantic operations is now routinely extended to new objects, notably 1. gestures 2. iconic forms in sign language (called "classifier predicates") 3. musical sounds 4. possibly, onomatopoeias 5. emojis. 1.-4. was a direct result of this project, 5. was directly influenced by it.
The second goal was reached in some special cases, notably 1. in the analysis of a general triggering algorithm for presuppositions, which is expected to have broader cognitive application; 2. in a cognitive analysis of the meaning of repetition-based plurals in sign languages and in gestures.
The third goal was reached in modified form: we launched a new project of “evolutionary animal linguistics”, which 1. seeks to reconstruct the ancestral form of animal signals, and 2. seeks to explain their evolution.
Regarding the specific sub-projects mentioned above:
(i) Gestural counterparts of formal semantic operations in sign language were extensively explored under what is now sometimes called “gestural grammar”.
(ii) The typology of inferences in iconic forms was extensively studied, not just in gestures but also in iconic forms of sign language (classifier predicates).
(iii) The comparison between the typology of inferences in iconic vs. non-iconic forms of sign language was extensively investigated.
(iv) The analysis of animal implicatures was extensively studied.
(v) A music semantics was developed and its similarities with other iconic forms extensively studied, notably in the analogy between film-accompanying music (“co-film music”) and speech-accompanying gestures (“co-speech gestures).
