2012 WATS Symposium Report

WATS stands for the World Association for Theoretical Semiotics, an affiliated member of the IASS.  We had a very successful Second Symposium at IASS-2012 in Nanjing and now have about 30 members who are interested in developing, extending, criticizing, etc. semiotic theory and theoretical semiotics from a grounding in the empirical data.  At the Business Meeting, the following officers were elected:

Our officers are:  President:                   Göran Sonesson, Sweden

Vice-President:           Bill McCurdy, USA

Secretary:                   Søren Brier, Denmark

Director:                     Eliseo Fernández, USA

Director:                     Du Shi-hong, China

They will serve until the election of new officers at WATS-3.

Our next symposium, WATS-3, will be devoted to the topic of theoretical semiotics at IASS-2014.  This blog can serve as a CfPs.  Abstracts of 1,000 words or less may be e-mailed to Gören Sonesson in either .Doc or .Docx (preferred) format.  Gören’s e-mail is Goran.Sonesson@semiotik.lu.se.  He will be glad to accept your abstracts for the WATS-3 symposium or pass on to the membership any relevant messages interested scholars may have.

Membership is open to any serious scholar who expresses an interest in the improvement of existing semiotic theory or the development of new semiotic theory.  The only requirement on theory is that it be rigorously grounded in the data.  You can apply for membership by sending me your name, email address, nationality, and a very brief statement of your interest in semiotic theory.

Outgoing President, Charls Pearson, reported that our application to the IASS for affiliation as an interest group was accepted making us a member of IASS in good standing.  During the three paper sessions the following papers were enthusiastically received and discussed:

1. “General Semiotics” by Abraham Solomonic of Israel
2. “Measurement Tools for Measuring the Interpretant” by Dona West of the USA
3. “How Instrumental Performance Quality Affects the Development of Semiotic Theory” by Charls Pearson of the USA
4. “Triadic Relational Networks in Peirce’s Semeiotic” by Bill McCurdy of the USA
5. “Symmetry in Semiotic Theory” by Charls Pearson of the USA
6. “The Lund Approach to the Relation between Experimental Semiotics and Semiotic Theory” by Göran Sonesson  of Sweden