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Semiotics and Theories of Situated/Distributed Action and Cognition: a Dialogue and Many Intersections

in Versus n. 112-113, The External Mind. Perspectives on Semiosis, Distribution and Situation in Cognition, pp.125-167

Abstract

The article aims to describe the ground for a theoretical alignment between semiotics and theories of situated/distributed action and cognition, based on the linguistic tradition and more recent semiotic developments. First of all, it defines the “turn” of social and cognitive science towards a unitary framework of situated studies, which support a crucial attention to the local construction of meaning in interaction and communication. These theories are taken into consideration with respects to their specificities, points of strength and divergence. Secondly, this framework is compared with semiotics, starting from a preliminary check-up, which demonstrates a mutual epistemological compatibility, to arrive then to suggest a useful deployment of semiotic tools in the same field of a “situated” enquiry.