Program and Abstracts
Falk Seeger & Martin Hildebrand- Nilshon
On the concept of 'Sign': from Peirce to Vygotsky and
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Starting point for our paper will be a quotation from chapter 16 of L.
S. Vygotskij's "Pedology of the Adolescent" (The
Collected Works of L.S. Vygotsky, Volume 5).
In this quotation, Vygotskij illustrates the development of language
using the example of the first indicative gesture (the interrupted grasping
movement) and its subjective and objective sides. We will show how this
conception that is now 75 years old is linked to contemporary debates in
semiotics and studies of language development. To a certain degree arguments
in current debates contravene Vygotskij's ideas; yet, on the other hand,
it can also be shown that to a certain extent his perspective is still
correct and up to date.
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