Compound Collection

bel18_09
There remains, despite centuries of debate, no consensus about what makes human beings intellectually and culturally different from other species, and even less so concerning the underlying sources of these differences. The main hypothesis of the project Stages in the Evolution and Development of Sign Use (SEDSU) is that it is not language per se, but an advanced ability to engage in sign use that constitutes the characteristic feature of human beings; in particular the ability to differentiate between the sign itself, be it gesture, picture, word or abstract symbol, and what it represents, i.e. the "semiotic function" (Piaget 1945). The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between Lund University, Goldsmiths - University of London, Portsmouth University, MPI-EVA Leipzig, INCM-CNRS Marseille and ISTC-CNR Rome, founded by the EU Sixth Framework Programme. The single research effort will afford new possibilities for methodological innovation, and the collection and analysis of new types of comparative data. The central research objective of the project is to investigate the developmental and comparative distribution of semiotic processes, and their effect on cognition., The Lund University part of the SEDSU project has its own homepage., Videotaped interaction between child and parent at home., There remains, despite centuries of debate, no consensus about what makes human beings intellectually and culturally different from other species, and even less so concerning the underlying sources of these differences. The main hypothesis of the project Stages in the Evolution and Development of Sign Use (SEDSU) is that it is not language per se, but an advanced ability to engage in sign use that constitutes the characteristic feature of human beings; in particular the ability to differentiate between the sign itself, be it gesture, picture, word or abstract symbol, and what it represents, i.e. the "semiotic function" (Piaget 1945). The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between Lund University, Goldsmiths - University of London, Portsmouth University, MPI-EVA Leipzig, INCM-CNRS Marseille and ISTC-CNR Rome, founded by the EU Sixth Framework Programme. The single research effort will afford new possibilities for methodological innovation, and the collection and analysis of new types of comparative data. The central research objective of the project is to investigate the developmental and comparative distribution of semiotic processes, and their effect on cognition., The Lund University part of the SEDSU project has its own homepage., Videotaped interaction between child and parent at home.