Thomas Sebeok
Encyclopedia
Thomas Albert Sebeok was a polymathic American
semiotician
and linguist
.
. He was also a creator of biosemiotics
. As a linguist, he published several articles and books analyzing aspects of the Mari language
(referring to it by the name "Cheremis"). His transdisciplinary work and professional collaborations spanned the fields of anthropology, biology, folklore studies, linguistics, psychology, and semiotics. He was especially renowned for his ability to bring together specialists from neighboring fields in order to generate path-breaking perspectives on, for example, the study of myth, psycholinguistics, stylistics, animal communication and biosemiotics.
Based on his field of competence, Sebeok rejected the experiments on the putative linguistic abilities of apes, such as those described by David Premack
, assuming the existence of a deeper, more universal and more meaningful underlying substrate: the “semiotic function”.
In 1944, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States
. In 1941, Sebeok earned a bachelor's degree at The University of Chicago. He earned a master's degree at The University of Chicago in 1943 and, in 1945, a doctorate at Princeton University
. In 1943, at the age of 24, he arrived at Indiana University in Bloomington, to assist the Amerindianist Carl Voegelin in managing the country's largest Army Specialized Training Program in foreign languages. He then created the university's department of Uralic and Altaic Studies, covering the languages of Eastern Europe, Russia and Asia. He was also the chair of the university's Research Center for Language and Semiotic Studies, retiring in 1991.
Sebeok was the editor-in-chief of the journal "Semiotica
", the leading periodical in the field, from its establishing in 1969, until 2001. He was also the editor of several book series and path-breaking encyclopedias, including "Approaches to Semiotics" (over 100 volumes), "Current Trends in Linguistics", and the "Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics".
In the early 1980s, Sebeok composed a report for the US Office of Nuclear Waste Management titled Communication Measures To Bridge Ten Millennia, discussing solutions to the problem of nuclear semiotics
, a system of signs aimed at warning future civilizations from entering geographic areas contaminated by nuclear waste. The report proposed a "folkloric relay system"and the establishment of an "atomic priesthood" of physicists, anthropologists, semioticians to preserve the true nature of hazardous site.
In addition to his steady intellectual contributions to a number of fields over more than sixty years, Sebeok was a quintessential entrepreneurial scholar, organizing hundreds of international conferences and institutes, playing a key role in organizations such as the Linguistic Society of America, International Association for Semiotic Studies and the Semiotic Society of America, and in supporting the creation of linguistic and semiotics teaching programs and scholarly associations throughout the world.
Sebeok's personal library on semiotics, comprising more than 4,000 volumes of books and 700 journals, is preserved at the Department of Semiotics at the University of Tartu
in Estonia.
Sebeok is survived by his wife (and frequent co-author), Dr. Jean Umiker-Sebeok, and three daughters: Veronica C. Wald, Deputy Director, Academic Research Centers at NORC at the University of Chicago; Jessica A. Sebeok, a Marshall Scholar and Yale Law School-trained attorney who is currently Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs in the U.S. Department of State; and Erica L. Sebeok, a media researcher at Strata Marketing, Inc. in Chicago, IL. Sebeok is also survived by one grandson, Oliver Thomas Sebeok Shuchart.
. The complete list of Sebeok fellows (with year of awarding):
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
semiotician
Semiotics
Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
and linguist
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
.
Life and work
Sebeok, a professor emeritus at Indiana University, expanded the purview of semiotics to include non-human signaling and communication systems, coining the term "zoosemiotics" and raising some of the issues addressed by the philosophy of mindPhilosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness and their relationship to the physical body, particularly the brain. The mind-body problem, i.e...
. He was also a creator of biosemiotics
Biosemiotics
Biosemiotics is a growing field that studies the production, action and interpretation of signs in the biological realm...
. As a linguist, he published several articles and books analyzing aspects of the Mari language
Mari language
The Mari language , spoken by more than 600,000 people, belongs to the Uralic language family. It is spoken primarily in the Mari Republic of the Russian Federation as well as in the area along the Vyatka river basin and eastwards to the Urals...
(referring to it by the name "Cheremis"). His transdisciplinary work and professional collaborations spanned the fields of anthropology, biology, folklore studies, linguistics, psychology, and semiotics. He was especially renowned for his ability to bring together specialists from neighboring fields in order to generate path-breaking perspectives on, for example, the study of myth, psycholinguistics, stylistics, animal communication and biosemiotics.
Based on his field of competence, Sebeok rejected the experiments on the putative linguistic abilities of apes, such as those described by David Premack
David Premack
David Premack is currently emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. He was educated at the University of Minnesota when logical positivism was in full bloom. The departments of Psychology and Philosophy were closely allied...
, assuming the existence of a deeper, more universal and more meaningful underlying substrate: the “semiotic function”.
In 1944, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In 1941, Sebeok earned a bachelor's degree at The University of Chicago. He earned a master's degree at The University of Chicago in 1943 and, in 1945, a doctorate at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
. In 1943, at the age of 24, he arrived at Indiana University in Bloomington, to assist the Amerindianist Carl Voegelin in managing the country's largest Army Specialized Training Program in foreign languages. He then created the university's department of Uralic and Altaic Studies, covering the languages of Eastern Europe, Russia and Asia. He was also the chair of the university's Research Center for Language and Semiotic Studies, retiring in 1991.
Sebeok was the editor-in-chief of the journal "Semiotica
Semiotica
Semiotica is an academic journal covering semiotics. It is the official journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies.-Publication:Since 2000, the journal publishes five issues per year. It is published in English and French....
", the leading periodical in the field, from its establishing in 1969, until 2001. He was also the editor of several book series and path-breaking encyclopedias, including "Approaches to Semiotics" (over 100 volumes), "Current Trends in Linguistics", and the "Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics".
In the early 1980s, Sebeok composed a report for the US Office of Nuclear Waste Management titled Communication Measures To Bridge Ten Millennia, discussing solutions to the problem of nuclear semiotics
Nuclear semiotics
Nuclear semiotics was created in 1981 when a team of engineers, anthropologists, nuclear physicists, behavior scientists and others was convened on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy and Bechtel Corp...
, a system of signs aimed at warning future civilizations from entering geographic areas contaminated by nuclear waste. The report proposed a "folkloric relay system"and the establishment of an "atomic priesthood" of physicists, anthropologists, semioticians to preserve the true nature of hazardous site.
In addition to his steady intellectual contributions to a number of fields over more than sixty years, Sebeok was a quintessential entrepreneurial scholar, organizing hundreds of international conferences and institutes, playing a key role in organizations such as the Linguistic Society of America, International Association for Semiotic Studies and the Semiotic Society of America, and in supporting the creation of linguistic and semiotics teaching programs and scholarly associations throughout the world.
Sebeok's personal library on semiotics, comprising more than 4,000 volumes of books and 700 journals, is preserved at the Department of Semiotics at the University of Tartu
University of Tartu
The University of Tartu is a classical university in the city of Tartu, Estonia. University of Tartu is the national university of Estonia; it is the biggest and highest-ranked university in Estonia...
in Estonia.
Sebeok is survived by his wife (and frequent co-author), Dr. Jean Umiker-Sebeok, and three daughters: Veronica C. Wald, Deputy Director, Academic Research Centers at NORC at the University of Chicago; Jessica A. Sebeok, a Marshall Scholar and Yale Law School-trained attorney who is currently Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs in the U.S. Department of State; and Erica L. Sebeok, a media researcher at Strata Marketing, Inc. in Chicago, IL. Sebeok is also survived by one grandson, Oliver Thomas Sebeok Shuchart.
Sebeok award
The "Sebeok fellow" award is the highest honor given by the Semiotic Society of AmericaSemiotic Society of America
The Semiotic Society of America is an interdisciplinary professional association serving scholars from many disciplines with common interests in semiotics, the study of signs and sign-systems. It was founded in 1975 and includes members from the United States and Canada. Its official journal is The...
. The complete list of Sebeok fellows (with year of awarding):
- David SavanDavid SavanDavid Savan was an eminent semiotician and Charles Sanders Peirce scholar.He was a Professor in the University of Toronto, Philosophy Department, 1943-1981.He was the first recipient of the Thomas A. Sebeok fellowship.-Links:...
(1992) - John DeelyJohn DeelyJohn Deely is an American philosopher and semiotician. He is a Professor of Philosophy at the Center for Thomistic Studies of the University of St. Thomas ....
(1993) - Paul Bouissac (1996)
- Jesper HoffmeyerJesper HoffmeyerJesper Hoffmeyer is emeritus professor at the University of Copenhagen Institute of Biology, and is a leading figure in the emerging field of Biosemiotics....
(2000) - Kalevi KullKalevi KullKalevi Kull is an eminent biosemiotics professor at the University of Tartu, Estonia.He was the president of the Estonian Naturalists' Society in 1991–1994.Ecologist Olevi Kull was his younger brother.-Publications:...
(2003) - Floyd Merrell (2005)
- Susan Petrilli (2008)
- Irmengard Rauch (2011)