TY - JOUR

T1 - Advertising and the predation loop

T2 - a biosemiotic model

AU - Carney, James

PY - 2008/12/1

Y1 - 2008/12/1

N2 - The basic premise of biosemiotics as a discipline is that there are elementary processes linking signifying strategies in all forms of animate life. Correspondingly, the discoveries of biosemiotics should, in principle, be capable of revealing new insights about human signification. In the present article, I show that this is in fact the case by constructing a biosemiotic model that links advertising strategies with corresponding structures in animal predation. The methodological framework for this model is the catastrophe theory of René Thom. The end result is a revised understanding of an ostensibly cultural phenomenon that demonstrates its continuity with signalling processes conventionally associated with the natural world.

AB - The basic premise of biosemiotics as a discipline is that there are elementary processes linking signifying strategies in all forms of animate life. Correspondingly, the discoveries of biosemiotics should, in principle, be capable of revealing new insights about human signification. In the present article, I show that this is in fact the case by constructing a biosemiotic model that links advertising strategies with corresponding structures in animal predation. The methodological framework for this model is the catastrophe theory of René Thom. The end result is a revised understanding of an ostensibly cultural phenomenon that demonstrates its continuity with signalling processes conventionally associated with the natural world.

KW - Advertising

KW - Predation

KW - Catastrophe theory

KW - René Thom

KW - Biosemiotics

U2 - 10.1007/s12304-008-9020-6

DO - 10.1007/s12304-008-9020-6

M3 - Journal article

VL - 1

SP - 313

EP - 327

JO - Biosemiotics

JF - Biosemiotics

SN - 1875-1342

IS - 3

ER -