Torkild Thellefsen

Fundamental Signs and Significance-effects: a Semeiotic Outline of Fundamental Signs, Significance-effects, Knowledge Profiling and Their Use in Knowledge Organization and Branding Torkild Thellefsen

Two fundamental signs exist: a normative and a sub- cognitive, respectively. The former is the epistemological center in every knowledge domain possessing a well defined terminology. The latter is the emotional center in every loosely defined community, e.g. brand communities. The sub- cognitive fundamental sign exerts attraction upon the members of the community through emotional similarity. To the two fundamental signs there are two corresponding significance-effects: the normative and the sub-cognitive, respectively. The former designates the interpretative distance between the concept and its correct interpretation - the shorter the distance is, the more forceful the normative significance-effect is. The latter enables us to let us be attracted to a given sign e.g. brands. The attraction takes place because the interpreter sees parts of himself, or wishes to see parts of himself. Two pragmaticistically inspired methods are also presented: the knowledge profile and semeiotic constructivism. The former is a pragmatic tool for knowledge organization, the latter can be used to knowledge manage i.e. scientific concepts.