Analyzing Semiotic Catalysis with Natural Logic : a Proposal

Piaget's collaborator and logician, Jean-Blaise Grize, has developed a non-formal logic for the study of natural reasoning. Natural Logic approaches thought and discourse as intertwined together. Discursive thought can be analyzed in such a way that logical operations remain linked with their content, and therefore never brake the link with the langage used by the interlocutors, nor with the context of enunciation. The set of thought operations defined in Natural Logic build an open system that allows for the creation or making of meaning. The meaning is understood as dynamic, because it changes itself through the process of communication, and as dialogical, because meaning is elaborated through a dialogue where the interlocutor's interpretations take an active part in the locutor meaning-making.

Firstly, I will present a short example of Natural Logic analysis of discursive thought, in order to make the audience familiar with the method of analysis. Secondly, the possible use of Natural Logic analytical method for identifying and describing semiotic catalysis from discourse transcripts will be discussed. In particular, a proposal will be presented of an operational definition of semiotic catalysis based on Natural Logic, and open to discussion and critique.

, 3rd International Seminar on Cultural Psychology: Conceptualizing Catalysis in Theory and Practice, Bahia, Brasil