Major non – verbal semiosic constructions

Abstract

In most gardens and parks, natural and artificial elements are harmoniously combined in such a way as to suit utilitarian and aesthetic functions. Together with vegetation, the decorative elements and arrangements/compositions make us spend a very pleasant and special time in the garden. Taking into account all these aspects, gardens as - “major nonverbal semiosic constructions”- as definded by Thomas A.Sebeok (one of the most important semioticians of the XX century) may be analysed following two main directions:1) semiosis at the level of plant kingdom and 2) human intentional semiosis within the garden. Semioticians usually consider semiosis to be that instinctive capacity of all living organisms to produce, to perceive and to interpret specific signs, elements coming from the environment, which are necessary and fit them the best in order to survive. When these living organisms are comprised/included in a net of complex semiotical relationships, each new aquired behaviour may be rejected or integrated in various ways. In this case we may speak of the concept of semiotical fitness, which represents the performance of the subject to adapt himself/herself to the environment by means of semiosic processes. Speaking about human intentional semiosis (anthroposemiosis), we should emphasize the fact that the design of the physical millieu of the garden is a continuous process, a non-interrupted semiosis, a permanent search of the best expression, of that function or complex of functions which are best adapted to the natural and artificial elements of the environment. Thus, the space of the garden becomes a sign, which assumes the form of the designed experience. Within a garden, the culture, the internal nature (the biological organism) and the external nature (organic and innorganic environment) are interreacting in a complex way. The confluence between signs and interpret, between cultural and natural processes, the perceived beauty and logical knowledge, all these aspects define gardens as places of communication, real major non-verbal semiosic constructions, where the unity between human intentional semiosis and the other semiosic processes present in the environment is extremely obvious.