Persian Calligraphy as a Diagrammatic Sign: An Analysis Based on Cognitive Semiotics

Brandt (2021) ignores Peircean indices as signs and fits them into the category of symbolic signs if they are intentional. He names the third group of signs as diagrams and considers them, along with iconic and symbolic signs, to complete semiotic aspects of the art of life. In this research, we intend to illustrate that Persiancalligraphy has characteristics similar to diagrammatic signs and can be fitted into the category of diagrams. For this purpose, by using the structural perceptions of Persian calligraphy, Gestalt rules and semiotic blending, we analyse perceptually and conceptually a known work of Persian calligraphy art. To discover perceptual meanings, we apply Gestalt rules in the spaces of this work. The meaning obtained from this type of ‘ception’ is not person-dependent and culture-dependent. Perception of a sign occurs due to the stimulation of Gestalt principles in our mind. For example, if two points are in the scope of our vision, our mind creates a line by stimulating the principle of ‘similarity’. This line, in fact, is invisible, but it can be perceived. In order for extracting the conceptional mening, we apply Brandt's blending theory to this work and name the resulting meaning as conceptual meaning. This meaning depends on how to perceive, which itself is dependent on perceptual perspective, and in addition, on our mental schemas. These two factors make conceptual perspective. Special attention has been paid to the perspective within the perceptual and conceptual analyses, because the way and order of observation as well as our schemas can change our interpretaion. It means that with a different perspective, a different interpretation is obtained. In order to conceive a sign, it is necessary to perceive it, because we first perceive the world with our senses. Then, with the formation of mental spaces and the presence of mental schemas, the ‘meaning space’ is created in our mind. This kind of approach to conceptualization was founded by Fauconnier and Turner in 1997 under the name of blending theory. Brandt, while criticizing the theory of mental spaces proposed by Fauconnier and Turner, presents a supplementary model of the semiotic blending, which includes five mental spaces as well as mental schemas as a conceptualisation interface. According to the model used for the conceptual analysis of this Persian calligraphy work, conceptual meaning is the result of our perception lead to a blending space and our schemas. The analysis of the considered calligraphy work from the perceptual and concetual points of view, focusing on the imagination factors such as selection, perspective, prominence, dynamicity, syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations, clearly illustrated that this calligraphy work can be considered as a diagrammatic sign in nature; because the organization of calligraphy forms based on these cognitive contents has been done in such a way that guarantees the conception of the work. It is assumed that perceptual and conceptual meanings, in addition to the space of Persian calligraphy, can also be obtained in the space of other human arts, based on what was tested in this research.