Ksenia Elisseeva - Bruno Osimo, traduzioni, semiotica della ...

Chapter 6
The Simplest Semiotic Systems and the Typology of Plots 1 .
B. F. Egorov
The exceptionally stormy development of semiotics has naturally brought
with it study of the most diverse sign systems, and even cartomancy, fortunetelling
with playing cards, has proven to be an object of research. M. L
Lekomceva and B. A. Uspenskij’s innovative and intelligent essay has provided
us with many valuable and interesting formulations (Lekomceva, Uspenskij
1962: 84-86). However, the present study does not in fact accept one of their
essay's main theses, that the system of fortune-telling «contains the potential
for several interpretations» and the fortune-teller «always possesses several
degrees of freedom».
In the essay mentioned, emphasis is put on studying the pragmatics of
the “game” for the fortune-teller and for the person having his fortune told.
“Professional” fortune-telling is definitely presupposed, in which a fortune-teller
conducts a game of divining past and present with his naive victim. But in such
a “game”, particularly when the victim does not look at the cards or understands
nothing about them, one can speak not of several but of infinite degrees of
freedom. For the “professional” fortune-teller, the cards are a pure fiction, and
information is received not from the cards but from the external and internal
appearance of the person having his fortune told and from his reaction to the
fortune-teller’s words. Even the prediction of the future is usually not obtained
from the cards: a future is constructed for the victim that is capable of achieving
the most “mercenary” effect, and it is based on a study of his character.
1 This article appeared also in Russian as «Prostejšie semiotičeskie sistemy i tipologiâ
sûžetov», in Trudy po znakovym sistemam, II (Tartu: Tartu University Press, 1965), 106-115.
6