ADINKRA AS OPEN-ENDED SEMANTIC FORMS


On account of their poly-vocality, some Adinkra symbols are best understood as open-ended semantic systems rather than the closed systems implied by the act of assigning particular symbolic values to them. All forms of signification could be understood as operating in terms of an oscillation between relative degrees of opendedness and closure in terms of their semantic values, but some are particularly related to closed systems in terms of particular, fixed meanings that justifies their description as relatively closed systems. Others are deliberately designed to escape fixity in relation to particular meanings, and so represent the esteem end represented by open systems.

Human natural languages could be understood as fixed, closed systems system in that the words and the manner in which they are used are developed in relation to particular fixed meanings, but it could also be understood as openended system because words and sounds, the linguistic structures within which they are used and the contexts in which they are employed, enable the realisation of suggestive values, connotations, which are realised through the various possibilities in the use of their linguistic forms.

This possibility is magnified by the fact that some words have more than one meaning, meanings realised through patterns of pronunciation, at times tonal, whether in terms of high or low tones or even the variety of lexical meanings, linked by relatively loose orb precise core of meaning that correlates the variations of interpretation in relation to particular word or expression. Language change also represents another aspect of linguistic opendedness, its escape from fixity, since words and expressions develop across time and space in terms of varieties of meaning which are related at a greater or lesser remove to the origins of those words or expressions.

At the same time, however, language, in terms of synchronic description, its state at a particular point in its history, could be understood as closed system. It is this fact of closure that makes intelligible communication possible, across various places and times in which the language is used since its users and those who are examining its use at a particular point in space and time can assume an identity of meaning in its use by particular users at particular spatiotemporal coordinates.

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