Form & Function: A Linguistic-Semiotic Investigation on Modern Physics
Published in 5th National Symposium on Philosophy of Physics, 2021
Summary: As the youngest speaker to deliver a 30-min plenary talk, in this article we develop a compact framework for physics discourse using linguistic semiotics—Peirce’s sign–interpretant–object triad, Saussurean oppositions, and Hallidayan Systemic Functional Linguistics with multimodality—to model modern physics language as a structured, multimodal sign system. It operationalizes the framework via (i) a semiotic comparison of interpretations of quantum mechanics and (ii) an SFL/discourse analysis of Einstein’s 1905 On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, yielding a reusable template for analyzing and standardizing scientific writing across languages.
Presented at the 5th National Symposium on Philosophy of Physics, China.
Recommended citation: Wang, Junkai. (2021). "Form & Function: A Linguistic-Semiotic Investigation on Modern Physics." Conference paper, 5th National Symposium on Philosophy of Physics (China).