Philology and linguistics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62204/2336-498X-2023-3-17

DEUS EX MACHINA. FLASH AND IRON.

ICONS OF HUMANS AND ROBOTS

Pavlo Pokotylo,

Lecturer of the Department of Linguistics and Translation,
Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology,
Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, Ukraine,
p.pokotylo@kubg.edu.ua; ORCID: 0000-0001-7791-6517

Annotation. Globalization processes combine different cultures heritage melting symbols, sings, views and traditions into one single linguistic icon of each unique paradigmatic row. In this research icons of “Robot” and “Human” are to be considered as highest hierarchy representatives of symbol and sing of their kind. This article is to show their inner relative connections despite common oppositions such as living – mechanical and other.

Keywords: linguistic icon, linguistic iconism, symbol, robot.

Introduction. In modern world full of technology, urbanization, post pandemic effects it is important to distinguish some linguistic patterns that can clarify our present and the past. The world around us is reflected in language and books. Language reflect our identity and our world correlates with the world written, world of books, news and scripts. Therefore, by discovering new shades of language we can add new peculiarities to the general linguistic image as one small piece of one single entity. The relevance of the research is determined buy language as a basic unit of human civilization. By shaping language meanings, we can better understand who we are and where we are going. Linguistic in the modern word combines different approaches, views and even disciplines.

Robots have been a popular subject in science fiction literature, often portrayed as advanced machines with human-like or superhuman capabilities. These fictional features however can have their roots in human nature. Writers describe robots rather like imperfect humans (in terms of emotions and field of irrational) and humans sometimes depicted as imperfect robots. In cases when robots don’t look like human been they can be described as emotional, having their own language and personality e. g. Star Wars (Lucas G., 1999) famous non-human like robot R2D2 which has human-like personality. The analyses of the use of words related to “Robot-Human” research field is to show in which particular whey represent particular ideas, they reflect language world and human nature. This research is to show some of the humanlike features that can be found in sematic filed of “Robot” in order to clarify what can linguistic icons “Robot” and “Human” represent contain and reflect as well as their possible correlations.

Literature review. Linguistic Iconicity and Iconism were studded by Wescott, W. R (Wescott, W. R., 1971.), Olha Homilko, Irit Meir, Oksana Tkachman (Meir I. and Tkachman O., 2018), Morris Ch. (Morris Ch., 2003) and others.

Symbols and sings in linguistic where studied by Saussure F. ,Kyrmach U. K and others.

Linguistic iconism (Wescott, W. R., 1971 Irit Meir and Tkachman O., 2018)  refers to the concept that certain words or linguistic elements can resemble or imitate the meaning or concept they represent. It correlates with symbol study (F. de. Saussure, 1949).

  Linguistic icons are specific words or linguistic elements that exhibit its iconicity, where their form or sound is directly related to the meaning they convey. For example, a phenomen of onomatopoeia when words that imitate the sounds they represent e. g.” woof”,” hiccup” or “beep”. These words have a direct connection between their phonetic form and the concept they symbolize. Similarly, words like “whisper” or “sight” mimic the actions or qualities they describe. Linguistic icons can also be found in other aspects of language, such as gestures or facial expressions. For instance, the gesture of pointing can iconically represent the act of indicating or directing attention towards something. It is important to note that not all words or linguistic elements exhibit iconicity, and the degree of iconicity can vary across languages and cultures. Linguistic iconism plays a role in language comprehension and communication, as it can provide additional cues and make certain concepts more vivid or memorable. Overall, linguistic iconism and linguistic icons are fascinating aspects of language that highlight the complicated connections between form and meaning in human communication.

Results of research. Human and Robot icon create own semantic fields and paradigmatic rows e.g.

“HUMAN” > flesh and blood > life > body > emotions > mind > imperfection > irrational and so on.

VS

“ROBOT” > metallic > artificial > human-like body >mind >perfect >rational and so on.

We can notice that this way they can correlate and penetrate each other at certain stages (Figure 1). They can be opposite as antonyms (e.g. rational vs irrational) or robots can imitate humans while humans can have “robotic” behavior. Human can be described as a robots or contain certain cyber traits or mechanical elements.

Depictions of robots have explored various themes, including artificial intelligence, ethics, and the relationship between humans and machines. We can see how icon “Robot” aspects are represented in different books e.g. “I, Robot” by Isaac Asimov: This collection of short stories gave birth to Asimov’s famous Three Laws of Robotics, which control the behavior of robots. Butt at the same time we can say that human behavior is controlled as well buy country laws, laws of moral and ethics. The book show robots with different personalities and abilities, highlighting the potential benefits and dangers of their existence. “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick is novel, which introduces the concept of androids known as “replicants.” These highly advanced robots are almost indistinguishable from humans and raise questions about identity, empathy, and what it means to be alive. “Neuromancer” by William Gibson is cyberpunk novel that introduces the character of Wintermute, an artificial intelligence that manipulates events in a futuristic world. The book explores the blurred boundaries between humans and machines, as well as the potential consequences of unchecked technological advancement. These examples provide just a glimpse into the rich and diverse portrayals of robots in science fiction literature. They offer thought-provoking insights into the possibilities and implications of advanced robotics and artificial intelligence. Providing robots with negative human features can be spotted in Douglas Adams “THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY” where a depressive robot Marvin has a terrible view on life and lead another device even to suicide. Been more particular “The Ego Machine” by Henry Kuttner has a robot as an alternative life form” “What a wonderful memory you have,” the robot put in mournfully. “Mine used to be, before I started temporalizing. But even radioactive neurons won’t stand—” “ this kind correlation when we compere an artificial intligence with biological set them together in one row. Moreover, the fact that the robot admits its own mind flows make it look more human like. This brings us again to clash of semantic fields of “Robot” and “Human” (Figure 1).

Fig. 1. Human and Robot semantic field correlation.

Conclusions. Human and Robot icons correlate and interfere each one’s semantic field and paradigms. These icons can replace each other, mimic and overall can be represented as two sides of one coin or as kind of a shifted reflection in the mirror. Judging from mentioned examples the peculiarities of their use can be extremely flexible, same and different at the same time, in the same field. They can become opposites but et still have some inner similarities. The form “robot” can be used to represent meaning that can be interpreted as a human or some elements, human features on the other hand form “human” can include mechanical features or can even be interpreted as robot. Each one from this couple of fields can be represented in the physical fiction world or fiction worlds linguistic system that has its own unique mix of words that derives from fiction language and common everyday English that can cover field of since as well. This topic requires further researches. Conducting this kind of research can clarify the way they correlate and represented in the fiction world, culture, language, provide with more statistic data.

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