Journal: Synteesi
Guest editors: Mattia Thibault and Riku Haapaniemi
Submission deadline (full papers): 31 July 2026 to riku.haapaniemi@tuni.fi

We warmly invite paper submissions, from the fields of semiotics and translation studies,for a Special Issue of the journal Synteesi dedicated to the relations between semiotics and translation. This issue builds on the series of Semiotics X Translation seminars held since 2022, following up especially on its latest iteration in November 2025. The X in the title denotes a number of possible relationships between the two fields: and, in, for, of… It is these myriad relationships we invite scholars to consider in their contributions.  

On the multifaceted relations between semiotics and translation 

Semiotics and Translation
Semiotics and translation are irremediably linked to each other. From Peirce’s notion of semiosis as the translation of signs into other signs (e.g. CP 2.228, 5.594) to Lotman’s conceptualisation of culture as being built on the dynamics of translatability and untranslatability (Lotman 1990), “translation” appears a key concept in many semiotic theories and approaches. For some, it is seen as a mechanism underlying all forms of communication, as claimed by Torop’s idea of “total translation” (Torop 2002), or by Fabbri in his Elogio di Babele (Fabbri 2003). Other theories see it as a more specialised concept, such as a particular form of transtextual relation (Genette 1997) or a specific kind of interpretation (Eco 2000). An expanded understanding of translation is also behind the semiotic approaches to intersemiotic translation (Dusi & Nergaard 2000) which showcase the fruitfulness of the concept for the analysis of all sorts of semiotic systems (as utilised in e.g. Stano 2015).

Semiotics in Translation
Semiotics has likewise played a pivotal role in the development of the study of translation, from Saussure’s linguistics providing a basis for many early key texts (as discussed in e.g. Pym 2010) to Jakobson’s highly influential categorisation of translation types into the intralingual, interlingual, and intersemiotic (Jakobson 1959). Just as the concept of translation has been a part of the study of semiosis from the beginning, so have semiotic concerns been a part of the field of translation studies. Semiotics has also played a part in the increasing number of recent efforts to break away from the field’s traditional focus on interlingual textual exchanges and expand its horizons to more-than-verbal and more-than-human concerns (e.g. Marais 2019). This has signalled a shift from the study of translation as a distinct lingual phenomenon towards the identification and analysis of a “translational dimension” (Meylaerts & Marais 2023, 4) present in a much wider array of phenomena, a reorientation towards the study of “translationality” (Robinson 2017; Blumczynski 2023) as an aspect of things in general in addition to the study of translation as such.

Semiotics for Translation
Relatedly, there is renewed interest in semiotics and increased awareness of the centrality of translation in semiotics, prompting both overviews of the historical role of semiotics in translation studies (e.g. Kourdis & Hartama-Heinonen 2023) and novel semiotics-based approaches to all kinds of translational processes and textual phenomena: from intralingual reformulations (Hartama-Heinonen 2025) to multimodality and intersemiotic translation (Kourdis 2024; 2025); from modelling the dynamics of interlingual processes(Rędzioch-Korkuz 2025) to identifying translational aspects in more-than-human communication (Sealey 2019) and artificial intelligence (Haapaniemi et al. 2024); from the impact of materiality in textual communication (Haapaniemi 2024) to the recreation of spatiality in virtual experiences (Thibault 2024) to the translation of emotions through art (Gamrat 2025).

Semiotics of Translation
This rapid expansion in fields of application, however, must come with considered theoretical discussion and a conscious effort to build a sustainable philosophical and phenomenological basis on which new applications of translation theories and concepts can firmly stand. The concept of intersemiotic translation, for example, is very widely used, but remains woefully under-theorised (as noted by e.g. Zabalbeascoa 2025; see also Kourdis 2025). Where there is need for theorisation, there is need for increased collaboration between the fields of translation studies and semiotics: with decades of conceptual work on semiosis and its translational aspects, semiotics can offer a varied spectrum of valuable perspectives and robust theoretical frameworks for the study of translation. Translation, likewise, can offer semiotics new applications for its concepts and new insights into how semiotic principles manifest in practical phenomena.

Theme and topics of the Special Issue 

The theme of our special issue, “Semiotics X Translation”, encompasses all these different possible relations between translation and semiotics, and serves our ambition to gather contributions across disciplinary divides to continue to break new common ground in the study of these two phenomena that are essentially intertwined. With this special issue, hence, we wish to reach out to researchers working in semiotics and translation studies, encourage dialogue and reflection on the relations between the disciplines, and foster closer collaboration between the two. 

Contributions may consider questions such as, but not limited to, the following:

• How can the study of translation benefit from semiotics?
• How can semiotic scholarship benefit from translation studies?
• Can semiotic concepts illuminate translational phenomena?
• Can translational concepts illuminate semiotic phenomena?
• What kinds of different semiotic systems and/or processes figure into translational processes?
• What kinds of translational relationships and phenomena can be identified in
• different semiotic processes?
• Where do the limits of productive collaboration between the two fields lie – when is it more fruitful to limit discussions just to semiotic or translational perspectives?

Practical information 

Synteesi is a peer-reviewed academic journal, edited by Eero Tarasti, with an over 40-year history of publishing semiotic scholarship in Finland. The guest editors of the “Semiotics X Translation” Special Issue are proud to have the chance to invite international scholars to participate in this issue of Synteesi and to make this work available to an international audience. 

• We will accept papers in English, as well as in Finnish and Swedish.
• The issue will be published online as an Open Access publication as well as in print.
• Suggested manuscript length is approx. 8,000 words, but we will be happy to also consider contributions that are shorter or longer in length.
• Please follow Synteesi’s author guidelines (see below).

Planned schedule:

• Declaration of intent and/or preliminary abstract due 15 April (optional)
• Full papers due 31 July 2026
• First round of peer reviews due 30 September 2026
• Revised manuscripts due 30 November 2026
• Second round of peer reviews due 31 January 2027
• Final edits due 28 February 2027
• Publication in Synteesi issue 2/2027

Please send in your submissions, as well as any questions you might have, to Special Issue co-editor Riku Haapaniemi (riku.haapaniemi@tuni.fi).

The special issue is a collaboration between the Semiotic Society of Finland, PLURAL Multidisciplinary Research Centre for Languages and Cultures (Tampere University), and the InterReal research project (ERC-StG).

References:

• Blumczynski, P. (2023). Experiencing Translationality. Material and Metaphorical Journeys. Routledge.
• CP = Peirce, C.S., et al. (1994). The Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce. Intelex.
• Dusi, N, and S. Nergaard (2000). “Sulla traduzione intersemiotica.” VS 85/86/87: 3-295.
• Eco, U. (2000). Experiences in translation. University of Toronto Press.
• Fabbri, P. (2003). Elogio di Babele: traduzioni, trasposizioni, trasmutazioni (Vol. 20). Meltemi Editore srl.
• Gamrat, M. (Ed.). (2025). Translating Human Inner Life in and Between the Arts: A Semiotic Approach to the Emotions and the Process of Translation. Bloomsbury Publishing.
• Genette, G. (1997). Palimpsests: Literature in the second degree (Vol. 8). U of Nebraska Press.
• Haapaniemi, R. (2024). “Translation as meaning-construction under co-textual and contextual constraints: A model for a material approach to translation.” Translation Studies 17 (1).
• Haapaniemi, R., A. Mesaros, M. Harju, I. Martín Morató, and M. Hirvonen (2024).“Contrasting a semiotic conceptualisation of translation with AI text production: Case of audio captioning.” STRIDON: Studies in Translation and Interpreting 4 (1).
• Hartama-Heinonen, R. (2025). “Easy Signs, Accessible Signs, Perhaps More Developed Signs: Reflections on Easy Language and Translation”. In Feeling, Skill and Knowledge: Semiotics of the Subject in Environment, Culture and World. Springer, Cham.
• Jakobson, R. (1959). “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation”. In On Translation by R.A. Brower (Ed.). Oxford University Press.
• Kourdis, E. (2025). “Multimodal, polysemiotic, multisemiotic: a necessary
  demarcation for semiotics and translation studies”. Social Semiotics 35(5), 718-732.
• Kourdis, E. (2024). “Intersemiotic Translations of Greek Popular Films in the Film Industry and Media”. Signs and Media, 3(1-2), 94-111.
• Kourdis, E., and R. Hartama-Heinonen. (2023). “Translation Studies and Semiotics”. In Bloomsbury Semiotics: Semiotic Movements (Vol. 4).
• Lotman, Y. (1990). Universe of the Mind. A Semiotic Theory of Culture. I.B. Tauris.
• Marais, K. (2019). A (Bio)Semiotic Theory of Translation: The Emergence of Social-Cultural Reality. London: Routledge.
• Meylaerts, R., and K. Marais (2023). “Introduction”. In The Routledge Handbook of Translation Theory and Concepts, by R. Meylaerts and K. Marais (Eds.). Routledge.
• Pym, A. (2010). Exploring Translation Theories. London: Routledge.
• Rędzioch-Korkuz, A. (2025). “(Re)conceptualizing translation as a dynamic dialogue of constraints”. Sign Systems Studies 53(3/4), 333–356.
• Robinson, D. (2017). Translationality: Essays in the Translational-Medical Humanities. Taylor and Francis.
• Sealey, A. (2019). “Translation: A Biosemiotic/more-Than-Human Perspective.” Target 31 (3): 305–327.
• Stano, S. (2015). Eating the other: Translations of the culinary code. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
• Torop, P. (2002). “Translation as translating as culture”. Σημειωτκή-Sign Systems Studies, 30(2), 593-605.
• Thibault, M. (2024). “Exploring Interreal Translation”. MikaEL, 17 (1).
• Zabalbeascoa, P. (2025). “Intersemiotic translation: Another terminological problem within Translation Studies”. Między Oryginałem a Przekładem, 31(3(69), 101-119.

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Synteesi Author Guidelines

Synteesi publishes scientific articles, interviews, reviews, and essays on semiotics, aesthetics, arts, cultural studies, and philosophy. Articles are subject to peer review, and submitted manuscripts are evaluated and commented on by external experts as well as members of the journal’s editorial board.

If you are preparing a contribution to the “Semiotics X Translation” Special Issue in English and have questions about formatting the manuscript, please contact Special Issue co-editor Riku Haapaniemi (riku.haapaniemi@tuni.fi). For instructions on formatting in Finnish and Swedish, see Synteesi’s website.

General

• Submit your manuscript as an email attachment in .doc or .rtf format. The article must include the author’s name and full contact information. Also provide a bionote on the author and an abstract for the article.
• The “Semiotics X Translation” Special Issue accepts contributions in English. Following Synteesi’s general language policy, contributions are also accepted in Finnish and Swedish. However, always include an English-language abstract regardless of the language of the article.
• Avoid using more than one subheading level.
• Try to keep the main title of your article as concise as possible, preferably fitting it in one line. If you wish, you can include a subtitle that specifies your theme or perspective in more detail.
• Italicize the names of books and journals in the text, in references, and in the bibliography.
• Separate quotations longer than three lines into their own paragraphs.
• Use italics to indicate foreign-language terms or concepts you wish to emphasize.
• Quotations in a language other than the main language of your article can be included in the original language if necessary, but in such cases a translation in the language of the rest of the article should also be provided.
• Any images must be named and their place in the text must be carefully marked.
• Always use “double quotes”. ‘Single quotes’ should only be used within double quotes.

In-text references

• Mark references in parentheses: (Barthes 1970, 7–12).
• Mark quotations with double quotation marks, and place the period after the parenthetical reference: “The social is in the sign” (Kress 2002, 74).
• Indicate sections removed from quotes with square brackets and ellipsis: “Language and languages […] are formed within the dialectic of the satisfaction of needs, that is, within the process of the institution of work and production relationships” (Rossi-Landi 1983, 38).
• You can include end notes as necessary, but avoid using them excessively.

Bibliography formatting

• Book:
  • Lastname, Firstname 1999. Book title. Subtitle. City: Publisher.
• Translated book:
  • Lastname, Firstname 1999/1666. Book title. Transl. Firstname Lastname. City: Publisher.
• Article in edited volume:
  • Lastname, Firstname 1999. Article title. In Firstname Lastname, Firstname
    Lastname & Firstname Lastname (eds.), Volume title. City: Publisher, 1–99.
• Article in journal:
  • Lastname, Firstname 1999. Article title. Journal name Vol. 1. No. 99, 1–99.
• Unpublished thesis:
  • Lastname, Firstname 1999. Thesis title. Master’s thesis. Department, University.
• Other unpublished sources (presentations, manuscripts, etc.):
  • Lastname, Firstname 1999. Title of document. 1 January 1999. Name of archive, City.
  • Lastname, Firstname 1999. Title of presentation. Name of seminar or
    conference. University, 1 January 1999.