Unfolding Interpretations

Abstract

To better understand ‘competent’ reading of unfamiliar graphs, two detailed case studies are presented. ‘Competent’ reading of unfamiliar graph, which involves the process of abduction, shares features with the work of successful detectives, who engage in a dual process: they structure the situation to isolate hypothetical signs and construct hypothetical referents. Through the production of interpretants, which produce a mutual elaboration of sign and referent, the graph reader seeks convergence so that the sign-referent relation is intelligible and plausible. This referent situation is an articulation of the reader’s understanding of the world rather than something that the author of the graph attempted to transmit. All interpretation is therefore already grounded in understanding, which is further articulated and elaborated in the interpretive process. It is shown that, even though the scientists form a relatively homogeneous group, perceptual structures such as intersections or intercepts are not inherently signs and that a sign on a graph such as ‘N’ may have different interpretants.