ה"קריאה" בקפה ופרשנותה: היבטים בסמיוטיקה

This paper describes fortune-telling in general as a semiotic system (a super-system of different kinds of signs, ceremonies and human interaction) through which various branches of fortune-telling — e.g., cartomancy, coffee-reading, palm-reading, astrology and numerology — may be compared and contrasted with one another and with other semiotic systems as well. We first compare and contrast coffee-reading as a sign system with the Rorschach test, from the point of view of a visual sign system based on the principle of pars pro toto in specific kinds of dyadic human encounters. We then specifically compare and contrast the particular semiotic systems of coffee-reading and cartomancy from the point of view of their visual sign systems, ceremony, the presentation of themes in a session, the determination of time, the presentation of positive versus negative information, the mitigation of negative information, the use of symbols and "professional" terminology, metaphor, unambiguous statements, defensive statements or "hedging", vagueness and general truths. All of the foregoing may be used by fortune-tellers to create a specific image or establish credibility in the eyes of the client.