The 3D structure is crucial in the genetic semantics system and according to the semanticist Greimas (1966) it is inherent to human thinking. He showed that not only we think binary, in antagonists, but also dimensionally, according to aspects. Depth, height and breadth are dimensions of imaginary but nevertheless meaningful positions and movements that form the basis of the meaning. Paul Ricoeur (1977) points out the importance of spatial metaphors. Thinking is orienting oneself in an imaginary space that determines the direction (dimension) and the sense (0 or 1).

The anthropologist Raymond Firth (1962) discusses in his work the depth (communication), the height (power) and breadth (class differences) that are found in the ceremonies and rituals of ancient cultures. The 3 dimensions of affect from the bio-informational theory (Lang & Bradley, 1994) can be evaluated in a spatial model with “pleasure”, “dominance” and “arousal” on the three axes. Also the three dimensions from the personality theory of Eysenck (1998): extraversion, psychoticism and neuroticism fit in this model.
About
- Introduction
- KHNUM, a methaphor
- Towards a logical turn of design
- Semantics
- Genetic semantics
- An abstract framework
- Spatial thinking
- Dimensional meaning overview
- Basic and adjective dimensions of meaning
- Colours as an abstract classification system
- Semantic colour space
- Semantic dimensions of colour
- Eight primary colours
- Colours and meaning
- Levels of meaning
- Synaesthesia
- The Bio-informational theory of emotion