5 x 11: The Code of Heraldry

As a main part of the thesis, the methodology developed there was the tool that allowed us to reach the intended results successfully. In this series of articles we will dissect the application of those methods. The sequence used is still the same recommended in the Practical Indications at section 3.2.2 of the thesis. While some steps have been condensed others were extended for better apprehension. The objective is to allow more researchers to assimilate and reproduce the results already obtained, helping them, in addition, to develop new conclusions.

The method has already been used in an exploratory form within other contexts. Despite this it would be wise to restrict it, as much as we can, to the primitive targets, ruled by the specific circumstances of the thesis, that is, shields conceived during the Middle Ages referencing territorial jurisdictions. Thus, at first, we would avoid crests, cadencies, emblems, flags and devices, as well as ecclesiastical, institutional and corporate arms, among others. Moreover, we will not tackle specific procedures of the scientific methodology as such or the fundamentals of modelling, both dedicated to validate the process as a whole, and remain restricted to the practical aspects we may apply for the solution of each problem only.

This shield is mentioned in the Zurich Roll of Arms (Zürcher Wappenrolle) dating from mid 14^th century, along with several other attributed arms. For our analysis it has the benefit of being consensually recognized as canting, at least in the first half referring a door (porta). The authors of the text and illustrations seem to be the same person, inferring a simultaneous execution. It also contains some text additions with a distinct calligraphy of the 16^th century, including the arms we are studying now. The reading of the corresponding legend would be Portugal rex^[1], in Latin, or according to others Portegalien^[2], indeed Germanised but uncertain. We favour the first version, in spite of the difficult interpretation; in any case there are few or no doubts that this shield is related to Portugal.

Further than any palaeographic appreciation, some of the said supplementary writing appear in a Latinised form: Hispania, Britania, Arragon, whereas others are decidedly Germanic: Schotten, Rom or Frankreich^[3]. Anyway, as a late addition, it would hardly influence the reasoning behind the construction of a denominant. Neither the language used would be decisive in an eventual genuine textual legend, given that the emblazonment could be a copy of an earlier armorial or alternatively its own creation. It wouldn't imply that the verbalization of the referent's metonym followed necessarily the text. The use of Latin seems to be rare for attributed arms, but we believe to occur here.

The comparison with other rolls of arms shows common or quite similar attributed arms as for the shields of Jerusalem, Ruthenia and Satrapy. In the same document we could still attempt an analogy with the entries of Navarre, England and Denmark, which are incomplete or inaccurate, but this is worthless, as they are, probably, new attributed arms. We repeat the question of the first article: Did the author ignore the true blazon of the Portuguese king? The answer must be the same; maybe there was even a bigger unawareness because we can't, in any respect, assert the association of the blue tincture and the bezant of this blazon with the Portuguese coat of arms.

The denominant seems to derive from the referent Portugal as a territory, if we accept the text near to other entries of the Armorial. Next we turn to a lingua franca, Latin, now classified as an imaginary language, modifying Portucalis into a denominant^[4]. The solution found for the pair denominant-designant: Portucalis ~ porta cales, is not a perfect parophony as the previous one Portingale ~ porte ingal, treated in Portugal - Attributed Arms II, providing a discretion index k=0,30. We improved, nevertheless, the proposition introduced in the thesis: Portegalien ~ porta galla; not only taking into account our criterion of evaluation, the index k, but due also to the hybridism German-Latin put forward initially and to the lack of integration with the remaining traces of the shield.

Next we detail the calculation sequence starting by pairing the words, in order to verify coherently the comparable sounds, finding a total of n=10 phonemes for each. We already know that identical corresponding phonemes have a null penalty, and in this case they will not provide any addends for the summation, carried out character by character. Similarly we didn't find any phonetical transpositions and the related coefficient is null for all pairs of phonemes. There are only two transformations. The first, most obvious, from /u/ into /a/, will be penalized with a coefficient of character c=1.0; the second, inconspicuous, from /i/ into /e/, assumes the penalty c=0.5. Regarding the place occupied by the phonemes along the word they imply the same coefficient of position p=1.0 because both transformations are internal. We multiply each member and sum, obtaining the intermediate value 1.0 x 1.0 + 0.5 x 1.0 = 1.50, which is multiplied by the quotient 2/max(10,10) = 2/10 = 0.2, resulting 1.50 x 0.2 and k=0.3. As the discretion index k is lower than 1 we may accept the proposition Portucalis ~ porta cales as an heraldic parophony.

The designant porta (lat. door) cales (lat. to be hot) builds a compound monosemy as it articulates two different meanings and produces the same number of distinct heraldic traces, still semantically integrated by means of a metonymic composition. The door is fully apparent in the heraldic trace without any difficulty. The second word, cales, in association with the environment established by porta, will metonymize through to be  hot > hot place. We should then answer the question - How we call a hot place provided with a door? It would seem acceptable to proceed with the metonymization with to be hot > hot place > Hell. This solution shows a nice agreement with the other part of the compound metonymy, converging through the designant into door > address > Hell.

Even if we considered these arguments as reasonable, it would be unreasonable to suppose that the hypothetical sole drawing of a red field with a door could be understood as the address of Satan. Consequently, there was a need to refine the arrangement, without disobeying the basic principle of simplification of the medieval emblazonment. We think the author resourced to oppose a Heaven to the Hell, so that this opposition could exclude any doubts on the theme shown. This heraldic trace was also complemented by the use of a single referent's metonym, disregarding, excessively laborious drawings, as it is advisable and appears insistently in the armorial of imaginary arms.

Hell can be partially seen in the red tincture of the doorway which, by its turn, represents itself in the designant door. The surrounding blue tincture represents Heaven, whereas the Sun, the main heavenly body, in this respect a bit redundant, is supposedly responsible for the heat of Hell, undoubtedly by the grace of God's Hand. The Sun is a simplification, transformed into a bezant or even a ball ^[5]. The fact that there are no rays goes against the heraldic uses, but this can be explained for its emergence during sematization. It is not a main component, enjoying an absolute semantic capacity, neither a wholly secondary feature displaying a senseless complementation.

As a prop, the Sun is an element necessary to understand the sematization of Heaven, a blue trace, and Hell's, a red trace, inspired accessorily by the solar heat. Notwithstanding, it admits simplification, immanence and contrast, its other attributes as a visual complementation. Some of these ideas may be inspired in numerous biblical passages available to the authors, a common influence at the time, as for example^[6]: " ... And they came upon the breadth of the earth and encompassed the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And there came down fire from God out of heaven and devoured them: and the devil, who seduced them, was cast into the pool of fire and brimstone, where both the beast and the false prophet shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever ... ".

Complementation didn't modify the drawing except for minor details, mostly exceedingly superfluous, as the horizontal placement of the door, besides contrasts and immanences. Regarding the two leaves of the door, they are made necessary by the symmetry of the drawing. There is a semantic demand to show the red colour inside, leading to the heraldic trace of an open door, inevitably unbalanced with only one leaf. The tincture of the arch and the door is the same, justifiable by the rule of simplification but also coherent with the corresponding colours of stone and metal. Wood seems maladjusted to a burning Hell. As there are no walls the idea of a disguised or hidden location for the infernal abyss is reinforced. Lastly, we add that there is no chance of considering only the arch, that is, representing the Hell without a door. That would be, literally, to let the Devil on the loose !^[7]

[1] RUNGE, Heinrich - Die Wappenrolle von Zürich - Ein Heraldisches Denkmal des Vierzehnten Jahrhunderts - Zurich: Antiquarischen Gesellschaft in Zürich, 1860.

[2] CLEMMENSEN, Steen - The Zürich Armorial (Wappenrolle von Zürich) - Farum: Accessed 31 January 2012, available at: <http://www.armorial.dk>, 2009.

[3] BIGALSKI, Gerrit - The Zürich Roll of Arms - Accessed 31 January 2012, available at: < http://www.silverdragon.org/HERALDRY>, [s.d.].

[4] The recurring sequence: referent - referent's metonym - verbalization - accommodation - sematization - specification - heraldic trace - complementation, is the same used in the first example and follows detailed in the adjoining table.

[5] Maybe because it seems to be supported by the door.

[6] Revelation 20, 9-10.

[7] We repeat, for convenience, the less obvious abbreviations shown in the table: Referent (R), Referent's Metonym (M), Verbalization (V), Accommodation (A), Sematization (S), Specification (E), Heraldic Trace (H) and Complementation (C).

(next analysis in this blog is here)

Q: Why the thesis seems to contradict the narrative tradition in heraldry?

A: It was never considered a deep specific analysis of this problem, which I believe to be beyond the scope of the thesis, even because the question is far from being a proper fundamental objection. Tradition, in this case, is the description of a past event transmitted successively generation after generation to the present. This is not a case of facts scientifically verified as genuine, but we can consider them sometimes as subsidiary documental sources, ordinarily with many reservations. By reviving them, especially if they directly affect us, we are tempted to ignore that these legacies suffered a natural decrepitude imposed by time. It would be normal to expect that the memory of facts happened hundreds of years ago have been altered in some way, or even settled in the domain of legend. We may observe how Genealogy, another auxiliary science of History, has often derived its foundational narratives from audacious, generous and gallant deeds, even witnessing the intervention of God, in order to justify the nobility of the lineages. It is true that they are now rarely taken into account by genealogists themselves but for some reason this appreciation seems to be different when the subject in discussion is heraldry.

Our attitude won't be as strict as for the first case, nor so condescending as for the second. We presume that traditional narratives associated with heraldry must always be considered in the study of the pragmatics surrounding every armorial creation; frequently they are the only link remaining beyond the visual traces. But it doesn't mean we should assign them the character of unquestionable premises. Nevertheless, a quite reasonable number of arms showed plausible common interfaces when analysed and compared regarding such narratives. The present state of investigation allows recommending and encouraging the study of this common ground in order to turn them into justifications that reinforce our hypotheses. However, no occurrence already approached guarantees an absolute agreement between the described facts and the semantics of the respective heraldic framework subject to our methodology.

Furthermore, the expressive mechanisms are quite distinct. The parophonic model looks for a methodological structure, in which every explanation of the visual traces is based in a scarce number of metonymical propositions, suitable to each individual occurrence. Traditional models, in turn, use all the resources of the language to tell a story, being authentic or not, adjusted to the visual elements of the corresponding coat of arms.

In brief, by accepting the statements once proposed in the thesis, they would represent, in fact, the recovery of a tradition now lost or consumed by time. We can't affirm, therefore, that it contradicts tradition; instead it only presents a new version of the facts. And as when we don't know the absolute truth, truth doesn't seem to be exclusive, we may only guarantee that, in average, most of the results in the thesis differ from the former traditional versions, even though agreeing with them in some particular points.

 

This terminology is provisional by nature and will be added and improved following the progress of the investigation. Only neologisms and fresh acceptations used during our work will be included here whereas common heraldic and auxiliary definitions will appear exclusively in the Portuguese version.

We must remember the final objective of extending these definitions to Visual Semiotics as a whole knowing that, for example, the triangular shape of the blazon's field will not fit adequately any syntactic generalizations. The vast majority will be hybrids of Heraldry and Semiotics. The words are ordered without implying that they will follow the alphabetic order corresponding to the various successive articles. We follow above all the significance of every formal definition already published, adapting the resulting text from the Portuguese version. Whenever possible, heraldic examples are included, namely those appearing in the dissertation, the Portuguese heraldry or this blog.

abbreviation - Homosemic accommodation suppressing graphemes during verbalization.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of France)

accommodation - Sequential adjustment of phonemes and graphems associating the denominant with the designant.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem: Jerusalem ~ Je ruse la haine → Jeruselahaine → Jerusehaleine → Jerusalem)

action - Verbalizing specification denoting accomplishment or state.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Denmark)

addition - Inclusion of phonemes or graphemes during the transformation denominant → designant.
(e.g. attributed arms of Sagremor: Ungaria ~ ungo area, we may see an “o” in the designant, absent in the denominant)

adjective - This terminology was abandoned in favour of "qualification". 

adobe - Specification of this architectural artifact usually represented by the heraldic trace of a billet.
(e.g. arms of the County of Burgundy II)

affinity - Or semantic affinity, proximity between the meaning of two or more words, as in synonymy or hyponymy. 
(e.g. arms of the Republic of San Marino: Rocca (ita. rock) ~ penna (ita. rock), takes place by synonymy)

agglutination - Association of two or more words to build the denominant or designant.
(e.g. arms of the County of Beaumont: Beaumont-sur-Oise ~ bau mont sur oise, joining bau mont into Beaumont)

animal fraction - Specification of a part of an animal.
(e.g. arms of the County of Hoya) 

anomaly - Ambiguity or semantic reinterpretation that differs from the primitive purpose.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Castile: the castle in the blazon may have come from Castilla (cas. Castile) ~ castillo (cas. castle) or alternatively from Burgos (cas. Burgos) ~ burgus (lat. fortress)) 

anthroponymic metonymy - A referent's metonymy using the proper noun of a person.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Portugal)

architecture - Specification showing buildings or their elementary parts.

arms of transmission - The heraldic trace determined by inheritance, usurpation or transference from one person to another.
(e.g. arms of Eça)

arrangement - Interaction between heraldic elements, allowing one to be visually included within the other.
(e.g. arms of the Duchy of Bavaria)

aspect - A distinctive supplementary visual feature within a figuration already in use. 
(e.g. arms of Edward the Confessor: the fleurs-de-lis at the tips of the cross are justified by the condition of king and by the ornaments in his crown, not by ce Roi (frc. this King) ~ crois (fra. cross))

astronomy - Specification of heavenly bodies and their interactions.
(e.g. arms of the Landgraviate of Thuringia)

attitude - Characteristic posture assumed by living figurations or their parts.

bird - Specification of this class of animals.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Poland)

black - Specification of a blackish coloration.
(e.g. arms of the County of Werdenberg)

blue - Specification of a bluish coloration.
(e.g. arms of the Duchy of Burgundy)

bog - Toponymical specification of this geographical feature.
(e.g. arms of the County of Cornwall II)

clear - Specification of a whitish coloration.
(e.g. arms of the Principality of Wallachia)

cock - Specification of this bird.
(e.g. arms of the County of Ziegenhain)

complementation  - Or complementary trace, a non-metaplasmic influence for the creation of a heraldic trace.
(e.g. attributed arms of Portingale: the red stands for wood in a gaming table)

composition - Interaction between meaning(s) given during specification and the resulting heraldic trace. 
(e.g. attributed arms of Salerno: the designant sal (lat. salt) eremum (lat. desert) generates a compound polysemy because sal gives “salt” (white), whereas eremum gives “hot” (bezant = Sun), “wide” (solid field) and “arid” (evaporation of the water by the Sun, justifying the plot))

concealment - Interaction among semantically linked heraldic elements in such a way that some can be seen whereas others are displaced, concealed outside the shield.
(e.g. arms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania)

covering - a heraldic element inscribed inside the perimeter of another or else dividing it internally.

(e.g. arms of the Duchy of Burgundy)

cup - Specification of this container.
(e.g. arms of the Municipality of Coimbra)

denominant - The direct or indirect (metonymical) naming of a referent.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem: denominants like the capital of the domain - Sion - or the name of the territory - Jerusalem - emanate from the referent, the motivation behind the arms: the King of Jerusalem and successors)

designant - Word(s) derived from the denominant's metaplasms used to build a subset of heraldic traces in a coat of arms.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem: the designant of Sion (frc. Sion) is cions (fra. offspring), responsible for the crosslets around the main cross)

designant's hesitation - Anomaly where a designant in the primitive coats of arms enables several interpretations in order to build the corresponding heraldic trace.
(e.g. arms of the Principality of Wallachia)

discretion index - Or k, a measure of parophony acceptable when between “0” and “1”, unacceptable otherwise.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem: in Jerusalem ~ Je ruse la haine, k = 0.50 and in Sion ~ cions, k = 0.00) 

eight - Specification of this quantity.
(e.g. arms of the Landgraviate of Thuringia)

eleven - Specification of this quantity.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Portugal)

emblazonment - Textual description of heraldic elements and their corresponding arrangement in the blazon. 
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Portugal: “argent, five escutcheons in cross azure, those in the flanks turned to the centre, each charged with eleven plates of the field, set 3, 2, 3, 2 and 1”)

equal - Geometric specification denoting similarity.
(e.g. attributed arms of Portucalis)

evocative arms - Heraldic trace supposedly determined by a deed that justifies the granting of arms.
(e.g. armas of Cão of Diogo Cão)

exchange - Class of anomalies that appear intentionally or accidentally by confounding an heraldic trace which derives from the designant, with another; for example: hesitations, profusions, sublimations and divergences.
(e.g. arms of the Principality of Wallachia)

extension - Transmigration where the same denominant introduces its heraldic trace in more than one blazon.
(e.g. arms of the Counties of Diez, Nassau and Solms)

figuration - A heraldic element of natural, artificial, geometrical, symbolical or fantastic motives, that doesn't touch the edge of the shield but fortuitously.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Portugal: escutcheons and bezants are figurations)

fortress - Architectural specification of this military building.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Castille)

four - Specification of this quantity.
(e.g. arms of the Order of Christ)

gender hesitation - Anomaly where the aspect of sex of an animal is confounded, negleted or unknown within the primitive coats of arms.
(e.g. arms of the Duchy of Lorraine)

geometric hesitation - Anomaly where the separation, pattern or figuration is confounded, negleted or unknown within the primitive coats of arms.
(e.g. arms of the Viscounty of Rochechouart)

geometry - Specification of geometric figures and dimensional relations or quallifications.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Hungary)

gold - Specification of this metallic material. 
(e.g. attributed arms of Norway)

grapheme - The elementary symbolization of writing using letters and signals, simple or compound, representing a non-exclusive and well determined phoneme.

(e.g. “Scythe” is graphemized as: | sc | y | the | )

green - Specification of a greenish coloration.
(e.g. arms of the Duchy of Saxony)

heap - The geometric specification of a disposition; pile.
(e.g. arms of the County of Cornwall II)

heavenly body - Specification of a star, planet or other celestial object.
(e.g. attributed arms of Salerno)

heraldic element - Each family of visual components described or [implied] in blasoning:
(e.g. arms of Sousa: gules (tincture) four (number) crescents (figurations) conjoined (disposition) [in cross (orientation)] argent (tincture) [at the fesse point (placement)]

heraldic plot - Logical association among the various semantic levels, transforming the whole of the blazon into a consistent visual narrative. 
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem: represented as the Holy Sepulchre with the Gospels resting on the epitaph of Christ, a Greek cross)

heraldic trace - Each meaningful or redundant subset of visual elements emblazoned in a coat of arms.
(e.g. arms of Monck of Ballytramon: the heraldic trace for the family semantic level is a dragon (figuration) sable (tincture))

hydronymic metonymy - Referent's metonymy naming streams and expansions of water in the local geography.
(e.g. arms of the Canton of Schwytz)

hyperthesis - Metaplasm by transposition, exchanging phonemes in different syllables.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Portugal)

hyponymy - Accommodation by affinity between words where the hyponyms are various restricted meanings exemplifying the other, the hypernym.
(e.g. arms of the Municipality of Stockholm)

imitation - Complementation which deliberately repeats a heraldic trace already present in another blazon, not necessarily by heraldic transmission.
(e.g. attributed arms of Jerusalem)

immanence - A complementary heraldic trace, implied or ignored in emblazonment, representing well-known typical characteristics of a specification.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem: the specification of “Gospels” produces four (Evangelists) white (parchment) rectangles (books) with a cross (ornamental cover))

implied quotation - Association of a literary narrative to all visual elements of a blazon. 
(e.g. arms of Caminha: Book of Judges chapter XVI, verse 3)

insertion - Regular intercalation of figurations in the boundary of narrow compound separations or other analogous figurations, frequently exceeding their thickness.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Scotland)

institutional arms - Arms corresponding to impersonal organized entities.
(e.g. arms of the Knights Hospitallers)

interaction - Class of complementation arising by the mutual influence of heraldic traces as in the case of resonances, concealments, arrangements and insertions.

iron - Specification of this metal usually represented by the tincture argent.
(e.g. arms of the Landgraviate of Thuringia)

islet - Toponymical specification of this landform.
(e.g. arms of the Municipality of Stockholm)

linguistic hybridism - Verbalization where two different languages are used both for the denominant and designant. Usually, it doesn't mimic a real phenomenon in heraldry but may be used used as a methodological resource when the original information is unavailable.

metaplasm - Each transformation within the denominant to build the designant.

neologism - Morphemes combined during accommodation in order to create an unknown word. 
(e.g. arms of the County of Vermandois)

nickname - Descriptive and informal anthroponym added to a given name.

night - Specification of this astronomical phenomenon.
(e.g. arms of the Landgraviate of Thuringia)

ninth - Quantitative ordinal specification.
(e.g. arms of the County of Barcelona)

notoriety - Specification of a proper noun.
(e.g. arms of the County of Kirchberg)

number - Heraldic element determining absolute or relative quantities of compound separations, figurations and their parts.
(e.g. arms of Edward the Confessor: “... four martlets and another in base” through Seint (ano. Saint))

number hesitation - Anomaly where the quantity of a figuration is confounded, negleted or unknown within the primitive coats of arms.
(e.g. arms of the County of Guînes)

omission - Quantitative ordinal specification. 
(e.g. arms of the Edward the Confessor: ce Roi (frc. this King) ~ crois (fra. cross), the letter “e” and the corresponding phoneme vanish)

opposition - Sematization process where one meaning is clarified by the presence of its opposite.
(e.g. attributed arms of Portucalis)

orientation - A complementary element tending to rule the direction of figurations and separations using other geometrical elements.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem: the crosses are oriented with axes defined by the upper edge of the shield)

out - Geometrical specification denoting position or omission.
(e.g. arms of the County of Hoya)

overlapping - A heraldic element covering and surpassing the perimeter of another.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem: the Greek cross specified by Je ruse la haine is hidden by the squares (representing the Gospels) atop the cantons, giving birth to a cross potent)

pairing - Arrangement of each phoneme(s) or grapheme(s) in the denominant with its best match in the designant so as to optimize the metaplasmatic transformation.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem: Sion ~ cions pair as S/c, i/i, o/o, n/ns )

parophony - Association by phonetical resemblance between denominant and designant. 
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of León: Pelagium (lat. Pelagius) ~ Pelagium (lat. purple) (the symbol ~ reads “metaplasms into”))

pattern - Regular repeated drawings occupying the shield, its separations or the interior of figurations.
(e.g. arms of Vasconcelos: show a pattern of vair along the bars)

phoneme - Systematic distinction of meaningful audible elements in a spoken language.
(e.g. “Scythe” may use the following  phonemes (X-SAMPA): | s | a | I | D | )

placement - Location where a heraldic element is drawn.
(e.g. attributed arms of Salerno: the Sun is in the middle of the shield)

primitive heraldry - Arms displaying the original semantic intention.

prop - Complementary heraldic trace used to justify another; strictly, it's not justified by the designant.
(e.g. attributed arms of Portucalis: the bezant (the Sun) is a prop that highlights a blue Heaven (as a day star) and Hell (through heat))

proportionality - The same figuration shown simultaneously in distinct sizes or different ones that appear out of their comparable dimension in nature.
(e.g. arms of Gouveia: the roundels at the dexter partition are smaller than the roundels at the sinister) 

qualification - Characterizing specification which usually needs a metonymization to be transformed into a heraldic trace. 
(e.g. attributed arms of Portucalis)

quantity - Direct or indirect specification class of a numeral usually represented by the heraldic trace of number.
(e.g. arms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania)

red - Specification of a reddish coloration.
(e.g. arms of the County of Barcelona)

redundancy - When designants build the same heraldic trace or none particularly. 
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Portugal: Porto callis (lat. I bring paths), where “bring” is redundant with the shield which “brings” the blazon)

referent - The person, territory, institution or group that induces the creation of a coat of arms.
(e.g. arms of Monck of Ballytramon: Sir Charles Stanley Monck, 1st Viscount Monck)

referent's metonymy - A metonymy which transforms the referent into denominant.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Portugal: the city of Coimbra, the river Mondego, the residence in the Alcáçova and the name of the king all metonymize the referent: D. Afonso Henriques)

sable - Specification of this animal.
(e.g. arms of the County of Werdenberg)

semantic level - Each meaningful association of metaplasms and heraldic traces in a coat of arms.
(e.g. arms of Monk of Ballytramon: Monck  ~ men seek (a dragon in the crest))

semantic trace - Heraldic trace with a meaning imparted by the designant.

sematization - Attempt to build visual meaning departing from the word(s) of each designant.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem: the designant exequies (frc. obsequies) is represented in the blazon with a white colour (of stone) but it could have been a tomb, a tombstone, a corpse, etc.)

separation - Geometrical division of a shield in distinct areas using tinctures and lines that touch its edge. 
(e.g. attrributed arms of Sagremor: the white canton is a separation. Note that we consider bordures and orles as figurations)

shilling - Specification of this unit of currency.
(e.g. attrributed arms of Jerusalem)

ship - Specification of this watercraft.
(e.g. arms of the County of Orkney)

species hesitation - Anomaly where the figuration of an animal or plant species is confounded, neglected or unknown within the primitive coats of arms.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Bulgaria)

specification - Choice of a visual representation (botanical, zoological, geometrical, etc.) best suited for the designant and the heraldic plot. 
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Portugal: the escutcheons are specified by the interpretation of the designant illud defenso (lat. I defend it) and affected by the military plot of the whole)

stages of metaplasmic menonymization - Iterative sequential steps which organize the semantic building of coats of arms; respectively: referent, referent's metonymy, verbalization, accommodation, sematization, specification, heraldic trace and complementation.

stalk - Specification of this botanical fraction.
(e.g. arms of the Duchy of Burgundy)

steel - Specification of a metallic material usually represented in white or by a silver tincture.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Mann)

strength - Qualifying specification.
(e.g. arms of the Municipality of Guimarães)

three - Specification of this quantity.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of England)

thunder - Meteorological specification usually metonymized as a lightning.
(e.g. arms of the County of Tonnerre)

toponymy - Specification denoting any natural geographical feature.
(e.g. arms of the County of Cornwall II)

transformation - Class of metaplasmatic phenomena where a phoneme is substituted by another.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of León: Galiza ~ caliza, switches a “G” and a “c”) 

transmigration - Class of complementary phenomena arising in distinct blazons that share representations or concepts.
(e.g. arms of the Counts of Marche: initially inspired by Marche ~ marches (frc. steps of a stairway), generating a barry, later through Marche ~ marche (frc. walk), by three lions passant in a row on a bend (a path))

transposition - Class of metaplasmatic phenomena where two phonemes exchange places.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Portugal: Mondeci ~ undecim, where the two “em” switch positions)

vairs - Specification of this heraldic pattern.
(e.g. arms of the Viscounty of Rochechouart)

vegetal fraction - Specification of a part of a plant.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of France)

verbalization - The expression of denominants / designants with languages suiting their environment.
(e.g. arms of the County of Burgundy: an eagle under the Holy Empire through Arar (ale. Saône) ~ Aar (ale. eagle), then billetty under France through Doubs (frc. Doubs) ~ adobes (frc. bricks of adobe))

walled yard - Architectural specification circumstantially represented by a bordure.
(e.g. arms of the Duchy of Burgundy)

X-SAMPA - A phonetical alphabet used universally, standing for Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem: Jerusalem will be transcribed by the symbols: | Z | e | r | y | z | a | l | E | m |)

yellow - Specification of a yellowish coloration.
(e.g. arms of the Duchy of Burgundy)

zero - Specification of this quantity.
(e.g. arms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania)

zoology - Class of specification denoting animals or their fractions.
(e.g. arms of the Kingdom of England)