The study of signs, sign systems, and the social production of meaning, also known as semiology. It is a multidisciplinary area of study, which derives from the pioneering work on language by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and the US philosopher C S Peirce. A fundamental notion is the arbitrary nature of communication systems (written and spoken language, gestures, dress, etc). Meaning is largely produced by relationships and differences between individual signs, organized in codes, rather than by simple reference to external reality. Although inherently unstable, such systems are regulated by convention, the source and purpose of which are found in a given culture. The field is often divided into three main branches: syntax, the study of how linguistic items can be transformed into other linguistic items; semantics, the study of meaning and reference; and pragmatics, the study of how context affects linguistic interpretation.
| Semiotics/Semeiotics |
|---|
| General concepts |
| Biosemiotics · Code |
| Computational semiotics |
| Connotation · Decode |
| Denotation · Encode |
| Lexical · Modality |
| Salience · Sign |
| Sign relation · Sign relational complex |
| Semiosis · Semiosphere |
| Semiotic literary criticism |
| Triadic relation |
| Umwelt · Value |
| Methods |
| Commutation test Paradigmatic analysis Syntagmatic analysis |
| Semioticians |
| Roland Barthes · Marcel Danesi |
| Ferdinand de Saussure |
| Umberto Eco · Louis Hjelmslev |
| Roman Jakobson · Roberta Kevelson |
| Charles Peirce · Thomas Sebeok |
| Topics of interest |
| Aestheticization as propaganda Aestheticization of violence Americanism |
| Semiotics of Ideal Beauty |
Semiotics, or semiology, is the study of signs and symbols, both individually and grouped in sign systems. Semioticians also sometimes examine how organisms make predictions about and adapt to their semiotic niche in the world (see Semiosis). Semiotics theorises at a general level about signs, while the study of the communication of information in living organisms is covered in biosemiotics or zoosemiosis.
The term, then spelt semeiotics (Greek: σημειωτικός, semeiotikos, an interpreter of signs), was first used in English by Henry Stubbes (1670, p. 75) in a very precise sense to denote the branch of medical science relating to the interpretation of signs. Here he explains how science can be divided into three parts:
All that can fall within the compass of human understanding, being either, first, the nature of things, as they are in themselves, their relations, and their manner of operation: or, secondly, that which man himself ought to do, as a rational and voluntary agent, for the attainment of any end, especially happiness: or, thirdly, the ways and means whereby the knowledge of both the one and the other of these is attained and communicated;
Locke then elaborates on the nature of this third category, naming it Σημειωτικη (Semeiotike) and explaining it as "the doctrine of signs" in the following terms:
Nor is there any thing to be relied upon in Physick, but an exact knowledge of medicinal phisiology (founded on observation, not principles), semeiotics, method of curing, and tried (not excogitated, not commanding) medicines.
Clarification of terms
Semioticians classify signs and sign systems in relation to the way they are transmitted (see modality).
To explain the relationship between semiotics and communication studies, communication is defined as the process of transferring data from a source to a receiver as efficiently and effectively as possible. This implies that there is a necessary overlap between semiotics and communication. 1990: 16) who, as a musicologist, considered the theoretical study of communication irrelevant to his application of semiotics.
Semiotics differs from linguistics in that it generalizes the definition of a sign to encompass signs in any medium or sensory modality. Thus it broadens the range of sign systems and sign relations, and extends the definition of language in what amounts to its widest analogical or metaphorical sense.
Perhaps more difficult is the distinction between semiotics and the philosophy of language. Different authors have called themselves "philosopher of language" or "semiotician". Philosophy of language pays more attention to natural languages or to languages in general, while semiotics is deeply concerned about non-linguistic signification. Philosophy of language also bears a stronger connection to linguistics, while semiotics is closer to some of the humanities (including literary theory and cultural anthropology).
Semiosis or semeiosis is the process that forms meaning from any organism's apprehension of the world through signs.
History
The importance of signs and signification has been recognised throughout much of the history of philosophy, and in psychology as well. Plato and Aristotle both explored the relationship between signs and the world, and Augustine considered the nature of the sign within a conventional system. More recently, Umberto Eco, in his "Semiotics and philosophy of language" has argued that semiotic theories are implicit in the work of most, perhaps all, major thinkers.
Some important semioticians
Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914), the founder of the philosophical doctrine known as pragmatism, preferred the term "semeiotic." One reason for this high number is that he allowed each interpretant to act as a sign, thereby creating a new signifying relation. Peirce was also a notable logician, and he considered semiotics and logic as facets of a wider theory. For a summary of Peirce's contributions to semiotics, see Liszka (1996).
Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913), the "father" of modern linguistics, proposed a dualistic notion of signs, relating the signifier as the form of the word or phrase uttered, and to the signified as the mental concept. It is important to note that, according to Saussure, the sign is completely arbitrary, i.e. there was no necessary connection between the sign and its meaning. In his Course in General Linguistics, Saussure himself credits the American linguist William Dwight Whitney (1827-1894) with insisting on the arbitrary nature of the sign. Saussure's insistence on the arbitrariness of the sign has also greatly influenced later philosophers, especially postmodern theorists such as Jacques Derrida, Roland Barthes, and Jean Baudrillard. the representation of something, and it must be combined in the brain with the "signified," or the thing itself, in order to form a meaning-imbued "sign." Saussure believed that dismantling signs was a real science, for in doing so we come to an empirical understanding of how humans synthesize physical stimuli into words and other abstract concepts.
Louis Trolle Hjelmslev (1899–1965) developed a structuralist approach to Saussure's theories.
Charles W. In his 1938 Foundations of the Theory of Signs, he defined semiotics as grouping the triad syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Syntax studies the interrelation of the signs, without regard to meaning. Semantics studies the relation between the signs and the objects to which they apply. Pragmatics studies the relation between the sign system and its human (or animal) user.
Umberto Eco made a wider audience aware of semiotics by various publications, most notably A Theory of Semiotics and his novel The Name of the Rose which includes applied semiotic operations. He has also criticized in several works (A theory of semiotics, La struttura assente, Le signe, La production de signes) the "iconism" or "iconic signs" (taken from Peirce's most famous triadic relation, based on indexes, icons, and symbols), to which he purposes four modes of sign production: recognition, ostentation, replica, and invention.
Algirdas Julius Greimas developed a structural version of semiotics named generative semiotics, trying to shift the focus of discipline from signs to systems of signification. Morris, was a prolific and wide-ranging American semiotician. Though he insisted that animals are not capable of language, he expanded the purview of semiotics to include non-human signaling and communication systems, thus raising some of the issues addressed by philosophy of mind and coining the term zoosemiotics. He also posed the equation between semiosis (the activity of interpreting signs) and life - the view that has further developed by Copenhagen-Tartu biosemiotic school.
Juri Lotman (1922–1993) was the founding member of the Tartu (or Tartu-Moscow) Semiotic School. He developed a semiotic approach to the study of culture and established a communication model for the study of text semiotics.
Valentin Volosinov (Russian: Валенти́н Никола́евич Воло́шинов) (1895–June 13, 1936) was a Soviet/Russian linguist, whose work has been influential in the field of literary theory and Marxist theory of ideology.
Current applications
Applications of semiotics include:
It represents a methodology for the analysis of texts regardless of modality.Semiotics is only slowly establishing itself as a discipline to be respected.
Publication of research is both in dedicated journals such as Sign Systems Studies, established by Juri Lotman and published by Tartu University Press;
Branches
Semiotics has sprouted a number of subfields, including but not limited to the following:
Biosemiotics is the study of semiotic processes at all levels of biology, or a semiotic study of living systems. Computational semiotics attempts to engineer the process of semiosis, say in the study of and design for Human-Computer Interaction or to mimic aspects of human cognition through artificial intelligence and knowledge representation. Cultural and literary semiotics examines the literary world, the visual media, the mass media, and advertising in the work of writers such as Roland Barthes, Marcel Danesi, and Juri Lotman. Organizational semiotics is the study of semiotic processes in organizations. It has strong ties to Computational semiotics and Human-Computer Interaction. Urban semiotics Law and Semiotics Visual semiotics -- a subdomain of semiotics that analyses visual signs.
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