What is semiotics?

 
Semiotics (from the Greek ‘semeion’) is the study of signs and texts, which is to say that it is
the study of meanings, communication, interpretation and significance.
Semiotics is less interested in what something means than in how it means anything at all to
anybody.

What is a Sign? 
The basic unit of semiotics is the sign. A sign is a unit of meaning.

‘Aliquid pro aliquo’: a sign is ‘something that stands for something else.’

A sign is something that ‘tells’.

It is for this reason that Umberto Eco (‘The Name of the Rose’) defines semiotics as the
discipline that studies lying. Signs are always pretending they are something else.

Semiosis 

‘Semiosis’ means ‘sign-activity’. It is what signs do.

Semiosis is not always communication.

Signs & Texts 

Signs combine to form Texts. A text can be thought of as a message recorded in some
medium so that it is independent of a sender or a receiver.

Semioticians analyse texts to reveal their hidden meanings - what’s really going on.

Codes

Signs and Texts are governed by codes. Codes are the rules and conventions for making a
text in a given genre or medium. They are also the environment/context in which signs exist. Codes
are what help us understand and interpret signs. They are the rules of the game. These rules
change over time. (eg: lava lamps)

STRUCTURALISM

Ferdinand De Saussure:

Born 1857 in Switzerland: at Leipzig University published a paper. (“On Vowels in Indo-
European Languages”)
 1906 - Whilst the Professor of Sanskrit at Geneva he was asked to teach a course in general
linguistics to some undergraduates. After his death in 1913, his former students published his
lecture notes. ‘Structural Linguistics’ was born.

Traditionally language thought to be a system of naming. This is fine for specific things, but
what about “Man” or “Happiness” or “Nation”? For Saussure, language has nothing to do with
names and is independent of the ‘real world’.

Semiology 
Semiology - a ‘science which studies the role of signs as part of social life.’ Saussure believed
that his linguistic theories could be applied to all communication events. Semiology assumes that all
culture on some level is ‘like a language’.

Barthes Definition
“Semiology aims to take in any system of signs whatever their substance and limits; images,
gestures, musical sounds, objects, and the complex associations of all of those which form the
content of ritual, convention or public entertainments. These constitute, if not languages, at least
systems of significations.” (Roland Barthes (1964))

Saussure - The Sign 

Saussure’s sign has 2 parts; a sound-image (signifier/Sr) and a concept (signified/Sd). The
formal association of these two parts makes a sign. (eg: /tree/ - ‘concept of a tree’) The relationship
between the two is formal and psychological. Signification is something that goes on in our heads.

The Arbitrary Sign

The relation between signifier and signified is arbitrary. Lots of languages have different
signifiers for the same concepts. As long as everyone agrees what the signifier is then we can
understand each other.

A System of Differences
As a sign is made up of this arbitrary relationship, it can only have a meaning to the extent
that it is different from other signs. Language is a system of differences. What something means is
dependent on how much it differs from other signifiers and signified. Language is a system of formal
relationships.

Examples
(I) Explaining ‘brown’ to someone by just pointing to brown things wouldn’t work.
(II) We can pronounce words in all sorts of different ways, and as long as one word can’t
be confused for another then we can be understood. (eg: /bed/ vs /bead/ or /beard/)

A System of Differences 
“Concepts are purely differential and defined not by their positive content but negatively by
their relations with other terms in the system.” [Ferdinand de Saussure]
Language & Expression 
One consequence of this for semiology is that language is not just a vehicle for meaning and
thought, but IS meaning and thought. Different languages… different thoughts. E.M. Forster: “How
can I tell what I think until I see what I say?’
Criticisms - Volosinov 
Volosinov/Bakhtin (1895-1936): “A word is a bridge thrown between myself and another.”
Saussure’s system is too abstract. Language must be understood diachronically. Each sign has a
history of use that must be taken into account. (eg: Volkswagons and Swastikas.) Is this a fair
criticism? Meaning is dialogical and situated. (THEME)

Criticisms - Social Semiotics 

“Speech is solidarity” (Gunther Kress) In social semiotics, all speech has a social meaning, which is
‘motivated’. (connected to action by individuals in society). People talk to each other, they get
people to do things and meanings are exchanged. In other words, language is performative.
Criticisms - Social Semiotics ii In social semiotics, language is not a closed system. It is open
and fragmented and changing all of the time. Saussure is too individualistic, systematic and forgets
that sign-systems are open and ongoing or heavily contextual.

PEIRCEAN SEMIOTICS
Charles S. Peirce  (pronounced ‘Purse) - An American philosopher and logician writing at about
the same time as Saussure was teaching his course. Was fired from a University job early in his
career, and eked out a living writing articles for newspapers

Peircean Semiotics - Unlike Saussure, Peirce didn’t focus on language. He was interested in all
kinds of signs, and his system applies equally to bacteria as to humans. Peirce believed that all
thinking and interpretation was the work of signs. (eg: ‘I’ is the sign through which people represent
themselves to the world.) As a logician he wanted to find out not only how signs happen to behave,
but the rules to govern how they must behave.

Peircean Semiotics For Peirce logic and semiotics are exactly the same thing. Like Saussure,
Peirce believed that signs allow coded access to an object, but in Peircean semiotics signs can be
material as well as well as mental/psychological.

Peirce’s Sign Peirce defined the sign as ‘something which stands to somebody for something in
some respect or capacity.’ The Peircean sign has 3 parts: • Sign/Representamen(S/R) • Object (O) •
Interpretant (I)

Peirce’s Sign ii • The Sign/Representamen is very much like Saussure’s signifier. It stands for
something and is interpreted. This produces the Interpretant, which is close to Saussure’s signified.
It is what is represented or meant by a sign. Both the Sign/Representamen and the interpretant
together stand for something else: the Object.

Icon, Index, Symbol 

ICON: ‘relation of reason’ An iconic sign resembles its object (eg: a photograph)
INDEX: ‘relation of fact’ An indexical sign has some natural/causal connection with its object. (eg:
smoke & fire)
SYMBOL: ‘relation of cognition’ A symbolic sign relates to its object in a conventional and arbitrary
manner only (eg: language)
Unlimited Semiosis
“The meaning of a sign is always another sign.” The Interpretant of any Sign can become the Sign
for another Interpretant and so on and so on. (eg: 2 people and another comes along to witness the
fight.) This is Unlimited Semiosis. The Peircean sign is open, dynamic, and no meaning is ever final.

What’s the point of semiotics? 

• Allows us to see what is hidden in texts.
• Gives us an understanding of the polysemy of communication.
• Reveals just how much of culture we take for granted as natural and necessary.
• Unifies the study of communication, and makes legitimate the study of things like pop-culture

Some Criticisms of Semiotics - “Semiotics tells us things we already know in a language we’ll
never understand.” Does semiotics really tell us anything useful about communication? It is very
good at analysing what is happening, but can it help us with the why? Semiotics can appear
imperialistic to other disciplines. Semiotic analyses often pretend to be authoritative, objective
truths, but are often simply subjective interpretations of texts.

Summary • Semiotics is the study of signs and sign-systems. Signs are combined into texts. This
process is governed by codes. A sign is something that stands for something else to someone else.

SOURCE: London Metropolitan University