Semiotics
§ Study of signs
§ Signs- words, gestures,Sounds, objects and visuals that generate meaning as a part of a system of significations .
§ for example traffic lights is a sign that generates meaning.
§ Two accepted origins of semiotics- one- Saussurean linguistics. Saussure used the term semiology to describe the Study of signs. the other origin of semiotics is the work of The American philosopher and logician, C.S. Pierce. Pierce Preferred the term semiotics.
§What does semiotics do?
§Semiotics provides with the tools required to analyse the forms of a text and to read texts as a part of the general social system of signs, Where meanings are generated , accepted and subverted as a part of a cultural process.
§ Pierce's contribution to the study of signs :
Pierce offered a three cornered , or triadic model of the sign as follows:
1.Representamen: the form the sign takes ( words , sounds, writing, painting, a gesture etc.). This is just like signifier .
2.Interpretant: the sense made of the sign . The sign is created in the mind of the listener our viewer. Idea generated in the mind.
3.Object: that to which the sign refers. It is also called the ‘referent’.
All three make up the sign. The interaction between these three is semiosis.
For example a sign outside the door of a restaurant - open . This sign is in the form of word. In this word
Representamen- the text itself
Object- the restaurant being talked about
Interpretant- the idea generated in the mind after reading this sign.
§There is a paradox here. Just like in Saussurean signifier, where a signifier creates endless signifiers, a sign creates another sign in our minds. We therefore have an endless semiosis where the signifier/ representamen creates more signs.
§
§We shall use the term Signifiers as it is more common than representamen.
§Signifiers are related to their objects of referent in three modes
1.Symbol/symbolic- in this there is no relation between the signifier and the object of referent. The word ‘cat’ has no connection to the animal. Therefore, the relation is arbitrary.
2.Icon/Iconic- the signifier here resembles the object. It mimics the object. Eg the word that have sounds similar to the meaning of the word.- onomatopoeic words- hsss, or – he fell with a thump.
3.Index/ Indexical- direct relation to the signified. Ed- knock on the door- confirms the presence of somebody outside the door.
SUMMING UP : signs are made of signifiers (words/sounds) and signified (objects), and the relation between the two can be arbitrary, imitative or directly connected. The interaction between the word, the object and the idea generated in our mind is semiosis.
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