Semiotics

The word ‘semiotic’, derives from se-meîon, the Greek word for a sign. Semiotics is the academic field dedicated to the study of signs and symbols. The fundamental question in semiotics is how meanings are formed. Semiotic research approaches signs as existing in various forms: pictures, words, letters, objects, natural objects, gestures, phenomena, and actions. Semiotics explores the content of signs, their use, and the formation of meanings. It also analyses the broader systems and structures formed by signs. The two important and original contributors to the theory of semiotics are the famous Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and the well-known American philosopher, Charles Sanders Peirce.

Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Sanders Peirce

Saussure proposed a science that he called ‘semiology’ and stated that linguistics and other social sciences are only parts of this new field. Saussure explained semiology as ‘a science that studies the role of signs as part of social life'. In his book Course in General Linguistics, he argued that language is a system of signs in relation.

Sign: Signifier/Signified

According to Saussure, language is a system of signs. A sign is constituted of two elements: “signifier” and “signified.”

• A signifier is a sound image or its written equivalent.
• A signified is a concept evoked by the signifier.

A sign becomes a ‘sign’ only when it evokes a concept. The signified is not the object, but the concept or meaning evoked by the signifier. Saussure imagines language as a piece of paper: thought is the front and sound is the back; one cannot cut the front without also cutting the back. The sign once established “always eludes the individual or social will.” This laid the foundation for semiotics.

Charles Sanders Peirce

Charles Sanders Peirce argued that 'semiotic' was the 'formal doctrine of signs' which was closely related to Logic. He declared that 'every thought is a sign'. One of his major contributions to semiotics was the categorization of signs into three main types: (1) an icon, which resembles its referent (such as a road sign for falling rocks); (2) an index, which is associated with its referent (as the smoke is a sign of fire); and (3) a symbol, which is related to its referent only by convention (as with words or traffic signals).

Semiotic is a Theory and Methodology

Semiotics is a field of study involving many different theoretical stances and methodological tools. It represents a range of studies in art, literature, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, and the mass media rather than an independent academic discipline. Umberto Eco stated that 'semiotics is concerned with everything that can be taken as a sign'. Semiotics involves the study not only of what we refer to as 'signs' in everyday speech but of anything which 'stands for' something else. In a semiotic sense, signs take the form of words, images, sounds, gestures, and objects. Contemporary semioticians study signs not in isolation but as part of semiotic 'sign systems'. To them, Semiotics is an investigation into how meaning is created and how meaning is communicated. The study of signs is the study of the construction and maintenance of reality. Rolland Barthes, Levi Strauss, Umberto Eco, and several others contributed to the development of contemporary semiotics.

Semiotics and History

Signs are part of everyday life. Thus, semiotics proposes a method of investigation into how meaning is created and how meaning is communicated. The historical past is an outcome of semiotic relations and transmission. Semiotic historians consider history as not a phenomenal event, but as an entity producing meaning, as a signifier capable of being assigned a signified. The study of history is therefore crucial in order to understand the question of how and why sign systems change. Semiotic historians generally consider history as ‘event-messages’ and ‘history as text’. The semiotic analysis looks beyond the peripheral meaning of the message. It studies the verbal, visual, and auditory signs. Further, “wherever a sign is present, ideology is present, too”. Thus semiotics offers a tool for the analysis of deep structures that existed in the past. Thus, semiotics offer a tool for historical analysis.