Structuralism

1. Structuralism Semiotic

2. Definition • Semiotic / semiology => The study of sign and sign-using behavior • a domain of investigation that explores the nature and function of signs as well as the systems and processes underlying signification, expression, representation, and communication. • Semiotic = semeion (Greek)

3. Why? • Humans are homo-significans (meaning-maker) • We make meanings through our creation and interpretation of ‘sign’ • Sign takes the form of words, images, sounds, flavors, acts or objects • Anything can be a sign as long as someone interprets it as “signifying something” referring to or standing for something other than itself • Charles Sander Pierce declares 'Nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as a sign'

4. Characteristic of sign • Arbitrariness Sign is arbitrary because there is no inherent, essential, 'transparent', self-evident or 'natural' connection between the signifier and the signified - between the sound or shape of a word and the concept to which it refers • Differential Sign has differentiation because a sign stands for its own role, without interference from other signs. The word “d-o-g” resembles an animal called dog, because it is different from animal “c-a-t”

5. Saussure’s Concept • the arbitrariness of the sign as the first principle of semiology, specifically, the arbitrariness of the link between the signifier and the signified • Saussure’s semiotics concept is distinction between two inseparable components of a sign: - the signifier (the form which sign takes) which in language is a set of speech sounds or marks, - the signified which is the concept it represents behind the sign

6. Saussure’s Concept • a sign must have both a signifier and a signified, we cannot have a totally meaningless signifier or a completely formless signified • A sign is a recognizable combination of a signifier with a particular signified because sign is the result of association of the signifier and the signified

7. Pierce’s Concept • Known as “classification of sign” • Pierce sees the relationship of sign with logic • Divided into: a. Symbol (conventional) b. Icon (similarities) c. Index (relationship)

8. Pierce’s Concept • Symbol Symbolic is a mode in which the signifier does not resemble the signified but which is fundamentally arbitrary or purely conventional • Icon Iconic is a mode in which the signifier is perceived as resembling or imitating the signified (recognizably looking, sounding, feeling, tasting or smelling like it) - being similar in possessing some of its qualities • Index Indexical is a mode in which the signifier is not arbitrary but is directly connected in some way (physically or causally) to the signified

9. Semiotic in Literary Studies • Semiotics represents a range of studies in art, literature, anthropology and the mass media rather than an independent academic discipline • Those involved in semiotics include linguists, philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, literary, aesthetic and media theorists, psychoanalysts and educationalists

10. Semiotic in Literary Studies • Semiotic literary criticism, also called literary semiotics, is the approach to literary criticism informed by the theory of signs or semiotics • Literary semiotics can be seen as a branch of the general science of signs that studies a particular group of texts within verbal texts in general

11. Barthes’ Order of Signification • Divided into: Denotation, Connotation, and Myth • He develops this module base on Saussurean concept of studying signs • denotation and connotation are terms describing the relationship between the signifier and it’s signified, and an analytic distinction is made between two types of signified: a denotative signified and a connotative signified • Meaning includes both denotation and connotation

12. Denotation • Denotation tends to be described as the definitional, “literal”, “obvious”, or “commonsense” meaning of a sign • the denotative meaning is what the dictionary attempts to provide • Denotation is meaning of a sign in first level signification

13. Connotation • Connotation is used to refer to the socio-cultural and 'personal' associations (ideological, emotional etc.) of the sign • Connotation can be referred as meaning of a sign in second level signification, higher than denotation meaning • Connotations are not purely 'personal' meanings - they are determined by the codes to which the interpreter has access

14. Connotation • Cultural codes provide a connotational framework since they are 'organized around key oppositions and equations', each term being 'aligned with a cluster of symbolic attitude

15. Myth • Myths were the dominant ideologies of our time • Barthes argues that the orders of signification called denotation and connotation combine to produce ideology which has been described as a third order of signification • Myths serve the ideological function of naturalization. Their function is to naturalize the cultural - in other words, to make dominant cultural and historical values, attitudes and beliefs seem entirely 'natural', 'normal', self-evident, timeless, obvious 'common-sense' - and thus objective and 'true' reflections of 'the way things are'