Semiotics: The Study of Signs and Sign Processes

1. 269111 – Communication Technology in a Changing World Week 5 Dr. Ken Cosh

2. Recap • Social Networks • Definitions • The Web is Changing • Web 2.0 • Participation! • Information is Changing • Digital Information is Different • Form separated from Content • Anyone can contribute • Anyone can organise

3. Recap • History of Social Networks • From BBS to Facebook & Twitter • The Future? • Consumers • Impatient, Irrational, Emotional • Communities • Powerful • Information finds us • Companies • Use the right technology in the right way • Web 3.0? • Intelligent?

4. This Week • Semiotics (a.k.a. Semiology) • What is it? • Reading: • Semiotics, The Basics, • Daniel Chandler

5. Semiotics • “Semeion” – Greek “sign” • “Sema” – “signal” • “-logy” – “The study of…” • “ics” – Something to do with (forming an adjective from a noun) • Semiotics in short • “The study of signs” • Or the study of “sign processes” (a.k.a. Semiosis) • Something to do with signs • But what is a “Sign”?

6. Signs

7. Signs • Signs around us • Road Signs • Star Signs • Pub Signs • Visual Signs • Drawings • Paintings • Photographs • Others • Words • Sounds • Body Language

8. 2 Key Philosophers • Peirce • De Saussure

9. De Saussure • “It is… possible to conceive of a science which studies the role of signs as part of social life… We shall call it Semiology. It would investigate the nature of signs and the laws governing them… Linguistics is only one branch of this general science.”

10. Peirce • “A sign… is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity. It… creates in the mind of that person an equivalent sign, or perhaps a more developed sign… It stands for that object, not in all respects, but in reference to a sort of idea…” “We think only in Signs”

11. Eco • “Semiotics is concerned with everything that can be taken as a sign” • “the discipline studying everything that can be used in order to lie, because if something can not be used to tell a lie, conversely it cannot be used to tell the truth; it cannot, in fact, be used to tell at all.”

12. Semiotics as a Science? • “Sometimes semioticians present their analyses as if they were purely objective 'scientific' accounts rather than subjective interpretations” (Chandler) • “Semiotics tells us things we already know in a language we will never understand”(Whannel) • “can do little more than state the obvious in a complex and often pretentious manner” (Leiss et. Al.)

13. The Saussurean Model • A Dyadic Model • Signs consist of; • Sign Vehicle • Meaning • “Signifier” – Form the sign takes • “Signified” – Concept to which it refers

14. Signified / Signifier

15. Signified / Signifier • What is Signifier / Signified?

16. Signifier / Signified • The Signifier (word ‘open’) could stand for something else. • Such as? • There could be different signifiers for the concept ‘open’. • Such as?

17. Psychological Signs • Saussure focused on the psychological impression of the sign separated from the physical representation • The sign being a series of letters, or a series of sound waves, was not as important as the psychological impression • “It is the conceptions, not the things that symbols directly mean” (Langer)

18. Car • CAR • “Car!” • There isn’t anything about the physics of a car to determine its signifier

19. An Relational System of Signs • Everything depends on relations • No sign makes sense on its own, only in relation to other signs • An individual word has no individual meaning • It depends on its relation to other words within the system

20. Jabberwocky • `Twas brillig, and the slithy tovesDid gyre and gimble in the wabe;All mimsy were the borogoves,And the mome raths outgrabe. • `Beware the Jabberwock, my son!The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!Beware the Jujub bird, and shunThe frumious Bandersnatch!‘ • He took his vorpal sword in hand:Long time the manxome foe he sought --So rested he by the Tumtum gree,And stood awhile in thought. • And as in uffish thought he stood,The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,Came whiffling through the tulgey wook,And burbled as it came! • One, two! One, two! And through and throughThe vorpal blade went snicker-snack!He left it dead, and with its headHe went galumphing back. • `And has thou slain the Jabberwock?Come to my arms, my beamish boy!O frabjous day! Calloh! Callay!He chortled in his joy.

21. Relational System of Signs • “A one term language is an impossibility because its single term could be applied to everything and differentiate nothing; it requires at least on other term to give it definition” (Sturrock) • Note that Recursion kind of breaks this rule!

22. Negative Differences • Concepts are defined by contrast with other items. • Each concept is characterised best by being what others are not.

23. This is Red!

24. This is Red!

25. Arbitrariness • “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” (Shakespeare) • The existence of things in the world preceded our apparently simple application of ‘labels’. • “Languages differ by differentiating differently” (Passmore)

26. Arbitrariness • The signified appears to take precedence over the signifier • But, if the relationship between signifier and signified is arbitrary, then should it matter whether the signified is determined by the signifier or vice versa?

27. Arbitrariness • Internal structures in the sign system suggests that language doesn’t reflect reality, but rather constructs it. • We use language to say what isn’t in the world as well as what is. • “Since we come to know the world through whatever language we are born into the midst of, it is legitimate to argue that our language determines reality, rather than reality our language” (Sturrock)

28. Arbitrariness • No one-to-one link between signifier and signified. • Signs have multiple meanings • One signified may be referred to by many signifiers (Synonyms) • Onomatopoeia?

29. Arbitrariness • “The fundamental principle of the arbitrary nature of the linguistic sign does not prevent us from distinguishing in any language between what is intrinsically arbitrary – that is, unmotivated – and what is only relatively arbitrary. Not all signs are absolutely arbitrary. In some cases, there are factors which allow us to recognize different degrees of arbitrariness, although never to discard the notion entirely. The sign may be motivated to a certain extent.” (Saussure)

30. Arbitrary?

31. Language • Sign systems exist within a culture. • While the signifier may appear to be freely chosen, it is imposed because language is an inheritance from the past which its users have no choice but to accept. • “Any means of expression accepted in a society rests in principle upon a collective habit, or on convention – which comes to the same thing” (Saussure)

32. Alice • "If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” • “I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, Sir, because I'm not myself you see..” • Lewis Carroll

33. Communication Mistakes • “The familiar mistake of assuming that signs which appear natural to those who use them have an intrinsic meaning and require no explanation”

34. Peirce • Worked at the same time as Saussure, but independently. • Authored many seminal papers • Including NAND & NOR logic rules • “Beyond doubt [...] he was one of the most original minds of the later nineteenth century, and certainly the greatest American thinker ever.” (Bertrand Russell)

35. Triadic Model • Representamen • The sign (Saussure’s Signifier) • Object • The actual object which is being signaled • Interpretant • The meaning inferred by the sign

36. “The” Semiotic Triangle

37. The Semiotic Triangle • Sign vehicle: • the form of the sign • Sense: • the sense made of the sign • Referent: • what the sign ‘stands for’

38. Oh Look – A Box!

39. It has a label (sign vehicle) Puppy

40. Object

41. Decoding Signs s sv r s sv r s sv r

42. Modes of Relationship • Peirce also identified 3 different ‘types of sign’, better thought of as modes of relationships between signified and signifier. • Symbolic • Iconic • Indexical

43. Symbolic • A mode in which the signifier does not resemble the signified but which is fundamentally arbitrary or purely conventional - so that the relationship must be learnt: e.g. language in general (plus specific languages, alphabetical letters, punctuation marks, words, phrases and sentences), numbers, morse code, traffic lights, national flags.

44. Symbolic • Not quite the same meaning as in general usage. • “A sign which refers to the object that it denotes by virtue of a law, usually an association of general idea” • Consider; • M A N • Nothing about the letters relates to man, nor the sound.

45. Iconic • 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: e.g. a portrait, a cartoon, a scale-model, onomatopoeia, metaphors, 'realistic' sounds in 'programme music', sound effects in radio drama, a dubbed film soundtrack, imitative gestures.

46. Iconic • Again, not quite the same meaning as general usage; • Someone instantly recognised as famous • An icon on a computer screen • Religious icons

47. Indexical • A mode in which the signifier is not arbitrary but is directly connected in some way (physically or causally) to the signified - this link can be observed or inferred: e.g. 'natural signs' (smoke, thunder, footprints, echoes, non-synthetic odours and flavours), medical symptoms (pain, a rash, pulse-rate), measuring instruments (weathercock, thermometer, clock, spirit-level), 'signals' (a knock on a door, a phone ringing), pointers (a pointing 'index' finger, a directional signpost), recordings (a photograph, a film, video or television shot, an audio-recorded voice), personal 'trademarks' (handwriting, catchphrase) and indexical words ('that', 'this', 'here', 'there').

48. Modes NOT types! • Consider a Map • Indexical • Pointing to the locations of things • Iconic • Representing directional relations and distances between landmarks • Symbolic • Using conventional symbols which need to be learnt • The same sign can be used in different modes in different contexts

49. Semiotic Analysis • All communication is carried through signs • Semiotic Analysis is used in many fields to analyse the signs • Advertising & Marketing • Architecture • Cinema / Film • Communication Arts • Computer Science • Language • Law • Literature • Music • Photography • TV • Theatre

50. It’s Not Easy! • “How can we know that a bunch of roses signifies passion unless we also know the intention of the sender and the reaction of the receiver, and the kind of relationship they are involved in? If they are lovers and accept the conventions of giving and receiving flowers as an aspect of romantic, sexual love, then we might accept... [this] interpretation. But if we do this, we do so on the basis not of the sign but of the social relationships in which we can locate the sign... The roses may also be sent as a joke, an insult, a sign of gratitude, and so on. They may indicate passion on the part of the sender but repulsion on the part of the receiver; they may signify family relations between grandparents and grandchildren rather than relations between lovers, and so on. They might even connote sexual harassment.” (Strinati)