SEMIOTICS

1
SEMIOTICS
2
What is Semiotics?
Semiotics is the study of signs. A sign is
something that stands for something other than
itself.
3
For example
An open sign hanging in the window of a business.

4
Or
The sound of a fire engine.
5
Or
The smell of smoke. Powerpoint doesnt allow the
inclusion of smells so use your imagination.
6
Or
A word such as, Tree or a picture
Or a drawing
7
What about some random scratches in the dirt? Is
that a sign?
8
What if the scratches look like so
OX
What does this represent?
9
Maybe this
OX
10
What if its this instead?
OX
What does this stand for? What is the difference?
11
Two main approaches

Ferdinand de Saussure 1857-1913
Charles Sander Pierce 1839-1914
12
(No Transcript)
13
Saussure

• Signs are purely psychological.
• Signs only make sense in a formal abstract
  system. A one word language is an impossibility.
• A sign refers to what it is not.

14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
Saussure
Saussure believed that signs do not represent
reality but construct it.

• We come to know the world through language.
• Signs reflect the system they are found in.
• The relationship between the sign/signifier is
  not a matter of personal choice.
• It is because the sign is arbitrary that it
  knows no law other than tradition.

17
(No Transcript)
18
Pierce had many(read hundreds) different types of
sign but the three most important
are Indexes Icons Symbols
19
Index
The signifier is not arbitrary but is connected
to the signified in some way either physically or
causally.
20
Index
I smell smoke! The smell of smoke could be said
to signify fire. It is not arbitrary but
directly connected to the thing it signifies.
21
Index
A photograph. Photographs are produced though
the reflection of light off the subject.
22
Index
PAIN!!!!!! Powerpoint also lacks the
ability to never mind.
23
Index

24
Icon
The signifier is not totally arbitrary but
resembles the signified in some way.
25
Icon

A cartoon.
26
Icon

A portrait.
27
Icon

Sounds that mimic such as Onomatopoeia.
28
Symbol
The signifier is totally arbitrary and
conventional.
29
Symbol
Words and numbers in general fit into this
category. There is no reason why 2 should
represent what it does. The same is true for the
word tree. Both come to mean what they do
through cultural convention. What about the
roman numeral II ? Is it a symbol?
30
(No Transcript)
31
Codes

• No signifying code(system of signs) can be
  divorced from a set of social practices.
• Basic features
• All codes have a paradigmatic(they are members of
  a category) and syntagmatic(the chaining together
  of the paradigmatic) dimension.
• All codes covey meaning.
• Codes depend upon agreement between their users.

32
Codes
Representational Codes that are used to create
texts something that stands for something else
independent of its encoder. Presentational Limit
ed to face to face communication and concerns
communication through orientation, gestures, eye
movement, proximity, facial expressions, and
other examples of body language.

33
(No Transcript)
34
Barths

Connotation Denotation Myth
35
Barths
Denotation Refers to the commonsense meaning of
a sign. A photograph of a dog denotes a
dog. Connotation Describes the interaction that
occurs between the subjective user and their
culture. The photograph of the dog is taken in a
way to appear sad.

36
Barths
Myth It is the dominate ideology of or time. It
is when connotations become naturalized.

37
Barths

38
Barths
I am at the barber's, and a copy of Paris-Match
is offered to me. On the cover, a young Negro in
a French uniform is saluting, with his eyes
uplifted, probably fixed on a fold of the
tricolour. All this is the meaning of the
picture. But, whether naively or not, I see very
well what it signifies to me that France is a
great Empire, that all her sons, without any
colour discrimination, faithfully serve under her
flag, and that there is no better answer to the
detractors of an alleged colonialism than the
zeal shown by this Negro in serving his so-called
oppressors.

39
Stuart Hall

1932-
40
Stuart Hall
Encoding/Decoding

A message is encoded with one meaning but may be
decoded as another. This draws from Gramscis
theory of Hegemony. The reading of a text may be
read(decoded) in three different ways dominant,
negotiated, and oppositional.
41
(No Transcript)