What is Semiotics?

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What is Semiotics?
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Semiotics

• The study of
• signification and communication
• how meaning is constructed and understood
• how signification changes in different contexts

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Semiotics

• Ferdinand de Saussure (so-SIR) (1857-1913)
• It is possible to conceive of a science which
  studies the role of signs as part of social life.
  It would form part of social psychology, and
  hence of general psychology. We shall call it
  semiology (from the Greek semeîon, 'sign'). It
  would investigate the nature of signs and the
  laws governing them.

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What is a Sign?
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Sign

• A sign is an entity which signifies another
  entity.

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Sign

• A sign is an entity which signifies another
  entity.
• We make meanings through our creation and
  interpretation of signs.
• Charles Sanders Peirce (purse) (1839 1914)

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Sign

• Whether something is a sign depends on a sentient
  entity ascribing it with meaning.

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Sign

• Whether something is a sign depends on a sentient
  entity ascribing it with meaning.

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Sign

• Whether something is a sign depends on a sentient
  entity ascribing it with meaning.

leaf
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Sign

• Whether something is a sign depends on a sentient
  entity ascribing it with meaning.

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Sign

• Nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as a
  sign.
• Anything can be a sign as long as it is
  interpreted as signifying something by a sentient
  being.

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Koko the Gorilla

• (view video)

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What are the twocomponents of a Sign?
Dyadic Model (Saussure)
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Components of a Sign
Dyadic Model (Saussure)
Signified
Signifier
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Components of a Sign
Dyadic Model (Saussure)
Signified is psychological
Signifier is physical, sensual
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Commonsense dictates that the signified, the
concept, is primary.
Dyadic Model (Saussure)
Signified is psychological
Signifier is physical, sensual
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But many contemporary theorists consider the
signifier, the medium of expression, just as
important.
Dyadic Model (Saussure)
Signified is psychological
Signifier is physical, sensual
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Semiotics is about aSystem of Meaning

• Signs dont have an essential or intrinsic
  connection to nature.

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Semiotics is about aSystem of Meaning

• Signs dont have an essential or intrinsic
  connection to nature.
• Meaning is structural and relational rather than
  referential.

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Semiotics is about aSystem of Meaning

• Signs dont have an essential or intrinsic
  connection to nature.
• Meaning is structural and relational rather than
  referential.
• Signs refer primarily to each other.

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Semiotics is about aSystem of Meaning

• Signs dont have an essential or intrinsic
  connection to nature.
• Meaning is structural and relational rather than
  referential.
• Signs refer primarily to each other.
• Signs only make sense as part of a formal,
  generalized and abstract system.

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Semiotics is about aSystem of Meaning

• The word cat only makes sense in relation to
  other words
• dog
• animal
• pet
• owner
• cute
• purr
• lick
• hunt

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Semiotics is about aSystem of Meaning

• purr

cute
owner
lick
cat
hunt
animal
dog
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Semiotics is about aSystem of Meaning

• No sign can make sense on its own but only in
  relation to other signs.

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Semiotics is about aSystem of Meaning

• No sign can make sense on its own but only in
  relation to other signs.
• The meaning of signs is in their systematic
  relation to each other rather than deriving from
  any inherent features of signifiers or any
  reference to material things.

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Semiotics is about aSystem of Meaning

• The word cat has more in common with other
  words than it does an actual cat, or whatever a
  ??? may actually be.

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Language isBinaristic and Negative

• Cat vs. Dog
• Man vs. Woman
• Nature vs. Culture
• Good vs. Evil
• Yes vs. No
• Black vs. White
• 0 vs. 1
• Life vs. Death
• Gay vs. Straight
• Up vs. Down

• Cold vs. Hot
• Happy vs. Sad
• Sleep vs. Awake
• Free vs. Pay
• Pretty vs. Ugly
• West vs. East
• Paper vs. Plastic
• Republican vs. Democrat
• Healthy vs. Sick
• Few vs. Many

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Things are defined not by what they are, but by
what they are not.
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Things are defined not by what they are, but by
what they are not.
red
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Most of the information communicated is actually
negative.
red
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Linguistic Signs are Immaterial(Saussure)

• Word signifiers have no material value magically
  embedded in their sounds or appearance.

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Linguistic Signs are Immaterial(Saussure)

• Word signifiers have no material value magically
  embedded in their sounds or appearance.
• This immateriality is their value.
• If linguistic signs draw attention to their
  materiality this hinders their communicative
  transparency.
• New words can be invented or imported as needed

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Dyadic Model (Saussure)
Signified is psychological
Signifier is physical, sensual
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Triadic Model (Peirce)
Object in the real world or speakers mind
Signified is psychological
Signifier is physical, sensual
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Triadic Model (Peirce)
Object in the real world or speakers mind
Interpretant is meaning from decoding
representamen
Representamen is physical, sensual
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Three ways signs represent objects(Peirce)

• Symbol

• Icon

• Index

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Three ways signs represent objects(Peirce)

• Symbol
• Arbitrary or purely conventional
• 100 needs to be learned
• language in general, alphabet, punctuation marks,
  numbers, Morse code, traffic lights

• Icon

• Index

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Three ways signs represent objects(Peirce)

• Symbol
• Arbitrary or purely conventional
• 100 needs to be learned
• language in general, alphabet, punctuation marks,
  numbers, Morse code, traffic lights

• Icon
• Resembling or imitating the signified
• similar in some quality
• portrait, cartoon, onomatopoeia, metaphors, sound
  effects imitative gestures

• Index

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Three ways signs represent objects(Peirce)

• Symbol
• Arbitrary or purely conventional
• 100 needs to be learned
• language in general, alphabet, punctuation marks,
  numbers, Morse code, traffic lights

• Icon
• Resembling or imitating the signified
• similar in some quality
• portrait, cartoon, onomatopoeia, metaphors, sound
  effects imitative gestures

• Index
• existential connection to the signified
• evidence, smoke, footprints, pain, thermometer,
  clock, knock on a door, photograph, handwriting,

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Three ways signs represent objects(Peirce)

• Symbol

• Icon

Signs can be one, two or all three of these at
once.

• Index

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What are some Symbols?
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What are some Symbols?
Words Words Words
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What are some Icons?
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What are some Icons?
Chirp chirp miu miu vroooom
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What are each of these?
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What are each of these?
Symbols
Icons

• Icon of a real-world symbol
• (street sign)

Symbol
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What are some Indices?(plural of index)
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What are some Indices?(plural of index)
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Semiotic Analysis
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Semiotic Analysis
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Semiotic Analysis

• Olympic Style Guide for Beijing Citizens

(for foreigners to interpret Chinese people
positively)
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Semiotic Analysis

• Olympic Style Guide for Beijing Citizens
• No wearing pajamas in public

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Semiotic Analysis

• Olympic Style Guide for Beijing Citizens
• No wearing pajamas in public

Westerners may read the person as crazy, or the
culture doesnt respect personal boundaries and
privacy.
The Chinese government recognized that Westerners
will read the pajamas incorrectly.
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Semiotic Analysis

• Olympic Style Guide for Beijing Citizens
• No more than three color groups in your clothing.
• No white socks with black leather shoes
• No public displays of affection
• When standing toes should point outwards
• Handshakes should not last more than 3 seconds

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Semiotic Analysis
What are the intended signifieds?
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Semiotic Analysis
What are the intended signifieds?

• Man
• Sexy
• Healthy / Ripped
• Calvin Klein brand
• Comfortable
• Virility
• Package
• Inadequacy???
• Jealousy???
• Fear???

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Semiotic Analysis
What are potential unintended signifieds?
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Semiotic Analysis
What are potential unintended signifieds?

• Homoerotic???
• Corporate
• Propaganda
• Douche bag
• Alienated (from brand)

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Semiotic Analysis
How is the signifier shaping the signified?
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Semiotic Analysis
How is the signifier shaping the signified?

• Black and white
• form and mass rather than color
• authenticity

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Semiotic Analysis
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Semiotic Analysis

• Transcoding (the signified)

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Semiotic Analysis

• Transcoding (the signified)

Black (Black is Beautiful from the
1960s) Nigger Queer Bitch
Minority groups often appropriate the language of
oppression to assert power
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• The CD cover of his album Put Yo Hood Up (2001)
  shows Lil Jon clad in a pair of black rubber
  coveralls, his open-mouthed expression of rage
  and intensity augmented by the added effect of
  gold teeth, sunglasses, and long dreadlocks,
  creating a general impression of a demented
  slaughterhouse worker or other grotesque. The
  draping of the rebel flag around his shoulders in
  the picture, far from constituting an
  endorsement, communicates the hostile occupation
  of a symbol. The cover image seems the worst
  nightmare of a white supremacist, a demonic,
  superpowered black man appropriating, occupying,
  and defiling the treasured symbol of Dixie.
• http//www.southernspaces.org/contents/2008/miller
  /9a.htm

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Semiotic Analysis
I'm Sorry Miss Jackson

• "I wear the belt for southern pride and to rebel.
  . . . I don't take the Confederate flag that
  serious as far as the racial part is concerned."
  Andre 3000 of OutKast

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Semiotic Analysis

• Trans-coding (the signified)

Other examples?
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Semiotic Analysis
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Semiotic Analysis
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Semiotic Analysis