http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_KFbS5A4Ng&feature=fvw
“I need a sign…”
semiology (from the Greek semeîon, 'sign'):
a science which studies the role
of signs as part of social life.
“Sign, sign, everywhere a sign…”
COMMUNICATION THEORY
Information theory in the late 1940’s:
Intentional information = signal
•“Cybernetics, or Control and Communication”
Norbert Wiener
•“A Mathematical Theory of Communication”
Claude Shannon
Crawford Dunn
• Applies idea of signal to the content of messages
• This idea lets us focus on the possible layers of
meaning within a message
SEMIOTICS Also called semiology
The study of signs or sign systems.
It applies to any kind of signs, not just words.
Coined in 1690 by John Locke in
“An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”.
Signs = words
Signs = images
Signs = sounds
Signs = gestures
Semiotics is important because it can help us not
to take 'reality' for granted as something having a
purely objective existence which is independent of
human interpretation. It teaches us that reality
is a system of signs.
Studying semiotics can
assist us to become more aware of
reality as a construction and of
the role we play in constructing it.
Meaning is not 'transmitted' to us,
we actively create it according
to a complex interplay of codes
or conventions of which we are
normally unaware.
Becoming aware of such codes
is both inherently fascinating and
intellectually empowering. We learn
from semiotics that we live in a
world of signs and we have no way
of understanding anything except
through signs and the codes into
which they are organized.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890
Through the study of semiotics we
become aware that these signs and
codes are normally transparent
and disguise our task in ‘reading’ them.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890
In defining realities,
signs serve ideological functions.
Saussure & Sanefski
Darren with Swiss linguist Ferdinand
de Saussure circa 1916
Structuralism is an
analytical method
which has been
employed by many
semioticians and
which is based on
Saussure's linguistic
model. Structuralists
seek to describe the
overall organization
of sign systems as
'languages‘.
a 'signifier' - the form which the sign takes;
the 'signified’ - the concept it represents.
the sign - the whole that results from the
association of the signifier with the signified
The relationship between the signifier and
the signified is referred to as 'signification'.
-- Saussure
American Charles S. Peirce shown w/Darren Sanefski – circa 1918
Rowland Barthes shown w/Darren Sanefski – circa 1975
Barthes (French social theorist), and Sanefski, applied semiotics to cultural studies;
has been applied to psychoanalysis, aesthetics, communications, and anthropology.
Semiotics and that branch of linguistics known as
semantics have a common concern with the meaning
of signs, but John Sturrock argues that whereas
semantics focuses on what words mean,
semiotics is concerned with how signs mean.
Three possible layers of a message:
Alphasignal
• Hard data or primary facts of a communication
• Alpha: denoting the primary message
• The objective part of the message
Parasignal
• Aspects of communication that supports or amplifies the
alphasignal.
• “Para”: above or beyond
Infrasignal
• Content beneath the message that can reveal information about
the creator.
• “Infra”: below or within
Three possible layers of a message:
Alphasignal
• Hard data or primary facts of a
communication
• Alpha: denoting the primary message
• The objective part of the message
ELEMENTS OF THE MESSAGE
as defined by Crawford Dunn
Three possible layers of a
message:
Parasignal
• Aspects of communication that
supports or amplifies the
alphasignal.
• “Para”: above or beyond
ELEMENTS OF THE MESSAGE
as defined by Crawford Dunn
Three possible layers of a message:
Infrasignal
• Content beneath the message that can
reveal information about the creator.
• “Infra”: below or within
ELEMENTS OF THE MESSAGE
as defined by Crawford Dunn
METASYMBOL Significance beyond meaning
OPEN
Signified: The thing
represented (Concept)
Signifier: What represents
the signified (Mark/Sound)
OPEN
Semiotics deals with how meaning is formed.
The fundamental unit considered in semiotics is the sign.
Signified: The thing
represented (Concept)
Signifier: What represents
the signified (Mark/Sound)
Dog
Chien (France)
Perro (Spain)
Cane (Italy)
Hund (Germany)
< historical
evidence
does
indicate a
tendency
of linguistic
signs to
evolve from
indexical
and iconic
forms
towards
symbolic
forms.
Symbol
%@$#*
Icon
• Resembles the thing it represents
• Examples: pictorial representation,
photo, architect’s model of a building
Icon
“Visual Cues”
“Visual Cues”
Index
• Indirect connection to the
thing it represents
• Examples: smoke, shadows
Index
Symbol
• Arbitrary relationship between
signifier & signified.
• Interpreter understands the relationship
through previous knowledge.
• Example: words, +, &, ?, $
Metasymbol
•
Symbol whose meaning transcends the
realm of one-to-one relationships.
• Barthes defined this as “myth”— when
a sign becomes imbedded with abstract
concepts through history, culture,
and tradition.
• For some readers, religious & magical
signs & symbols have these properties:
Christian crosses, etc.
Semiotics of Ribbons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEgxTKUP_WI&playnext=1&list=PLA21C626278D32590