Semiotics

THE STUDY OF MEANING MAKING.

ALSO KNOWN AS:

SEMIOLOGY
SEMASIOLOGY
SEMEIOLOGY
What is Semiotics ?
The study of signs and symbols as elements of
communicative behavior; the analysis of systems of
communication, as language, gestures, or clothing.

Semiotics is the science of communication and sign
systems, in short, of the ways people understand
phenomena and organize them mentally, and of the ways
in which they devise means for transmitting that
understanding and for sharing it with others.
In a nut shell, semiotics is the study of meaning making.

Types of Semiotics.
Semantics
Pragmatics Syntactics
Semantics: Relation
between signs and the things
to which they refer;
their denotata, or meaning
Syntactics: Relations
among signs in formal
structures
Pragmatics: Relation
between signs and sign-using
agents

To Name a Few
Mikhail Bakhtin
Marcel Danesi
Umberto Eco
Flix Guattari
Roman Jakobson
Kalevi Kull
Charles S.
Peirce
Ferdinand de
Saussure
Thomas Sebeok
Eero Tarasti
Vyacheslav
Ivanov
Roland Barthes
John Deely
Algirdas Julien
Greimas
Louis Hjelmslev
Roberta Kevelson
Juri Lotman
Augusto Ponzio
Michael
Silverstein
Jakob von Uexkll
Vladimir Toporov
Ferdinand de Saussure Charles pierce
The Fathers of Semiotic
theories.
Ferdinand de Saussure :
Semiology is a science which studies the role of
signs as a part of social life.

Charles Pierce :
Semiotics was the former doctrine of signs
which was closely related to logic.
He decorated that every thought is a sign.

Umberto Eco:
Semiotics is concerned with everything that
can be taken as a sign.


Ferdinand de Saussure.
He was a Swiss linguist and Semiotician.
His ideas laid a foundation for many significant
development both in linguistics and Semiology in the 20
th
century.
He knew various languages like Latin, Greek and
SANSKRIT .
He was one of the founding fathers of semiotics which he
called semiology.
His concept of the sign/ signified/ referent forms the core of
the field.
FATHER OF MODERN LINGUISTICS.

Charles Pierce.
He was born on September 10
th
,1839.
He was famous for his works on logic,
math, philosophy, chemistry and
linguistics.
He broke down semiotics into three parts
Representamen, Object, Interpretant.
According to him nothing is a sign unless it
is interpreted as a sign.


Saussure
VS.
Pierce
Binary vs. triadic conception of the sign.
Generates an endless chain of interpretants.
Saussures theory primarily applies to languages
and either excludes or assimilates to languages and also non-
verbal semiotic facts.
Peirce does not seem to have a distinct place in
his typology of signs for anything like Saussures
language.
Umberto Eco.
He was a Philosopher, Essayist, Novelist
and Semiotician.

He was born on January 5
th
,1932.

He is best known for his work for his
novel, Il Nome Della Rosa ( The Name of
the Rose).



Why study semiotics in Mass
Communication?
Semiotics is the science of communication and sign
systems, in short, of the ways people understand
phenomena and organize them mentally

Its field covers all non-verbal signaling and
extends to domains whose communicative
dimension is perceived only unconsciously or
subliminally.
Some Fields of Semiotics
Biosemiotics
Cognitive
semiotics
Computational
semiotics
Cultural semiotics
Design semiotics
Product semiotics
Law and semiotics
Literary semiotics
Music semiology
Gregorian chant
semiology
Organizational
semiotics
Semiotic
anthropology
Semiotic
engineering
Semiotic
information
theory .
Social semiotics
Urban semiotics
Theatre semiotics
Visual semiotics
Zoo semiotics
Structuralism
Structuralism is a method for analyzing the
deep structuring logic of cultural products and
practices.

Everything from tribal kinship structures to
clothing fashions and advertising could for the
structuralists be subjected to structural
analysis.
Semiotics and Religion.
A religious symbol is not only a
picture of something that represents
something else by the virtue of
analogy. It is a full representation of
the communicative process between
the sign that is open for interpretation
to its interpreter, and at the same
time an object that stands open for
interpretation as it is in the role of
dynamic object.
Semiotics and Theatre.
As a methodology for analysis it
is particularly useful for
studying performance.
There is a set, an actual
performance venue, there are
lights, props etcetera.
Within all these elements there
are signs that contribute to how
we interpret and understand the
meaning of any particular
performance.
Semiotics and Colour.
How colors express certain coded
information that make the viewer
feel a certain emotion

Colors influence mood and can even
effect our energy levels

People pay more attention to color
than you might think, and it can play
a huge part in influencing decision
making

Semiotics and Architecture.
It seems that pre-modern architecture
has utilized the three signs;- icons,
index, symbols

where as, the modern architecture
mostly makes use of iconic signs
attaching less importance to indexical
and symbolic ones.

The postmodern architecture,
however, in protest against the
inflexible approaches of the modern
architecture, is iconic.

Semiotics, Language and Culture.
Linguistic and Cultural
Semiotics is a branch of
communication theory that
investigates sign systems and
the modes of representation
that humans use to convey
feelings, thoughts, ideas, and
ideologies.
Semiotics and Marketing.
It influences an array of
marketplace activities, such as
product design, branding,
advertising, and retailing.

In a general sense consumer
culture is the product of the
consumer's relationship to
messages of all kinds.
Idea no.1
Meaning exists only because it is
shared and negotiated.

We have entered into an
unacknowledged agreement to
make certain sounds mean certain
things.
The sign :
F Saussure asked, why does a word mean what it means?
He came to a conclusion that a sign consists of three parts :
Signified
(The concept)
Referent
(Real item)
Signifier
(sound, image or
marks on paper)
s
Idea no.3
Our perception of reality
is structured and shaped
by the words and signs
we use
We dont simply label
the world.

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