Class 1: Introduction

Question 1

Semiotics

Answer 1

according to Ryder, 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…Umberto Eco jokingly suggests that semiotics is a discipline for studying everything which can be used in order to lie.”

Question 2

Sign

Answer 2

• something that stands for something or someone else in some capacity
• take the form of words, images, sounds, odours, flavours, acts or objects
• have no intrinsic meaning and become signs only when we invest them with meaning
• the whole that results the association of the signifier with the signified

ex. open sign or dog card

Question 3

Saussure’s definition of sign

Answer 3

composed of:
• a signifier
• the signified

Question 4

Signifier

Answer 4

the form which the sign takes

ex. the word “dog” or “open”

you as the shopper/the person reading the sign have invested it with meaning

Question 5

Signified

Answer 5

the concept it represents

ex. pic of dog or the concept that the shop is “open” for business

Question 6

‘Value’ of the Sign

Answer 6

• Saussure refers to as the ‘value’ of a sign depends on its relations with other signs within the system
• believes that a sign has no ‘absolute’ value independent of this context

Question 7

‘Arbitrariness” of the Sign

Answer 7

• Saussure argues that there is no necessary, intrinsic, direct or inevitable relationship between the signifier and the signified
• agreed to be convention

ex. tree to free and arbre (need to be taught french to know in means tree)

Question 8

‘Arbitrariness’ of the Sign Continued

Answer 8

• this does not suggest that all signifying systems are socially or historically arbitrary
• the sign is arbitrary a priori but ceases to be arbitrary a posteriori - after the sign has come into historical existence it cannot be arbitrarily changed

ex. language, red for traffic light

Question 9

Peirce

Answer 9

• Representaman
• Interpretant
• Object

Question 10

Representaman

Answer 10

the form which the sign takes (not necessarily material) = a signifier

ex. a red light

Question 11

Interpretant

Answer 11

not an interpreter but rather the sense made of the sign = the signified

ex. the idea that a red light indicates vehicles must stop

Question 12

Object

Answer 12

• to which the sign refers
• does not have to be real or physical

ex. the vehicles actually stopping are the “Object” (the object as represented in the representamen)

Question 13

Symbol/symbolic

Answer 13

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

ex. language, alphabetical letters, numbers, morse code, traffic lights, national flags

Question 14

Icon/iconic

Answer 14

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

ex. a portrait, imitative gestures (putting your hand up showing “Stop”)

Question 15

Index/indexical

Answer 15

a mode in which the signifier is not arbitrary but is directly connected in some way to the signified - this link can be observed or inferred

ex. smoke is an index to fire, pain is an index to illness

Question 16

Semiosis

Answer 16

• referred to by Peirce: interaction between the representamen, the object and the interpretant
• the comprehension and production of signs

Question 17

Morris

Answer 17

• Charles Morris adapted Peirce’s work further within the process of semiosis:

1. the sign vehicle which orients a person toward a goal
2. the interpreter, or the subject of the semiotic activity
3. the object to which the sign refers
4. the interpretant, which is the cognitive reaction elicited in the mind of the interpreter

• so Morris took semiosis “to a form of behaviourism” and argued semiotics involves “goal-seeking behaviour in which signs exercise control.”