POSTCOLONIAL INTERPRETATIONS

OF THE UK AND IRELAND 1

SEMIOTICS:

INTERPRETING SIGNS IN TEXTS

17/10/2010

semiotics

• The study of signs, signals and symbols

especially in language and communications. In
a semiotic sense, signs take the form of words,
images, sounds, gestures and objects.
Contemporary semioticians study signs not in
isolation but as part of semiotic 'sign systems'
(such as a medium or genre); they study how
meanings are made.

Saussure, Ferdinand de

• Swiss linguist (1857–1913) who laid the

foundation for many developments in
linguistics in the twentieth century. He
perceived linguistics as a branch of a general
science of signs he proposed to call semiology,
but is now generally known as semiotics. Its
central notion is that language can be
analysed as a formal system of organized
difference.

Peirce, C.S.

• An American polymath and innovator in many

fields including mathematics and philosophy,
and recognised as the founder of pragmatism
and as one of the founders of semiotics (along
with Saussure) (1839–1914).

arbitrary sign

• One of the things that characterises verbal language in

comparison with pictures is that the relation between

signifiers and signifieds is accidental or arbitrary. In

other words, there is nothing about the shape, colour

or any other physical aspect of the signifier which links

it to the signified. Indeed Saussure argued that in

language there is an arbitrary relationship between the

signifier and the signified, as evidenced in the fact that

different languages have very different words for the

same phenomenon. If we move over to Peirce's

terminology, signs where the relation is arbitrary, and

thus totally conventional, are called symbols.

convention/code

• Conventions are 'agreements' established by way of habit in a

community of users of the same language: the same sorts of

pictures, music and so on. A code is a convention that associates a

signifier with a certain signified or meaning. Even photographs and

realistic drawings are shaped in accordance with conventions that

we follow in everyday life, and that may not be shared by all

cultures. Consider, for example, a circle with scattered lines

stretching outward around it. This is a conventional representation

or sign for the sun. We accept that the figure means 'sun' in

children's drawings, for instance, even though the sun does not

actually look like that. When we use the term 'code' in semiotics we

emphasise the rule-like nature of conventions. Just as a tuxedo

jacket should not be worn with jogging trousers, so too swear

words should not be used in polite conversation. The concepts

'code', 'culture' and 'communication' are thus closely related in

many and complex ways.

cultural knowledge

• Our cultural knowledge of media genres is woven

into the very texture of our everyday lives and

shapes the media choices we make, as well as the

expectations and assumptions that we bring to

understanding and enjoying media texts. This

knowledge of media genres is acquired over

many years and seems an obvious part of our

commonsense understanding of the media. As a

result, certain ideas we have about the way in

which genres represent the social world become

deeply embedded in our thinking.

culture

• From a semiotic perspective, culture may be

defined as a community of codes , i.e. a set of
ideas about what signs mean and how they
may be put together and shared by a large or
small group of people. Culture understood as
a community of codes is a prerequisite of
communication.

denotation/connotation

• In the semiotic tradition based on Saussure's work,

denotation is the primary process of signification
encountered in a sign. What is denoted is what the sign
represents in an initial or direct way – the everyday or
commonsense meaning of a sign – as when the word
'cool' is used to denote a temperature range: colder
than warm, but hotter than cold. The second, 'indirect'
meaning is called connotation (literally, 'with-meaning')
– an additional meaning that is clinging to the first. So,
'cool' now connotes something stylish and pleasing.

genre signifiers

• A western film is clearly signified by arid

desert landscapes, cowboys and 'Indians' and
a sitcom by caricatures, exaggerated
behaviour and canned laughter. All these
elements are signs with associated or
conventional meanings: they are genre
signifiers.

motivated sign

• In contrast to an arbitrary sign, with a motivated sign

there is some aspect or aspects of the signifier that

correspond to the signified (see Figure 1.2 in book

Chapter 1). A photograph of a cat in which the animal

is represented clearly against a background is an

example of a motivated sign. The signifier looks like the

signified. On the other hand, the little images found on

the doors of public toilets only resemble real men and

women to a limited extent. Our recognition is thus

partly motivated, while also depending on an arbitrary

association of the shapes in question with their

signifieds: women's toilets and men's toilets.

signifier/signified

• According to Saussure a sign consists of a material

signifier and an immaterial signified. The signifier can

thus be dots, lines, shapes (as in the case of written

language), sound waves or whatever physical, concrete

entity that we link to, or associate with, some idea or

notion. This idea is then called the signified. When the

signifier–signified relation is arbitrary, it is necessarily

defined in a particular culture. Thus the same signifier

can mean different things for different people at

different times in different locations, as in the case of

the word 'wicked', which can mean either 'very bad' or

'very good' depending upon how old you are and what

cultural knowledge you have.

Signs: symbol

• C.S. Peirce distinguished between three types of

signs (symbol, icon and index). Whether a sign is
a symbol, icon or index depends upon the logical
relation between the sign and that for which it
stands. Signs where the relation is arbitrary and
totally conventional are called symbols.Verbal
language belongs in this category, as do the
colours of traffic lights, certain logos and other
phenomena for which we must learn a certain
code in order to grasp the meaning.

Signs: icon

• An icon is a sign that resembles what it stands

for as in pictures, or sculptures, i.e. two- or
three-dimensional representations of a more
or less photographic or 'realistic' type (a
photograph of the US President is an iconic
sign for the US President).

Signs: index

• 'Index' is the Latin and English word for the

first finger, which is frequently used to point at
things. Thus an indexical sign points at that for
which it stands. Smoke is an indexical sign that
something is burning; the symptoms doctors
look for are indexes of diseases or injuries. In
the case of the index, then, there has to be
some physical connection or causal link
between the sign and what it stands for.

unlimited semiosis

• The process by which signs continuously gather new

interpretations or associations. The sign 'sun' may for

instance be interpreted, associated with or perceived

as 'star', a radically more distant and possibly

extinguished sun. The new object will then be 'a star

(in the sky)'. The term 'star', the new interpretant, may

then by some be taken to mean 'movie star' – and a

series of new interpretants is then made possible. One

such can be found in the phrase 'you're a star'. Here

the addressee is being attributed with the qualities of

being good, worthwhile and probably hard-working

too.

Reference

Gripsrud, Jostein. 2006. “Semiotics, codes and

cultures.” In Gillespie, Marie and Jason
Toynbee (eds.). Analysing Media Texts.
Maidenhead: Open University Press, 10-41.