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.