Other areas of interest include professional communication, for example, between doctors and their patients, between lawyers and their clients and in courtrooms, as well as other areas of institutional and cross-cultural communication ranging from the boardroom to the routines on an answer phone.
Linguistics and Applied Linguistics is a challenging and stimulating discipline, offering many opportunities for original work.
Defining Semiotics
Have you ever thought about why
certain words mean what they do? In an age when 'mouse' can mean a little
rodent or a computer device, it's easy to question exactly what words mean and
how we make sense of them. This question of meaning is at the heart of
semiotics.
Semiotics is the study of sign systems. It explores how words and
other signs make meaning. In semiotics, a sign is anything that stands
in for something other than itself. This lesson focuses primarily on linguistic
signs.
The word 'semiotics' dates back to
ancient Greece, but its use in modern linguistics was propelled in the 19th
century with the research of Ferdinand de Saussure. Saussure was a Swiss
linguist who contributed greatly to the study of semiotics, also sometimes
referred to as semiology.
Scholars of modern linguistics
understand that words do not have innate meanings. That is, when we say the
word 'rabbit', it is not because those sounds or letter symbols have anything
to do with the qualities of a small, furry herbivore. In fact, the word,
sounds, and letters are all unrelated to the creature we call rabbit, except
that humans have assigned a value to them.
Because people have developed the
ability to assign meaning with words, we are able to describe abstract
meanings. This means we have words for things that we may not be able to
actually see in front of us. Furthermore, the history of a word may not
directly influence what it means to someone. As an example, we can use the word
'cool' without any thought or reference to temperature. The usage is separate
from its history.
For Saussure, language itself makes
meaning rather than simply conveying meaning. Therefore, our experience is
influenced by the language we use to describe it. This meaning-making is why
the theories of Saussure have become important to literary theory. When we
understand that language is a sign system and not just a naming of objects, we
read and discuss literary works differently. We are able to analyze the various
meanings embedded in a text and how one text influences another.
Understanding
Meaning-Making
Saussure developed a widely used model
of semiotics. In order to understand his model, one must recognize the
difference between what he called la langue (language) and la
parole (speech). La langue is the set of language rules that
every speaker understands, including how to make sounds into words and words
into sentences. La parole is the actual utterance made by a person.
You can think of communication like
swimming. La langue is the swimming pool, and la parole is the
water. To be conducive to swimming, water needs a structure to hold it
together, like speech needs the structure of our language system (la langue).
The words we speak (la parole) make sense based only on the structure
that holds them together, just like water can only be used for swimming if
something contains it.
Signs are a basic component of la
langue. They are like the pumps that push water into the pool. Pumps are
part of the pool's structure that make it possible for water to come forth.
Similarly, a sign must also exist for the speech act, or la parole, to
occur.
Icon, Index and symbols
Based on Charles Sanders Peirce’s idea,
semiotics distinguished between three types of signs: icon, index and
symbol. Peirce said that signs could be defined as these three
categories. Signs are also defined as something visual that represent a
meaning to the public or particular people. All these three words which
are icon, index and symbol are a tool for analyzing the core of
semiotics which is the language of signs.
Icon is
better to be considered first. Essentially, icon means a pictorial
representation of something. An icon also can be illustrative or
diagrammatic. For example, the “No smoking sign” below always reminds
of a very important message “You are not allowed to smoke in this
place”. So, it really is warning us that we are not allowed to smoke or
if we smoke we are going to face the law. In essence, in this sign we
see a picture of cigarette that is lit up and a red line drawn on it to
show that cigarette is extremely prohibited in a particular place.
Index
sign is another type of signs. Basically, an Index signs is a sign
where there is a direct link between the sign and the object. Most of
traffic signs are index signs, because, they give information which
relates to a particular location. Traffic signs or road signs are signs placed at the side of roads
to provide information to drivers. For example, picture of “No U turn”
traffic sign is simple to analyze, because its meaning is obvious.
Whenever we are driving in a road and face this sign, automatically, we
know that we may not turn because it is prohibited. If we do so, we are
going to face further penalties.
Symbol is another type of signs that are important to be considered. A
symbol has no logical meaning between it and the object. For instance,
if we look at the symbol of love below, we see a red heart that every
time we see it, it gives us the sign of love. As everyone knows, the
most common symbol for love and certainly the most recognizable is the
Heart symbol. But, why the shape of heart is shown like that? As, it was
written before, symbols may not have any logical meaning to its object
represented. The shape of heart is only assumed to be the sign of love
and has become a symbol in the society during ages. So, the shape of
heart always is used to strengthen relationships and passion. The heart
shape may convey a lot of massages that all of them are related to love
at the end. One of the meanings that it may convey is that a new love
interest is on the way or another massage is that sometimes you should
pay Closer attention to loved ones at this time.
Basically,
all these three words which are icon, index and symbol have a
particular meaning. They all are related to each other in some ways. To
prove, they all are representing a meaning which sometimes can be
straight forward like index signs or somehow vague like symbols which
some of them are needed to be studied and some of them have got a
meaning during ages. It was the way I analyze the three signs of
semiotics which are Icon, Index and symbols. What do you think about
these three types of signs?
