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Semiotics
Lecture 1

What is semiotics? Semiotics is conventionally defined as "the study of signs " . This says little about semiotics, just as defining cognitive science to be "the study of the mind " says little about cognitive science, defining computer science to be "the study of computers " says little about computer science, or defining mathematics as "the study of patterns " says little about mathematics. But it is a start! A slightly more useful definition of semiotics might be "the study of all phenomena surrounding signs " , which suggests that semiotics is an enormously wide ranging study whose fulcrum is the sign. This definition is derived by analogy with the definition of computer science as "the study of all phenomena surrounding computing machines " , provided by Alan Newell and Herb Simon in the lecture they delivered on the occation of being awarded the Turing Award of  1975, which suggests that computer science is an enormously wide ranging study whose fulcrum is the computer.  

Thus, semiotics is concerned with:

  • the definition of signs (metaphysics)
  • the identification and classification (form and function) of signs (epistimology)
  • the origin and evolution of signs (etymology)
  • the relations among signs within sign systems (structuralism)
  • the positional rendering of sign constellations (syntagmatics)
  • the potential rendering of sign constellations (paradigmatics)
  • with the meaning of signs (semantics)
  • and with the interpretation of signs (pragmatics)
 

What is a sign? This is a key question in the field of semiotics. Unfortunately, there is no single answer!    Worse, the many answers are often inconsistent!    A simple, first definition of sign is anything which stands for something else . For example:

  • a word is a sign (e.g., circle, clock, tree, girl)
  • a facial gesture is a sign (e.g., grimace, yawn, "seeing red " , "shooting daggers " , "poker face " )
  • an icon on a computer desktop is a sign (e.g., a letter icon for a mail tool, a trash can icon for a file disposal mechanism)
 

Why study semiotics? Semiotics is a body of knowledge which can be used to enhance our understanding of human creations and activities. In other words, semiotics is a tool of thought which can help you to better appreciate life, even to succeed at life, by illuminating "culturally encoded " information. A knowledge of semiotics will position you to better "read " such things as novels, poems, film, and advertisements--not to mention people!  

How did semiotics originate and evolve as a discipline? Human beings are by their very nature producers and consumers of meaning. Since meaning is grounded in signs, humans can be viewed as sign manipulating (sign-creating, sign-using, and sign-interpreting) animals. But the manipulation of signs (a form of thinking) is quite different from the study of signs (engaging in semiotics). We all do the former all the time, but only relatively rarely do the latter.  

The story of the origin of semiotics generally begins with the ancient Greeks, acknowledges a few key contributors of the next two millenia, honors the two founding fathers of modern semiotics, and mentions any number of recent developers, distillers, and deployers of semiotic knowledge.

  • The Ancient Greeks

    • Hipocrates

    • Plato

    • Aristotle

    • The Stoics

  • The Postancient/Premodern Contributors

    • Saint Augustine

    • John Locke

    • Leibnitz (1646-1716), Boole (1815-1864) and Frege (1848-1925)

  • The Founding Fathers of Modern Semiotics

    • Charles Sanders Peirce

    • Ferdinande de Suassure

  • Developers, Distillers, and Deployers of Semiotic Knowledge

    • Cassire

    • Freud

    • Jung

    • Vygotsky

    • Piaget

    • Levi-Strauss

    • Umberto Eco

    • Roland Barthes

    • Cristian Metz
 

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