Semiology and Semiotics in the Analysis of Language Essay

Semiology or semiotics is the study of sign, specifically the theoretical relationship between language and signs or symbols used in the transmission of language and examines the role of signs as part of social life (De Saussure, 1986, 15). According to the definition, the study of semiology was initially applied to linguistics that treats language as a system of signs. Thus, elements inherent in language, such as signs, symbols, and icons constitute a semiotic system.

However, semiotic approach is relevant not only in terms of linguistics but to various spheres of human knowledge and activity, such as architecture, politics, religion, history, philosophy and so on since they are used to convey meaning. The founder of this study is a renowned linguist Ferdinand de Saussure who claimed that “language is above all a system of signs and that therefore we must have recourse to the science of signs” (De Saussure, 1986, 16).

Jean Baudrillard and Claude Leve-Strauss are major contributors to the study of semiotics. The meaning of signs inscribes itself in different types of narratives, i.e. verbal when meaning is transmitted through oral or written communication, sign languages and non-verbal, i.e. body language, gestures, the manner of communication.

According to Ferdinand de Saussure, “linguistics may serve as a model for semiology because in language the arbitrary and conventional nature of the sign is especially clear” (De Saussure, 1986, 68). Saussure held the view that the sign includes two elements: the signifier that carries the meaning and the signified, i.e. the meaning (De Saussure, 1986, 75). Saussure’s suggestion was that “every means of expression used in society is based on convention”, i.e. the meaning of the verbal and non-verbal means of communication is not intrinsic but has cultural conventional basis (De Saussure, 1986, 74). Taking into account the fact that the sign is arbitrary, the followers of Saussure’s theory explored the systems of signs and the underlying premises of convention.

As it has already been mentioned, semiotic analysis is applicable to linguistics. Thus, the anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss bases his analysis of the conception of anthropology on Saussure’s theory of semiotics and structural linguistics. Similar to Saussure who claimed that the signs are perceived as natural thought they possess conventional meaning, Levi-Strauss stated that the mental structures, which people are unaware of, underlie all acts of human behavior (Lévi-Strauss, 1983, 394).

In other words, no intrinsic meaning is attached to the components but arises from their position in relation to each other (Lévi-Strauss, 1983, 267). The anthropologist believed that culture is structured similar to linguistics and applied the principle of binary opposition to the study of anthropology treating cultures as “texts” (Lévi-Strauss, 1983, 325).

Another prominent linguist Jean Baudrillard in his work The System of Objects studies the meaning of signs dwelling on the suggestion that “just like the individual elements of language, no object, sign or word has any meaning in itself but only in its relationship with other objects” (Baudrillard, 2005, 193), i.e. the meaning is transmitted through a system of signs. Moreover, Baudrillard examines how different objects are consumed in different ways suggesting singling out 4 value of any object: functional, exchange, symbolic, and sign values stressing that the meaning attached to an object is unauthentic but has a tactical value within the system of signs (Baudrillard, 2005, 68).

Concluding it should be stressed that the semiotic linguistic analysis may be applied to verbal and non-verbal type of narration that present a system of signs which are endowed with special conventional meaning and should be considered from the point of view of its value within the culture and society.

Bibliography

Baudrillard, Jean. The System of Objects. London: Verso, 2005.

De Saussure, Ferdinand. Course in General Linguistics. Chicago: Open Court Publishing, 1986.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Structural Anthropology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.