Introduction
Semiotics is the study of sign process or simply significance of communication signs and symbols could be both grouped into sign system.
It can also be said to be the study of how meaning is constructed and understood.
Semiotics can be grouped into three;
- Semantic; the relationship between signs and the things they refer to.
- Syntactic; the relation of signs to each other informal structure.
- Pragmatics; the relation of signs and their impact on those who use them.
Syntactic is the rule that governs words to form phrases and sentences. The theory of signs and language is integral to a comprehensive theory of the universe but without relying on a more controversial aspect of the comprehensive theory it may stick be possible to classify semiotic reality in such a way that the discourse no longer suffers from misconceptions.
The foundation of semiotics must be laid with perception. The objects of perceptions are precepts. The precepts are not the mental objects in the physical realm that the mind imagines that it is sensing but the actual object of perception pattern of sensational quality.
Visual precepts include patterns of a shape, size, position, and color tint and color tone over a two-dimension field. Audio precepts are patterns of pitch and volume over time. These are the things immediately perceived by the mind.
Interpretation which is the true subject of semiotics begins with perceptual paradigms, which are abstractions from perceptual patterns. Abstraction is the process of defining a concept based on the observation, mental or perceptual hence all abstractions are perceptual. A sign is an association of a perceptual paradigm with another concept. This association in made through memory, two concepts are associated when they occur in the same thought experience meaning that thinking of one will then cause the recall of the entire experience in which the other concept is also present.
Interpretation applies to all aspects of the perception realm. It is a means of constructing a personal version of the perpetual realm an attempt to reconstruct the actual cause into words.
Signs and relationships are established only by a gradual learning process. Things are experienced in conjunction and thus form associations in meaning. We develop a sense of the functional rules of the perceptual realm by trial and error and are constantly in the process of revising our personal version of the course of events in it. All this is accomplished using the scientific method of formulating a hypothesis and the gathering of data to check the hypothesis against. If the data supports the hypothesis, consider it provision correct if it contradicts then it should be revised.
Communication is an attempt by one mind to induce a certain interpretation to another and it includes disinformation and an attempt to false information of the course of events in the perceptual realm. The most important form of communication is language, the use of symbols.
A symbol is a sign whose association between perpetual paradigm and other concepts is one of the conventions. The first convention ought to be established by coincidence where two interpreters form the same association based on their experiences}.
Logic is a system of deriving new symbols from the existing ones, by combining or uttering them according to conventional rules. A set of all symbols and logic understood by an interpreter is called interpreter idiolect the intersection of two or more idiolect is called a dialect.
When we speak of southern dialects, we are speaking of dialects so is the case when we speak of the English language. Thus there are no fundamental differences between a language, a dialect and a langue there is only a difference of degree.
Reknown semioticians
- Charles sander pierce , is said to be the founder of the philosophical doctrine known as pragmatism. He defines semiosis as ”….action or influence when is, or involves, a cooperation of three subjects, such as a sign, its object, its interpretation, this tri-relative influence not being in any way resolvable into action between pairs “ He traces his notion of semiosis through his career.
- Ferdinand de Saussure the father of modern linguistics was of the support of a notion of signs, relating the signifier as the form of words and phrases uttered, to be signified as mental concept. According to him, the sign is completely arbitrary i.e. there was no necessary connection between the sign and its meaning. This made him differ from previous philosophers such as Plato who thought that there must be a connection between a signifier and the objects it signifies.
- Charles.W.Morris in his 1938 foundation of the theory of signs. He defines semeiotic by grouping them in three the triad syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Syntax being the study of interpretation without regard to meaning, semantics studies the relationship between the signs and the objects on which they apply. Pragmatics studies the relation between the sign system and its human or animal user.
- Algirdin Julienne developed a structural version of semantics named generative semiotics, trying to shift the focus of discipline from signs to systems of signification.
Branches of semiotics
Semiotics has been separated into a number of subfields including but not limited to the following;
- Biosimiotics; the study of semiotic process by all levels of biology or simply a semantic study of living things.
- Computational semiotics; the study of and design of human-computer interaction or to mimic aspects of human cognition through artificial intelligence and knowledge representation
- Music semiology; there are strong hobbits that music inhabits a sociological realm which on both ontogeny and physiologic level has developmental priority over verbal language.
- Organisational semiotics; is the study of semiotic processes in organizations.
- Design semiotics; is the study of the use of the signs in the design of physical products.
Visual semiotics
A sign can be a word or a visual image that represents a meaning. In other words a sign can mean anything we agree that it can mean and they can mean different things to different people, meaning of signs is categorized as iconic and symbolic. Anionic sign looks like what it represents i.e. a picture of a dog, or the meaning of a symbol like the red cross. Language uses words as symbols that have to be learned.
Visual texts are imported in the analysis for semioticians and particularly for scholars working with visually intensive forms such as an advertisement because images are such a central part of our mass communication systems.
Systems of meaning are looked at by looking at cultural and communication products and events as signs and then they look at the relationship among these signs and classify then classify the system of communication through fusion into two categories i.e. image clothing and deceptive clothing.
Criticism of semiotic analysis
- Semiotics has often been criticized as “imperialistic” since some semioticians appear to regard it as concerned with, and applicable to regard it as concerned with, and applicable to anything trespassing on almost every academic discipline. The dramatic extension of the semiotic field, to include the whole of culture is looked on by those suspicions of it as a kind of intellectual terrorism, overfilling our lives with meaning. Semantic analysis is just one of many techniques used to explore sign practices.
- Semionticians do not always make explicit the limitation of their technique and semiotics is too. Semiotics is based on a linguistic model but not everyone agrees that it is productive to treat photography and film, for instance as language.
- Semioticians sometimes present their analysis as if they were purely objective rather than subjective interpretations. Very few semioticians seem to feel much need to provide imperial evidence for particular interpretations. Yet few semioticians seem to feel much need to provide imperial evidence for particular interpretations and much semiotic analysis is loosely impressionistic and highly unsystematic.
- In structural semiotics focus is on langue rather than on parole, on formal system instead of process of use of production, structuralistic studies have tended to be purely textual analysis, it has been suggested that even when semioticians move beyond textual they subordinate other methods of textual analysis.
- Despite its usefulness to feminists in some aspects, structural semiotic has often obscured the significance of power relations in the constitution such as patriarchal form of domination and subordinate.
Bibliography
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