SEMIOTICS
Semiotics is the study of signs and their meaning in society. A sign can stand for
something else – in other words, a sign is anything that can convey meaning. So words
can be signs, drawings can be signs, photographs can be signs, and even street signs
can be signs.
Examples:
● Picture of a sky - a sense of longingness; a bright and normal day
● Drawing of a dog - man’s best friend; desire to buy a dog
3 Ways To Look At Signs:
1. Semantics - this is the ‘how’ of semiotics and is concerned with this relationship
between a signifier and a signified – the sign and what it stands for.
Signifier - a set of speech sounds or markings, or the object itself
Signified - the idea behind the given sign
2. Syntactics - this refers to structural relations. One structural relation in language
is grammar, but syntactics in semiotics refers to the formal relationship between
signs that lets them build into sign systems.
Example:
● How can a wall clock have any relation with a person’s life?
● The relation between a black-and-white photograph and buckets of
paint
3. Pragmatics - according to American philosopher Charles Morris, it is the
relationship of a sign to the person reading or understanding that sign (the
signifier and the individual interpreting the signifier).
Key Persons In The Field of Semiotics
a. Ferdinand De Saussure
He was born in Geneva, Switzerland (November 26, 1857 - February 22,
1913). Having a background of a Swiss linguist, semiotician, and philosopher, Saussure
was widely known for the foundation of modern linguistics and semiology (the study of
signs). He also laid the groundwork for socialism and post-structuralism.
● Treated language as a sign system
● There are two inseparable components of a sign (signifier and signified)
20th-century semioticians applied his and Peirce’s work in various fields
such as aesthetics, psychoanalysis, communications, and anthropology.
Examples of a Signifier and Signified:
1. Apple
Signifier: red, leaf, round, apple
Signified: fruit, good health, teacher’s pet, temptation, technology
2. Cellphone
Signifier: gadget, screen
Signified: advancement, modern communications, separation
3. Water
Signifier: liquid, clear
Signified: change, adaptability, calmness, purity
b. Roland Barthes
He was born in Cherbourg-Octeville (November 12, 1915 - March 26,
1980). A French essayist, literal critic as well as a semiotician. Many of his works are
inspired by Ferdinand de Saussure.
● Sought to decipher the cultural meaning of a wide variety of visual signs
● A sign is the combination of both signifier and signified
● Wrote an essay entitled, “The Death of an Author” in 1967. It tackles the
reader-response theory.
● “The author is dead” - literary works and other signs have a sort of
openness rather than exclusive interpretation, which is due to the readers
having approached the text differently and in their own way
(StudySmarter, n.d.).
The 5 Semantic Codes (developed by Barthes):
1. Hermeneutic / Enigma code - when a mystery of a text needs to be solved
2. Proairetic / Action code - tackles about action that needs interpretation.
3. Semantic code - there is meaning. There can be meanings, one or more, to the
provided text.
4. Symbolic code - when a meaning within a text stands for another meaning.
5. Referential code - when a meaning in the text stands for something outside the
text itself.
The Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree:
This song is about a man convicted in prison home is on the way home to his
wife after 3 long years. Before he gets to go home, he wrote her a letter in prison telling
her that if she’s willing to accept him again, she would tie a yellow ribbon around an old
oak tree, otherwise if she doesn’t, then his wife has already moved on. Because of him
being afraid and anxious, he told the bus driver to look at the old oak tree for him, and
behold he sees a yellow ribbon.
● This is a song written and sung by Tony Orlando and Dawn in 1972
● Originally meant for a sign of acceptance, the forgiving of an embarrassing
or saddening act. It is one that is not casually offered and must be earned
with effort
● Forgiveness of a stigma
The meaning changed in 1991, where US forces fought in their Operation: Desert
Storm, where it’s about wishing their soldiers safe travels home from enemy territory.
There was no longer any sense of shameful acts to be forgiven or disgrace to overcome
It devolved into a meaning of triumph, pride, and arrogance.
Once a sign of personal reconciliation, became a blatant sign of nationalism.
2 Systems in Semiotics:
1. Denotative System - a descriptive sign without any ideological content, it is the
surface or literal meaning
2. Connotative System - a mythic sign that has lost its historical referent, an idea
or feeling invoked by the literal meaning of the object or signifier
c. Charles Sanders Peirce
He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts (September 10, 1839 - April
19, 1914). Charles Peirce founded the American pragmatism and formulated the triadic
model of communication.
Example:
Application to Media:
Many contents and what we see on the social media platform is always open for
interpretations. While some may have a solidified meaning, a sort of fixed, universal
interpretation, the majority of objects and signs we see in the world can mean one thing
to a person and another thing to another individual. It’s important that we obtain media
literacy and know the full context or substance of the signifier before we apply
interpretation. Even our interpretation can become the cause of a connotation of an
object due to the lack of information that builds up the whole object.
We can only learn by exposing ourselves to different forms of media and
consume it in an objective way, where we apply what we learn from the lessons of
Semiotics and see the bigger picture of what the object wants us to interpret from it. In
Roland Barthes’ essay on “The Death of An Author”, he writes, “We know that to give
writing its future, it is necessary to overthrow the myth: the birth of the reader must be at
the cost of the death of the Author.”
REFERENCES
Griffin, E. A. (1994). A first look at communication theory.
[Link]
Media Studies. (2022, August 27). Charles peirce’s triadic model of communication.
Media Studies. [Link]
MediaTextHack. (2014, February 28). Sign systems. BCcampus Open Publishing.
[Link]
StudySmarter. (n.d.). Roland barthes.
[Link]
and-theory/roland-barthes/
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2024, January 19). Semiotics. Britannica.
[Link]
