Semiotics

Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or (in the Saussurean tradition) semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes (semiosis), indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication. Semiotics is closely related to the field of linguistics, which, for its part, studies the structure and meaning of language more specifically. Semiotics is often divided into three branches:

• Semantics:
• Relation between signs and the things to which they refer; their denotata, or meaning
• Syntactics: Relations among signs in formal structures
• Pragmatics: Relation between signs and the effects they have on the people who use them

Semiotics 
To finish off today, we’ll be going over some basics of semiotic analysis. Semiotics is a methodological lens with which to examine relations of signs. Semiotic analysis interrogates how meaning is constructed within shared symbols. Along with C.S. Pierce and Umberto Eco, the founding of semiotics is another triumph of Ferdinand de Saussure. His outline for semiotics, or as he referred to it, semiology, is also found in his “Course in general Linguistics”.

To Saussure, the sign is a physical object with a meaning. The sign is composed of a signifier, or a physical existing sign, and a signified, which is the mental concept associated with the signifier. For example, the word ‘tree’, carries notions of ‘treeness’, or our conception of a tree, allowing us to categorize and understand it. The two work together to give signification or provide meaning to the tree as sign. It is important to note at this point that both the signifier and signification are heavily culturally and contextually specific. As a result, the meaning of a sign can only be defined in relation to other signs. Meaning is also an active process constantly being defined while at the same time actively defining; signification is the result of dynamic relations between the sign, the interpretant, and the object in referece.