Semiotics

Edgar Kenji Tanaka

Agenda

• What is semiotics?

• What is a sign?

• Types of signs

• Why study semiotics?

• Conclusions

What is semiotics?

• Also called semiology

• Comes from greek semeîon which means

sign

• Science which studies the role of signs as

part of social life (Saussure)

• Formal doctrine of signs (Peirce)

• Investigates the nature of signs and the

laws governing them

Studies in semiotics

• Semiotics studies are in art,

literature, anthropology, mass

media, psychoanalysis, biology,

education and computers

• Semiotics are studied by

semioticians (semioticistas in

Portuguese)

What is a sign?

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEgxTKUP_WI

(Semiotics: the study of signs)

What is a sign?

• Saussure and Peirce were

concerned with the definition of sign

• Words, images, sounds, gestures,

objects

Ferdinand de Saussure

• November 26, 1857 – February 22,

1913

• Swiss linguist

• Father of the 20-century linguistics

Saussure´s sign definition

the form which the sign

takes

signification

the concept it represents

Saussure´s sign definition

• “the sign is the whole that results from

the association of the signifier with the

signified” (Saussure)

• Signified and Signifier are both

psychological (form rather than

substance)

• Saussure´s model of the sign refers only

to a concept and not to a thing

Saussure

• ExampleConcept of

a tree

Word ‘tree’, picture of a

tree, pronunciation

of ‘tree’

Saussure

• Example−Signifier – word ‘open’−Signified – that the shop is open for

business

Saussure

• Same signifier can stand for different signifieds depending on the context

• Saussure was focusing on the linguistic sign (such as a word)

• The link between signified and signifier is arbitrary (nothing ‘treeish’ about word ‘tree’)

• No specific signifier is ‘naturally’ more suited to a signified than another

• Saussure was more concerned about linguistic signs and speech

Charles Sanders Peirce

• September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914

• American logician, philosopher,

mathematician and scientist

• Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts

• Contributions to philosophy,

mathematics, logic and semiotics

Peirce´s sign definition

• “Something which stands to

somebody for something in respect

or capacity” (Peirce)

Peirce´s sign definition

• Representamen – form

which the sign takes (not

necessarily material)

• Object – to which the

sign refers

• Interpretant – idea,

interpretation in mind

3 classes of signs

• Symbol – signifier does not resemble the

signified (fundamentally arbitrary or

purely conventional)

• Icon – signifier is perceived as resembling

or imitating the signified

• Index – signifier is directly connected in

some way (physically or causally) to the

signified

Highlights

• There are no pure icons – there is

always na element of cultural

convention involved

• Iconic and Indexical signs are more

likely to be read as ‘natural’ than

symbolic signs. (HCI) Abstract UI

(youtube)

Why should we study semiotics?• “...writings of semioticians have a reputation for

being dense with jargon”• Semiotics is important because it can help us not to

take ‘reality’ for granted as something having a purely objective existence which is independent of human interpretation

• Information or meaning is NOT contained in the world• We live in a world of signs and we have no way of

understanding anything except through signs• Deconstructing and contesting the realities of signs

can reveal whose realities are privileged and whose are supressed

Conclusions

• Peirce´s sign model seems to be more complete than Saussure´s

• Saussure was more concerned with linguistics

• Peirce´s model seems to be more adequate in the HCI context

• Semiotics can help understand signs in computers

• Semiotics can help in anything involving communication such as computer interfaces

Next steps?

• Search for material involving HCI

and semiotics

• ...

References

• Chandler, Daniel, Semiotics for

Beginners (chapters 1 and 2)