NOTIONS OF SEMIOTIC, SEMIOSIS, SEMIOTICS AND OR SEMIOLOGY English Language and Literature Study Program 6B (Regular Class) 2013/2014

Group 5: -

Nadya Sivanya Rheisa (10211141038) Rifadiyah Nur Maksumah (10211141039) Editya Eka Novridian (10211141042)

Regular Assignment 1

Semiotics: 1. Terence Hawkes (1977:24) proclaims in Structuralism and Semiotics: "The terms semiology and semiotics are both used to refer to [the 'science of signs'], the only difference between them being that semiology is preferred by Europeans, out of deference to Saussure's coinage of the term, and semiotics tends to be preferred by English speakers, out of deference to the American Peirce." Shortly thereafter, Hawkes contends that the boundaries of the "field of semiotics," if indeed there be any, "are coterminous with those of structuralism: the interests of the two spheres are not fundamentally separate and, in the long run, both ought properly to be included within the province of a third, embracing discipline called, simply, communication. In such a context, structuralism itself would probably emerge as a method of analysis linking the fields of linguistics, anthropology and semiotics". (Marrell, Floyd. Semiotics versus Semiology: or, How Can We Get a Handle on. http://www.digitalpeirce.fee.unicamp.br/floyd/p-semflo.htm. Access on Friday, February 22, 2013 at 12.45 P.M)

2. Semiotics is not widely institutionalized as an academic discipline. It is a field of study

involving many different theoretical stances and methodological tools. One of the broadest definitions is that of Umberto Eco, who states that 'semiotics is concerned with everything that can be taken as a sign' (Eco 1976, 7). Semiotics involves the study not only of what we refer to as 'signs' in everyday speech, but of anything which 'stands for' something else. In a semiotic sense, signs take the form of words, images, sounds, gestures and objects (Chandler, Daniel. Semiotics versus Semiology: or, How Can We Get a Handle on. http://users.aber.ac.uk/dgc/Documents/S4B/sem01.html. Access on Friday, February 22, 2013 at 18.18) 3. For the philosopher Charles Peirce 'semiotic' was the 'formal doctrine of signs' which was closely related to Logic (Peirce 1931-58, 2.227). For him, 'a sign... is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity' (Peirce 1931-58, 2.228). He declared that 'every thought is a sign' (Peirce 1931-58, 1.538; cf. 5.250ff, 5.283ff).

Semiosis: 1. Semiosis is itself the process of signs becoming other signs. (Merrell, Floyd. Semiotics for Beginner. http://www.digitalpeirce.fee.unicamp.br/floyd/psemflo.htm. Access on Friday, February 22, 2013 at 12.45 P.M) 2. Morris famously defines semiosis as a process in which something is a sign to some organism (1946, p. 366). Semiosis is therefore the action of signs which is a threefold process, consisting of the sign vehicle (a sign), the designatum (what is referred to), and the interpretant (the effector of the relationship between the other two) (Morris 1938). (Cobley, Paul. 2005. The Routledge Companion to Semiotics and Linguistics. London)
3. Peirce defined semiosis as an irreducible triadic relation between a Sign, its Object (the

object, act or event with which it inter-relates) and its Interpretant (that which is becoming interpreted through its inter-action with its interpreter) (CP 2.171, CP 2.274). That is, according to Peirce, any description of semiosis involves a relation constituted by

three irreducibly connected terms, which are its minimal constitutive elements (MS 318:81; CP 2.242). (Queiroz, Joo & Merrell, Flloyd. 2006. Semiosis and Pragmatism: Toward a Dynamic Concept of Meaning, Sign Systems Studies, vols. 26-34.1, 37-65. Semiology: 1. For the linguist Saussure, 'semiology' was 'a science which studies the role of signs as part of social life'. (Chandler, Daniel. Semiotics versus Semiology: or, How Can We Get a Handle on. http://users.aber.ac.uk/dgc/Documents/S4B/sem01.html. Access on Friday, February 22, 2013 at 18.18) 2. We can define semiology as the study of signs. We may not realize it, but in fact semiology can be applied to all sorts of human endeavours, including cinema, theatre, dance, architecture, painting, politics, medicine, history, and religion. That is, we use a variety of gestures (signs) in everyday life to convey messages to people around us, e.g., rubbing our thumb and forefinger together to signify money. In the notes that follow, I will say a few words about structuralism, an intellectual movement which flourished during the 1950s and the 1960s, and semiology, which has been one of the chief modes of this intellectual movement. The major figures in this movement include Ferdinand de Saussure, Roland Barthes, Roman Jakobson, Claude Levi-Strauss, Thomas Sebeok, Julia Kristeva, and Umberto Eco. For reasons that will become obvious, I will focus on Saussure and Barthes, the pioneers. All believed semiology is the key to unlocking meaning of all things. (Seiler, Robert M. Semiology//Semiotics. http://people.ucalgary.ca/~rseiler/semiolog.htm. Access on Friday, February 22, 2013 at 18.25)