Semiotics

According to Fasold and Connor, 2006, humans developed the ability

to use sounds in systems which can communicate a wide variety of meanings.

Ferdinand de Saussure published a series of lectures in

A Course of General Linguistics

Semiotics originated thanks to

Ferdinand de Saussure and his work A course of general linguistics

The study of communication systems has its origins in

Semiotics

Semiotics deals with

signs and deals with different types of signs, as well as its production, transmission, reception and interpretation.

Semiotics studies signs and their

functioning within a communicative system.

Linguistics -

scientific study of language

Language is a human…

faculty that enables communication through a set of linguistic signs

Semiotics has a broader and more general approach to studying

linguistic signs than linguistics

Biotics

intercellular communication within an organism

Cybersemiotics

communication between machines and with humans

Semiolinguistics

communication through linguistic signs

Zoosemiotics

animal communication

Clinical semiotics

communication through clinical signs

Semiotics of music

communication through music

Then, why human communication system is called linguistics? Because…

human language is the most comprehensive communicative mechanism, and it needs a separate science dedicated to its study

Semiology

a non-existent science which studies the role of signs as part of social life

Who developed behaviourist semiotics?

Charles William Morris and Charles Sanders Pierce

Semiotic theorists:

Roland Barthes, Algirdas Greimas, Umberto Eco, Julia Kristeva

Roman Jakobson worked within a

semiotic framework

The linguistic sign consists of

the signifier and the signified, whose relation is entirely decided by social convention

the signifier =

form of the sign

the signified

its meaning

Charles Pierce sees the sign as a

triadic relation

Charles Pierce’s triadic relation =

representamen, object, interpretant

representamen

the physical form of the sign

object

the actual thing or concept

interprentant

the meaning of the sign as understood by an interpreter

Charles William Morris further develops Pierce’s idea -

a semantic component, a syntactic component, a pragmatic component

a semantic component

the relationship between the sign and the object it describes

a syntactic component

the formal relationship between signs

the pragmatic component

the relationship between the user and the sign

index

sign which is inherently related to the thing indicated, it has no communicative intention

Arbitrary signs include:

icons and symbols

Arbitrary signs

there is no inherent connection between them and what is signified. They can be changed bc they are conventional, and they are used for communication.

Icons

signs that are only partly arbitrary; they are based on the resemblance between the signifiier nad the signified

Symbol

is entirely arbitrary and based on convention rather than resemblance.

Language is a semiotic system because

it is a system of linguistic signs intended for communication

Language is a…system and

symbolic and its signs are conventional

Non-verbal communication is

omnipresent

non-verbal communication refers to the use of

semiotic systems that usually accompany human language

non-verbal means -

not part of a linguistic system

Non-verbal communication depends on

the culture

Paralanguage is in other words

vocalics

Paralanguage

acoustic, non-linguistic elements of verbal performance

Primary qualities of voice

pitch variation and range, loudness, emphasis, tempo, pauses, voice coloring

Vocalisations -

non-linguistic signs produced vocally; laughter, crying, sighs, yawns, cough

Vocal elements, functions:

communicate emotional reactions, indicate social attitudes, regulates turns in conversations, convey mood and attitude

Arabs have…

louder speech than most cultures, because loundess = strength and honesty, softness = weakness and dishonesty

Britons use…

softer voices than North Americans

Ray Birdwhistell -

an American anthropologist interested in kinesics. He interpreted movies and found that only 35% of the message is conveyed through words, the remaining 65% is conveyed through non-verbal communication

Kinesics -

all gestures, bodily movements, facial expressions, posture, gaze that convey information alongside speech.

The motions of hands seem to produce expressions most

closely related in meaning to what is expressed in speech

Emblems

they convey a specific meaning on their own. Sometimes, they can replace verbal communication

Illustrators

they accompany speech and serve to reinforce and organise what is said verbally.

Illustrators include:

kinetographs, deictics, spatial illustrators and rhytmic gestures

deictics

pointing gestures

Spatial illustrators

show size, shape or movement

kinetographs

depict actions

rhytmic gestures

match the speech rythm to emphasize the point

Regulators

they maintain and organise the communicative exchange

turn-taking regulators

indicate when someone should spoeak or stop

feedback regulators

show active listening; nodding, tilting the head

affect displays

they communicate emotions or moods

Ray Birdwhistell noticed that

people used their non-verbal communication more when they spoke their mother language compared to when they spoke English

Body movements of non-verbal language are

arbitrary signs

Relationships between signs vary according to

the culture

Edward T. Hall -

an American anthropologist interested in proxemics

Proxemics

the study of the use of space

Proxemics deals with

interpersonal space, the relation between humans and architecture, territoriality

Hall’s zones of interpersonal space:

intimate, personal, social, public

Haptics

refers to the use of touch as a communication system

The same type of touch can send…

different messages

What is important in order to accurately interpret touch?

the type of relationship between the two people, and context

Haptics differs across

cultures and gender

Haptics changes…

over time

Chronemics -

the study of the use and meaning of time in communication

Cultures differ in terms of whether they perceive time as

monochronic or polychronic

Monochronic cultures

focus on one task at a time, respect towards schedules; time as a road that extends from the past to the future

Polychronic cultures

tend to multitask and avoid strict scheduling

multimodality

the use of multiple communication channels to convey meaning

Language in everyday use is

inherently multimodal

An example of multimodality:

I had it up here with

Animals rely on 4 main communication channels:

acoustic, tactile, visual, chemical

The study of zoosemiotics helps to better understand

human language through comparison

No evidence has been found of a

systemized animal language comparable to humans.

Bees talk through…

dance

Round dance

food is nearby

waggle dance

indicates the distance to the food and its quality

Among the dances, there are…

geographical variations

calls of birds

brief sentences, used to warn against danger or threat

songs of birds

long, melodic sequences intended to mark territory or incite breeding

How birds learn to sing?

they need to listen to how adults sing to be able to sing correctly. There is a critical age period for this, and geographical variations

What non-verbal communication systems do chimpanzees share with humans?

vocalics, proxemics, kinesics, haptics, chronemics

which characteristics are unique to human language?

displacement, duality of language, prevarication, reflexivity, productivity

displacement

the ability to talk about the past and future and also things that aren’t there

prevarication

the ability to say things that don’t correspond to reality; lie

reflexivity

the ability to talk about our own system of signs

duality of structure

human language consists of phonemes which are meaningless units but they can form into signs that convey meaning such as words

productivity

human language has an infinite number of expressions