The semiotics is the science that studies all forms of communication between humans. This includes not only language and words, but also the different systems of signs that allow the exchange of messages between individuals.
Within them we can include images, signs, icons, codes, acts and objects that generally have a stipulated meaning, which is common and shared by the members of a society.
Egyptian hieroglyphs. Source: pixabay.com
In a way, people communicate through almost everything we do: what we say, what we keep silent, our gestures and postures, the clothes we wear, the music we listen to and the way we move or comb our hair.
In the same way, in our daily life we are surrounded by signs that we have institutionalized and that allow us to manage ourselves on a day-to-day basis and relate to others.
This ranges from traffic signs to the representation of our national and religious symbols, through advertising images and different cultural expressions.
Ultimately, semiotics encompasses all communication systems present within human societies. Its study helps us to understand how the different signs acquire and convey meaning, and the way in which they are used to interact and relate to each other.
Origin and history of semiotics
The semiotic word comes from the Greek "semeion", which means "sign", and from the suffix "tikoç", which means "relative to", so it could etymologically be translated as "relative to signs".
The ancient Greek civilizations, led by Plato and Aristotle, were the first to reflect on the origins of language and analyze the relationship between signs and the world in which they lived.
These studies continued through the Middle Ages with Saint Augustine and continued through the centuries with works by William de Occan, John Poinsot, and John Locke, among other scholars.
Finally, in the mid-19th century, the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce proposed a new theory of signs, classifying them into icons, symbols, and indices.
A short time later, at the beginning of the 20th century, the Swiss Ferdinand Saussure analyzed the complex procedure by which a specific meaning is attributed to a signifier, a term with which he called the physical or material part of a sign.
With their studies, Peirce and Saussure laid the foundations for what is now known as semiotics.
Later, his concepts were continued and expanded by different philosophical and scientific currents, with thinkers such as Michel Foucault, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Roland Barthes, Algirdas Julien Greimas, Jackes Lacan, Humberto Eco and Roman Jakobson, among many others.
Definition and concept of semiotics
Semiotics is a science that studies the process by which signs are generated and developed, until they acquire a certain meaning. This also includes the way they are transmitted, received and interpreted.
In general the semiotic is divided into 5 branches: semantics, onomasiology, semasiology, pragmatics and syntax.
Semantics studies the relationship between signifiers and their meanings, while onomasiology is responsible for naming things and establishing their different names.
Semasiology, meanwhile, analyzes the relationship between an object and its name and, pragmatics, the way in which people use the different signs when communicating. Finally, the syntax examines the relationships between the various signifiers.
For some authors, and for the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), semiotics and semiology are synonymous. However, other thinkers are of the opinion that the first is a part of the second.
In this case they distinguish two aspects within semiology: linguistics, dedicated to the analysis of language, and semiotics, which deals with the rest of human signs and nature.
In general, the term semiology is usually associated with the European school of study, since it was used by Ferdinand Saussure, while semiotics is linked to the American one, as it was used by Charles Peirce.
Examples of semiotics
From ancient cave paintings to the present day, the signs have accompanied us practically at all times. Some recognized examples are Egyptian hieroglyphs, stones carved on Easter Island, and pre-Columbian inscriptions, including all their rites and ceremonies.
Going to our days, today we all understand that a sign with certain figures implies that smoking is prohibited, that pets are not allowed, that you cannot park, that we must adjust our belts or that we are in the presence of a school or a toxic substance.
Similarly, we all know that a white dove with an olive branch in its mouth represents peace, a cross represents Christianity, and the Star of David represents Judaism, while the use of certain types of clothing is associated with jobs and professions. concrete, such as overalls for doctors and teachers, and uniforms for police and military.
In football, we all understand that a yellow card means a warning and a red card means an expulsion. And so we could continue accumulating signs and interpretations, because semiotics is present in practically everything we do.
Regarding its specific application, this science can be used for the analysis of political, journalistic and advertising discourses; cinema and television; the photograph; the comics; the videogames; The graphic design; artistic montages and education, among many other possibilities.
In short, semiotics allows us to understand to a large extent the world in which we live and the way in which human beings act and communicate, facilitating the interpretation of cultural, psychological and social phenomena.
References
- Introducing Semiotics, by Paul Cobley and Litza Jansz, published by Icon Books Ltd, 2004, United Kingdom.
- The dance of the signs. Notions of general semiotics, by V. Zecchetto, Ediciones ABYA-YALA, 2002, Ecuador.
- The Semiotic Perspectives of Peirce and Saussure: A Brief Comparative Study. ElSevier. Available at: repo.uum.edu.my
- Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), available at: rae.es
- International Association of Semiotic Studies (IASS). Short Story. Available at: iass-ais.org