According to Roland Posner, semiotics at the fin du siècle[1] became “The art of revealing or creating meaning in discourse. Semiotics becomes “semanalysis” (Kristeva,1969a) or the “deconstruction” of discourse (Derrida 1967a; de Man 1979, 1993; Culler 1982)” (Posner, “Post-Modernism, Post-Structuralism, Post-Semiotics?” p.23) It then went from science to art, from logos to creativity, and from…

Understanding texts requires a lot of knowledge about the world: According to Teun Van Dijk, the text is only the apparent part, like an iceberg, a vast amount of knowledge is in the mind[1]. In the following lines, we will shed light on some aspects that come into play while interpreting texts. The goal is…

According to Ferdinand de Saussure, semiology is a “science that studies the life of signs within social life” (Saussure, Bally, and De Mauro, Cours de linguistique générale, p.33), Its goal is to teach us “what constitutes signs, what laws govern them” (ibid.). From what is underlined in the quote above, we can deduce that the…

Peircean SignSaussurean SignGeneral: It applies to everything, even atoms, or thoughts. The Peircean sign applies to all areas.Linguistic, but generalizable[1]. However, according to the first definition given to semiology, it cannot be applied outside of Language[2]Triadic: A constitution of three elements (Object – Sign – Interpretant)Dyadic: Composed of two elements (Signifier – Signified)Pragmatic: It is…

The Peircean Sign C.S Peirce’s sign is a constitution of three elements: Sign (Sign-Vehicle), Object, and Interpretant[1]. - The object is generally any object with all its characteristics (The complete object): for example, a paint bucket. - A sign is that part that retains the attention of the interpreter. Let’s say, for example, a piece of…

The Saussurean Sign Ferdinand de Saussure’s sign is composed of a signifier and a signified; The two are inseparable like the two faces of a sheet. Ferdinand de Saussure is a mentalist. According to him, signs are psychic and not physical entities. The signifier represents the acoustic image: A mental representation and not a sequence of…

C.S Peirce’s Semiotics And Ferdinand De Saussure’s Semiology The diagram shows two currents: one in Europe, the other in America. Ferdinand de Saussure’s Semiology represents the European current. C.S Peirce’s Semeiotics/Semiotics represents the American current. The two semioticians above are the precursors of modern semiotics, qualified as scientific. They inspired semioticians like Louis Hjelmslev, Charles Morris,…

Generally speaking[1], semiotics is the study of: Signs production, Signs communication Signs interpretation What is a sign? In general[2], Anything that has meaning is a sign. Types of Signs (In relation to our 5 senses) Sight ↔ Visual signs Hearing ↔ Auditory signs Smell ↔ Olfactory signs Taste ↔ Gustatory signs Touch ↔ Tactile signs…