eBook - ePub
Introducing Semiotics
A Graphic Guide
Paul Cobley, Litza Jansz
This is a test
Share book
- 176 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
Introducing Semiotics
A Graphic Guide
Paul Cobley, Litza Jansz
Book details
Book preview
Table of contents
Citations
About This Book
"Introducing Semiotics" outlines the development of sign study from its classical precursors to contemporary post-structuralism. Through Paul Cobley's incisive text and Litza Jansz's brilliant illustrations, it identifies the key semioticians and their work and explains the simple concepts behind difficult terms. For anybody who wishes to know why signs are crucial to human existence and how we can begin to study systems of signification, this book is the place to start.
Frequently asked questions
How do I cancel my subscription?
Can/how do I download books?
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
What is the difference between the pricing plans?
Both plans give you full access to the library and all of Perlegoās features. The only differences are the price and subscription period: With the annual plan youāll save around 30% compared to 12 months on the monthly plan.
What is Perlego?
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, weāve got you covered! Learn more here.
Do you support text-to-speech?
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Is Introducing Semiotics an online PDF/ePUB?
Yes, you can access Introducing Semiotics by Paul Cobley, Litza Jansz in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & Literary Criticism Theory. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
If you go to the right cocktail parties, or hang around the foyers of the right cinemas, or read the right Sunday colour supplements, or watch the right late night arts programmes on TV, then you will know that āsemioticsā is a valuable buzzword.
YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND SEMIOTICS TO UNDERSTAND CONTEMPORARY CULTURE. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
The Pre-History of Semiotics
Early precursors of semiotics include Plato (c. 428ā348 BCE*) whose Cratylus ponders the origin of language; and Aristotle (384ā322 BCE) who considers nouns in his Poetics and On Interpretation.
The word āsemioticsā comes from the Greek root, seme, as in semeiotikos, an interpreter of signs. Semiotics as a discipline is simply the analysis of signs or the study of the functioning of sign systems.
The idea that sign systems are of great consequence is easy enough to grasp; yet the recognition of the need to study sign systems is very much a modern phenomenon.
IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CRIES OF ANIMALS AND THE SPEECH OF HUMANS. IT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NATURAL SIGNS AND CONVENTIONAL SIGNS.
One of the most notable debates on signs in the Ancient world took place between the Stoics and the Epicureans (around 300 BCE in Athens).
The crux of the matter concerned the difference between ānatural signsā (freely occurring throughout nature) and āconventionalā signs (those designed precisely for the purpose of communication).
For the Stoics especially, the quintessential sign was what we know as the medical symptom.
LOOK. HIS COUNTENANCE IS FLUSHED. I THINK HE HAS A FEVER. ITāS A SIGN!
The symptom remained the model sign for the Classical era.
The major foundation for the Western interrogation of signs was laid in the Middle Ages with the teachings of St. Augustine (354ā430).
Augustine developed his theory of signa data ā conventional signs. Contrary to Classical commentators, he promoted such signs as the proper objects of philosophical scrutiny.
GOD. GOD. I WONDER WHAT MADE ME SAY THAT?
He also served to narrow the focus of sign study by pronouncing on the way in which words seem to be the correlates of āmental wordsā.
Augustineās narrowing of the focus was to have a serious impact on subsequent sign study.
Other scholars, such as the English Franciscan, William of Ockham (c. 1285ā1349) exacerbated this version of the sign.
THE MAIN CATEGORIZATION OF SIGNS CONCERNS THOSE THAT ARE MENTAL AND PRIVATE, AND THOSE THAT ARE SPOKEN/WRITTEN IN ORDER, TO BE MADE PUBLIC. I SAW IN THE EXAMINATION OF SIGNIFYING PROCESSES A BASIS FOR A NEW LOGIC.
Although these figures in European philosophy are in some senses proto-semioticians, it is not until the 20th century that a full-blown semiotic awareness appears, under the auspices of two founding fathers.
Ferdinand de Saussure (1857ā1913)AT THIS STAGE I WAS MORE INTERESTED IN SPECIFIC LANGUAGES IN HISTORY RATHER THAN A GENERAL LINGUISTICS.
In 1906 the University of Geneva, by fluke, provided the catalyst for him to produce a landmark in linguistics and, subsequently, semiotics.
Saussure was assigned the task of teaching a course in general linguistics (1906ā11), a task he had not previously undertaken, and dealing with a topic upon which he would not publish in his lifetime.
Nevertheless, when Saussure died in 1913, his students and colleagues thought the course was so innovative that they reassembled it from their preserved notes and published it in 1916 as the Cours de linguistique gƩnƩrale.
SAUSSUREāS APPROACH TO LANGUAGE DIFFERS SIGNIFICANTLY FROM THAT WHICH 19TH CENTURY PHILOLOGISTS HAVE OFFERED US. PSST! CAN I BORROW YOUR NOTES?
In opposition to a āhistoricalā ā diachronic ā linguistics which looks at the changes which take place over time in specific languages, Saussure pursued a synchronic linguistics. He presented an analysis of the state of language in general, an understanding of the conditions for existence of any language.
The Cours focussed on the nature of the linguistic sign, and Saussure made a number of crucial points which are integral to any understanding of the European study of sign systems.
Saussure defined the linguistic sign as a two-sided entity, a dyad. One side of the sign was what he called the signifier. A signifier is the thoroughly material aspect of a sign: if one feels oneās vocal cords when speaking, it is clear that sounds are made from vibrations (which are undoubtedly material in nature). Saussure described the verbal signifier as a āsound imageā.
DAMN! IāVE GOT A BIT OF SIGNIFIER ON MY HAND
Inseparable from the signifier in any sign ā and, indeed, engendered by the signifier ā is what Saussure calls the signified.
This is...