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LANGUAGE

AS A SEMIOTIC SYSTEM

Jahanzeb JahanI.D: 100784-006

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LANGUAGE AS A SEMIOTIC SYSTEM

Contents:

(1): What is language?

(2): Elements of language

(3): What is semiotics?

(4): Terminology

(5): History of semiotics.

(6): Important semioticians.

(7): Charles Sanders Peirces theory (18391914).

(8): Ferdinand d sausurres theory.

(9) Signifier and signified in sausurres theory.(10): Conclusion.

(11): Bibliography.

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LAGUAGE AS A SEMIOTIC SYSTEM

(1): What is language?

According to sapir (1921)

Language is purely human and non-instinctive method of communicatingideas, emotion, and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.

According to Terger,

Language is system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means which a

social group co-operates.

According to Cambridge Dictionary1995

Language is system of communication consisting of set of rules (syntax),

morphology,(phonology, which decides the way to which these parts can becombined to produce massage (function) that have meanings (Semantics).

According to general definition quoted by R.Wardhaugh

Language is a system of conventional symbols used for communication by a

whole community.

According to D.Barton, literacy (1994)

Language is a symbolic system linking what goes on inside our heads with

what goes on outside. It mediates between self and society. It is a form of

representation, a way of representing the world to ourselves and to others.

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According to N.E Wood, in delayed speech and language

development:

Language is an organized system of linguistics symbols (words) used byhuman beings to communication through words.

(1): Language is basic to all communication

(2): Encompass all forms of expression

(2): ELEMENTS OF LANGUAGE

PHONETICS:

The study of speech sounds.

PHONOLOGY:

The study of the sound patterns of language.

SYNTACTICS:

The study of structure of sentence or rules that govern how words are combined to

form phrases and sentences

PHONEMES:

Smaller unit of speech sound.

MORPHEMES:

Combination of phonemes makes morphemes.

SEMANTICS:

The Study of meanings.

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(3): WHAT IS SEMIOTICS?

DEFINITION:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of sign

processes (semiosis), or signification and communication, signs and symbols.

Semiotics has been variously described by JHON LYONS as:

Science of signs, of symbolic behavior or of communication system.

Explanation of semiotics BY DANIEL CHANDLER:

There has been much discussion, within semiotics, of the difference between signsand signals and symbols, and of the scope of the term is COMMUNICATION.

Semiotics could be anywhere. The shortest definition is that it is the study of

signs. But that doesn't leave enquirers much wiser. 'What do you mean by a sign?'

people usually ask next. The kinds of signs that are likely to spring immediately to

mind are those which we routinely refer to as 'signs' in everyday life, such as road

signs, pub signs and star signs. If you were to agree with them that semiotics can

include the study of all these and more, people will probably assume that

semiotics is about 'visual signs'. You would confirm their hunch if you said that

signs can also be drawings, paintings and photographs, and by now they'd be keen

to direct you to the art and photography sections. But if you are thick-skinned and

tell them that it also includes words, sounds and 'body language' they may

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reasonably wonder what all these things have in common and how anyone could

possibly study such disparate phenomena. If you get this far they've probably

already 'read the signs' which suggest that you are either eccentric or insane and

communication may have ceased. But if you study semiotics in linguistics than

you can easily identify what type of explanation linguistics gives us in this

respect.

SIGNS AN D SYMBOLS IN COMMUNICATION ARE usually divided

into three branches:

Semantics: Relation between signs and the things to which they refer; their

denotata

Syntactic: Relations among signs in formal structures

Pragmatics: Relation between signs and their effects on those (people) who use

them

Semiotics is frequently seen as having important anthropological dimensions; for

example, Umberto Eco proposes that every cultural phenomenon can be studied as

communication. However, some semioticians focus on the logical dimensions of thescience. They examine areas belonging also to the natural sciences such as how

organisms make predictions about, and adapt to, their semiotic niche in the world). In

general, semiotic theories take signs or sign systems as their object of study: the

communication of information in living organisms is covered in biosemiotics or

zoosemiosis.

Syntactics is the branch of semiotics that deals with the formal properties of signs and

symbols. More precisely, syntactics deals with the "rules that govern how words are

combined to form phrases and sentences." Charles Morris adds that semantics deals

with the relation of signs to their designata and the objects which they may or do

denote; and, pragmatics deals with the biotic aspects of semiosis, that is, with all the

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psychological, biological, and sociological phenomena which occur in the functioning

of signs.____ WIKIPEDIA ENCYCLOPEDIA.

(4): TERMINOLOGY

The term, which was spelled semiotics (Greek: , semeiotikos, an

interpreter of signs), was first used in English by Henry Stubbes (1670, p. 75) in a

very precise sense to denote the branch of medical science relating to the

interpretation of signs. John Locke used the terms semeiotike and semeiotics in Book

4, Chapter 21 ofAn Essay Concerning Human Understanding(1690).

In the nineteenth century, Charles Sanders Peirce defined what he termed "semiotic"

(which he sometimes spelt as "semeiotic") as the "quasi-necessary, or formal doctrine

of signs", which abstracts "what must be the characters of all signs used by...an

intelligence capable of learning by experience", and which is philosophical logic

pursued in terms of signs and sign processes. Charles Morris followed Peirce in using

the term "semiotic" and in extending the discipline beyond human communication to

animal learning and use of signals.

Ferdinand de Saussure, however, viewed the most important area within semiotics

as belonging to the social sciences:

It is... possible to conceive of a science which studies the role of signs as part of social

life. It would form part of social psychology, and hence of general psychology. We

shall call it semiology (from the Greek semeon, 'sign'). It would investigate the nature

of signs and the laws governing them. Since it does not yet exist, one cannot say for

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certain that it will exist. But it has a right to exist, a place ready for it in advance.

Linguistics is only one branch of this general science. The laws which semiology will

discover will be laws applicable in linguistics, and linguistics will thus be assigned to

a clearly defined place in the field of human knowledge.

Cited in Chandler's "Semiotics For Beginners", Introduction.

(5): HISTORY OF SEMIOTICS

The importance of signs and signification has been recognized throughout much of

the history ofphilosophy, and in psychology as well. Plato and Aristotle both

explored the relationship between signs and the world, and Augustine considered the

nature of the sign within a conventional system. These theories have had a lasting

effect in Western philosophy, especially through Scholastic philosophy. More

recently, Umberto Eco, in his Semiotics and philosophy of language, has argued thatsemiotic theories are implicit in the work of most, perhaps all, major thinkers.

Early theorists in this area include Charles W. Morris, Max Black attributes the work

of Bertrand Russell as being seminal.

(6): IMPORTANT SEMIOTICIANS

Charles Sanders Peirce (18391914), the founder of the philosophical

doctrine known as pragmatism (which he later renamed "pragmaticism" to

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distinguish it from the pragmatism developed by others like William James),

preferred the terms "semiotic" and "semeiotic." He defined semiosis as

"...action, or influence, which is, or involves, a cooperation of three subjects,

such as a sign, its object, and its interpretant, this tri-relative influence not

being in any way resolvable into actions between pairs." ("Pragmatism",

Essential Peirce 2: 411; written 1907). His notion of semiosis evolved

throughout his career, beginning with the triadic relation just described, and

ending with a system consisting of 59,049 (= 310, or 3 to the 10th power)

possible elements and relations. One reason for this high number is that he

allowed each interpretant to act as a sign, thereby creating a new signifying

relation. Peirce was also a notable logician, and he considered semiotics and

logic as facets of a wider theory. For a summary of Peirce's contributions tosemiotics, see Liszka (1996).

Ferdinand de Saussure (18571913), the "father" of modern

linguistics, proposed a dualistic notion of signs, relating the signifieras the

form of the word or phrase uttered, to the signifiedas the mental concept. It is

important to note that, according to Saussure, the sign is completely arbitrary,

i.e. there was no necessary connection between the sign and its meaning. This

sets him apart from previous philosophers such as Plato or the Scholastics,who thought that there must be some connection between a signifier and the

object it signifies. In his Course in General Linguistics, Saussure himself

credits the American linguist William Dwight Whitney (18271894) with

insisting on the arbitrary nature of the sign. Saussure's insistence on the

arbitrariness of the sign has also greatly influenced later philosophers,

especiallypostmodern theorists such as Jacques Derrida,Roland Barthes, and

Jean Baudrillard. Ferdinand de Saussure coined the term semiologie while

teaching his landmark "Course on General Linguistics" at the University of

Geneva from 190611. Saussure posited that no word is inherently

meaningful. Rather a word is only a "signifier," i.e. the representation of

something, and it must be combined in the brain with the "signified," or the

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thing itself, in order to form a meaning-imbued "sign." Saussure believed that

dismantling signs was a real science, for in doing so we come to an empirical

understanding of how humans synthesize physical stimuli into words and

other abstract concepts.

Jakob von Uexkll (18641944) studied the sign processes in animals.

He introduced the concept of Umwelt (subjective world or environment, lit.

"world around") and functional circle(Funktionskreis) as a general model of

sign processes. In his Theory of Meaning (Bedeutungslehre, 1940), he

described the semiotic approach to biology, thus establishing the field that is

now called biosemiotics.

Valentin Voloshinov (Russian: )

(1895 June 13, 1936) was a Soviet/Russian linguist, whose work has been

influential in the field of literary theory and Marxist theory of ideology.

Written in the late 1920s in the USSR, Voloshinov's Marxism and the

Philosophy of Language (tr.: Marksizm i Filosofiya Yazyka) developed a

counter-Saussurean linguistics, which situated language use in social process

rather than in an entirely decontexualized Saussurean langue.

Louis Hjelmslev (18991965) developed a formalist approach to

Saussure's structuralist theories. His best known work is Prolegomena to aTheory of Language, which was expanded in Rsum of the Theory of

Language, a formal development ofglossematics, his scientific calculus of

language.

Charles W. Morris (19011979). In his 1938Foundations of the Theory

of Signs, he defined semiotics as grouping the triad syntax, semantics, and

pragmatics. Syntax studies the interrelation of the signs, without regard to

meaning. Semantics studies the relation between the signs and the objects towhich they apply. Pragmatics studies the relation between the sign system and

its human (or animal) user. Unlike his mentorGeorge Herbert Mead, Morris

was a behaviorist and sympathetic to the Vienna Circlepositivism of his

colleague Rudolf Carnap. Morris has been accused of misreading Peirce.

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Thure von Uexkll (19082004), the "father" of modern psychosomatic

medicine, developed a diagnostic method based on semiotic and biosemiotic

analyses.

Roland Barthes (19151980) was a French literary theorist and

semiotician. He would often interrogate pieces of cultural material to expose

how bourgeois society used them to assert its values upon others. For instance,

portrayal of wine in French society as a robust and healthy habit would be a

bourgeois ideal perception contradicted by certain realities (i.e. that wine can

be unhealthy and inebriating). He found semiotics useful in these

interrogations. Barthes explained that these bourgeois cultural myths were

second-order signs, or connotations. A picture of a full, dark bottle is a sign, a

signifier relating to a signified: a fermented, alcoholic beverage wine.

However, the bourgeois take this signified and apply their own emphasis to it,

making wine a new signifier, this time relating to a new signified: the idea of

healthy, robust, relaxing wine. Motivations for such manipulations vary from

a desire to sell products to a simple desire to maintain the status quo. These

insights brought Barthes very much in line with similar Marxist theory.

Algirdas Julien Greimas(19171992) developed a structural version of

semiotics named generative semiotics, trying to shift the focus of disciplinefrom signs to systems of signification. His theories develop the ideas of

Saussure, Hjelmslev, Claude Lvi-Strauss, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty.

Thomas A. Sebeok(19202001), a student of Charles W. Morris, was a

prolific and wide-ranging American semiotician. Though he insisted that

animals are not capable of language, he expanded the purview of semiotics to

include non-human signaling and communication systems, thus raising some

of the issues addressed by philosophy of mind and coining the termzoosemiotics. Sebeok insisted that all communication was made possible by

the relationship between an organism and the environment it lives in. He also

posed the equation between semiosis (the activity of interpreting signs) and

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life the view that has further developed by Copenhagen-Tartu biosemiotic

school.

Juri Lotman (19221993) was the founding member of the Tartu (or

Tartu-Moscow) Semiotic School. He developed a semiotic approach to the

study of culture and established a communication model for the study of text

semiotics. He also introduced the concept of the semiosphere. Among his

Moscow colleagues were Vladimir Toporov, Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich

Ivanov, and Boris Uspensky.

Umberto Eco (1932present) made a wider audience aware of semiotics by

various publications, most notably A Theory of Semiotics and his novelThe

Name of the Rose, which includes applied semiotic operations. His most

important contributions to the field bear on interpretation, encyclopedia, and

model reader. He has also criticized in several works (A theory of semiotics,

La struttura assente, Le signe, La production de signes) the "iconism" or

"iconic signs" (taken from Peirce's most famous triadic relation, based on

indexes, icons, and symbols), to which he purposes four modes of sign

production: recognition, ostension, replica, and invention.

Eliseo Vern (1935-present) developed his "Social Discourse Theory"

inspired in the Peircian conception of "Semiosis". The Mu Group (Groupe ) (founded 1967) developed a structural

version ofrhetorics, and the visual semiotics.

(7): Charles Sanders Peirce (18391914)

We seem as a species to be driven by a desire to make meanings: above all,

we are surely Homo significans - meaning-makers.

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Distinctively, we make meanings through our creation and interpretation of 'signs'.

Indeed, according to Peirce, 'we think only in signs' (Peirce 1931-58, 2.302).

Signs take the form of words,images, sounds, odours, flavours, acts or objects, but

such things have no intrinsic meaning and become signs only when we invest them

with meaning. 'Nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as a sign', declares Peirce

(Peirce 1931-58, 2.172)

(8): Ferdinand de Saussure (18571913)

Ferdinand de Saussures Course in General Linguistics (1916) is a summary of

his lectures at the University of Geneva from 1906 to 1911. Saussure examines the

relationship between speech and the evolution of language, and investigates language

as a structured system of signs.

The text includes an introduction to the history and subject-matter of linguistics; an

appendix entitled Principles of Phonology; and five main sections, entitled: Part

One: General Principles, Part Two: Synchronic Linguistics, Part Three:

Diachronic Linguistics, Part Four: Geographical Linguistics, and Part Five:Concerning Retrospective Linguistics.

Saussure defines linguistics as the study of language and as the

study of the manifestations of human speech

. He says that linguistics is also concerned with the history of languages, and with the

social or cultural influences that shape the development of language.

Linguistics includes such fields of study as:

Phonology (the study of the sound patterns of language),

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Phonetics (the study of the production and perception of the sounds of speech),

morphology (the study of word formation and structure),

Syntax(the study of grammar and sentence structure),

Semantics (the study of meaning), pragmatics (the study of the purposes and effects

of uses of language)

, andlanguage acquisition.

Saussure draws a distinction between:

language (langue) and the activity of speaking (parole).

Explanation: when we say of someone that he speaks English, we can mean one of

two things: (a); that he, habitually or occasionally, engages in a particular kind of

behaviour or (b): that he has ability(whether he exercised it or not) to engage in this

particular kind of behaviour referring to the former as PERFORMANCE and latter

as COMPETENCE, we can say hat performance presupposes competence, whereas

competence does not presupposes performance the concepts of competence and

performance is given by Chomsky.____ by JHON LYONS, LANGUAGE AND

LINGUISTICS INTRODUCTION.

Speaking is an activity of the individual; language is the social manifestation of

speech. Language is a system of signs that evolves from the activity of speech.

Language is a link between thought and sound:

Language is a link between thought and sound and is a means for thought to be

expressed as sound. Thoughts have to become ordered, and sounds have to be

articulated, for language to occur. Saussure says that language is really a borderland

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between thought and sound, where thought and sound combine to provide

communication.

Spoken language includes the communication of concepts by means of sound-images

from the speaker to the listener. Language is a product of the speakerscommunication of signs to the listener. Saussure says

that a linguistic sign is a combination of a concept and a sound-image. The

concept is what is signified, and the sound-image is the signifier. The

combination of the signifier and the signified is arbitrary; i.e., any sound-image

can conceivably be used to signify a particular concept.

A sign can be altered by a change in the relationship between the signifier and thesignified. According to Saussure, changes in linguistic signs originate in changes in

the social activity of speech.

Saussure says that linguistic signs are by nature linear, because they represent a span

in a single dimension. Auditory signifiers are linear, because they succeed each other

or form a chain. Visual signifiers, in contrast, may be grouped simultaneously in

several dimensions.

Relations between linguistic signs can be either: syntagmatic (linear, sequential, or

successive), orassociative (substitutive, or having indeterminate order).

Study of signs (Semiology):

sassure defines semiology as the study of signs, and says that linguistics is a part

of semiology. He maintains that written language exists for the purpose of

representing spoken language. A written word is an image of a vocal sign.

Saussure argues that language is a structured system of arbitrary signs.

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. A symbol may be a signifier, but in contrast to a sign, a symbol is never completely

arbitrary. A symbol has a rational relationship with what is signified.

Linguistic signs may, to a varying extent, be changeable or unchangeable. Deterrents

to linguistic change include: the arbitrary nature of signs, the multiplicity of signsnecessary to form a language, and the complexity of the structure of language. Factors

that promote change in language include: individual variation in the use of language,

and the extent to which language can be influenced by social forces.

Saussure distinguishes between synchronic (static) linguistics and diachronic

(evolutionary) linguistics.

Synchronic linguistics: is the study of language at a particular point in time.

Diachronic linguistics: is the study of the history or evolution of language.

According to Saussure, diachronic change originates in the social activity of speech.

Changes occur in individual patterns of speaking before becoming more widely

accepted as a part of language. Speaking is an activity which involves oral and

auditory communication between individuals. Language is the set of rules by which

individuals are able to understand each other.

Saussure says that nothing enters written language without having been tested in

spoken language. Language is changed by the rearranging and reinterpreting of its

units. A unit is a segment of the spoken chain that corresponds to a particular concept

Saussure explains that the units of language can have a synchronic or diachronic

arrangement.

Saussures investigation of structural linguistics gives us a clear and concise

presentation of the view that language can be described in terms of structural units. He

explains that this structural aspect means that language also represents a system of

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values. Linguistic value can be viewed as a quality of the signified, the signifier, or

the complete sign.

(9): Signifier and signified:

The linguistic value of a word (a signifier) comes from its property

of standing for a concept (the signified). The value of the signified

comes from its relation to other concepts. The value of the complete

sign comes from the way in which it unites the signifier and the

signified. Saussure offered a 'dyadic' or two-part model of the sign. He defined a sign

as being composed of:

a 'signifier' (signifiant) - theform which the sign takes;and

the 'signified' (signifi) - the conceptit represents.

The sign is the whole that results from the association of the

signifier with the signified (Saussure 1983, 67; Saussure 1974,

67). The relationship between the signifier and the signified is

referred to as 'signification', and this represented in the Saussurean diagram by the

arrows. The horizontal line marking the two elements of the sign is referred to as 'the

bar'.

If we take a linguistic example, the word 'Open' (when it is invested with meaning by

someone who encounters it on a shop doorway) is asign consisting of:

asignifier: the word open;

asignified concept: that the shop is open for business.

A sign must have both a signifier and a signified. You cannot have a totally

meaningless signifier or a completely formless signified (Saussure 1983, 101;

Saussure 1974, 102-103).

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Nowadays, whilst the basic 'Saussurean' model is commonly adopted, it tends to be a

more materialistic model than that of Saussure himself. The signifier is now

commonly interpreted as the material (or physical) form of the sign - it is something

which can be seen, heard, touched, smelt or tasted. For Saussure, both the signifier

and the signified were purely 'psychological' (Saussure 1983, 12, 14-15, 66;

Saussure 1974, 12, 15, 65-66). Both wereform rather thansubstance:

A linguistic sign is not a link between a thing and a name, but between a

concept and a sound pattern. The sound pattern is not actually a sound; for a

sound is something physical. A sound pattern is the hearer's psychological

impression of a sound, as given to him by the evidence of his senses. This sound

pattern may be called a 'material' element only in that it is the representation ofour sensory impressions. The sound pattern may thus be distinguished from the

other element associated with it in a linguistic sign. This other element is

generally of a more abstract kind: the concept. (Saussure 1983, 66; Saussure

1974, 66)

Saussure was focusing on the linguistic sign (such as a word) and he

'phonocentrically' privileged the spoken word, referring specifically to the image

acoustique ('sound-image' or 'sound pattern'), seeing writing as a separate, secondary,dependent but comparable sign system (Saussure 1983, 15, 24-25, 117; Saussure

1974, 15, 16, 23-24, 119).

A sign is a recognizable combination of a signifier with a particular signified. The

same signifier (the word 'open') could stand for a different signified (and thus be a

different sign) if it were on a push-button inside a lift ('push to open door'). Similarly,

many signifiers could stand for the concept 'open' (for instance, on top of a packing

carton, a small outline of a box with an open flap for 'open this end') - again, with

each unique pairing constituting a different sign.

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The arbitrary aspect of signs does help to account for the scope for their

interpretation (and the importance of context). There is no one-to-one link between

signifier and signified; signs have multiple rather than single meanings. Within a

single language, one signifier may refer to many signifieds (e.g. puns) and one

signified may be referred to by many signifiers (e.g. synonyms). Some commentators

are critical of the stance that the relationship of the signifier to the signified, even in

language, is always completely arbitrary (e.g. Lewis 1991, 29). Onomatopoeic words

are often mentioned in this context, though some semioticians retort that this hardly

accounts for the variability between different languages in their words for the same

sounds (notably the sounds made by familiar animals) (Saussure 1983, 69; Saussure

1974, 69._________ Cited in Chandler's "Semiotics For Beginners",

Introduction.

. Thus, Saussure shows that the meaning or signification of signs is established by

their relation to each other. The relation of signs to each other forms the structure of

language. Synchronic reality is found in the structure of language at a given point in

time. Diachronic reality is found in changes of language over a period of time.

Saussure views language as having an inner duality, which is manifested by the

interaction of the synchronic and diachronic, the syntagmatic and associative, thesignifier and signified_____________

Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics, edited by Charler Bally

and Albert Sechehaye in collaboration with Albert Riedlinger, translated by

Wade Baskin (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1966) pp. 68-73.

(10): Conclusion

In early 19th century many semioticians described theory that language as semiotic

system. Charles pierce and Ferdinand de Saussure also generator of this theory but

saussurre is considered to be FATHER of modern linguistics. he described language

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as semiotic system in his book. His concept of language as semiotic system is based

on structuralism, which was his famous theory based on language structure. In

describing language as semiotic system, he described characteristics of language as

arbitrariness, duality etc.He has paved way for new researches in linguistics.

Bibliography:

JHON LYONS, LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS AN

INTRODUCTION.

MARIE EMMITT, JHON POLLOCK, LINDA KOMESAROFF, IN

LANGUAGE AND LEARNING third edition oxford press.

Daniel chandler, semiotics for beginners introduction.

Ferdinand d Saussure, course in general linguistics, edited by

Charles Bally and AlbertSechehaye in collaboration with

Albert Riedlinger, translated by wade baskin(new york:Mc

Graw-Hill Book Company,1996)pp.68-73.

Wikipedia, free encyclopedia.

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