In semiotics, the value of a sign depends on its position and relations in the system of signification and upon the particular codes being used. Semiotics (originally spelled semeiotics to honour John Locke (1632-1704) who first coined the term semeiotike from the Greek word σημειον or semeion, meaning mark or sign) is the study of signs and sign systems. ... In semiotics, a sign is generally defined as something that stands for something else, to someone in some capacity (Marcel Danesi and Paul Perron, Analyzing Cultures). It may be understood as a discrete unit of meaning. ... In semiotics, the concept of a code is of fundamental importance. ...

Definitions

Drawing from the original definition proposed by Saussure (1857-1913), a sign has two parts: Ferdinand de Saussure (November 26, 1857 - February 22, 1913) was a Swiss linguist. ...

• as a signifier, i.e. it will have a form that a person can see, touch, smell, and/or hear, and
• as the signified, i.e. it will represent an idea or mental construct of a thing rather than the thing itself. This emphasises that the sign is merely a symbol for the class of object referred to. Hence, the lexical word or noun "box" evokes a range of possibility from cheap card to gold-encrusted container. The reader or audience may not be able to see the particular box referred to but will be aware of its likely form from the other signs accompanying the use of the particular word.

However, there is no necessary connection between the signifier and the signified. There is nothing inherently boxy about the component sounds or letters that comprise the noun "box" — the scope of onomatopoeia is limited when forming a language. All that is necessary is that the relevant group of people should decide to use that word to denote the object. Evidence that this is the correct view comes from the fact that each language can encode signifiers with whichever signified they wish to communicate. Hence, for example, the letters comprising "air" signify what humans breathe in English, and what fish breathe in Malay, i.e. water. This makes a system of signs a very flexible mechanism for communicating meaning, but one which is conditioned by history and culture, i.e. once a sign acquires a commonly accepted meaning in each language, it cannot arbitrarily be changed by any one person, but it is able to change diachronically. Further, Roman Jakobson (1896-1982) proposes that when a group of signs is used, there is an emotive function that reflects the speaker's attitude to the topic of his or her discourse. Language and the other coding systems are the means whereby one self-aware individual communicates with another. By selecting particular signs and placing them in a context, the addresser is making a cognitive use of the sign system to refer to his or her own social, moral, ethical, political or other values. Philosophers sometimes distinguish classes from types and kinds. ... As used in philosophy, object is a thing, an entity, or a being. ... In the lexicon of a language, lexical words or nouns refer to things. ... An audience is the/a group of people who participate in and experience or encounter a work of art, literature, theatre, music or academics in any medium. ... The sound of hitting a ball can be described as Whack. In rhetoric, linguistics and poetry, onomatopoeia is a figure of speech that employs a word, or occasionally, a grouping of words, that imitates, echoes, or suggests the object it is describing, such as bang, click, fizz, hush or buzz... In semiotics, denotation is the surface or literal meaning encoded to a signifier, and the definition most likely to appear in a dictionary. ... Meaning is studied in philosophy and linguistics. ... History Forums - History is Happening -Discuss all historical topics, as well as current events, in an academic setting. ... The word culture comes from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor). ... Diachronic study is the study of the development of a language over a period of time. ... Roman Osipovich Jakobson (October 11, 1896 - July 18, 1982) was a Russian thinker who became one of the most influential linguists of the 20th century by pioneering the development of structural analysis of language, poetry, and art. ... In semantics, discourses are linguistic units composed of several sentences - in other words, conversations, arguments or speeches. ... The term cognition is used in several different loosely related ways. ...

Because signs may have multiple meanings, a sign can only be interpreted in its context. Saussure believed that any one sign takes its value from its position and relations with other signs within the linguistic system. Modern semiotics draws its inspiration, inter alia, from the work of Roland Barthes (1915-80) who asserted that semiotics should expand its scope and concern, "...any system of signs, whatever their substance and limits; images, gestures, musical sounds, objects, and the complex associations of all of these, which form the content of ritual, convention or public entertainment: these constitute, if not languages, at least systems of signification." (1967, 9). Roland Barthes (November 12, 1915 – March 25, 1980) was a French literary critic, literary and social theorist, philosopher and semiotician. ...

In the system to be interrogated, the relations will be both weak and strong, positive and negative, qualitative and quantitative, etc. In this, a sign cannot be attributed a value outside its context (although what is signified may have connotative meaning(s) that resonate outside the context), and what is not present can be just as significant as what is present. In a slightly different context of critique through the archaeological and genealogical methods for the study of knowledge, Michel Foucault (1926-84) used the idea of discontinuity as a means to revalorise elements of knowledge. In this, he considered the silences and lacunae within a text to be as significant as express statements. In both systems, the specific processes of analysis examine these gaps to reveal whose interests are served by the omissions. Such analysis is particularly useful to identify which questions are left unasked. In semiotics, connotation arises when the denotative relationship between a signifier and its signified is inadequate to serve the needs of the community. ... Knowledge is the awareness and understanding of facts, truths or information gained in the form of experience or learning (a posteriori), or through introspection (a priori). ... Michel Foucault Michel Foucault (October 15, 1926 – June 26, 1984) was a French philosopher and held a chair at the Collège de France, a chair to which he gave the title The History of Systems of Thought. His writings have had an enormous impact on other scholarly work: Foucaults...

Methods

The commutation test can be used to identify which signifiers are significant. The test depends on substitution: a particular signifier is chosen, then the effect of substituting alternatives is considered to determine the extent to which the value of the sign is changed. This both illuminates the meaning of the original choice and identifies the paradigms and code to which the signifiers used belong. For alternative meanings see Paradigm (disambiguation). ... In semiotics, the concept of a code is of fundamental importance. ...

Paradigmatic analysis compiles a list of the signifiers present in the text. This set comprises the paradigm. The analyst then compares and contrasts the set with absent signifiers, i.e. with other signifiers that might have been chosen. This reveals the significance of the choices made which might have been required because of technical production constraints or the the limitations of the individual’s own technique, or because of the tropes, generic conventions, style and rhetorical purpose of the work. The analysis of paradigmatic relations helps to define the ‘value’ of specific items in a system. In semiotics paradigmatic analysis is analysis of paradigms rather than surface structure (syntax) as in syntagmatic analysis, often made through commutation tests, comparisons of words chosen with absent words, words of the same type or class but not chosen. ... Another meaning of Trope is Jewish cantillation. ... Convention has at least two separate and very distinct meanings. ... Style may refer to genre, design, format, or appearance, including: Clothing: fashion Flower part: flower Music: music genre Sundial part: Gnomon Titles or honorifics: Style (manner of address) including Chinese courtesy names Web design: Cascading Style Sheets Writing: style guide and literary genre Linguistics: Variation in language use of an... Rhetoric (from Greek ρητωρ, rhêtôr, orator) is one of the three original liberal arts or trivium (the other members are dialectic and grammar). ...

References

• Barthes, Roland ([1964] 1967). Elements of Semiology. (Translated by Annette Lavers & Colin Smith). London: Jonathan Cape.
• Saussure, Ferdinand de (1922). Cours de Linguistique Générale. (Compiled by Bally & Séchehaye from notebooks of Saussure's students 1907-11).