semantics and semiology

by cici Fri May 07, 2010 7:09 pm

I like this part of linguistics and i hope it will be at your service
The importance of semiotics:
Semiotics is important because it can help us not to take 'reality' for granted as something having a purely objective existence which is independent of human interpretation. It teaches us that reality is a system of signs. Studying semiotics can assist us to become more aware of reality as a construction and of the roles played by ourselves and others in constructing it. It can help us to realize that information or meaning is not 'contained' in the world or in books, computers or audio-visual media. Meaning is not 'transmitted' to us - we actively create it according to a complex interplay of codes or conventions of which we are normally unaware. Becoming aware of such codes is both inherently fascinating and intellectually empowering. We learn from semiotics that we live in a world of signs and we have no way of understanding anything except through signs and the codes into which they are organized. Through the study of semiotics we become aware that these signs and codes are normally transparent and disguise our task in 'reading' them. Living in a world of increasingly visual signs, we need to learn that even the most 'realistic' signs are not what they appear to be. By making more explicit the codes by which signs are interpreted we may perform the valuable semiotic function of 'denaturalizing' signs. In defining realities signs serve ideological functions.
semantics
Branch of linguistics dealing with the meaning of words and sentences. Semantics asks how we can use language to express things about the real world and how the meanings of linguistic expressions can reflect people's thoughts. Semantic knowledge is compositional; the meaning of a sentence is based on the meanings of the words it contains and the order they appear in. For example, the sentences ‘Teachers love children’ and ‘Children love teachers’ both involve people loving other people but because of the different order of words they mean different things.

Linguistic meaning has been studied for thousands of years. Plato believed that words or phrases related directly to the actual objects they pick out. Aristotle suggested that relationships between words and the world are indirect, mediated by social convention. More recently, the conceptualist view of linguistic meaning has held that there is an indirect relationship between words and things, mediated by thoughts in the mind.
We can define semiology or semiotics as the study of signs. We may not realize it, but in fact semiology can be applied to all sorts of human endeavours, including cinema, theatre, dance, architecture, painting, politics, medicine, history, and religion. That is, we use a variety of gestures (signs) in everyday life to convey messages to people around us, e.g., rubbing our thumb and forefinger together to signify money.
We should think of messages (or texts) as systems of signs, e.g., lexical, graphic, and so on, which gain their effects via the constant clashes between these systems. For example, the menu we consult in a restaurant has been drawn up with reference to a structure, but this structure can be filled differently, according to time and place, e.g., breakfast or dinner (Barthes, 1964, p. 28).
An intellectual movement which flourished during the 1950s and the 1960s, and semiology, which has been one of the chief modes of this intellectual movement. The major figures in this movement include Ferdinand de Saussure, Roland Barthes, Roman Jakobson, Claude Levi-Strauss, Thomas Sebeok, Julia Kristeva, and Umberto Eco obvious, All believed semiology is the key to unlocking meaning of all things.
Semiology
Again, semiology can be defined as the study of signs: how they work and how we use them. We note again that almost anything can signify something for someone. Saussure developed the principles of semiology as they applied to language; Barthes extended these ideas to messages (word-and-image relations) of all sorts.
The swiss DE Saussure focuses on the linguistic sign, making a number of crucial points about the relationship between the signifier (Sr) and the signified (Sd). Below I summarise the key ideas:
• Language (Saussure, 1916) is a self-contained system, one which is made up of elements which perform a variety of functions, based on the relations the various elements have one with another. We can think of syntax and grammar as organizing principles of langauge. We have no trouble recognizing the grammatical sense of the following construction: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
• We can think of language as a system of signs, which we can study synchronically (as a complete system at any given point) or diachronically (in its historical development).
• A signifier (Sr), the sound-image or its graphical equivalent, and its signified (Sd), the concept or the meaning, make up the sign For example, we can say that, to an English speaking person, the three black marks c-a-t serve as the signifier which evokes the "cat."
• The relation between Sr and Sd is arbitrary Different languages use different words for the same thing. No physical connection links a given signifier and a signified.
• Described in these terms, language is a system of formal relations. This means that the key to understanding the structure of the system lies in difference. One sound differs from another sound (as p and b); one word differs from another (as pat and bat); and one grammatical forms differs from another (as has run from will run). No linguistic unit (sound or word) has significance in and of itself. Each unit acquires meaning in conjunction with other units. We can distinguish formal language (Saussure calls it langue) from the actual use of language (which he calls parole).
• Every expression we use is based on collective behavior or convention. We can say that a sign is motivated when we perceive a connection between Sr and Sd, e.g. in instances of onomatopoeia like "bow-wow" and "tick-tock" .