Ever wonder how we get to analyze images and make meanings from our perceptions? How we hear the sound of the ambulance and know there’s an emergency nearby? Or how we associate the color yellow to a banana to its ripeness? Here is where Semiotics enters the picture. What is Semiotics? It is a field of study that examines signs, symbols, and such to interpret the world revolving around us, as well as produce meanings from these signs.
Signs in Semiotics can be anything or an object that represents something else than itself. For example, if I show my friend a picture of my cat, I am giving her an idea of what my cat is without personally showing her my cat. No matter what it is, a realistic painting, hand-drawn picture, or even just the word “cat”, it could still be called a sign because she’ll still get the idea of the cat without an actual cat.
Studying Semiotics is relevant and useful in the world of representations because having our perceptions as a vital factor in mutual understanding. A lot of issues and drawbacks can happen when one misunderstands the meaning of shown signs and symbols. For example, when we do a peace sign, here in the Philippines it only means peace or even sorry, but in other countries specifically in England, if you do the peace sign backward, you’re already flipping someone off. In giving meaning to verbal and non-verbal signs and symbols, we can have different understandings and perception, therefore, it is important to study Semiotics.
To articulate my understanding of the given reading better, below is a glossary of important terms to remember when studying Semiotics:
Signifier – the physical representation of a thing. It can be seen, touched, heard, tasted, or even smelled. It is the carrier of meaning.
Signified – the mental representation of a thing. It is an idea that we, the communicators are trying to evoke. It is the meaning we correlate the thing with.
Paradigm – a set of associations that bears a vertical pattern where order doesn’t matter.
Syntagm – a set of signs that bears a horizontal sequence where order does matter.
Iconic – a sign that bears resemblance to its object or to what it represents.
Index – a sign that has a link to its object or to what it represents by direct relation or causal link.
Symbolic – a sign that bears no inherent relation between the signifier or signified, other than the fact that we have decided to link them to its object.
Myths – a potent way of making meanings in society. A sign that bears a second-order signification because its meaning can be produced from values of the dominant value system – or ideology – of a particular society and make these values seem natural.
Binary Opposition – signs that don’t have an inherent meaning but are defined by another sign – a sign that’s opposite to it. 2 contrasting elements that are defined by each other.
Rachell Anne T. Capaning 