Dept. of Communication Design, Cabe, Knust: DR Kofi Amoako-Agyeman 05/2021

Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1of 43

DEPT.

OF COMMUNICATION DESIGN, CABE, KNUST

DR KOFI AMOAKO-AGYEMAN
05/2021
SEMIOLOGY: definition
 Etymology: from "semeion" (Greek, "sign")
 It is the study of signs; what constitutes signs; what law governs them
 All images are signs, and the discipline that must investigate them is not the
psychology of perception, but semiotics, the science of signs (Gombrich, 2000)
 It is the study of how signs make meaning: something that represents or stands for
something (an object or concept) else to someone in some capacity
 The field of research that studies signs as an essential part of cultural life and
communication; perceived/perceivable aspect of communication.
 Essentially all of the ways in which information can be processed into a codified form
and communicated as a message by any sentient, reasoning mind to another.
 The meaning can be intentional such as a word uttered with a specific meaning, or
unintentional, such as a symptom being a sign of a particular medical condition.
 Every message is made of signs subject to interpretations.
SEMIOLOGY: definition
 Signs are not just words, but also include images, gestures, scents, tastes, textures,
an action sounds: anything that communicates a meaning (understanding) through
any of the senses: visual, auditory (auditive: the sound or image conveyed by TV,
radio, telephone), tactile (perception by the sense of touch), olfactory, or gustatory.
 These signs may also include… elements such as the title… the fonts used, the
layout, the colours… the language adopted, the content of the articles…, and each of
these signs… generate a meaning; the mediators to the world.
 Reading and interpreting signs is a fundamental cultural activity.
 Every cultural pattern and every single act of social behaviour involves communication
in either an explicit or implicit sense.
 Communication is culture, culture is communication
 Analysis of systems of communication: language, gestures, clothing
 According to semiotics, we can only know culture (and reality) by means of signs,
through the processes of signification (sense-making).
SEMIOLOGY: goal
• Focus: the analysis of the communication process, the mechanisms to be
examined and de-constructed.
• Using methodologies developed by semiotics in its various movements
(structural, interpretative, generative), paying special attention to communication
and visual texts, including non-verbal communication elements.
• The ways in which the communication process functions, the ability to create
meaning, talking to the mind, feelings, and emotions at the same time.
• The goal is to gain basic skills and learn the ways in which a graphic sign, a
drawing, a billboard, a trailer, or a video-clip can convey values and tell a story.
SEMIOLOGY: brief history
• Ancient Greece: Hippocrates (460-377 BC) establishes semiotics (σημειωτικός) as a
branch of medicine history; Aristotle (384-322 BC) establishes a 3-part model of
semiotics
• Early modern: Henry Stubbes (1670) as defining the branch of medical science
relating to the interpretation of signs/ symptoms;
• John Locke (1690) in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding proposes
importing semiotics into philosophy as a tool for allowing philosophers to understand
the relationship between representation and knowledge
• Modern semiotic analysis begun with two major founders:
• Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913) and
• American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914).
• Both Saussure and Peirce developed their conceptions of the sign at the same time
but independently, and both have been adopted and utilised in subsequent semiotic
studies by others.
SEMIOLOGY: brief history
• Important work was done in Prague and Russia early in the 20th century, and
semiotics is now well established in France and Italy (Roland Barthes, Umberto Eco,
etc.).
• According to many there never was an image that looked like nature; all images are
based on conventions, similar to language or the characters of our scripts.
• Images are collections signs
• A sign stands for an object or concept.
• The "stands for" process is the point where meaning is created both through encoding
(by the source) and decoding (by the receiver--or "reader" in semiotic analysis).
• The magazine is a complex collection of signs that can be extensively decoded and
analysed by its reader… (Bignell 1997).
SEMIOLOGY: sub-divisions
• The science of the signs: the emphasis of semiotic research lies in philosophy
and linguistics; In general semiotics is subdivided into three
• 1. Syntactics (visual syntax): The sign in relation to how it stands in context with
other signs (the relation of the signs).
• It deals with how visual rules are observed in compositions.
• This can be applied to the visual ‘text’, visual syntax explores how colour, lines,
shadows as part of the grammar of the visual.
• The visual will not have a meaning if the visual syntax is broken.
• This may lead to losing its informative value, the message will not getting
delivered the visual ‘reader’ or worse, ‘psychotic’ effect.
• This family portrait is an example of an image that breaks the visual syntax.
• It has broken the rule of colour – it’s hard to tell which one is the background because of the
larger area has conspicuous colour.
• The subjects are drowned in the background and thus, losing its focus.
• The first picture loses its informative value. Instead of it being a family portrait, it could have
been the picture of a museum section with a bunch of people in the middle.
SEMIOLOGY: sub-divisions
• Semantics: The sign in relation to what it means (the relation between the significant and
the sign); meaning that is conventional or “coded” in a given language.
• Semantics applies to the meaning of signs. It is concerned with how you read the visual
information in the image and your interpretation of it.
• Semantics mainly deals with the connotations (second level of analysis) of the sign. For
example, we take the issue of colours because it is a sign that has many meanings.
• Pink is a fun, tender, flamboyant and calming colour. It is often associated with femininity, 
the hello kitty brand is clearly in support of this idea because its products predominantly
use the colour pink.
• But what if a man wears pink?
• Often whenever  a man wears pink people start to question his sexuality and labelled him
as being gay.
• Take a look at the pictures of the male celebrities above wearing pink.
• Chris Brown, Lil Wayne and Kanye west.
• These celebrities are notorious for their “bad boy” behaviour, Chris Brown with
domestic violence, Lil Wayne with multiple legal charges and Kanye West who “bullied”
sweet young girl Taylor Swift.
SEMIOLOGY: sub-divisions
• Pragmatics: The sign in relation to its origin, the effect it has on the viewer, the use
one makes of it (the relation between the significant, the sign and the user); the
ways in which context contributes to meaning, any pre-existing knowledge about
those involved; the inferred intent of the speaker;  the ways in which context
contributes to meaning
• Pragmatics deals with the context of the sign and how it may change  its meanings
in different ‘situations’.
• In FHM, she is seen as a
sex symbol, wearing minimal
clothing and a striking a
feeble pose that says “get in
bed with me”.
• In contradictory to the
Cosmopolitan magazine,
she is seen as this sexy
fashionista, with a confident
pose of hand on hips to
suggest a strong
independent woman.
• Here we can see that the
‘sign’ of Megan Fox adapting
 Megan Fox in FHM or ‘For her meaning to the medium  Cosmopolitan is women’s
Him Magazine’ is an that she is on. magazine in which its contents is
international monthly men’s about women lifestyle, fashion,
lifestyle magazine. women’s health and so on.
SEMIOLOGY: social
• Social semiotics is a branch of the field of semiotics.
• Lemke notes that social semiotics is a synthesis of several modern approaches to the
study of social meaning and social action. One of them, obviously is semiotics itself: the
study of our social resources for communicating meanings.. . . Formal semiotics is
mainly interested in the systematic study of the systems of signs themselves. Social
semiotics includes formal semiotics and goes on to ask how people use signs to
construct the life of a community (1990, p. 183)
• Because every community is different, the signs used by one community may be
different from those used by another, For example, the colour red indicates mourning for
people in Ghana, whereas, in contrast, it represents procreation and life for people in
India.
• Social semioticians apply three important principles when analyzing a semiotic system
such as language or imagery, principles that have significance for professional
communicators.
SEMIOLOGY: social
• 1. Semioticians believe all people see the world through signs.
• Chandler explains, Although things may exist independently of signs we know them
only through the mediation of signs. We see only what our sign systems allow us to
see. . . . Semioticians argue that signs are related to the signifieds by social
conventions which we learn. We become so used to such conventions in our use of
various media that they seem “natural,” and it can be difficult for us to realize the
conventional nature of such relationships (2001)
• 2. The meaning of signs is created by people and does not exist separately from them
and the life of their social/cultural community
• 3. Semiotic systems provide people with a variety of resources for making meaning.
Therefore, when they make a choice to use one sign, they are not using another.
SEMIOLOGY: F. de Saussure: 1857-1913
• Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913)
• Saussure’s semiology differs from Peirce’s semiotics in some
respects, but both are concerned with signs.
• Saussure’s suggests the possibility of semiotic analysis: deals with
many of the concepts that can be applied to signs. He wrote, “The
linguistic sign unites not a thing and a name, but a concept and a
sound-image. . . . (A Course in General Linguistics, first published
posthumously in 1915).
• Dyadic signs: a sign is composed of two components/elements
• the signifier, or “sound-image”: the material that has a meaning
• the signified or “concept”: the meaning.
SEMIOLOGY: the signifier
• The signifier: the form which the sign takes; what generates meaning
• It has to be a thing and not a concept- so the spoken or the written word 'love' is a
signifier, but the concept it refers to is not a signifier.
• Often described as a 'physical object' that includes sound, image or word.
• Things you can touch like clothes or appliances, or visual marks like logos and
drawings are signifiers. It has to refer to (or signify) something other than itself.
• Signs have two levels of meaning, the one intended (denotation) and the one that is
understood (connotation).
• If all is well, denotation and connotation will be the same, but it is the idea that they
may not be that makes semiotics so fascinating and frightening.
SEMIOLOGY: the signified
 A signified (signifié) is the concept a sign represents: the concept it refers to
 The signified refers to the mental concept, which is said to be broadly common to all
members of the same culture, who share the same language; the meaning generated by the
individual
 Finally the signifier has to be understood to refer to the signified by all those who use it to
communicate.
 This is often socially or culturally specific, and signs are part of the codes that society uses to
communicate.
 Anything can be a sign as long as someone interprets it as 'signifying' something - referring to
or standing for something other than itself.
 The link between the sign, or expression, and what it stands for is understood by convention:
signs can mean anything we agree that they mean, and they can mean different things to
different people.
SEMIOLOGY: F. de Saussure: 1857-1913
 Saussure’s suggests the possibility of semiotic
concept
analysis: deals with many of the concepts that can
be applied to signs. sign-image

 He wrote, “The linguistic sign unites not a thing and


a name, but a concept and a sound-image.
 A sign, according to Saussure, is a combination of
a concept and a sound-image, a combination that signified

signification
cannot be separated. signifier

inseparable unity &


arbitrary relationship
SEMIOLOGY: F. de Saussure: 1857-1913
• The problem of meaning arises from the fact that the
relation between the signifier and the signified is
arbitrary and conventional: the link between the sign, or
expression, and what it stands for is understood by
convention.
• Because of his background as a linguist, Saussure saw
the relationship between these two as arbitrary
• His suggestion that the relationship between signifier
and signified is arbitrary were of crucial importance for
the development of semiotics.
• This arbitrariness is true in most spoken and written
language
• For example, the open sign is the signifier, while the
signified is that you can go in.
SEMIOLOGY: C. S. Peirce 1839-1914
• American philosopher & scientist Charles Sanders Peirce
• He disagrees with Saussure on the arbitrariness condition.
• Peirce, defines signs in a broader way than language
• Peirce states that nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted
as a sign. He focuses on how signs are logically or
semiotically linked to their objects. C S Peirce: a cognitive philosopher

• Peirce's contributions to semiotics have shaped the


foundational field to largely focus on meaning and modes
of cognition (the codes needed to understand a text).
SEMIOLOGY: C. S. Peirce 1839-1914
• Peirce's categorization of signs provides a richer context for understanding visuals
and how they convey meaning than Saussure's signified and signifier, although
Saussure's dyadic relationship is included in Peirce's categories and it is at the base
of all semiotic analysis.
• Peirce argued that interpreters have to supply part of the meanings of signs.
• He wrote that a sign “is something which stands to somebody for something in some
respect or capacity” (quoted in Zeman, 1977, p. 24).
• Peirce considered semiotics important because, as he put it, “this universe is
perfused with signs, if it is not composed exclusively of signs.”
• Whatever we do can be seen as a message or, as Peirce would put it, a sign. If
everything in the universe is a sign, semiotics becomes extremely important, if not all-
important (a view that semioticians support wholeheartedly).
SEMIOLOGY: C. S. Peirce 1839-1914
• Peirce called his system semiotics, and that has become the dominant term used for
the science of signs.
• Very concerned with the accurate description of empirical phenomena. Developed a
scientific system for logically describing all types of signs: semiotics
• Semiotic triad
• Object: the thing to which the representamen refers
• Representamen: the form the sign takes (not necessarily material),
• similar in meaning to Saussure's signifier object

• Interpretant: the sense made of the sign;


• has a quality unlike that of the signified:
• it is itself a sign in the mind of the interpreter.
Semiotic
triad

representamen interpretant
SEMIOLOGY: C. S. Peirce 1839-1914
 Peirce noted that 'a sign... addresses somebody: creates in the mind of that person an equivalent or
a more developed sign.
 The sign which it creates he calls the interpretant of the first sign'
 Peirce's model of the sign includes an object or referent - which does not feature directly in
Saussure's model.
 Here is a version which is quite often encountered and which changes only the unfamiliar Peircean
terms (Nöth 1990, 89).
 Sign vehicle: the form of the sign;
 Sense: the sense made of the sign;
 Referent: what the sign 'stands for‘,
 similar in meaning to the signified
SEMIOLOGY: C. S. Peirce 1839-1914
• Triadic signs: The triadic relation between the ground, object, and interpretant of a
sign may have its own signification, which may produce another triadic relation
between the relation itself, its signfication, and the interpretation of that signification.
• Peirce's theory of the sign therefore offered a powerful analysis of the signification
system and its codes because the focus was on the cultural context rather than
linguistics which only analyses usage in slow-time whereas, in the real world, there is
an often chaotic blur of language and signal exchange during human semiotic
interaction.
• Pierce categorized patterns of meaning into 3 types of signs
• The three aspects of signs: their iconic, indexical, and symbolic dimensions
• The signs are iconic, indexical, symbolic.
SEMIOLOGY: Peirce’ Three Aspects of Signs
Icon Index Symbol

Signify by Resemblance Causal connection Convention


representamen representamen signifies the representamen
signifies the object object through physical signifies the object
through similarity connection through arbitrary rule

Examples Pictures, statues Fire/smoke, footprint Flags, alphabet, stop


(cartoon, sound sign, punctuation
effect, realistic
painting
Process Can see Can figure out Must learn
SEMIOLOGY: Iconic Signs
 Iconic: some form of similarity between signs and object it represents.
 Similar to its subject: a clear representation of the object itself such as a drawing or
photograph where resemblance is a determining characteristic (keeps its
characteristics).
 Resembles its conceptual object in certain ways.
 It may share certain of the properties which that object possesses, or it may
duplicate the principles according to which that object is organized
 An image is iconic if it bears a similarity or resemblance to what we already know or
conceive about an object or person.
 Icons include paintings, maps, and photographs and can range from very realistic to
very simplistic.
SEMIOLOGY: Iconic Signs
• On the Web, a common icon is the house used to represent
the home page: when a house represents the home page, it
is iconic image.
• An iconic sign looks like what it represents: a picture of an
apple, a tree, an eye, clock, phone
SEMIOLOGY: Indexical Signs
An upward-point arrow
it is an indexical image.
 Based on an index: physically connected with its object; a physical causation
 Signs that have a connection with the object, but it’s not its real representation
 They indicate something connected with its meaning (not arbitrary) but unlike the icon,
it’s not the object itself.
 A clue that links or connects things in nature.
 An indication that something exists or has occurred
 An image is an index if it is recognizable, not because of any similarity to an object or
person, but because we understand the relationship between the image and the
concept that it stands for.
 Indexical signs can be confusing and, therefore, often require text to accompany them.
 A common Web index is the upward-pointing arrow to indicate the top of a Web page.
The upward-pointing arrow on a scrollable page is often also labelled, “Top of Page.”
SEMIOLOGY: Indexical Signs
• A footprint means someone just walked by
• Smoke means there is a fire; it is a sign of fire,

represent something is on fire, snow means cold.


• Medical symptoms and measuring instruments are
indexes, because they indicate something.
SEMIOLOGY: Symbolic Signs
• An image is a symbol when it has no visual or conceptual connection to an object or
person.
• It is something that has acquired meaning through an arbitrary convention, culture,
belief
• Symbol make meaning if the person already knows it based on culture, previous
knowledge and experience: it’s something we’ve learned.
• They have no resemblance to the real object
• We know the meaning of the image only because of convention
• Symbols, like most spoken and written words, are arbitrary.
• The meaning of a symbol, like the flag or the Statue of Liberty, is determined by
convention, based upon agreement its meaning is arbitrary
• A word, for example, is a symbol because it does not resemble what it stands for, nor
does it have any indexical relationship to what it signifies.
SEMIOLOGY: Symbolic Signs
• A common Web symbol is the line beneath a
word or phrase used to indicate a link
• A dove represents peace, but there’s no
connection between the animal and peace, it’s
just a convention.
• Consider the other images if they represent
symbolic signs or something else
SEMIOLOGY: a powerful tool for designers
 Issues such as mass culture, political design and semiotics are all debated, making
this a unique companion to theory and culture modules on any undergraduate
degree course in graphic design. 
 Subjects such as linguistics, communication studies, philosophy and the social
science, for example, have provided useful terms and definitions that designers have
been able to adapt and employ in the foundation of a more descriptive language for
the process at work within the creation of visual solutions.
 Fashion, graphics, products, packaging: all types of design have an impact on the
world no matter how insignificant you think they are.
 Design is a form of communication and communication is the basis of our
relationships and our understanding of the world.
 Communication affects and it is used by the world of politics: It forms part of the
social glue that keeps us together or drives us apart;
 As well as being greatly affected by technology it also helps people access it (or
prevents them when it is done badly).
SEMIOLOGY: a powerful tool for designers
• Communication underlines everything in design; Visual Communication helps
students to develop sound critical judgment and informed strategies for the
conception of new ideas
• The communication focus is reflected in the definition of semiotics given by Jakobson:
"the exchange of any messages whatever and of the system of signs which underlie
them." (Sebeok, 1991, p. 60)
• Fiske adds another dimension: the generation of meaning (1990)
• In other words, messages are made of signs and conveyed through sign systems
called codes; the more we share the same codes in a communication exchange, the
closer our meanings will be
• Those who communicate primarily face three significant challenges in this new multi-
modal communication environment (Harrison, 2003).
SEMIOLOGY: a powerful tool for designers
• To ensure that your work is most effective for readers/users, you must:
• 1. Understand how text and still images work together to make meaning together for
readers/users.
• 2. Know when still images enhance or detract from text, and vice versa.
• 3. Be able to effectively discuss the issues of multimodal communications with other
members of the document’s production team.
• Professional communicators must persuade readers/users of one particular viewpoint
among many competing and conflicting perspective
• Visual social semiotics can help them better understand the rhetorical, meaning-
making potential of still images in relationship to text, provide them with techniques to
analyze such images, and contribute to their ability to effectively discuss imagery
within a team setting.
SEMIOLOGY: in practice
• Semiotics has been applied, with interesting results, to film, theater, TV, medicine,
architecture, zoology, and a host of other areas that involve or are concerned with
communication and the transfer of information.
• Language uses words as symbols that have to be learned; in Western languages
there is no iconic or representational link between a word and its signified concept or
meaning.
• Most signs operate on several levels: iconic as well as symbolic and/or indexical,
which suggests that visual semiotic analysis may be addressing a hierarchy of
meaning in addition to categories and components of meaning.
• Symbols are arbitrary, but icons and indexes are, in semiotician language,
"motivated”: they are more likely to resemble their object in some way, rather than
being arbitrary.
• Visual communication, including video forms, uses all three types of signs.
SEMIOLOGY: in practice
• We interpret things as signs largely unconsciously by relating them to familiar systems
of conventions.
• It is this meaningful use of signs which is at the heart of the concerns of semiotics
(Chandler, 1998).
• Many corporations use symbols and icons as a means of establishing some kind of
“corporate identity,” because it is easy to remember a symbol or icon.
• The design of a firm’s symbols and icons, through the use of colour and form, and
often the appearance of specific words and/or numbers, help give people a sense of
what the corporation is like.
• It all depends on context, including cultural context- some colours and symbols mean
completely different things in different parts of the world.
SEMIOLOGY: in practice
 Consumers have no access to the designers of the products they interact with.
 Thus, the consumers’ interpretation of the design is based predominantly on their
interaction with the product.
 Designers only communicate attributes such as elegance, functionality, mode-of-use
and social significance through the medium of the product.
 This semiotic perspective on product design focuses on viewing products as signs
capable of representation.
 If products are to be considered as signs that are interpreted by users it is useful to
consider consumer response to product appearance as one stage in a process of
communication
SEMIOTICS: semiotic analysis
 Second, Identify the elements in the
selection
 Catalogue the literal meaning of the
images and text -- all material
presented
 You must know the language and the
 What associations come to mind from
anthropological knowledge--the
each element?
culture
 How do the elements relate to each other?
 You must know the historical context
 What cultural knowledge are required to
 Third, move to higher levels of read the material?
signification
SEMIOTICS: ad analysis
• Identify any similarity/difference between the two images?
• If they are musicians, which of the two will you prefer?
• Consider the last image… What created the change?
• The same woman, same hairstyle,
SEMIOTICS: ad analysis same position: creating differences
• Obviously a totally different look only
by changing the clothes: main sign.
• The convention is that the first style
of the woman (composed by a long
red dress: all symbols in this ad) is
more classic adequate to opera
• The last look is more rebel,
according to the punk rock style
(boots, pantyhose, mini skirt and
top).
• The transition illustrates the concept.
SEMIOTICS: ad analysis
• What is the main element; representing which sign ?
• It is a clever ad about verbal violence.
• The main element is the boy’s picture.
• You instantly think: it’s an icon, as icons are real
representations like photos Ok, but no.
• It is surely an icon, yet more than that. 
• Remember, all signs can belong to the three
kinds, this one is more symbolic.
• What perception? See, the boy looks upset, looking
down, pale colours, showing sadness.
• These perceptions are primary indexes
SEMIOTICS: ad analysis
• Indexes because the eyes looking down, for e.g.
is an indicator of sadness.
• BUT when we understand that this boy has
suffered violence, it becomes symbolical and
subjective.
• The “words/blood” coming out from the boy’s
nose is another index (indicating violence) that
becomes a symbol.
• There’s no real blood, the written words “words
hurt too” are giving this idea, again, subjective.
• Without the words you wouldn’t understand the
image, it was important to have a previous
knowledge about the concept “words hurt too”.
Research, Write up for Submission (1000 words)
Two Weeks. Both hard and soft copies (kamook22@gmail.com)

1. Explain how sensitivity and cautiousness relate to perception and how important they apply
to the designer towards effective communication?
2. The cognitive revolution in psychology was said to be a response to behaviourism, which
was the predominant school in experimental psychology at the time. Write a critical account
of the contributions of cognitive psychology on how people think, understand, and know.
3. Gestalt psychologists believe that our ability to identify objects visually and to distinguish
them from their background, is innate rather than learned. How true is the assertion and
why should the designer be interested in issues related to Gestalt psychology?
4. The knowledge of Gestalt psychology facilitates the visual system and how people perceive
visual components. Discuss and justify your response to the statement with realistic
examples.

You might also like