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Very Short Introduction to Semiotics — Transcript

by Altin Kua · 2,856 words · 481 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:04if you try to understand Communications
0:05and culture and Intercultural
0:07Communications you'll find yourself
0:10reading books from all kind of diverse
0:13disciplines as funny as neuroscience and
0:16criminology however in order to compare
0:19those findings one could really use some
0:22sort of unifying language some meta
0:26signs something to describe what you
0:28found so you can compare and
0:30complemented take for example physics or
0:33chemistry they both use mathematics to
0:35describe and analyze nature it would be
0:38rather hard to do either one of them
0:41without using math wouldn't it
0:43mathematics in a way is such a
0:45metascience for these disciplines in the
0:49last century something like a meta
0:51science emerged for the whole area of
0:53culture studies which in a way is a
0:56little ironic because anthropology
0:58actually had started out to deal with
1:00this whole thing called culture and then
1:03started splitting into different
1:05departments like for example material
1:07anthropology and social anthropology and
1:10cultural anthropology now I'd like to
1:12introduce this new sort of science this
1:16meta science which is commonly known as
1:17semiotics or semiology we'll first start
1:20off with briefly mentioning its two
1:23founding fathers and the different
1:24Traditions they're responsible for I'll
1:27introduce basic concepts of semiotics
1:29and and proceed by trying to explain why
1:32I think that it's worth your time to
1:34ponder what subotics has to offer let's
1:37start with suur ferin theur was born
1:411857 in Switzerland he had a huge impact
1:45on the development of linguistics in the
1:4720th century and is even considered by
1:49some as the father of modern Linguistics
1:52suur however is also very important in
1:55semiotics or semiology that's how he
1:58used to call it and actually he never
2:01produced anything written about
2:03zology it was a science which didn't
2:06exist yet but which he envisioned should
2:10exist and would be very useful and so he
2:13started dreaming about it in his
2:15lectures of the course in journal
2:17linguage Linguistics in
2:19Geneva some of his students found that
2:21stuff so exciting that after his death
2:24which occurred in
2:251913 they published their inklings in
2:28the year of 1916 as a
2:32book the word semiotics or simology
2:36comes from the Greek word seon which
2:38means sign a sign is commonly understood
2:42as being something which stands for or
2:44points to something else subotics then
2:48would be the signs of signs sign systems
2:51and sign
2:53processes so su's approach is very
2:56language centered which is not
2:57surprising for a linguist is it the
3:01basic idea was that there is a signifier
3:04and a signified the signifier is the
3:07word and the signified is the
3:09concept when we say word we don't
3:12necessarily mean the sound you hear but
3:15the sound image in your
3:18brain so what he was talking about are
3:20two psychological entities which are
3:22joined by our brain into one
3:26sign so whenever I say tree you
3:28immediately think about those things
3:30which grow out of the ground and have
3:32green stuff hanging off their
3:36extensions the Anthropologist Ley Bru
3:39call this phenomenon
3:41participation the signifier and the
3:44signifi become so much one that we don't
3:46even realize that they are two
3:52sometimes actually this ability of the
3:54brain to join two disparate things two
3:57phenomena or two patterns together and
4:00treat them as one is an incredible
4:03ability in a way this is the core of the
4:06operating system of our human brain
4:09without this ability we wouldn't have a
4:11culture or
4:13language basically what happens is that
4:15your brain perceives certain patterns in
4:18its environment let's say as a baby you
4:22see an
4:23apple if you've ever watched babies you
4:26know how eager they are to make
4:28acquaintance with anything new to them
4:30they will touch it they will smell it
4:33they will lick it they will try to bite
4:35it or eat
4:36it while they do so their brain creates
4:39a mental
4:41representation the mother's baby keeps
4:43telling the baby that this thing is an
4:46apple and keeps repeating that input
4:49until the baby's brain creat another
4:52mantal
4:53representation this time a sound image
4:56of
4:57Apple because these two patterns tend to
4:59occure together meaning every time
5:02there's Apple the mother will say apple
5:04the baby's brain starts connecting these
5:07two mental
5:09representations so Su would say see
5:12there's your signifier and your
5:15signified from now on every time you see
5:18an apple or somebody describes an apple
5:21the world Apple comes up in your mind
5:23automatically and of course every time
5:25somebody mentions Apple the concept of
5:27an apple is simultaneously
5:30activated the beauty of
5:32it the beauty of it is that the two
5:35things become virtually one before long
5:37you take the representation for the real
5:39thing we say that the sign becomes
5:42invisible
5:43transparent transparent you're not aware
5:46that you're actually living with
5:48representations that is
5:52signs to make the importance of the
5:54thought even clearer I'd like to engage
5:56in a little mathematical demonstration
5:57about your neurons and Sy apses in your
6:00brain neurons have up to 10,000 synapses
6:03connecting throughout the brain with
6:05other neurons all the impulses flow
6:08through these synapses from one urine to
6:10another the number of neurons is
6:12estimated somewhere between 10 to 200
6:16billion and the number of synapses
6:19that's what the real meat is somewhere
6:21around a,
6:24trillion let's take a very conservative
6:26number and say we've got only 100
6:28trillion C es in the in the
6:31brain of course there are also impulses
6:34coming into our brain from the outside
6:37from all over the body from all kind of
6:39nerve cells by far the biggest chunk
6:42comes from our eyes roughly six
6:45million it's safe to assume that the
6:47total number of connections between the
6:49outside world which is body and
6:52everything we
6:53perceive and the brain is below 10
6:57million only 10 million synapses are
6:59connected to the outside world with
7:01other words only 10 million over 100
7:07trillion which is one over 10 million of
7:11your brain is actually connected to the
7:13outside
7:14world that is
7:220.00001% it's safe to say that we
7:24actually live inside our brains at the
7:27age of 14 or so we've created a copy of
7:31the outside world in our brain including
7:33language culture and worldview and
7:35everything maybe you can see now the
7:38incredible importance of understanding
7:40the semiotic nature of of our human
7:44mind let's get back to suur of all the
7:48interesting thoughts from his work two
7:50things seem noteworthy at this stage
7:54firstly signs are
7:57arbitrary basically
7:59was saying that there's no reason why a
8:02dog should be called dog and not hun sh
8:06b or
8:07Kel signs are totally arbitrary he would
8:10say that they are not motivated of
8:12course once we have agreed that hun is a
8:16darkg then they are not arbitrary
8:18anymore but rest on a convention but
8:21before it's totally
8:24random secondly science are purely
8:27psychological that is a referend from
8:30the real world out there is not part of
8:32suu's definition in a way SS Define each
8:36other and are not defined by something
8:38outside the science
8:39system where one sign ends the other
8:42starts almost like a map where line is
8:45the border between two countries if it's
8:47not France then it's
8:49Germany well if the Germans don't want
8:52it it would be
8:54France this led to a strong focus on
8:56structures because at the end of the day
8:58at least in the thinking of
9:00structuralists like
9:02Leos structures were the essential thing
9:05which gave meaning also at the end of
9:08the 19th century on the other side of
9:10the Atlantic Ocean was a guy called
9:12Charles Sanders Pur born
9:161839 he was an incredibly smart but a
9:19little eccentric young fellow who at the
9:22age of 12 read one of his oldest
9:24brother's copy of Richard watley's
9:26elements of logic with other words not
9:29your regular Joe he was trained as a
9:32chemist but really became known for his
9:35contributions to logic mathematics
9:36philosophy scientific method methodology
9:39and his founding role in semiotics and
9:43pragmatism he approached the subject
9:46from a more philosophical side and
9:48designed a different concept of science
9:51he proposed to use a triangle as a
9:54starting
9:55point there's a represent the sign the
9:59eal which so called
10:02signifier the object which is the object
10:05the sign refers to some call it the
10:09referent and the interpretant which is
10:12not the
10:13interpreter but rather the effect the
10:16sign has in the mind of The
10:19Interpreter roughly speaking the
10:22equivalent to suus
10:24signified as you can see Pur is
10:27anchoring his Concept in the real world
10:29out there he also takes a different
10:32route when it comes to the question of
10:34motivation of science than suur did Pur
10:39suggests that there are different modes
10:41of science some signs he agrees are
10:45quite unmotivated and very arbitrary and
10:48calls this kind of signs
10:51symbols the symbol does not resemble the
10:55signified which is fundamentally
10:57arbitrary or purely conventional
11:00so that the relationship must be learned
11:03for example language in general numbers
11:06mors code traffic lights national
11:11flags however some signifiers have a
11:14different relationship to their
11:15signified icons are perceived as
11:18resembling or imitating the signified
11:21recognizably looking sounding feeling
11:24tasting or smelling like it being
11:27similar and possessing some of its
11:28qualties
11:30for example a portrait a cartoon scale
11:34bottle
11:36metapas sound effects and regular drama
11:39adopt film soundtrack imitative
11:44gestures a third mode of science is the
11:47index this signifier is not arbitrary
11:51but is directly connected in some way
11:54physically
11:55causally to the signified this link can
11:58be observed or
12:00inferred for example natural signs like
12:03smoke Thunder Footprints Echoes
12:05non-synthetic orders and flavors or
12:08medical symptoms like pain a rash the
12:11pulse rate or recordings a photograph
12:15film video television shot and audio
12:19recorded voice the question of course
12:22remains if an icon or an index doesn't
12:25have at least to some degree also an
12:28arbitrary s of
12:30and per would readily admit that there
12:32are probably no science in a pure mode
12:35out
12:36there as you can easily see this concept
12:39of science goes beyond linguistic
12:43phenomena and citians ever since have
12:46been debating if we should consider only
12:49conventional science according to Su as
12:52the object of semiotics or any kind of
12:55science according to PE the stition we
12:58will follow in our little presentation
12:59here a Dre chap called Posner sees great
13:02value for our cultural studies to take
13:05the broad approach and I tend to agree
13:07with him semiotically speaking all of
13:10our knowledge understanding skills and
13:12attitudes our whole human universe is a
13:15big network of science systems when it
13:18comes to epistemology that is the whole
13:21question of how we come to know and
13:24understand anything we have to make
13:26everything into science otherwise we you
13:29can't work with it some speak of the
13:32symbolic world we live in Yuri lotman
13:35introduced the concept semiosphere as
13:38the totality of all sign
13:41systems it might be helpful to start out
13:43with a couple examples of sign processes
13:46and use them to introduce basic
13:50concepts let's say you see smoke in the
13:52neighborhood which makes you an
13:54interpreter or
13:56recipient you would take the spoke a
13:59sign with pran terminology as an index
14:03for a
14:04fire the fire would be in this case the
14:09referent you come to an assumption which
14:12we call
14:14interpretant that is the effect of the
14:16sign on your mind that there's a fire
14:18burning
14:20nearby which would be the
14:22message this sign could occure just by
14:25itself without a
14:27sender the sign only indicates that
14:30there's a fire nobody's doing any
14:34indicating however in some cases one
14:36could use a fire to send a message for
14:40example the
14:41History Military commanders used to LIT
14:45fire at the peak of a mountain to
14:47indicated their scatter troops that the
14:49battle was
14:51won the sign would mean Victory to
14:55receive the message we have won the
14:57battle one would need to be familiar
14:59with this code a code connects at least
15:02two things in our case fire and victory
15:06and makes it possible for humans to
15:08communicate more
15:10effectively the same Commander would
15:13have shouted fire during the battle
15:16again if you didn't speak his language
15:18that is Shar the same linguistic code
15:21you wouldn't know what he means however
15:23through the through a highly complex
15:26inference process you would know that he
15:29is not referring to fire nearby but
15:32rather that he is commanding you to
15:33shoot in this case the commander would
15:36be the sender the soldiers he's
15:38addressing with his command would be the
15:42addresses sometimes however we want to
15:45reach recipients without them believing
15:48that we wanted to reach them these we
15:51call
15:52bystanders and then there might be
15:54people we are not even aware of they
15:57would constitute the group of other
16:00recipients all these recipients are sign
16:03users in these examples there are
16:06different sign
16:09processes there is a codess
16:12indication and there is coded
16:15indicating let's pursue this difference
16:18a little
16:19further imagine you're driving a car and
16:23arrive on one of the circles of Aman you
16:26might have noticed that if you decided
16:28to wait to get the circle until somebody
16:31stops to let you in you might end up
16:33spending a whole afternoon watching the
16:35others therefore you'll start pushing
16:38your way into the traffic with little
16:41movements indicating that you're about
16:43to enter the
16:44circle this Behavior doesn't use any
16:47code it is purely physical
16:51indication as you're waiting your turn
16:54you realize that there's scattered glass
16:57within red an orange color on the ground
17:01immediately you deduct that there was an
17:04accident earlier this day on this spot
17:07in order to know that you need to be
17:09acquainted with a certain code namely
17:12that cars have orange lights on their
17:14Corners using them as
17:18indicators if you hadn't seen a car
17:20before maybe not even a street and how
17:23traffic works you wouldn't be able to
17:25come to that conclusion this process
17:27goes beyond indication because of the
17:30fact that there's a Code involved in it
17:33therefore we call it
17:37signification so while you're standing
17:39there you might decide to make eye
17:42contact with one of the other drivers
17:44and use a gesture to communicate with
17:46him probably you would make the sign and
17:51this way using a code the first case
17:54pushing away slowly into the circle you
17:56are trying to communicate through IND
17:59indication without a code now you're
18:02communicating through
18:04signification using a
18:07code Posen depicts these three different
18:10concepts indication signification and
18:13communication with this diagram on the
18:16left side on the circle you would find
18:18any sort of
18:22indication these are assigned processes
18:25which do not use or require code like
18:28the small referring to a fire nearby or
18:31you're pushing your way through the
18:34circle on the right side you'll find
18:37sign processes which do require some
18:40sort of code in order to be
18:42successful indication and signification
18:45can take place without a
18:47sender now example above the scattered
18:50glass wasn't left there by anybody to
18:53send a message however we can use both
18:56indication and signification to send the
18:59message to
19:00recipients hence communication can use
19:04codess indication and signification to
19:06convey messages if there's no sender
19:09however there's no
19:13communication stics offers a great way
19:16out of the limitations of different
19:18Sciences like for example Communications
19:20or Departments of Sciences like social
19:24material and cultural
19:26anthropology it put the it puts the the
19:28findings of these Sciences into a bigger
19:30framework and relates them to each
19:33other social anthropology concerns
19:36itself with the social culture which we
19:38call
19:39Society each Society consists of
19:42Institutions and rituals performed by
19:45them examples include religious
19:47institutions such as a Christian church
19:50and the rituals of the church
19:52service the subject area of material
19:55anthropology is the material culture of
19:58society that is its civilization the
20:01civilization of a society consists of
20:03artifacts and the skills of producing
20:06and using them examples of artifacts
20:09used in religious institutions are
20:13crosses rosaries himal and
20:17bibles the subject area of cultural
20:20anthropology is the mental culture of
20:22society and so far as it is manifested
20:25in its civilization that is its
20:27mentality
20:32the mentality of society
20:35consists of mentifacts that is the ideas
20:38and values and the conventions governing
20:40their use and expression examples of
20:43religious mantif effects are the
20:45Catholic saints and their emblems the
20:47classification of sins with a
20:49corresponding terminology like Mortal
20:51and venial sin and so on and the
20:54gestural codes of
20:56priests these things can be studied
20:58separately however through semiotics
21:00they can be easily related to each
21:03other a conscious science system
21:06consists of sign users which is the
21:09society who use codes which you call
21:12mentality to produce and interpret
21:15artifacts which is the
21:19civilization here are some questions we
21:21will be asking in the
21:23class what happens when sign users enter
21:26a different culture
21:29what happens when artifacts institutions
21:32or mentifacts are introduced in other
21:35cultures is what's first axiim valid one
21:40cannot not communicate

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