ENGL309C Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Written Language, Traffic Sign, Roman Jakobson
Document Summary
Semiotics/semiology: the study of everything (structure, codes, and contexts) that can be used to explore meaning in all forms of communication, including words (read and heard) and sensory experiences, including images (sight), sound, smell, taste, and touch. Semiotics: the science of sign systems (peirce): term traditionally preferred by north americans out of deference to peirce. Some try to keep semiology and semiotics separate, but, since the "70s, most scholars increasingly see them as interchangeable with semiotics as the favored term. A science that studies the life of signs within society. Saussure mainly interested in spoken language and its effects: written language he calls a secondary sign system (a sign of a sign ) Saussure himself does little with the whole social spectrum. Language is arbitrary (only at the time it is set up) Depends on multiplicity of signs (e. g. puns or synonyms)
