Semiotics

Semiotics, also known as semiology, is the science of signs. Its two major founders were the American philosopher C. S. Peirce and the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. Both Peirce and Saussure base their theories on the fundamental distinction in the sign between the signifier and the signified, that is, between the aural or written form of the sign and the meaning it embodies. These are termed signans and signatum by Peirce, and signifiant and signifié by Saussure. Peirce believed semiology to be the foundation of logic itself; he describes logic as “the science of the general necessary laws of signs”. Much of his work involves an attempt to classify signs according to the nature of the relationship between signifier, signified, and object. Saussure's work is primarily concerned with the linguistic sign, and his attempts at a classificatory system involve distinguishing between different aspects of language. He is generally considered to be the founder of structural linguistics, and indeed of Structuralism. Saussure's semiotic analyses tend to be conducted in terms of opposite pairs: first, linguistic studies may be diachronic (historical) or synchronic (at one particular time). Secondly, language may be considered as langue or parole, that is, either as the general set of semantic and syntactic rules of a particular language or in its individual utterances. Thirdly, the sign comprises a signifier and a signified, the relationship between which is arbitrary, and which both depend on a vast network of differences. These theories of meaning have influenced not only linguistics but also literary theory (Roland Barthes), anthropology (Claude Lévi-Strauss), and psychoanalysis (Jacques Lacan).