Cas444 Semiotics

Introduction Definition of Semiotics Scope of Semiotics Origin and Development of Semiotics

What is Semiotics? Semiotics is the study of signs. This “conventional” definition says little about semiotics, just as defining cognitive science to be "the study of the mind" says little about cognitive science, defining computer science to be "the study of computers" says little about computer science, or defining mathematics as "the study of patterns" says little about mathematics. But it is a start!

What is Semiotics? Semiotics is the study of all phenomena surrounding signs. This “broadly conceptual” definition suggests that semiotics is an enormously wide ranging study whose fulcrum is the sign.

The previous definition is derived by analogy with the definition of computer science provided by Alan Newell and Herb Simon in the lecture they delivered on the occasion of being awarded the Turing Award of 1975, which suggests that computer science is an enormously wide ranging study whose fulcrum is the computer: "the study of all phenomena surrounding computing machines"

Scope of Semiotics The scope of semiotics encompasses all of the following, as they are clearly all phenomena surrounding signs! the definition of signs (metaphysics) the identification and classification (form and function) of signs (epistimology) the origin and evolution of signs (etymology) 1 of 2

Scope of Semiotics the relations among signs within sign systems (structuralism) the positional rendering of sign constellations (syntagmatics) the potential rendering of sign constellations (paradigmatics) the meaning of signs (semantics) the interpretation of signs (pragmatics) 2 of 2

Origin and Development of Semiotics The story of the origin of semiotics generally begins with the ancient Greeks, acknowledges a few key contributors over the next two millenia, honors the two founding fathers of modern semiotics, and mentions any number of recent developers, distillers, and deployers of semiotic knowledge. 1 of 5

Origin and Development of Semiotics The Ancient Greeks Hippocrates Plato Aristotle The Stoics 2 of 5

Origin and Development of Semiotics The Postancient/Premodern Contributors Saint Augustine John Locke Leibnitz (1646-1716), Boole (1815- 1864) and Frege (1848-1925) 3 of 5

Origin and Development of Semiotics The Founding Fathers of Modern Semiotics Ferdinande de Saussure Charles Sanders Peirce 4 of 5

Origin and Development of Semiotics Developers, Distillers, and Deployers of Modern Semiotic Knowledge Cassire Jung Vygotsky Piaget Levi-Strauss Barthes Metz Eco 5 of 5