Semiotics Essay ⋆ Education Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

The term semiotics originated from semeîon, the Greek word for “sign,” and can be defined most simply as the study of signs. In this context, a sign is broadly conceived as anything that signifies something else, such as a spoken word signifying a concept, a hoofprint signifying the passage of an animal, or a computer icon signifying the location of a file.

A contemporary semiotician could be a philosopher, psychologist, biologist, psychoanalyst, mathematician, or educator who studies the use of signs within his or her discipline, such as a linguist investigating grammatical structures, an anthropologist interpreting the significance of a ritualized behavior, or an educator trying to further the development of a child’s mathematical understanding. Although semioticians may vary widely in the content of their analysis and even their notion of what constitutes a sign, each ascribes to the following: (a) The making of meaning occurs through the use of signs; (b) all signs share certain universal qualities, properties, or relationships; and (c) these universals can be either revealed or applied within the context of different disciplines. This entry looks at two major influences in the field and the application of their insights to education.

The potential for wide application across varying contexts has given semiotics an interdisciplinary character that dates back to its origins. For example, Aristotle (384–322 BCE) examined the use of signs through linguistics; Augustine (354–430) created a theory of mental representations based on sign use; and William of Ockham (ca. 1285–1347/1349) featured the use of signs in his conception of logic. Similarly, the inclusive character of semiotics has also enabled the study of signs across diverse educational settings.

Signifier And Signified

The foundation for the contemporary study of signs can be attributed to two major influences. The first was Ferdinand Saussure (1857–1913), a linguist who conceived of a sign as having two parts, a signifier, or the form of the sign, and a signified, or the content of the sign. For example, the spoken word “dog” would be the signifier, and the concept or idea of a dog would be the signified. The most innovative aspect of Saussure’s theory is that meaning does not originate from a connection between a sign and its referent. Instead, meaning resides in the arbitrary relationship among signs and is contingent on their relationship to an overarching structure or sign system. Thus, no single sign has meaning in isolation. For example, the word “chair” has meaning only in relationship with the words “desk” and “table” and as part of the broader concept of “furniture.”

This insight was seminal for a number of structuralists whose semiotic contributions were made through the formal study of their discipline (e.g., linguist Roman Jacobson [1896–1982], anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss [b. 1908], and philosopher Michel Foucault [1926–1984]). Later in the twentieth century, Roland Barthes (1915–1980) further extended the study of signs to popular culture. Barthes’s analysis showed how artifacts such as clothing styles, food arrangements, and haircuts could be used to structure meaning in advertisements and films.

In a comparable way, much of the work in educational settings recognizes the presence of multiple sign systems, such as text, spoken language, body language, and visual images, among others. To what degree any or all of these would become part of a semiotic analysis depends on the subject. Consider the predominance of textual signs when analyzing the written communications from administrators to teachers. Contrast that context with an analysis of the physical facilities available for handicapped students or the videotaped interactions between a teacher and student in a classroom.

These two settings may involve an interplay of textual, visual, and spatial signs. The semiotic content of these sign systems or “texts” is addressed by examining the relationship among signs; for example, what is placed first or last, what is their order, what occupies more and less space, what is placed higher or lower, and how do content and form interact with each other? Questions like these emerge from the character of the signs themselves and their previous treatment in the literature.

A Triadic Relation

The second major influence on contemporary semiotics comes from the logician Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914). In sharp contrast to Saussure’s dyadic description of a sign (signifier and signified), Peirce characterized signs as occurring in a triadic relationship of object, representamen, and interpretant. Object refers to a thing or a thought, representamen to the corresponding sign, and interpretant to a relationship between the object and the representamen. For example, the meaning of “chair” resides in the interpretant (relationship) mediating the object “chair” and the sign “chair.” The interpretant can itself become an object of thought for a succeeding sign, thus initiating a new triadic cycle. Peirce characterized his triad as an unceasing process of semiosis and emphasized its fluid, dynamic character.

Peirce’s triadic conception of semiosis is particularly helpful for examining the evolving nature of signs in a particular context over time, such as an examination of a child’s thinking in response to a particular set of mathematical signs or the impact of a field experience setting on a preservice teacher. A Peircean perspective also resonates with the poststructuralist position that the structure of a sign is unstable and continually changing, a viewpoint originally introduced by two writers familiar to semioticians, philosopher Jacques Derrida (b. 1930) and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (1901–1981). Their work favors the dynamic, unpredictable, and unlimited potential of semiosis, thus challenging semioticians to continually and creatively mine the multiple levels of meaning residing within signs.

Bibliography:

Danesi, M. (1994). Messages and meanings: An introduction to semiotics. Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Deeley, J. (1990). Basics of semiotics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Hoopes, J. (Ed.). (1991). Peirce on signs: Writings on semiotic. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Merrel, F. (1995). Peirce’s semiotics now: A primer. Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholars’ Press.

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