Discourse - Semiotics

Learning and understanding what semiotics is, probably be very mind-boggling unless you really want to know what it is. Well semiotics are fortunately everywhere in the environment that we live in. It is the study of sign processes or signification as well as communication, signs and symbols that are both individually and grouped into sign systems, so really it is what we visualize whether that being something that you see in front of you or picturing something or by hearing. However, there are two theories about semiotics that stem from way back in the 1900’s. The first theory was by a Swiss linguist called Ferdinand de Saussure who is known to be the “father” of modern day linguistics, his side is slightly easier to understand in which he had proposed a dualistic perception of signs that contrasts the denotation and connotation of something. He referred them as “signifier” which expresses the form of the word or other words saying what it actually is and “signified” as the mental concept, which is the meaning behind the denoted object. On the other hand, the other theory is from Charles Pierce who was the founder of pragmatism. He suggested that semiotics was to do with symbols in relation to the mind; he broke down semiotics into three categories, which are icon, index and symbols. In addition, the term definition can lead to deeper theories rather than signs and symbols therefore; semioticians are studying well beyond that such as how people interpret signs then how they physically and psychologically understand it.