Semiotics Flashcards
What is semiotics?
Science of signs, of which linguistics is part
What is a sign?
Something that stands for something else
Indexes
Indicates some condition or state
e.g. smoke indicates fire -> smoke is an index for fire
Symbols
Something that stands for/suggests something else by reason of relationship, association, connection or accidental resemblance
e.g. red representing love/blood
Signal
Type of symbol: Sign that is supposed to be followed by an action
e.g. traffic lights
Icon
A pattern that physically resembles what it `stands for’.
e.g. photograph, diagram, picture etc.
Language sign
Language signs are words, morphemes, phrases, sentences.
Enable speakers to denote not only concrete but also abstract phenomena.
Signifiant / Signifier
Physical trace of the sound that reflects itself in the human consciousness
Signifé
Content of the entity (thing, phenomenon)
Pragmatics
Relations between the sign and the language user
Structural
Relations between the sign and other signs
Structural syntagmatic relations
Signs that are successively related on the horizontal level
e.g. WORDS -> I, am, doing, my, homework -> create SENTENCE “I am doing my homework”
Structural paradigmatic relations
Each of the words in the syntagm is related to other words which are replaceable in the same position
e.g. “I am doing my homework” can be replaced by:
I -> You
Am -> Are
Doing -> reading
My -> Your
Homework -> Book
Synonymy
Realtion between words of similiar meaning
Paraphrases
Two sentences expressing the same proposition
E.g. John had bough the car - the car has been bought by John
