Semiotics

Saussure's Semiology

The root of both semiology and semiotics is the Greek word for sign, sēmeîon. In his Course in General Linguistics, Saussure described what he meant by signs and explained their significance:

Saussure explained that signs have two parts: a sound-image or signifier and a concept or signified; it is important to recognize that the relation between the signifier and signified is arbitrary and based on convention. Thus, the meanings of signs can change over time. Saussure also suggested that signs can be studied synchronically, at a given point in time, and diachronically, as they evolve over time.

Saussure made another important point, namely, that concepts are defined differentially. He explained that it is signs' relative position that determines their meaning, not their intrinsic value. No sign, then, has meaning in itself and its meaning is always a function of the relationship between that sign and other signs. In practical terms, what this means is that when dealing with concepts, because of the nature of language we tend to think in terms of polar oppositions such as cheap and expensive, rich and poor, happy and sad.

Peirce's Semiotics

Peirce had a different approach to signs. He wrote that a sign “is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity” (Collected Papers of C. S. Peirce, 1958, quoted in Zeman 1977, 24). He developed a typology that had three kinds of signs: icons, which signify by resemblance; indexes, which signify by causal connections; and symbols, which signify by convention and have to be learned. As he

...