Lecture 3.

The classics of semiotics of the 20th century

Peirce Saussure Morris Hjelmslev

Charles Sanders Peirce

An American philosopher, founder of modern semiotics Peirce, pronounced purse

About Peirce
http://www.peirce.org/ Who is the most original and the most versatile intellect that the Americas have so far produced? The answer "Charles S. Peirce" is uncontested, because any second would be so far behind as not to be worth nominating. [He was] mathematician, astronomer, chemist, geodesist, surveyor, cartographer, metrologist, spectroscopist, engineer, inventor; psychologist, philologist, lexicographer, historian of science, mathematical economist, lifelong student of medicine; book reviewer, dramatist, actor, short story writer; phenomenologist, semiotician, logician, rhetorician and metaphysician. Max H. Fisch in Sebeok, The Play of Musement

Charles Sanders Peirce

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Saunders_Peirce Charles Sanders Peirce (pronounced purse), (September 10, 1839 April 19, 1914) was an American polymath, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Although educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for 30 years, he is now mostly seen as a philosopher. He is the greatest American builder of architectonic systems, and his admirers deem him the most important systematizer since Kant and Hegel, who were major influences. Peirce was largely ignored within his lifetime, and the secondary literature was scant until after WWII. Much of his huge output is still unpublished. An innovator in fields such as mathematics, research methodology, the philosophy of science, epistemology, and metaphysics, he considered himself a logician first and foremost. While he made major contributions to formal logic, "logic" for him encompassed much of what is now called the philosophy of science and epistemology. He, in turn, saw logic as a branch of semiotics, of which he is a founder. In 1886, he saw that logical operations could be carried out by electrical switching circuits, thus anticipating the digital computer.

The Peircean Triad

Writings
http://www.peirce.org/writings.html "On a New List of Categories."
Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 7 (1867), 287-298.

What Is a Sign?

Ferdinand de Saussure
A Swiss linguist, Founder of semiology, a linguistic branch in semiotics

Ferdinand de Saussure
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_de_Sauss ure Ferdinand de Saussure (November 26, 1857 February 22, 1913) was a Swiss linguist, considered by many to be the father of structuralism. Born in Geneva, he laid the foundation for many developments in linguistics in the 20th century. He perceived linguistics as a branch of a general science of signs he proposed to call semiology (now generally known as semiotics).

Works of Ferdinand de Saussure

(1916). Cours de linguistique gnrale (published by C. Bally and A. Sechehaye in collaboration with A. Riedlinger). Lausanne and Paris: Payot. (CLG)

Main ideas of Ferdinand de Saussure

Saussure: on semiology
Semiology: a part of the social psychology Linguistics is within semiology Semiology is a science of forms, not of substances; form is a structure Sign is a social institution

Saussure: on sign
A linguistic sign consist of signifier (image acoustique, sound-image) and signified (concept)

Both are mental (sound-image is a psychological imprint of the sound); i.e. sign is a mentallistic entity No referential object Sign model: Bilateral (the two-sided)

Saussure: on sign
For Saussure, both the signifier and the signified were purely 'psychological' (Saussure 1983, 12, 14-15, 66; Saussure 1974, 12, 15, 65-66). Both were form rather than substance: A linguistic sign is not a link between a thing and a name, but between a concept and a sound pattern. The sound pattern is not actually a sound; for a sound is something physical. A sound pattern is the hearer's psychological impression of a sound, as given to him by the evidence of his senses. This sound pattern may be called a 'material' element only in that it is the representation of our sensory impressions. The sound pattern may thus be distinguished from the other element associated with it in a linguistic sign. This other element is generally of a more abstract kind: the concept. (Saussure 1983, 66; Saussure 1974, 66) Semiotic for Beginners. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem02.html

Saussure: on meaning
Meaning is a semantic structure Meaning is a form or differential value

Charles W. Morris (1901-1979)

an American semiotician and philosopher. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_W._M orris

Charles W. Morris
Morris's approach to semiotics divided the subject into syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. He proposed a threefold division of a sign into a sign vehicle, designatum, and interpreter; this trichotomy first appeared in his book Foundations of the Theory of Signs. Although it would seem that a semiotics structured in this manner owes much to Charles Peirce, some Peircians have accused Morris of reading Peirce superficially, through the distorting lens of Morris's behaviorism.

Main ideas of Morris

Rejected Peircean approach, based on the universal categories of perception Semiotics is a sicience of signs, ... developed on a biological basis, within a science of behavior Semiotics consists of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics

Works of Charles W. Morris

Foundations of the Theory of Signs (1938) Signs, Language, and Behavior (1946) Signification and Significance (1964) Writings on the General Theory of Signs (1971)

Hjelmslev (1899-1965)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ] (October 3, 1899 Hjelmslev [lui jlmsl May 30, 1965) was a Danish linguist whose ideas formed the basis of the Danish School in linguistics. Born into an academic family, Hjelmslev studied comparative linguistics in Copenhagen, Prague and Paris (with A. Meillet). In 1931, he helped to found the Cercle Linguistique de Copenhague. Together with Hans-Jrgen Uldall he developed a new theory on language, they coined Glossematik (glossematics was derived from the Greek "glossa" which means "tongue" or "language").

Written assignment (hardcopy)

Topic: Modern Semiotics: the 20th century, the classics of semiotics (Choose one of the following semioticians: Peirce, Saussure, Morris, Hjelmslev, or someone else you consider as classic of semiotics ) Compile a text from the internet search results, including full bibliographic descriptions of the entries. Analyze the text and formulate your own opinion on the topic Present in a verbal and a hardcopy form during the seminar. Due: next week