Philosophy of Being and Knowledge

Semiotics (Theory of Signs)

Semiotics of Saussure and Morris

A significant contribution to the development of semiotics was made by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), who is considered a founding figure of structuralism. Saussure presented his own perspective on the nature of the sign, which contrasts with Peirce's view. According to Peirce, a sign is a material object (such as a sound or an item) through which something is denoted. Saussure, on the other hand, believed that the sign is not material but a mental phenomenon. A sign is that which denotes an object and exists within the mind or senses. For example, if someone sees an object, the object will be reflected in some sign within their mind, even if the person does not utter a word or express it through any other material means. This implies that a sign can denote something in the mind or senses even when it lacks material embodiment. Thus, in Saussure's semiotics, the sign serves as an intermediary between the denoted and the material expression. Saussure distinguished between two aspects of the sign. The first is the concept, idea, or knowledge of the denoted, that is, the mental side of the sign. The second aspect is the form through which the sign is expressed. Saussure posited that the first aspect of the sign is what is denoted, while the second is what denotes. By breaking down the sign into these two aspects, Saussure formulated a theory comprising four components of the denotation process: 1) the object, 2) what is denoted, 3) what denotes, 4) the material expression of the sign. For instance, a car (the object), the concept of a car (what is denoted), the unspoken word "car" (what denotes), and the spoken word "car" (the material expression of the sign). Hence, the sign consists of what is denoted and what denotes; both are contained within the human psyche, even though they are related to the external world.

As Saussure was a linguist, he focused primarily on language. He argued that the relationship between a word and an object is arbitrary; a word does not inherently derive from the object. However, this does not imply that a speaker can name objects with any words they wish. The rules for using words are determined by the structure of the language. On one hand, the meaning of words is defined by the society that uses them; on the other hand, the meaning of words is conditioned by their relations with other words. For example, the meaning of the word "government" is shaped by both the general understanding of those who use it and the word "govern," from which it is derived. A word cannot have a meaning that is not understood by people or a meaning that is not connected to the meanings of the words from which it originates. Thus, a word is arbitrary with respect to the object it denotes, but not with respect to the linguistic community that uses it or the structure of the language. Words also exhibit both stability and variability. Words are stable in the sense that no one can arbitrarily change their meaning. Simultaneously, they are variable because words continuously change their meanings over time; language evolves constantly, much like a living organism.

Saussure's semiotics introduced another important distinction: value and signification. Value is what a sign denotes, while signification refers to other signs, that is, what a sign can be substituted with. Saussure used the example of the French word "mouton" and the English word "sheep," which both denote the same thing (a sheep). Thus, these two words have the same meaning. However, they have different significations, as the word "mouton" cannot always be replaced with "sheep." English speakers use "sheep" to denote only the living animal, while they refer to a piece of cooked sheep meat as "mutton." In contrast, the French use "mouton" for both cases. This illustrates the difference in their significations.

Another scholar, Charles William Morris (1901-1978), can also be considered a founder of semiotics, alongside Peirce and Saussure. Unlike Saussure, who was a linguist and approached semiotics only insofar as it was necessary for studying language, semiotics was the primary focus of Morris's academic interest. Morris drew upon behaviorist psychology and interpreted semiotic problems within this framework. Since psychology is a branch of human activity that cannot be divorced from the study of humans, Morris also focused on the human aspect by introducing a new concept to semiotics: the interpreter, that is, the person who performs the denotation and interpretation of signs. Thus, while Peirce wrote about the object, the interpretant, and the sign as participants in semiotic activity, Morris added the category of the interpreter, expanding Peirce's triangle into a square. Furthermore, Morris redefined the concept of the interpretant. Since behaviorism centers on human behavior, or the response of the individual to stimuli, Morris defined the interpretant as the reaction of the interpreter to the sign. Morris also refined the category of the object. While Peirce left open two interpretations of the object—individual object and general class—both being denoted by one sign, Morris resolved this issue by distinguishing between denotation, that is, the individual denoted object, and designation, that is, the denoted class. A single sign simultaneously denotes both a denotation and a designation. For instance, "table" denotes both every individual table and tables in general.

Another significant innovation of Morris was his division of semiotics into three sections: semantics (which studies the relationship between sign and object), syntax (which studies the relationship between signs with one another), and pragmatics (which studies the relationship between sign and interpreter). Morris argued that this division of semiotics into three parts corresponds to the medieval trivium. In Antiquity, it was customary to distinguish seven liberal arts, or sciences, which every free citizen was expected to master. In the Middle Ages, these seven sciences constituted the core educational curriculum for all students entering the faculty of liberal arts. After completing this basic education, they could pursue specialized studies in other faculties. These seven sciences were divided into the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music) and the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric). The three sections of semiotics correspond to the three trivium sciences: syntax corresponds to grammar, semantics to logic, and pragmatics to rhetoric. Morris's third contribution was his own classification of signs. He divided signs into three groups: indexical signs (signs denoting individual things), characteristic signs (signs denoting general concepts), and universal signs (signs corresponding to functional words).

The contributions of Charles Sanders Peirce, Ferdinand de Saussure, and Charles William Morris continue to be the subject of lively debates. Scholars argue over who should be considered the founder of semiotics. Peirce presented his ideas first, but his work remained relatively unknown for a long time. Saussure was unaware of Peirce's work; he did not even know that Peirce had proposed the term "semiotics" for the science of signs, referring to it instead as semiology. Since then, both terms have been used synonymously. Some researchers who believe Morris should be credited with primacy argue that Peirce studied semiotics within the realm of logic, Saussure within linguistics, while Morris was the first to study pure semiotics. Nevertheless, this debate underscores the significant role each of the three figures played in the development of the science of signs.

After World War II, interest in semiotics grew. During this period, semiotics became a topic of vigorous scientific discussion: semioticians began organizing conferences, creating societies, publishing specialized journals, and teaching semiotics in universities. All of this contributed to the development and popularization of semiotics. Despite the achievements of post-war scholars, Peirce, Saussure, and Morris remain the three pillars of semiotics upon which every researcher in this field relies. A characteristic feature of post-World War II semiotics is its development in two directions: general and specialized. On one hand, general semiotics, which encompasses knowledge about signs, sign systems, and sign situations, develops independently of their application areas. On the other hand, researchers have focused on specialized semiotics, which study specific sign systems. Specialized semiotics include medical semiotics, which studies signs important for medicine, such as symptoms that indicate illness; cultural semiotics, which examines culture as a sign system, pioneered by Roland Barthes in his monograph "The Fashion System," where he demonstrated that clothing is a cultural symbol intended to convey meaning; and ethnosemiotics, which studies sign systems in national cultures, including folk customs and traditions understood only within specific systems. Zoosemiotics studies the functioning of sign systems in the animal world, while linguosemiotics studies language as a sign system.