Semiotics
In semiotics, disassembling signs is a true science, because we can come to a practical understanding of how humans connect words with other intangible notions. An example is, “To determine what a five-franc piece is worth one must therefore know: (1) that it can be exchanged for a fixed quantity of a different thing, e.g. bread; and (2) that it can be compared with a similar value of the same system, e.g. a one-franc piece, or with coins of another system (a dollar, etc.). In the same way a word can be exchanged for something dissimilar, an idea; besides, it can be compared with something of the same nature, another word” (de Saussure 10). Essentially, words can mean something along the lines of what another word means. Some things can differ from each other, but still be exchangeable, while other things mean the same and are comparable to one another. When de Saussure began talking about phonemes it made me think of whenever someone tells me to pronounce a foreign word a certain way, but not mess up a particular part of the pronunciation, as it would completely change the word within its language. It always seemed bizarre to me how the subtle change of a tongue movement can completely alter a word’s meaning.
Things that don’t involve speaking or verbalizing thoughts are still considered to be speech. For example, whenever my best friend, who wants to be a painter, tells me the things he’s trying to say through his art that contains nothing but color and patterns. Sign Language comes to mind with semiotics and the relationship those that use it have with one another. It became clear that sign language was a good example of semiology, because “in myth, we find the tri-dimensional pattern, which [is]…the signifier, the signified and the sign,” (de Saussure 17) exemplifying it within the act, as the signifier would be the hand and the speed it relays the word; the signified would be the concept that the word stands for, and the sign would be the signifier and the signified put together.
De Saussure, Ferdinand. Ferdinand de Saussure from Course In General Linguistics. Ed. Antony Easthope and Kate McGowan. A Critical and Cultural Theory Reader. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1992. 7-13.
