BASIC CONCEPT OF SEMIOLOGY: SIGN, CODE

AND TEXT.

B.A (Honors) semester- 3 Tutorial Examination 2019

Subject – Journalism &Mass Communication. (Honors)
Course – CC5
Registration No:
Roll No:
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor Prof. Soumik Chatterjee
(Head of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication) for providing
their invaluable guidance, comments, and suggestion throughout the course of the
project.

I am also thankful to the faculty members of the Department of Mass

Communication; Prof. Siddhartha Chatterjee, Prof. Anindita Chattopadhya for their
inspiration and constant support.

Secondly I would like to thank my parents who consistently encouraged me in every

way. Finally, my regards to my friends Priyanshi Surana, Shagun Shaw, who
readily assisted me with their potentials.

THANKS AGAIN TO ALL WHO HELPED ME.

 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter No. Content Page No.
1. Introduction to communication
2. SIGN
3. CODE
4. TEXT
5. ANALYSIS
6. OBSERVATION
7. CONCLUSION
8. BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Chapter -1: Introduction to communication.
Communication means the transfer of information from the sender to the receiver. It is the process
of sharing or exchanging ideas, facts, thoughts etc.in such a way that the receiver on the other
end can understand easily. At times, it becomes the tool through which human relationships are
undermined or even destroyed. Communication word is drawn from communist (Latin) which
means common, the idea of commonality is frequently stressed in talking about communication.
Denis McQuail defines, communication as a process which increases commonality, but also
requires elements of commonality for it to occur at all. The definition of communication are dime
a dozen. Depending upon ones perception and point of view, communication is: (transmission
of information to elicit a response coordinating favorable response between a person and an
audience sharing information, an idea or an attitude or a ‘a meeting of minds, a bringing about
of a common set of symbols in the minds of the participants in short an understanding).
Communication is part of the fabric of the society. It takes place at all levels between peoples
and between institution, to authority to people from people back to authority, from individuals to
many, and from many to individuals. Though many channels for example- both: interpersonal
and mediated.
Communication involves interaction with our environments physical, biological and most
importantly social. Deprived of this interaction we would not be aware of whether we are safe or
in danger, whether hated or loved. This basic need for communication can perhaps traced to the
process of man’s evolution. The development of human communication initiated with the basic
sense sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Gradually, their brains and central nervous system
became slowly to evolve and later generations gradually acquired the basic tool of
communication.
Two school of thoughts:
 Process School
 Semiotic School
Process School: Which talks about the system of transmission of message from a source to a
destination through a proper channel. A series of activities are involved here.
Semiotics School: Which delineates the system of establishing “meaning” within the mind of the
receiver after the process of transmission. A set of cultural factor are involved here. Semiotics
models of communication permits a richer and more complex view of human communication.
They focus on the manner in which cultural meanings are produced, on the producer, and on the
process of production of meaning. They give equal attention to the structures within which
meaning. Above all, (they) insist on seeing the totality of structures of the whole system, of the
interconnectedness of all the process.
Semiotics models of communication are basically triangular (in comparison to linear process
model).Influential models are those of Saussure (1975), Pierce (1985), Ogden and Richard
(1923), and Barthes (1968). Common to these models, a sign is composed of two aspects. The
signifier is the physical existence of the sign (e.g, words on page) and the signified is the mental
concept that the signifier creates. The sign relates to external reality by a process called
signification, and meaning is generated as a product of the structural interrelationship of signs.
Signifier are used to structure reality in order to understand it. They are man – made constructs,
a product of the culture to which people belong and part of the system that member of the culture
use to communicate with each other.
Semiology, also called semiotics, is the study of signs and how the signs conveys meaningful
message. The Swiss linguistic theorist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) and American
philosopher C.S Peirce (1839-1914) were the pioneer in this study. The word ‘semiotics can be
linked to Structuralism. It is a system in which each element in a group can only be understood
by its relation to other element as a part of a large structure. The literacy structuralism is called
the semiotics.
 Chapter-2: SIGN
A sign is something that represents anything except itself. A sign always carries a meaning. “A
sign is the basic physical vehicles of meaning in a language”; it is any ‘sound image’ that we can
hear or see and which usually refer to some object or aspect of reality about which we wish to
communicate, which is known as a referent .In simple words, a sign is anything that can be used
to express meaning.
C.S Pierce (1839-1914), the American logician, linguist, and mathematician has proposed the
triadic model of sign. He is known as the founder of semiotics and pragmatism. C.S Pierce defined
sign as A sign is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity.
It addresses somebody, that is creates in the mind of that person an equivalent sign. It is an
‘interpretant’ of the first sign. It stand for something namely the ‘object’ or ‘idea’ of the first ‘sign’,
which is a referent.
Roland Barthes the concept of ‘semiological sign’ as proposed by him is more inclusive. In
linguistic signs, orthographics representation in writing and verbal use of language in speech are
the limitations in communication. They do not include or display paralinguistic and non- linguistic
sign such as object, gesture, pictures, images, colors, fonts, sizes, and facial expression. Every sing
functions in society because society gives life to the sign. At the same time, the correlation between
the ‘signifier’ and ‘signified’ is restricted to particular speech community. Barthes calls the
signified not ‘a thing’ but ‘a mental representation of things’ while signifier only plat the role of
mediators.
Ferdinande de Saussure (1857-1913) the Swiss linguist who wrote the treatise on the Proto- Indo
–European Vocal System at the age of twenty, taught Sanskrit at Paris for ten years (1881-1891)
served as the Secretary of Linguistic Society of Paris and taught linguistic courses at the university
of Geneva from 1906 to 1911. Saussure argues that ‘sign’ have syntagmatic and paradigmatic
relationship. In other words, the sign are horizontal and vertically bound to one another. His notion
of ‘sign’ is the object of study. Any sign, according to Saussure, consists of two components,
signifier and signified. These two are combined in such a way that they cannot be separated.
Sign = Signifier /Signified

According to Pierce (1955) there are three types of signs which relate to the object in different
ways.
1. Icon: ‘relation of reason’
An icon sign resembles its object. For example – a photograph.
2. Index : ‘relation of facts’
An index sign has some casual/natural connection with its object, For example: smoke and
fire.
3. Symbol: ‘relation of cognition’
A symbol sign relates to its object in a conventional and arbitrary manner only. For
example: language.
 Saussure broke this signs into two parts on the basis of the context of communication.
 Signifier: Any material thing that signifies- a word, an image, a sound etc.
 Signified: The concept or the explicit idea or meaning that a signifier refers to.
The relationship between the signifier and signified changes in different time and different context.
For example, if we say “HOT” as a signifier, the signified would be different context it could be
meant a hot temperature or might refer to the style of a girl.
 Chapter-3: Codes
Code is a set of sign or symbols used to translate a message from one form to another. It is learned
rule for linking signs to their meanings. In all the process of communication, a sender transmits
message by constructing signs or Encoding and the receiver on the other end can read it by
deconstructing those signs or Decoding in a particular context. Here one must remember that the
sender and the receiver must share a common code. The meaning of sign depends on the code
within which it is situated. In simple words, code provides a framework within which a sign makes
sense. The code may be a language, a system used in sports body language, behaviour, fashion etc.
Codes intact the system into which sign are organised. These system are governed by the rules
which are consented by all members of the community using that code. That means the study of
codes frequently emphasise the social dimension of communication.
TYPES OF CODE:
1. Analogue Code.
2. Digital Code.
3. Presentational Code.
4. Representational Code.
5. Elaborated Code.
6. Restricted Code.
7. Broadcast Code.
8. Narrowcast Code.
9. Arbitrary Code.
10. Aesthetic Code.
Analogue Code: An analogue code is one that works on a continuous scale. For example: an
analogue watch has a continuous scale and it is only by putting marks on the dial that can read it
digitally.
Digital Code: Digital codes are easier to understand simply because their units are clearly
distinguished. For example: 2 past 5 min in a digital clock is clearly distinguished from 2 past 3
min. The numeric digital figures here help to distinguish each from the other.
Presentational Code and Representational Code: Presentational Codes are indexical code that is
something apart for themselves and their encoder they indicate aspects of the communicator and
of his/her present social situation. Non-verbal communication is carried on through presentational
codes such as gesture, eye movement or qualities of voice.
Representational codes are used to produced text, that is message with an independent existence.
A text stands for something apart from itself and encoder. A text is composed of symbolic signs.
For example: Hand written- 60% Representational and 40% Presentational.
Printed form- Representational.
Elaborated Code and Restricted Code: This famous classification of code is the work of Basil
Bernstein. He is a socio-linguist and he concentrate his work on the language of children. He found
that there were fundamental difference in the speech of working class and middle class children
and he summarised these differences by claiming that working class children tended to use a
restricted code and middle class use elaborated code. Thus a tight, closed, traditional community
tends to use restricted codes. The working class institutions such as the officers mess, the legal
profession, the medical eternity: each of these communities uses its own type of restricted code.
The modern middle class tends to produce and elaborated linguistic code.
Broadcast Code and Narrowcast Code: A broadcast code is the one that is shared by the members
of mass communication.
Arbitrary Code: These codes manifest logical relationship between signifier and signified. These
codes are symbolic, denotive, impersonal and statics. These codes are available in mathematical
arguments and logics.
Aesthetic Code: Domains of cultural elements form aesthetic codes. Drama is an aesthetic code.
A particular song is an aesthetic code.
Chapter-4: TEXT
A text is an assemblage of signs (such as word, image, sounds and or gesture) constructed (and
interpreted) with references to the conventions associated with a genre and in particular medium
of communication. It refers to a message which is dependent of its sender and receiver. It helps to
draw meaning of any interpretation. It can exit in any medium and may be verbal, non-verbal or
both.
In contemporary semiotics theory, such “large X’s” are called text, rather than simply sign; and
the meaning, or “large Y’s” that they encode are called messages. The term embraces such things
as conversations, letters, speech, poems, myths, novels, televisions programs, paintings, scientific
theories, musical composition, and so on. A novel, for instance, is a verbal text constructed with
language signs (the “larger Y”). Text are composite phenomena they are not interpreted in terms
of their constituent parts (the smaller X’s), but holistically as single sign. This is why when we ask
someone what a novel means, he or she couches the answer in terms of the message he or she
extracts from it: e.g., “The novel Crime and Punishment paints a grim portrait of the human
psyche”.
The term message is not synonymous with meaning. Considered a simple greeting such as “Nice
day, today!” It encodes, of course a simple message. However, the meaning of that message can
be literal, whereby the speaker is acknowledging the kind of day it is simply to make contact; on
the other hand it could be ironic, if uttered on a rainy day and miserable day. As this example
shows, a message can have more than one meaning, and several messages can have the same
meaning.
Chapter-5 :ANALYSIS
Semiotics models of communication are basically triangular (in comparison to linear process
model).Influential models are those of Saussure (1975), Pierce (1985), Ogden and Richard (1923),
and Barthes (1968). Common to these models, a sign is composed of two aspects. The signifier is
the physical existence of the sign (e.g, words on page) and the signified is the mental concept that
the signifier creates. The sign relates to external reality by a process called signification, and
meaning is generated as a product of the structural interrelationship of signs. Signifier are used to
structure reality in order to understand it. They are man – made constructs, a product of the culture
to which people belong and part of the system that member of the culture use to communicate with
each other.
Semiology, also called semiotics, is the study of signs and how the signs conveys meaningful
message. The Swiss linguistic theorist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) and American
philosopher C.S Peirce (1839-1914) were the pioneer in this study. The word ‘semiotics can be
linked to Structuralism. It is a system in which each element in a group can only be understood by
its relation to other element as a part of a large structure. The literacy structuralism is called the
semiotics.
According to C.S Pierce, Ferdinand de Saussure and Roland Barthes sings are as follow:
C.S Pierce defined sign as A sign is something which stands to somebody for something in some
respect or capacity. It is an ‘interpretant’ of the first sign. It stand for something namely the ‘object’
or ‘idea’ of the first ‘sign’, which is a referent.
Roland Barthes the concept of ‘semiological sign’ as proposed by him is more inclusive. In
linguistic signs, orthographics representation in writing and verbal use of language in speech are
the limitations in communication. They do not include or display paralinguistic and non- linguistic
sign such as object, gesture, pictures, images, colours, fonts, sizes, and facial expression. At the
same time, the correlation between the ‘signifier’ and ‘signified’ is restricted to particular speech
community. Barthes calls the signified not ‘a thing’ but ‘a mental representation of things’ while
signifier only plat the role of mediators.
Saussure argues that ‘sign’ have syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationship. In other words, the
sign are horizontal and vertically bound to one another. His notion of ‘sign’ is the object of study.
Any sign, according to Saussure, consists of two components, signifier and signified. These two
are combined in such a way that they cannot be separated.
Sign = Signifier /Signified
FOR EXAMPLE: “RED”
1. In sums red is an example of sign.
2. If it appears as a traffic signal, it means “stop” to anyone facing the signal at an intersection.
 3. If it is the colour of the flag used by someone at a construction site, then it is a signal of
danger.

4. Code: If we arrange D O G it becomes DOG which means a animal and if we rearrange

then it becomes GOD totally the different.

5. Say for example A P P L E it becomes APPLE which means a fruit. And it can be a symbols
of a mobile phone.

6. If a person says Namaste in Bengali to his friend, he will understand his words only if he
knows Bengali. If a person is not familiar with the language then it will be difficult for
him/her to understand.
And this is how from code text are made which depends on the society and the culture of the
people. Text are man made .
Chapter-6: OBSERVATION
There are certain similarities that can be found between the explained of sign given by both
Saussure and Pierce. Both have shown concern about the structural relationship of sign within a
specific system (language system, culture system, social system, political system). For example:
if anyone is asked ‘what is skirt and top?’ Semiotically the answer would be what we do not (like
salwar) mean by skirt and top or if anyone questions ‘who is Ranveer Singh?’Semiotically the
answer would be who is not Ranbir Kapoor. So, far we have analysed how signs work in
communication how the arrangement of signs formulate codes and ultimately take the shape of
meaningful message and communicated in the process of communication. The analysis of sign and
meaning have substantially been proven to have connection with the cultural system and social
system where those signs are been used but the analysis of sign as given by Saussure and Pierce
does not emphasize on the process of negotiation between the message or the text and encoder and
decoder. Roland Barthes has first explained both encoder and decoder in a systematic process in
communication. According to Barthes this negotiation of meaning of sign is called ‘order of
signification’ the two orders of signification can be classified as first order of signification or
denotation and the second order signification refers to connotation or meaning beyond surface
level. Hence, Barthes says that every sign is a mix of signifier and signified but signified has two
different orders of signification, denotation and connotation such as first and second order of
signification.
In our daily life we generally don’t use sign, code and text. Without this our communication is
not possible. If there is a little bit difference in between sign and code a huge misunderstanding
can be created. Similarly if there is a language barrier then it is more problematic in
communicating. That is why we should work very carefully upon sign, code and text.