Have you ever wondered why some images or letters you see on the streets in your everyday life mean something more to you? Have you noticed how did you become aware of the meanings behind the signs we see in different brands around us since you were small? Signs and their meanings are usually taken for granted and they are deeply embedded in our social and cultural sphere. So how did signs and symbols evolve and come together to give meaning to our life? Looking into the idea of semiotics is one way to find out what the hidden codes in our life mean.
Being the explanation and study of sign process within society, semiotics is the fundamental basis of the development of language and ways of communication in our life, and is highly dependent on the social and cultural context which they are expressed and used. As explained by Saussure, signs can be divided into two main parts, being the signifier (the sound or image) and signified (the concept) (Berger, 2010). Whereas Peirce proposed the theory of signs, which can be further divided into three types namely icons, indexes and symbols. Concepts of denotation and connotation are also important ideas in the study of semiotics, while denotation means the literal description of an object or a word and connotation is about the cultural meanings connected to words and objects.
Before going further on the concepts of semiotics, let us first get the definitions of those types of signs right. Firstly, as indicated by Eco, sign itself has the meaning of being anything that can substitute for something else and can mean something for somebody and has long roots in advertising and commercial culture. By the process of substituting for other signs, a relationship is often formed between different signs thus meaning can be derived from the relating a sign to another. Moving on to icon which falls under the umbrella of signs, it can be signified by resemblance to other objects or how alike it is to other objects we already have. One example of this would be the disposing of waste signpost commonly found in parks or on the streets, normally next to a rubbish bin or used with an arrow to indicate the position of a bin. This icon usually shows the action of a person throwing rubbish into a waste bin, also depicting the rubbish being thrown into the bin. This icon thus serves the purpose of reminding people to throw their rubbish in the correct place instead of disposing the trash everywhere causing inconvenience to others and disrupting the environment at the same time as the icon itself resembles the intended actual action of throwing rubbish.
For index, it is signified by causal connections, meaning the index is connected with an actual object in real life. One example to illustrate index is a smile. A smile is conventionally connected with happiness since the reason for one to smile is usually due to happiness. Thus, a smiling face signifies happiness.
Symbols on the other hand is signified by conventions and one has to learn it through immersing in certain cultures or subcultures as they are things carrying significant historical and cultural meanings. Symbols help us make sense of historical and social things happening around us and shaping our behaviour as a result. One example would be the yellow umbrella symbol signifying the Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong taken place in 2014 demanding for universal suffrage in which occupy movement in the central business area of Hong Kong has been carried out for 79 days. The yellow colour signifies people’s wish for universal suffrage while the umbrella itself is used by the protestors to fight against the tear gases imposed on them by police forces during the protests, thus this symbol of yellow umbrella has become the symbol of the whole revolution in history.
All in all, semiotics can be used as a research method making use of the framework and theories mentioned above to look into the different meanings the signs, visuals, sounds etc. entail by classify them into symbols, indexes, symbols. This is one elemental way of decoding signs in our daily life as well as for the sake of research with the emergence of more complex signs of greater variations.
References:
Berger, A. A. (2010). The objects of affection: semiotics and consumer culture. London: Palgrave Macmillan. (chapter 1: “The Science of Signs, pp. 3-31)