1. Semiotics
ITS PLACE IN INFORMATION SCIENCE

2. overview
• Definitions
• Meanings and Semiotics
• Goals
• The Role of Semiotics in IS
• History
• Modern Roots

3. definitions
• Semiotics is the ―science of produced meanings‖
(Danesi, 2007).
• Semiotics applies to how people represent things in a
meaningful way.
• Social context establishes the meanings that signs
convey.
• The meaning a word conveys in one context may differ
from the meaning a word conveys in a different context
i.e. ―Seminole.‖

4. Meanings and semiotics
• Semiotics looks at how meaning is ascribed to texts (all
kinds—musical
scores, advertisements, narratives, paintings).
• Semiotics focuses on what information is and how it is
interpreted.
• This is directed related to the issue of the nature of
information.
• Anything in a culture can be a sign:
text, image, building, design of a car, a hairstyle.
• These signs are read and a meaning is imputed to them.
• Interpretation allows us to make sense of the meanings we
encounter.

5. Goals of semiotics
• Semiotics seeks to explain the ―how and what of
signs‖ (Danesi, 2007).
• What is the social function of signs?
• What role do signs play in communication and
linguistics?

6. Brief history
• Hippocrates: Coined the term as a medical concept that
referred to symptoms as warning ‖signs‖ of a medical
condition.
• Plato: Distinguished between physical and human made
or conventional semeions.
• Aristotle disputed Plato’s notion that words reflect innate
forms—he believed that words were simply a practical
means of identifying things.
• Plato’s method is referred to as a ―mentalist‖ perspective
while Aristotle’s process of reasoning is empirical.

7. Semiotics in medieval thought
• Roger Bacon: (13thc.)
• Developed the first typology or classification of signs.
• Poinsot: (17thc.)
• Noted as particularly important in the development of sign
theory.
• Poinsot believed that signs function as an intermediary
between thoughts and things.
• John Locke: (18thc.)
• Adopted Poinsot’s notion and proposed a formal study of signs
in his famous work titled, ―Essay on Human Understanding.‖
• Locke: Locke viewed signs as a method of inquiry in
philosophy, rather than a separate discipline or
branch of philosophy.

8. modern roots of semiotics
• Saussure (19thc.) Swiss linguist
• Viewed as the father of modern semiotics.
• Saussure described signs within their social context.
• Social context determined the meaning of signs.
• Signs are a product of human sensory and emotional
experience of the world.

9. modern roots of semiotics
• Pierce (19thc.) American linguist
• Pierce viewed a sign as anything that could be taken
as standing for something else.
• Pierce views signs as representations that are
basically ―containers‖ for an object.
• Pierce’s model is three-dimensional
• Representation, interpretation, and object
• The interaction among these dimensions produces
meanings.

10. Semiotics: the modern period
• Morris (20thc.
• Divided the study of signs into sign collections.
• He called these collections syntactics.
• Syntactics—refers to the analysis of signs and their relations.
• Morris termed this analysis semantics.
• Pragmatics—refers to the study of the relationship between signs and
their users.
• Jakobson (20thc.)
• Known widely for his model of communication.
• This model indicates that messages or ―exchanges‖ are rarely neutral;
they are generally subjective and involve goal attainment.
• Barthes (20thc.):
• Known for his work in decoding hidden meanings in pop culture and
films.

11. Semiotics: The Modern Period
• Eco (20thc.)
• The universe of semiotics can be ―postulated in the format of a
labyrinth.‖ (Eco, 1986).
• In other words, signs are interpreted as one’s perception and experience
directs.
• Such a view relates to the interaction of
culture, worldview, context, education, and perception.
• A sign is everything that can be taken as significantly substituting for
something else.

12. The semiotic Framework
• Semiotics and ―Meaning‖
• The word ―meaning‖ in English has more than 20
definitions.
• To avoid confusion, semiotics employs the terms
• reference
• sense
• definition

13. Reference, sense, and definition
• Reference (denotation)
• Points out or identifies something
• Definition
• Representation between mental signifier and referential
object (Hockett)
• Sense (connotation)
• Refers to what something evokes
psychologically, historically, and socially (context).
• For example: Connotivesenses of the word ―cool.‖
• How many uses or senses of the word ―cool‖ can you think
of? Or, ―Super,‖ ―Great,‖ ―Sorry,‖ etc.

14. Semiotics and information science
• Raber(2003) views semiotics and information
science as concerned with ―representation and the
production of culture.‖
• ―…the relationship between representation and what
is being represented, are at the heart of information
science,‖ (Raber 2003 p. 225).

15. Semiotics and issues in IS
• Arbitrary nature of language and signs.
• Meanings are cooperatively generated.
• The concept of information, itself, conveys many
meanings – depending upon its users, their
purpose, and the context.

16. Approaches to issues
• Buckland – information-as-thing, information-as-
knowledge, information-as-process.
• Ingwersen– aboutness and interpretation or
identification of authorial intent.
• Raber– the indeterminable nature or ambiguity of
signs or objects; context and user needs – user
interpretation.

17. Thank You
Florence Margaret Paisey