semiotics

what is semiotics?i always here the word semiotics from my history lecturer during foundation period,he's always saying."its very semiotic".never really knew what it meant until now.

semiotic basically means the study of signs and how they work to create a meaning it stands for.just basic signs,u see everywhere.

but to study signs or to know signs we need 2 important ingredient to make it workable i shall say,which is the signifier and the signified

signifier is the physical form of the sign in the 'sensorium' of the culture where else signified is the mental concept part of the shared language of the culture. we need both signifier and signified to process out the understanding of a sign.

example of  sign.

none of the image or matches what its written

the signs should really signify correctly to bring out a message and so that its not misinterpreted. for an example,ever wondered why a NO ENTRY sign is a dash instead of a cross which a cross or an X could really bring the meaning no or cannot or something negative.but why was it used as dash?

because its actually a negative symbol which carries out negative signs.if a X was used it could be meant as a plus sign or wrong direction.so usage of signifier is important.

but in the sense of signs.there are two types too,either iconic or arbitrary.iconic in a sense that something that looks similar or very close to the original thing and arbitrary is something less iconic or far from knowing what it is but has links to thing it signing of.

the image above could be said as sign that shows a condom and a gun where a gun could signify war or taking life where else the condom signifies making love.

EXAMPLES OF ICONIC AND ARBITRARY SYMBOLS:

and there u go.a lil bit about symbols as far as i understand. and have a look at the video too :)