I see the signs, they are everywhere!

 “No word matters. But man forgets reality and remembers words”.

– Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light

Having learnt a bit of semiotics previously, concepts like sign, code, denotation or connotation were familiar to me. However, this course made us think about the effects of the interpretation of signs; how signs configure our reality and how we read reality.

Before starting the class, we were asked to identify as many signs as possible inside the classroom. Some things were easy: the emergency exit sign, the pilot that indicates the computer is on, the posters on the wall… But a classmate made a very interesting point: our clothes, our hairstyle, our movements tell other people how we are. We are walking signs.

Semiotics for beginners

Semiotics is, in short, the study of signs. A sign is the basic unit of meaning (for example, a letter), and a code is a system needed to interpret a sign (for example, a language). Signs have two levels: a signifier (the form of the sign) and a signified (the concept it represents).

We need signs and codes to communicate, and we automatically look for a meaning in everything we see or hear. But the naturalness with which we interpret signs often makes us not be conscious of that process of interpretation and start to think signs are reality. That’s where semiotics comes into the scene. David Chandler, lecturer in media studies at Aberystwyth University, explains in Semiotics for Beginners that semioticians –coming from fields like art, literature, anthropology and mass media– study aspects such as the relation of elements to each other, the significance that receivers attach to the signs within a text or the system of rules governing media texts.

For Chandler, the importance of semiotics relies on its capacity to help us understand that reality is not objective and independent of our interpretation. Reality is constructed and interpreted by us, humans, when we construct a message using certain signs and a certain medium and when we interpret other messages. We are the creators of meaning.

"La trahison des images (Ceci n'est pas une pipe)", René Magritte. Source: https://museumexhibitions.wordpress.com/tag/the-lovers/

Everything is a sign

As has been said before, we look for a meaning in everything we’re exposed to, we always try to understand the world around us. Therefore, what can be considered a sign? Anything that we interpret as having a meaning. It can be a denotative meaning, something objective that we all agree on. For example, we can say that red is a colour in our visible spectrum that has a wavelength of approximately 650 nm. Or we can interpret a denotative meaning, and say that the colour red represents love and passion, or blood and violence.

When interpreting signs, we create various levels of significance. A signifier and a signified create a sign (blue in the image below). That sign has a denotative meaning (green), that at the same time becomes a signifier of a greater meaning: connotation (yellow).

Diagram of connotation and denotation. Source: http://www.indiana.edu/~slavicgf/e103/class/2011_03_21/03_21.htm

It’s important to note, though, that signs are arbitrary. There’s nothing in the word ‘cat’ that automatically makes it the verbal representation of the animal. We simply agree that those three letters represent, in the English language, this domestic feline; we construct that verbal reality.

From the sign to the myth

But we don’t always interpret signs individually. Often we see groups of signs that are related to each other or that invoke each other, because of our cultural context. Those groups of signs are called paradigms. For example: soft, furry, small, independent, whiskers, paws… could be the paradigm of a cat.

When paradigms are repeated over and over again (in media, in society…) we might take them as reality. It’s not uncommon to link womanhood with concepts like beauty, delicateness, sensuality and quietness; or link manhood with strength, toughness, leadership, and action. But again, paradigms, just like signs, are not the reality, they’re constructed.

Some paradigms are so often told that they become myths. A pipe, a magnifying glass, a deerstalker cap, a violin… Do these elements sound familiar? Those signs are part of the myth of Sherlock Holmes. Black round ears, red pants, big yellow shoes? That would be Mickey Mouse. Myths are part of our culture and part of our reality. In fact, they’re so easily recognizable that they’re a common resource for marketing and media. But it’s important to remember that we are the ones with the power to create a myth out of only a bunch of signs.

Mickey Mouse as Sherlock Holmes. Source: http://wondersofdisney.yolasite.com/mickdetective.php