RESEARCH: Semiotics, signs and signifiers and codes.

Semiotics is the study of signs and meaning behind them. In media this is used in order to leave the audience to come to their own conclusions through the thoughts they think from a sign.

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913)

Ferdinand De Saussure

Saussure is a theorist who discovered semiotics in his study of linguistics. He found that signs included text, images and sound. Saussure believed that signs are made up of two parts:
• A signifier – the form which the sign takes
• The signified - the concept it represents













Charles Peirce


Charles Peirce - Philosopher


Peirce describes semiotics as the ‘formal doctrine of signs’ he said that ‘a sign... is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity’. He believes that everything is a sign as long as it can be seen to signify something. Peirce believes we think in signs.
• Semantics – the relationships of signs and what they mean
• Syntactic (syntax) – the structural relationships between signs
• Pragmatics – the relations of signs to interpreters
Information from link: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html