Signs in Use

Signs in Use An introduction to semiotics ‘Unique and thorough, this is one of the best introductions to semiotic theory and method I have ever seen.’ Marcel Danesi, University of Toronto, Canada ‘Successfully overcoming the semiotic ‘‘cold war’’ between the American and French schools, ‘Signs in Use’ offers a complete picture of the whole discipline of semiotics. Larsen and Johansen’s book is an original contribution to the field.’ Kristian Bankov, New Bulgarian University All organisms, from bees to computer networks, create signs, communicate, and exchange information. The field of semiotics explores the ways in which we use these signs to make inferences about the nature of the world. Signs in Use is an access introduction to the study of semiotics. Cutting across different semiotic schools, the book introduces six basic concepts which present semiotics as a theory and a set of analytical tools: code, sign, discourse, action, text, and culture. Moving from the most abstract and simple con- cept – the code – to the most concrete and complex – culture – the book gradually widens the semiotic perspective to show how and why semiotics works as it does. Each chapter covers a problem encountered in semiotics and explores the key concepts and relevant notions found in the various theories of semiotics. Chapters build on the knowledge gained in previous chapters, and can also be used as self-contained units for study when supported by the extensive glossary. Written in a student-friendly style, the book enables its readers to use these concepts to analyse texts from different media. Signs in Use is illu- strated with numerous examples, from traffic systems to urban parks, and offers useful biographies of key twentieth-century semioticians. Signs in Use is an essential text for students of semiotics. Jørgen Dines Johansen is Professor of Comparative Literature at Southern Danish University, Odense. Svend Erik Larsen is Professor of Comparative Literature at Aarhus University, Denmark. Signs in Use An introduction to semiotics Jørgen Dines Johansen and Svend Erik Larsen Translated by Dinda L. Gorle´ e and John Irons London and New York First published 2002 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29West35thStreet,NewYork,NY10001 RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” ThistranslationofTegniBrugispublishedbyarrangementwith Amanda/Dansklærerforeningens Forlag. Danish edition originally published 1994 by Amanda/Dansklærerforeningens Forlag as Tegn i Brug. English edition # 2002 Jørgen Dines Johansen and Svend Erik Larsen All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in anyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwriting from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing–in–Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A library catalog for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-99414-0 Master e-book ISBN ISBN0-415-26203-8(hbk) ISBN 0-415-26204-6 (pbk) Contents List of figures vii List of tables viii Acknowledgements ix 1 Introduction 1 What is semiotics about? 1 What is this book about? 5 2 Code and structure: from difference to meaning 7 Code and meaning 7 Code and structure 16 3 Signs: from tracks to words 24 Zadig and the doctrine of signs 24 What does the sign represent? 26 Semiotic competence 28 How does the sign represent something? 31 Signs and non-signs 44 Signs and sign-systems 46 Semiosis: the sign-process 51 4 Discourse analysis: sign, action, intention 53 What is discourse? 53 Structuralist discourse analysis 58 Phenomenological discourse analysis 69 Sociological discourse analysis 79 5 Action: interaction becomes narration 87 Of rats and heroes 87 I would if I knew I could 92 vi Contents Necessity and probability – logic and convention 104 Heracles and Antaios 107 6 Text: from element-structure to dialogue-structure 110 Text and sign 111 Text and object 119 Text and intertextuality: the text as expanding syntagm 124 Text as semiosis: the semiotic pyramid 129 The boundaries of the text 146 7 Nature and culture: from object to sign 150 What is cultural semiotics? 150 The borders of culture 153 The codes of culture 168 Nature’s tale 180 Cultural borders and cultural change 197 Glossary 199 Biographies 223 Bibliography 231 Index 241 Figures 2.1 Structural and processual codes: a game of chess 10 3.1 Relationshipbetween the three elements of the sign 27 3.2 Tinbergen’s stickleback models 29 3.3 Dynamic sign-process incorporating three sign-elements 30 3.4 Connection of symptoms to diseases 34 3.5 Analysis of meaning as a system of oppositions 50 4.1 Field of discourse 74 6.1 Relationshipof sign, object and interpretants 116 6.2 Interpretant as mediator between sign and object 122 6.3 Signs as substitutes for each other 123 6.4 The definition of a text: the semiotic pyramid 130 6.5 The information plan of the text 138 6.6 The text’s communication plane 143 6.7 Three types of translation for cat 144 7.1 An advertisement for a scenic landscape 187 Tables 2.1 Types of system-objects and structures 20 3.1 Relationshipof diseases and symptoms 34 3.2 Four basic types of traffic sign 47 4.1 Distributional and integrative elements 67 Acknowledgements Figures Fig. 2.1 Drawing by Gunna Larsen. Fig. 3.5 Brask, Peter, ‘Model Groups and Composition Systems’, Danish Semiotics (ed. Jørgen Dines Johansen and Morten Nøjgaard) (Munksgaard Publishers, Copenhagen, 1979). Fig. 7.1 from TouchtheWild (Zimbabwe, Africa) advertisement. Text Aerestrup, Emil, ‘What do they mean . ’, from Digte I–II (Hans Reitzel, Copenhagen, 1962). de Troyes, Chre´tien, ‘Eree et Enide’, from Lettres gothiques (ed. Jean-Marie Fritz) (Librairie Geńe´rale Française, Paris, 1992). Dos Passos, John, The 42nd Parallel (Signet, New York, 1979). 1 Introduction What is semiotics about? A summer day at the beach. A boy decides to play ducks and drakes. He finds a likely stone, tests it with his fingers, looks at the water, waits for a moment – and then throws. A dog runs next to him. It stops suddenly, sniffs a clump of seaweed, stiffens and runs off. A mosquito arrives, circles above the boy’s shoulder, lands and sticks in its proboscis. Smack! Curtains! A series of semiotic processes has taken place here. The boy, dog and mosquito have perceived certain phenomena in such a way that they refer to something else than themselves: the stone refers to impending small skips across the surface of the water; the smell of the seaweed refers to something that the dog cannot actually see; and the shoulder refers to mosquito-food for the mosquito, while an irritating itch tells the boy that a mosquito is at work. The things become signs. Some of these processes are shared by living organisms, others are specifically human. We intend to concentrate mainly on the latter in this book. But since not only humans have semiotic competence, we will always be prepared to broaden our horizon. Let us begin by looking at what the boy does. He starts by choosing a stone. With reference to its possible flight-path it gains a particular meaning, i.e. its suitability for stone-skimming when thrown. Next, the ripples of the waves are read as indications of wind and current conditions, so they gain the meaning of being favourable for stone-skimming. Separately, the stone and the water each refer to something else (wind and current), possibly to something which is as yet not present (the game of ducks and drakes). As signs they have acquired meaning, making it possible to orient one’s behaviour as a result. The surroundings have become an environment for human activity. The dog, too, has semiotic abilities. With its sense apparatus it has selected a clump of seaweed as being especially interesting, possibly with reference to food or to a rival marking of territory. A closer sniff, however, reveals that it has interpreted the sign incorrectly: it obviously meant potential danger, and the dog took fright. When one perceives things as being signs, there is no guarantee that one does so correctly, or that one perceives all the conse- quences of the sign-making process. Consider the mosquito. Its registration 2 Introduction apparatus reads a phenomenon as a reference to food. It acts accordingly. But this causes a new sign – a painful or itching sting that refers to the mosquito itself. This is read, localized and interpreted by the boy. He identifies the mosquito as a manageable enemy and goes into action. Even though the processes might seem identical, they do not in fact coin- cide. Neither the boy nor the mosquito can do what the dog does. Indeed, they would scarcely be able to register what the dog has scented. But with a special, elementary ability to change things into signs, each of them describes a circle around their life. They change their surroundings into an environment within which they can orient themselves accurately. They have to be able to perceive things as signs for food, danger, others of the same species, preferably those of the opposite gender, and they must also be able to perceive things as signs for possible movements, e.g. direction, the layout of the terrain, etc. Otherwise, they have no environment in which to live.

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