Subject: Semiotics Symbol Based on Saussure and Peirce: A Comparative Analysis Compiled by: Muh. Firsa Wirawan F022191015 ENGLISH LNGUAGE STUDIES FACULTY OF CULTURAL SCIENCES HASANUDDIN UNIVERSITY 2020 1. Introduction Language is the important aspect in society. Language and literature are closely related because literature used language as the medium to express their feelings. Rahman in his journal article stated that “Literature as an identity is referred to as ethno- literature.” (Rahman, 2020). In another title, Rahman defined literature as the source of learning “Literature is a source of learning and entertainment for readers.” (Fathu Rahman, Amir P., & Tammasse, 2019). Human needs language to communicate each other, this is related with Rahman that explained about the using of language among human beings, he stated that “Humans and their environment are two things that are inseparable from one another. Humans interact with components of the physical environment, both biotic (animals and plants) as well as with abiotic components (soil, water, rocks and others).” (Rahman, 2019). There is also the impact of communication. People can invite others to put attention to save the nature. Sahib is his journal article stated that “The desire and effort to improve forestry has not shown a delightful or wonderful result.” (Sahib, Rahman, Duli, & Asba, 2019). 2. Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) Ferdinand de Saussure is a linguist scholar who has developed the basis or groundwork of general linguistic theory. He is well-known as a founder of modern linguist. The emergence of the sign theory in the field of linguistics started when he felt that the theory of linguistic signs should be placed in a more general basis theory. The gist and primary focus of Saussure’s theory is the principle that emphasized language as a system of sign, and besides language there are many other sign systems that exist in the world of mankind. However, in his opinion the system of linguistic signs or language is the most superior sign system compared to other sign systems that exist in the real world because it plays an important role in constructing reality. He focuses on the underlying system of language (langue) as compared to the use of language (parole or speech). There are several views or basic concepts underlying Saussure’s theory of sign, namely the two-dimensional system, the consensus or conventional system, the networking relationship between signs system and the arbitrary system. In a nutshell, Saussure’s theory of sign gives more emphasis to internal structure devoted to cognitive thought process or activity of human minds in structuring the physical (material) or intangible (abstract) signs of their environments or surroundings, and among them is the structure of linguistic signs in the language system that allows them to function as human beings and communicate with each other. Saussure’s theory is considered as the proponent to the thought that "language does not reflect reality but rather constructs it" because we do not only use language or give meaning to anything that exists in the world of reality, but also to anything that does not exist in it” (Chandler, 2002, p. 28). A linguistic sign is not a link between a thing and a name, but between a concept [signified] and a sound pattern [signifier]. The sound pattern is not actually a sound; for a sound is something physical. A sound pattern is the hearer’s psychological impression of a sound, as given to him by the evidence of his senses. This sound pattern may be called a ‘material’ element only in that it is the representation of our sensory impressions. The sound pattern may thus be distinguished from the other element associated with it in a linguistic sign. This other element is generally of a more abstract kind: the concept. (Saussure 1983, 66) cited in (Yakin & Totu, 2014) From the figure above, Saussure divided sign into two components. The first is signifier (sound-image) and signified (concept). For Saussure, the signified and signifier were purely psychological. Word “tree” is signifier and image tree is signified. According to (Hoenisch, 2015), Saussure choose the term "sign" over "symbol" because the latter implies motivation. For Saussure, the sign is arbitrary. Virtually all signs, Saussure maintains, have only arbitrarily ascribed meanings. Since Saussure, this notion has been taken as axiomatic in Western linguistics and philosophy. 3. Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) Charles Sanders Peirce is well-known as a pioneer of pragmatism doctrine who has provided the basic in the general theory of signs through his writings, and texts that have been compiled 25 years after his death in a single comprehensive piece of work entitled Oeuvres Completes (Zoest, 1991). Unlike Saussure who has introduced the term ‘semiology’, Peirce proposed the term ‘semiotic’, which according to him is synonymous with the concept of logic that focuses on the knowledge of human thinking process as portrayed in his writing published in 1931/1958. Charles Sanders Peirce formulated his own model of the sign, of ‘semeiotic [sic]’ and of the taxonomies of signs. In contrast to Saussure’s model of the sign in the form of a ‘self-contained dyad’, Peirce offered a triadic (three-part) model consisting of: 1. The representamen: the form which the sign takes (not necessarily material, though usually interpreted as such) – called by some theorists the ‘sign vehicle’. 2. An interpretant: not an interpreter but rather the sense made of the sign. 3. An object: something beyond the sign to which it refers (a referent). A sign . [in the form of a representamen] is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity. It addresses somebody, that is, creates in the mind of that person an equivalent sign, or perhaps a more developed sign. That sign which it creates I call the interpretant of the first sign. The sign stands for something, its object. It stands for that object, not in all respects, but in reference to a sort of idea, which I have sometimes called the ground of the representamen. (Peirce 1931–58, 2.228) cited in (Chandler, 2007) Symbols are signs that signify in virtue of a convention. The sign is a unity of what is represented (the object), how it is represented (the representamen) and how it is interpreted (the interpretant). From the figure above, Peirce explained that “STOP” as a represeantamen or a sign and the object is car halting and we interpret the sign that I should stop my car in this sign. Those are Peirce’s triangle that explain about symbol. References Chandler, D. (2007). Semiotics: The Basics. Semiotics: The Basics. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203014936 Hoenisch, S. (2015). Saussure’s Sign. Retrieved from Criticism website: https://www.criticism.com/md/the_sign.html#s3 Rahman, F. (2019). Save the world versus man-made disaster: A cultural perspective. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755- 1315/235/1/012071 Rahman, Fathu. (2020). Literature of the Minority in South Sulawesi Endangered. (April 2018). Rahman, Fathu, Amir P., M., & Tammasse. (2019). Trends in reading literary fiction in print and cyber media undergraduate students of hasanuddin university by. International Journal of Education and Practice, 7(2), 66–77. https://doi.org/10.18488/journal.61.2019.72.66.77 Sahib, H., Rahman, F., Duli, A., & Asba, A. R. (2019). Customary Forest Conservation through Informal Knowledge System of Ammatowa Community. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 270(1). https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/270/1/012042 Yakin, H. S. M., & Totu, A. (2014). The Semiotic Perspectives of Peirce and Saussure: A Brief Comparative Study. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 155(October), 4–8. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.10.247.