A New Semiotics: An Introductory Guide for Students

Description

A New Semiotics is an introductory guide to the field of semiotics. Assuming no prior knowledge of semiotics, this accessible text takes a fresh look at semiotics and suggests that many of the forebears and many contemporary contributors to semiotics have misconstrued the nature of their work. The authors start off by asking ‘What is semiotics?’ and go on to outline a journey towards a new semiotics. It offers a clearer way forward out of the prison of complexity invented by the fathers of contemporary semiotics―Peirce and Saussure. Each chapter ends with a summary, exercises and discussion points for students, and further reading. This is the ideal text for introductory courses in semiotics within linguistics, communication studies, visual arts and related areas. Cover Endorsement Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgements Reading this Book 1 Introduction: What Is Semiotics? The Semiotic Point of View Revoking the Curse Occam’s Razor Imperialist Invasions Grand Schemes Are Misguided A Craft Tradition The ‘Scientific’ Approach Is Flawed Semiotics as Curating Craft and People Matter A Paradigm Shift Notes On Reading this Text Pronouns God Message Or Text? References 2 Semantics, Syntactics, Pragmatics, and Rules Charles Morris The Secondary Status of Pragmatics We Say Pragmatics Rules! Three Arguments Against a Powerful Proposition 1. Unobservable Semantics Or Syntactics Observing the Unobservable Inflation and Deflation Postmodernist Semantics: Art, Not Science Current Syntactics: Craft, Not Science For Example, Games For Example, Language Language Games 2. No Mechanism for Semantic Or Syntactic Rules 3. No Explanation for Change Three Observations 1. No Accurate Predictions of Behaviour 2. No Distinction Between Invention and Discovery 3. Observation From Practice What Follows? Languaging Communication as Performance Memory as Performance On Rules Philosophy of Language Wittgenstein: the Meaning of a Word Is in the Way It’s Used Philosophers Take the Words Out of Context Where Do Rules Come From? Rules Seem to Be Independent of Practice Shared Social Practices Articulated Social Practices Importance of Collaboration Created Languages From Language to Creation, Invention, and Art Testing the Rules A Final Word On Rules Naive Realism Pragmatics Rules! Summary Note References 3 Perception and Perceiving Introduction Direct Perception Indirect Perception The Presocratics After Socrates Plato and Aristotle Modern Philosophy On Perception Descartes and the Rationalist View John Locke and the Empiricist View George Berkeley: There’s Only Mind and God David Hume: You Can’t Be Certain About Anything Common Features of These Theories The Passive Reception of Sensory Data Introducing Psychology Experimental Psychology Behaviourism Cognitive Psychology and Information Processing A Rat-Pie Argument Perceiving Creating the Illusion of Reality in European Art Artists Discover Techniques and Tricks Giotto and the Renaissance Manet’s Vision What Makes a Painting Realistic to the Perceiver? Summary Notes References 4 Affordances Before Darwin Perceiving After Darwin The Inter-Relationship Between Perceivers and Habitats Gibson’s Affordances All Creatures Actively Search Selecting and Attending ‘Affordances’ Has Been Given Another Meaning Affordances and Semiosis The Prerequisite for Semiosis Summary References 5 Projecting and Meaning Abercrombie and Gombrich The Beholder’s Share Projecting An Experiment: What Are You Projecting? A Strange Change Objectifying Projecting Is Perceiving An Important Note On Meaning Is Meaning in the Mind? Or Is Meaning Located in Things? Meaning Is in the Relationship Between Person and Object Summary References 6 The Stand-For Relation—letness Moving Closer to a New Semiotics An Intricate Web Making Something Stand for Something Else Example 1: Tallying Up Example 2: Representation and Art Example 3: Acting and Pretending When You Let Something Stand for Something Else, the Two Must Differ Letness A New Word for a New Concept 1. Active—this Is So Important It Will Often Be Reiterated 2. Fundamentally Anarchic 3. Irreducible The Salient Characteristics of Letness A Necessary a Priori-Like Concept A Logical Hierarchy 1. Letness 2. The Stand-For Relation 3. Semiosis 4. Semiotics The Constituents of Semiosis Magic! More History: Aristotle to Bains Constituents of Semiotics: Peirce’s Sign, Referent, and Interpretant Peirce’s Legacy Semiology: When Is Saussure Not Saussure? When It’s ‘Saussure’ Sign, Signified, and Signifier ‘x Stands for Y’—but That’s Not the End of the Story Flaw #1: The Missing Ingredient Flaw #2: Too Narrow Summary Notes References 7 Letness and Metaphors Metaphors Are Letness at Play Metaphors Old and New Metaphors We Live By Beware Snakes Abstract Nouns Abstract Nouns . Concrete Things Is the Use of Metaphor Unscientific? Reification: a Category Mistake Two Essential Points About Metaphors 1. Gain and Loss 2. Using a Metaphor in a Different Context Deep and Surface: Literal to Metaphorical Deep and Surface in Newton and Einstein: Productive Outcomes Where Does Letness Fit In? If the Universe Is a Text, Who Wrote It? How the Metaphor Is Productive How the Metaphor Can Be Misleading Deep and Surface in Descartes Deep and Surface in Freud and Chomsky Deep and Surface in Behaviour Theory Why Is this Metaphor So Pervasive? Summary Notes References Interlude 1 The Journey So Far: Chapters 1–7 8 The Boundary of Communication: The Reader’s Position Everybody Is a Participant What Does ‘Participating in the Making of Texts’ Involve? The Reader’s Position Is There an Author? A Message From an Alien? A Message From the Old Testament God? A Message From a Stranger? Context and Letness Question: Is It a Text? The Pulsar Example Context and Framing: Gregory Bateson Examples of Bateson’s Meta-Messaging Context and Framing: Erving Goffman The Wink/twitch Answer to ‘Is It a Text/Message?’ The Reader’s Point of View The Constructed Author Summary Notes References 9 Controlling Meaning Some Theories and Approaches Structuralism Postmodernism Poststructuralism/deconstruction Phenomenology Hermeneutics Reading Texts Turning an Object Into a Text The Meaning of a Sanitary Fitting The New Meaning of Art Galleries Cultural Studies and the Dominant Ideology The Dominant Ideology Theory Cultural Studies and Marxism Letness and Projection Reading Something as If It Were a Text Texts in Cultural Studies: Structuralism—Barthes and Foucault Barthes Foucault Surface and Deep—Foucault The Semiotician/artist as Illusionist The Trick Works! Texts in Cultural Studies: Deconstruction—Derrida Has Derrida Been Misunderstood? Endless Semiosis Cultural Studies the Journal—researching the Postmodernists Summary References 10 Controlling Meaning? So Who Controls the Meanings? Assumption: the Author Controls the Meaning Language and Thought Which Is to Be Master? But How Much Control Does a Controller Have? The Active Audience Forms: Institutional Attempts to Control You The Design of Forms Forms of Control Changing the Monologue to Dialogue Lobbying for Change Being Nice to People Became Obligatory Failing to Control Making Life Easier for You The Rot Sets in Australia’s Robo-Debt Scandal Projecting Images (Schemata) On Forms Contradictory Schemata Humpty’s Limited Control Locus of Meaning (Again) Summary Notes References 11 Authortext, Readertext (These Are Not Misprints!) The Death of the Author Authors and Texts, Readers and Texts Some Examples The Anxious Gardener Three Profound Insights Two Texts? Authortext and Readertext The Two Realms of Semiotic Inquiry Within the Systems of Communication Caught in the Bocage Socialised in Your Communicative Environment Language in Context Playing Language Games Nobody Is an Observer, Everyone Is a Participant When You Let X Stand for Y, X Must Differ From Y (Again) Two Principles of Semiotic Research The Pattern of Semiosis Principle 1 Principle 1 Demonstrated That Ubiquitous Belief About Meaning Principle 2 The Reader in Context Principle 2 The Core of the Semiotic Universe Semiosis Is Something You Do (Again) Summary Note References Interlude 2 The Journey Continues: Chapters 8–11 12 Communication Landscapes Metaphor: Communication as a Landscape Advantages of this Metaphor Landscape 1: the Uneven Semiotic Terrain Soldier Ants On Social Media Landscape 2: the Elastic Semiotic Landscape Communication Is Non-Predictable Summary Note References 13 The Author’s Position The Anxious Gardener Again Assumptions? What Do You Mean, Assumptions! The Constructed Reader Two False Assumptions A Text Does Not Have an Independent Existence You Cannot Control Readings As Author You Must Construct a Reader Utopian Ideals Assumed Author-Reader Power Relations Projection (Again) Utopian Ideals Lying and Semiotics Projected Readers and Authors Summary References 14 The Significance of Position Where We Agree Where We Differ The Significance of Position Summarising Position Public Language and Shared Meanings Meanings Are Commonly Understood—or Are They? A Contradiction Resolving the Contradiction Projecting and Position You Perceive What You Expect to Perceive What You Expect May Not Be What You Get We Are Communicating With You, Our Assumed Reader Talking About Our Ideas Another Example: Survey Research Science Or Semiotics Projecting Assumptions Onto Survey Questionnaires Summary Three General Propositions References 15 Letness, Chaos, and Communicating The Edge of Chaos The Old Paradigm Assumption 1: Communication Has Predictable Effects From Magic Spells to Aristotle’s Rhetoric The Conduit Model of Communication Getting Your Message Across Modern Conduits Where Are These Effects? Audience Research Science Communication Mass Communication Sustaining the Conduit Metaphor: Behaviourism Stimulus-response Theory Sustaining the Conduit Metaphor: Shannon & Weaver Information Theory Shannon’s ‘Information’ Weaver’s Contribution The Sender-Message-Receiver (SMR) Model Why the Paradigm Is Inadequate Many Reasons (i) Are You Really Comparable in Any Way to an Electronic Device? (ii) Active/passive (iii) Inside and Outside Shannon’s Model Rethinking Systems Thinking Sustaining the Conduit Metaphor: Information Processing Assumption 2: Communication Depends On Shared Meanings Structuralism and Sharing Cultural Hegemony Consulting the Dictionary in Your Head Summary References 16 Beyond Babel A Faulty Tower Myth Avoiding Hubris Hubris Has Not Been Avoided Sharing Is Not a Given Beginning Anew New and Simple? Letness at Work Semiotics Is Not a Science Authortext and Readertext Semiotics as Art and Craft Semantics as Art Barthes the Magician Foucault the Inventor Semantics as Performance Reimagining Syntactics as Craft The Syntactic Craft of Information Design Living in a Pragmatic Incomplete World Note Index