Курс английского языка: введение в семиотику

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Lesson 1: "What is semiotics?"

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Terminology (1)

"semiology"

It is... possible to conceive of a science which studies the role of signs as part of social life. It would form part of social psychology, and hence of general psychology. We shall call it semiology (from the Greek semeion, 'sign'). It would investigate the nature of signs and the laws governing them. Since it does not yet exist, one cannot say for certain that it will exist. But it has a right to exist, a place ready for it in advance. Linguistics is only one branch of this general science. The laws which semiology will discover will be laws applicable in linguistics, and linguistics will thus be assigned to a clearly defined place in the field of human knowledge.
Saussure , Ferdinand de ([1916] 1983): Course in General Linguistics (trans. Roy Harris). London: Duckworth

Class assignment (pair work, done orally):

Present the information on the following 4 pages (frames 3-6) as article extracts (from web-publications or paper editions). Design them to look appropriately.
Do the following:
  1. hightlight the keywords,
  2. highlight the main idea,
  3. add subheadings (if necessary),
  4. segment the information (if you think it appropriate),
  5. add an illustration or an icon if you want.
You may use ".doc" format file for creating your project.

Example (based on the quotation above):


The study of “everything which can be used in order to lie”

Semiotics is concerned with everything that can be taken as a sign.

A sign is everything which can be taken as significantly substituting for something else.

This something else does not necessarily have to exist or to actually be somewhere at the moment in which a sign stands in for it.

Thus semiotics is in principle the discipline studying everything which can be used in order to lie. If something cannot be used to tell a lie, conversely it cannot be used to tell the truth; it cannot in fact be used 'to tell' at all.

I think that the definition of a 'theory of the lie' should be taken as a pretty comprehensive program for a general semiotics.


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Resources for Lesson 1:
  • Chandler, Daniel. Semiotics for Beginners.
  • Danesi, Marcel, and Paul Perron. Analyzing Cultures: An Introduction and Handbook. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1999.
  • Eco, Umberto. A Theory of Semiotics. Indiana UP, 1976.
  • Пермский государственный университет

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