符号学 Semiotics (Semiology)

Semiotics is “the study of the social production of meaning from sign systems; the analysis of anything that can stand for something else”. (Griffin 2011)

  1. A sign is the combination of its signifier and signified符号是能指和所指的组合

    Signifier: The physical form of the sign as we perceive it through our senses; an image.

    人们通过感官可以感知的符号的物理形式；一幅图画

    Signified: The meaning we associate with the sign.

    人们附着在符号上的意义

    Is there any logical connection between the image of the signifier and the content of the signified? Saussure insisted the relationship is arbitrary—one of correlation rather than cause and effect. Barthes wasn’t so sure. He was willing to grant the claim of Saussure that words have no inherent meaning.

    能指的意象和所指的内容有任何逻辑联系吗？索绪尔坚持认为二者的关系是随意的——是一种相关的关系而不是因果关系。巴特却没有这么肯定，他主张这些词没有与生俱来的意义。

    But nonverbal signifiers seem to have a natural affinity with their signifieds. He classified the relationship between signifiers and signifieds as “quasi-arbitrary.”

    然而，非语言性的能指似乎和它们的所指之间具有天然的关系。他把能指和所指的关系界定为“准随意性”。

  2. A sign does not stand on its own: it is part of a system 一个符号并不能代表自身：它只是系统的一部分

    He attempted to define and classify the features common to all semiotic systems. This kind of structural analysis is called taxonomy , and Barthes’ book Elements of Semiology is a “veritable frenzy of classifications.” In his opinion, all semiotic systems function the same way, despite their apparent diversity.

    巴特尝试界定和分类所有符号系统的共同特征，这种结构分析被称为分类学。而巴特的著作《符号学原理》是一本“名副其实的分类手册”，他认为，符号系统尽管有明显的差异，却是以相同的方式在运作。