Passage One

1．The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure^[2]died in 1913 before putting into manuscript form the insights for which he is now chiefly known．The Course in General Linguistics was subsequently compiled by several of Saussure's students from his lecture notes．That book not only reconceived linguistics along semiotic lines，but it called for the application of its semiotic principles to all aspects of culture:Language is a system of signs that express ideas，and is therefore comparable to a system of writing，the alphabet of deaf-mutes，symbolic rites，polite formulas，military signals，etc．But it is the most important of all these systems．

“A science that studies the life of signs within society is conceivable;it would be part of social psychology and consequently of general psychology;I shall call it semiology．．．．Semiology would show what constitutes signs，what laws govern them．Since the science does not yet exist，no one can say what it would be;but it has a right to existence，a place staked out in advance．Linguistics is only a part of the general science of semiology;the laws discovered by semiology will be applicable to linguistics，and the latter will circumscribe a well-defined area within the mass of anthropological facts．”(Course in General Linguistics)

2．Recent years have more than justified Saussure's prediction．Umberto Eco points out in A Theory of Semiotics that the present semiotic field consists of zoology，olfactory signs，tactile communication，paralinguistics，medicine，kinesics and proxemics，musical codes，formalized languages，written languages，natural languages，visual communication，systems of objects，plot structures，text theory，cultural codes，aesthetic texts，mass communication，and rhetoric，—and one would of course want to add anthropology and psychoanalysis to this list．

3．Other important developments in the theory of signification were engineered by Charles Sanders Peirce(who started writing well before Saussure，but whose work was assimilated much later)，by Roland Barthes，and by Jacques Derrida．Peirce increases the number of signifying relationships over those charted by Saussure，and makes the human subject their support．Peirce writes:“．．．the word or sign which man uses is the man himself．．．the fact that every thought is a sign，taken in conjunction with the fact that life is a train of thought，proves that man is a sign．．．the man and the．．．sign are identical．．．．Thus my language is the sum total of myself;for the man is the thought．”The point upon which Peirce here insists is that our access to and knowledge of ourselves is subject to the same semiotic restrictions as our access to and knowledge of the external world．In other words，we are cognitively available to ourselves and others only in the guise of signifiers，such as proper names and first-person pronouns，or visual images，and consequently are for all intents and purposes synonymous with those signifiers．

4．Barthes demonstrates that signification cannot be divorced from the operations of myth or ideology，and that it thus always implies the larger cultural field．Derrida indicates that certain privileged terms not acknowledged by Saussure function to anchor and restrain the play of signification．He also reveals the ideological basis of those terms，and in so doing attempts to liberate signification from their dominance．All three of these theoreticians agree that meaning is much more open-ended than Saussure would have us believe，and that it cannot be isolated from the symbolic order．

5．The above paragraphs mainly deal with the concept of semiology(semiotics)under which different branches and perceptions such Saussure's linguistic structuralism(linguistic as science)，Eco's sociological perspective(hyperreality as social relation)，Barthes' mythological conception(ideological reading of semiology)，and Derrida's introduction of deconstruction into the field all together make semiological study a field where different voices contend and bring it to full flowering．However one cannot ignore the American philosopher Peirce whose contribution to semiology lies in his invention of two interlocking triads．The first triad consists of what Peirce calls the“sign”，the“interpretant”and the“object”upon whose interaction signification evolves．The second triad accounts for the different kinds of signs which human consciousness can interpret and accommodate．The differentiated signs are“icons”，“indices”and“symbols”．The iconic sign resembles its conceptual object in certain ways．It may share certain of the properties which that object possesses，or it may duplicate the principles according to which that object is organized．Photographs，paintings，sculptures，and cinematic images are obvious icons，but algebraic equations and graphs are also iconic．The indexical sign is defined by Peirce as“real thing or fact which is a sign of its object by virtue of being connected with it as a matter of fact and by also forcibly intruding upon the mind，quite regardless of its being interpreted as a sign．”A weathervane，a pointing hand，according to Peirce，are two of many such examples．Peirce's final category，the symbol represents a general class of things，rather than a single，discrete object．It designates a sign whose relation to its conceptual object is entirely arbitrary．Naturallanguagesandnotionalsystemsofsortsare preeminently symbolic．

True or False Statements

1．Saussure，although a linguist，is the first person who postulates the concept of semiology．

2．Upon his call other semioticians such as Peirce set to work on semiotic studies．

3．Despite their different areas of interests，these scholars agree with each other．

4．It seems that the Saussurean semiotic paradigm intends to reveal abstract things in its research．

5．It is obvious that semiology is a cacophony where different voices try to be heard．