5. Ferdinand de Saussure
Born Geneva, Switzerland, 1857
Trained in ancient and modern languages at the University of Geneva and
later, the University of Leipzig.
Taught in Paris and Geneva.
Died in 1913.
FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE
6. Taught at University of Geneva,
during academic years 1906-7,
1908-9, 1910-11.
First published 1916 by a team of
students who carefully collated their
lecture notes.
Course in General Linguistics
9. Key implications of this shift
▪ 1. The sign is arbitrary.
▫ There is no necessary link between a
particular set of sounds and the concept it
designates.
▫ The sound and concept are united within the
confines of a particular language and culture.
▫ In English the rooster says “cock-a-doodle-
do”; in French “cocorico”; in German “kikiriki.”
10. Key implications of this shift
▪ 2. The sign creates meaning differentially,
in relation to other signs.
▫ Dog is not cat, not chipmunk, not chocolate
chip cookie.
▫ Meaning is context-dependent.
▫ “You dog!” might sometimes refer to a dog,
other times to a human.
22. Charles Saunders PEIRCE (“purse”)
(1839-1914)
American thinker, mathematics, science, logic, semiotics
http://www.iupui.edu/~peirce/
23. three types of signs
types
• icon: represents the
object through some
similarity or
resemblance
• index: represents the
object by being a
physical trace of it
• symbol: represents the
object by convention
(social agreement)
examples
• example of icon: smiley
face, representational
art
• example of index:
fingerprint
• example of symbol:
pretty much all of
language, in which words
have no necessary
relationship to the concept
they represent
30. quick review
• Saussure:
• it links sounds (or images) with mental concepts
• language is arbitrary and culturally bound
• terminology
• every sign consists of two parts:
• a signifier (pattern of letters, sounds, or forms)
• a signified (a set of concepts and associations that those
forms trigger in the viewer's mind
31. quick review
• Peirce ("Purse")
creates terminology for different types of signs
they are differentiated based upon the relationship of the sign
to reality
• symbol (all of language): arbitrary relationship to what it
represents; to understand you have to know the convention
• icon (would include a lot of imagery): in some way looks like
what it represents
• index: is a physical trace of the process that produced it