SEMIOTICS / PORTFOLIO

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We can define arbitrariness as the act of making a decision determined by whim or impulse, and not by reason or necessity. In semiotics, arbitrariness is the relationship between the signifier and the signified where there is no apparent reason why a specific form or shape should signify a specific meaning. Ferdinand de Saussure stressed that the signifier and signified is arbitrary and conventional. Motivated: When there is a natural connection between the sound or shape and It’s meaning. Unmotivated: The opposite of motivated. When there is no natural connection. He stated that is an unmotivated arbitrariness. For example, the word ‘car’ does not give any iconic clues about what the thing being referred to looks like. Saussure believed that the communities come up with new signs and meanings randomly just to give something a name and that is the link he considered as unmotivated. On the other hand, Pierce believed that not always is arbitrary, because the sign maker selects a signi

In language, words are just a linguistic unit that we cannot see or touch, but we use them to refer to something (name things). The words in a language are particles that we tend to use to call concrete stuff in the world, which is a mistake as the majority of these particles are abstracts, and we don’t have a physical unit to refer to (excepting the proper nouns); we also have some of the words that help in a language to fill or to complete the meaning of a sentence, but they don’t refer to objects, for that reason they are just function words. How things are named is kind of complicated because language does not refer only to material objects, or it does not refer only to abstract things, but it refers to both. For Pierce, giving a name to things goes beyond identifying the ones that we can see or touch, but it is also for the ones that are in our minds, and we cannot touch; those things receive a linguistic unit in order to name it and to don’t lose our purpose of communication. For

Why isn’t the word the real thing? The answer is way too simple. The word is not the thing because we can not compare a simple word with an experience. If I say “London” does not mean that I am traveling there. I can read a book of cooking and I can memorize all the recipes but at the moment of the practice I can fail. In every case it is about practice and to have experience. Another example is a person that reads a book about how to become a boxer, he or she learns all about boxing, but in the first ring they fail because they need the experience of how being a boxer feels and they will improve only with practice. We can say that the word does not give you the experience that the word represents. Another reason why the word is not the thing is that we cannot feel a word or an image. Just by seeing an image of food or reading the word “food” does not mean I will get full. I cannot touch the image or eat eat the meal that is in a image or get full by reading the word “food”... And we c

Non-Verbal communication: I t is the form through which our body speaks; the majority of the time, we don’t realize that we use this type of communication, and despite maybe, we are lying with our own words, our body does not hide the real message that we want to communicate. In non-verbal communication, we have the following body language that is part of this vocabulary: Kinesics: I t means the gestures and movements of our body while speaking; we have three types of kinesics which are:  Adaptors: A s a result of feeling the pressure, bored or nervous, you touch or produce some moves to relieve part of this sensation; an example of this gesture can be tapping the ground with your foot.  Emblems: Are those signs that we usually learn, and they hide meanings; however, they are different and can have another significance depending on the place you are. E.g: when you put the palm of your hand up and your fingers move backward and forward, in this way we usually call someone to come. Illus

Verbal communication: It is when we use words to communicate a message, and it doesn’t matter if it is written, spoken, or read because we are not interested in the medium but in the words. Verbal communication has some components, which are:  Language and Meaning: The meaning goes beyond the language; with this, I allude that the language creates new words, expressions, and phrases just by combining the words that it already has. While learning a new language, we never know all the words that it contains, and for that reason, sometimes the learning process is more difficult than what is expected, it will vary according to each language.  Functions of Language: Words can lead to different actions depending on the function and the purpose we give them. Here are the different functions that words have: Expressive: As its name hints, it expresses emotions, necessities, ideas, and opinions. E.g: A girl begging her mother to buy a new doll because hers broke down. Powerful: Our bosses, p

Non-verbal communication can be in many ways the most important in a conversation or speech. With non-verbal communication, we express ideas, feelings, our personality and also we use it to give meanings without saying a word. To be specific, we use the non-verbal to convey meanings, for example, when telling a story, we express the feeling of it with facial expressions. Non-verbal communication also involves the tone of voice, the way we speak, our accent, the way we dress and even our accessories can give an idea about ourselves. Body language is another important part of non-verbal communication.  It is important, because everyday we use a method of communication, and to give a correct message we must consider using the non-verbal ways to transmit ideas and feelings correctly. For example, to share a sad announcement about the death of someone, we can not say it with a smile on our face or clapping when you hear an announcement like that. It is not correct to do that, our acts must

Paralanguage  Paralanguage is non-verbal communication such as the tone of voice, pitch and the form of speaking. Is more connected with verbal communication than with non-verbal. People do not realize that they are using paralanguage most of the time when we can say that learning paralanguage will improve our skills of communication.Laughing, crying, yelling and whispering are part of paralanguage too, so it is important how we say something in order to avoid misunderstandings. We have to learn in which situation we are going to use a higher or lower pitch, when we can laugh and when we can not, etc.   Language substitutes  Language substitutes are basically other ways to communicate without speaking or writing. They are secondary codes molded on the model of a primary linguistic code. In language substitution we have 2 systems: 1- Instrumental system Here we have all types of music that include percussive, string wind instruments. Those instruments are used to transmit feelings and e

Codes are those norms that exist, and we tend to follow because of the stereotypes that exist or because they are language surrogates, of course no all citizens of a country follow these language substitutes; in El Salvador, some are more obvious than others, for example, while speaking, some Salvadoreans has the verbal filler “vos” and every time they finish a sentence they say this word, another example of the social codes is when someone is doing something that we don’t like, we tend to stare at this person with our eyes like semi-close until this person captures the message; in the behavioral code I have to mention the more common one; while eating pupusas we have to do it with our hands because that’s the way we were taught to eat pupusas, also some of us dislike when a person is eating this typical dish with fork and knife. In the dress code, I have to mention that we usually dress casually, even for parties, but this action is more common in boys than in girls. If we are speakin

Phenomenological discourse analysis Phenomenological discourse analysis is basically to hold a conversation based on the context. In here we talk about Intentionality that guarantees that language grows with subjectivity and consciousness. Our consciousness is constantly creating signs, and the relationship to the things is by subjectivity. In other words, exclamations, sounds and words can be potential dialogues, because we are constantly making meanings to our surroundings. Phenomenological discourse analysis is one of the three levels of discourse analysis. The other two are: Structuralist discourse analysis and Sociological discourse analysis.   Searle classified five different types of expressions: Assertives : In here, we convince the receiver of the truth. Ex “Your laptop is broken”. Directives : It is close to being a commandment.  Ex “Do the dishes”. Commissives: It is to force someone to do something or to avoid doing it. Ex “Can you please put your mask on?”. Expressives:

 3 forms of visual communication: 1.   Photography: Daily, we see pictures everywhere, they are part of our social media, and they have a purpose, sometimes it has hidden messages that we can interpret by identifying those visual elements, as the gestures and the position of the model, those elements are helpful to find the meaning of that picture, but we don’t have to trust 100% in the photo, sometimes they are fixed with some filters, the colors are changed, and the final result is what the photographer wants us to see and not the real one. In the photograph below, we can see how the background is changed, the brightness is fixed, and the colors are retouched to look more vivid.  2. Advertising: We know that all the advertisements are modified and created to call the client’s attention, for that reason, they are carefully designed with elements that they include in an undetectable way so that the customer receives the correct information they want to imply, because what advertiseme