Semiotic Analysis:

A Research GuidePresented by Megan Henley, Michelle Keddy, Benjamin

Kinsman, Michelle Muggridge and Karen Shields.

Introduction

Although the earliest origins of semiotics can be traced back to Aristotle and Augustine, it didn’t begin to be fully developed until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Semiotics is a broad topic which can be applied to many differentfields, including media studies, theatre and music. Musical semiotics is a complex and relatively new topic; consequentlymaterials explaining musical semiotics were very difficult to findin our library. Thus, the following presentation will not explainmusical semiotics, but will show how one might further researchthis topic.

Semiotics

Basically, semiotics is the study of signs and their meanings!Signs include words, gestures, images, sounds, and objects. According to Ferdinand de Saussure, a founder of modern semiotics,sign consists of two parts: the signifier (the form which the sign takes) and the signified (the concept represents).

SemioticsFor example, an everyday example is a stop sign. In thisexample, the physical sign is the signifier. The concept of stopping is the signified.

=the signifier

STOP!!! =the signified

SemioticsHowever, signfiers can have multiple signifieds. Take the colorred for example:

RED

APPLE

LoveFIRE

Blood

Problems with Semiotics

“Semiotics is essentially a theoretical approach to communicationin that its aim is to establish widely applicable principles…It isthus vulnerable to the criticism that it is too theoretical, too speculative and that semioticians make no attempt to prove ordisprove their theories in an objective, scientific way.” (Fiske 1982, 118)

“A musical phrase or even a tone has, as any musician...knows, many possible kinds of signification and significance -- i.e. ‘meaning’.” (Coker 1972, 2)

Semiotic Terms

Semantics: the relations of signs to their contexts and to what they signify.

Syntactics: the kinds of signs, their ordering, and their relations to one another.

Pragmatics: the ways in which signs are used and interpreted.

The Semiotic Square

Opposites give each other meaning. For example, black & white, love & hate.

Binary Opposition: One signifier (A) vs. another signifier (B) For example, good guy vs. bad guy, tonality vs. modality.

Semiotic Square: A visual representation of the logical articulations of any semantic category.

Semiotic Square

The semiotic square diagrams the ways in which, starting from any given term, a complete meaning system can be derived through exhaustion of logical possibilities. This is accomplished by developing the traditional logical concepts of contradictory (diagonal arrows) and contrary (horizontal arrow)

The Semiotic Square

S1

S2S1

S2

opposite

Mediates between S1 and S2

Negates both S1 and S2

Past

Present

Future

Atemporality

A Musical Example

Actor A

Actor B Actor C

Actor Dvouloir être vouloir faire

vouloir non-fairevouloir non-être

Historical Context

Musical Semiotics is essentially a new concept of musical analysis and is very subjective. Although it can be applied to allforms of music, it is best used on chance and program music.

Websites

http://www.hum.aau.dk/semiotics/University of Aarhus Center for Semiotics Homepage

http://www.aber.ac.uk/~dgc/semind.html Semiotics for Beginners

http://boethius.music.ucsb.edu/mto/mtohome.htmlMusic Theory Online (go to All Issues, then, Search the Database, then Order Form, select search type and enter semiotics to get a list of articles on musical semiotics.)

http://www.epas.utoronto.ca:8080/french/as-sa/EngSem1.htmlSites of Significance for Semiotics.

Websiteshttp://www.chass.utoronto.ca:8080/french/as-sa/ASSA-No4/index.htm Semiotics of Music, presented by Eero Tarasti

http://www.chass.utoronto.ca:8080/epc/srb/cyber/cyber.htmlCyber Semiotic Institute.

http://the-duke.duq-duke.duq.edu/notes/viz4/intro.htmWhat is Semiotics?

http://www.letsdeviant.com/semioticslink.htmlSemiotics Links

http://www.sla.purdue.edu/semiotics The American Journal of Semiotics

Websites

http://www.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/semiotics.htmlSemiotics - University of Colorado and Denver

http://www.azstarnet.com/~solo/ Solomon's Music Theory & Composition Resources

http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/arts/music/semimusi.htmBibliographic sources

http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/rssi/rssihe.html Canadian Semiotic Association

Websitehttp://www.newcastle.edu.au/department/fad/fi/woodrow/semiotic.htm Semiotic Analysis of Images.