A A R H U S U N I V E R S I T E T 1 Nordisk Institut Ole Togeby: Classification of signs 2009...

A A R H U S U N I V E R S I T E T

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Ole Togeby: Classification of signs 2009

Classification of signs

Ole Togeby


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Does a picture say more than 1000

words?

Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison 2004. He had wires put on his fingers and had been told that if he lowered his arms or stepped down from the box, he would receive electric shocks through wires.

Although reports from several commissions had documented torture of Iraqis in American prisons, nothing happened - until this and other amateur photos from the prison went around the world and changed the situation. The pictures caused a change in attitudes in the American public towards the war.

Why did it happen like that?


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Definition of a sign

• A (communicative) sign is someone designing a material in a remarkable form to indicate the same for many about something different from itself.

A painting is an effective communi-cative sign

A verbal text is an effective communicative sign


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Definition of a sign

• A (communicative) sign is someone designing a material in a remarkable form to indicate the same for many about something different from itself.

Although we use the word sign when they say that dark clouds are signs of stormy weather, dark clouds are not communicative signs But it is what Peirce calls an index sign.


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Peirce’s signs A (communicative) sign is someone designing a material in a

remarkable form to indicate the same for many about something different from itself.

Please note that this is not the same concept of sign as some may know from the Peircian definition: A sign (representamen) is something which

stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity.


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Peirce’s tegn Peirce makes a distinction between icons, symbols and

indexes An icon (also called likeness and semblance) is a sign that

denotes its object by virtue of a quality which is shared by them but which the icon has irrespectively of the object.

What I will call a picture or image A symbol is a sign that denotes its object solely by virtue of

the fact that it will be interpreted to do so. What I will call (verbal) text or (symbolic) sign

An index is a sign that denotes its object by virtue of an actual connection involving them, one that he also calls a real relation in virtue of its being irrespective of interpretation.

What I will call indication, evidence, symptom, marks, tracks, trails, traces, clues

Peircian indexes are not communicative signs


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The concept of sign

Although the language allows us to say: dark clouds are signs of stormy weather, dark clouds are not an instance of a communicative sign; the clouds don’t have the function of signaling stormy weather.

Smoke from a chimney is an index, but not a sign of the way the wind blows.

However, a weather-cock is a sign of the way the wind blows, because it is designed to indicate wind direction; it has the function indicate.


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Talking about signs Sun rise The earth spins around its own axis, and our country is

coming out of the shadow

The picture represents (depicts) Tordenskjold The painter represents by his painting Tordenskjold as a

young hero

"Tordenskjold, han var polisk" means 'Peter Wessel was sly’ The poet indicates by his verse that Tordenskjold be

regarded as sly


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The picture represents the motif and depicts the real thing

The phrase

a picture of a white horse

can mean two things:

1 .'a white-horse-picture', -- about the motif.

2. ’a depiction of the white horse that the king rode in 1920' – about the real object.


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How wide is a sign?

A sign designates, means, has a function; a sign, as opposed to a non-sign is a carrier of meaning. (...) Such units as periods, sentences, clauses, and words appear to meet the condition: they are carriers of a meaning, and consequently signs ... When the analysis is carried out, it is found that the Danish word for-sam-l-ing-er-ne-s consists of 7 individually significant units, and therefore 7 signs .

Louis Hjelmslev (1943) 1966: Omkring Sprogteoriens grundlæggelse, København: Akademisk Forlag, side 40


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How wide is a sign?A sign designates, means, has a function; a sign, as opposed to a non-sign is a

carrier of meaning. (...) Such units as periods, sentences, clauses, and words appear to meet the condition: they are carriers of a meaning, and consequently signs ... When the analysis is carried out, it is found that the Danish word for-sam-l-ing-er-ne-s consists of 7 individually significant units, and therefore 7

Here in this ppt, the word sign is only used about an expressed sentence that can be used as a communicative act (speech act). Subordinate clauses, phrases, words, morphemes, and letters are not signs but elements of signs or elements of elements of signs.


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How wide is a sign?

Here, the word sign is only used about an expressed sentence that can be used as a communicative act (speech act). Subordinate clauses, phrases, words, morphemes, and letters are not signs but elements of signs and elements of elements of signs.


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Examples A painting of Tordenskiold, A signpost at the road A weathercock, 32 + 42 = 52 et watch showintg 13:52 An oral utterance:

[Klokken er kvart i to, a handshake The song Jeg vil sjunge om en

helt.


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Criteria for signhood

A significant form of a specific material about something different from itself

which indicates the same for several people

A (communicative) sign is someone designing a material in a remarkable form to indicate the same for many about something different from itself.


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A significant form of a specific material Without differences that make a

difference, no sign about something different from itself




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Et bemærkelsesværdigt formgivet materiale Uden form, intet tegn

about something different from itself A sign is delimited by a frame from non-

sign areas in the background og angiver det samme for flere

Med tegn deler vi tanker med hinanden



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about something different from itself og angiver de

A sign is not an illusion og angiver det samme for flere

Med tegn deler vi tanker med hinanden


Hey, Johnny, let os fly wildly rapidly, and give that guy af real shock. That would be great fun.


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der er om noget andet end sig selv Et tegn er ikke en illusion

which indicates the same for several people With signs we share our thoughts with each other



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A significant form of a specific material Without differences, no sign

about something different from itself A sign is delimited by a frame from non-

sign areas in the background A sign is not an illusion


With signs we share our thoughts with each other



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Fully interlockingSignhood is that many impose social functions to significant forms, e.g. that a cross on a ballot paper counts as a vote for a person.The persons elected for the parliament nominate persons for the government; the government authorize civil servants, who can issue birth certificates to persons who when they are 18 can vote for the parliament …

So the imposition of function hang together in a fully interlocking jigsaw puzzle.


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Signs and non-signs


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Mental semiotic processes In addition to the material form, three mental processes

together constitute the necessary steps of the sign user's understanding of a sign:

A. Perception of the significant forms (mono-sensory, phylogenetic and unconscious, Gestalt.

B. Recognition of the differences that make a difference, cross-sensory, ontogentic, phenomenological conceptua-lization and categorization of objects and situations.

C. Interpretation (understanding) and possible acceptance of the relevance and truth of the information in the interaction.


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Perception, recognition and interpretation

A traffic sign (triangel) is perceived upside down, recognized as a triangel, and interpreted as a warning sign


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Perception involves a Gestalt with figure and ground


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Recognition involves seeing something as something


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Interpretation involves judging reality and relevance of the topic

Cognition of a sign implies 1) perception of it 2) recognition of it as a sign about smoking

3) that you understand that it is not a real traffic sign, and that it nevertheless is a sincere ban of smoking relevant here and now.

Paradoxes has neither reality value nor any relevance for the interpreter.


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Act and representation

Interpretation (understanding) of a sign is 1. a communicative act in the social

setting 2. a mental representation of the situation

represented The sign establishes a relation between

the two situations


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Meaning as mental representation

The relation between and the represented situation is a relation of truth and relevance


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Meaning as layers of an act

You perform a perlocutionary act by performing a illocutionary act by performing a propositional act by performing a representational act


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A model of a sign

i) A material form ii) A sign producer iii) Sign interpreters iv) Acts of understanding

(content, meaning, signifié): perception, recognition,

interpretation v) The object,

All the acts of under-standing has to be the same


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The meaning of the word same

a) conceptual meaning: ‘x is of the type (sort, kind) that y belongs to’, ‘equivalent’, ‘similar’, ‘not distinct from’ fx We all have the same faith as the vicar, a1) categorial meaning: ‘have category in common’, ‘which does not count as

anything but …’, ‘equivalent with’, about objects: the same letter, the same car, a2) qualitative meaning: ‘with common qualities’, ‘which resembles’, ‘similar to’,

‘alike’, ‘common characteristics’, same used as an adjektiv to a property: the same size, the same colour, the brothers had the same nose.

b) perceptual meaning: ‘with common identity’, ‘exactly that specimen’, ‘(numerical) identical with’, ‘which is not any other than’, e.g.: We are all in the same boat,

c) temporal meaning: ‘unchanged’, e.g.: fx You can not step into the same river twice

In the definition of the concept of sign indicate the same for many the word same has conceptual meaning, categorial about texts and qualitative about pictures.


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Criteria for the classification of signs

There are many criteria for the classification of signs: material articulation, convention, predicational power, compositionality Deictic power, doubble articulation Count-as-rules


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MaterialSome signs are objects in space, e.g. paintings

and other signs are courses of events in time, e.g. oral utterances


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MaterialSome signs are objects in space, e.g. paintings and other signs are courses of events in time, e.g. oral utterances


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Articulation(8-3) Kæde (syntagme) og kode (paradigme) i sproglige ytringer

kan De sig- -e mig det?vil du giv- ... ...må I send- ... ...bør han rækk- ... ...

hun lov- ... ...... ... ... ...

An articulate sign consists of a one-dimensional chain divided into dis-crete, recognizable elements chosen from a code of sign elements. Articulated signs are articulated both horizontally in the chain and vertically in the code.

Some signs are continuous; other signs are articulated, ie. divided into links.

Specific sign types are math and pantomime


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Analogy and conventioncontinuity and articulation

Some signs indicate by analogy. Other signs indicate by convention


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The classification by analogy and convention is the same as by continuity and articulation


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The classification by analogy and convention is the same as by continuity and articulation


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Complex signsObjects in space and courses in time are not mutually exclusive, there are signs that are both an object in space and a course in time, namely for example a written text and a measuring instrument as a watch


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Mixed signsThe oppossition between the indication by analogy and by the convention is scalar, with many mixed forms, such as pictograms and diagrams.

Stylizing, simplification, typification

Pictogram

diagram


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Nine types of signs


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Nine types of signs


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Doubble articulation

Math and verbal texts are articulated in sign elements chosen from an inventory of possible elements:

But only in the verbal text the sign elements are themselves articulated in elements of sign elements


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Homonymy og polysemy Double articulation means that sign elements (words and morphemes) can

be both synonymous, polysemous and homonymous. synonymy is that two sign elements (words, morphems) has the same sense

E.g. the words udsagnsord and verbum, bange and angst, bede and anmode.

Homonymy is the case that two different morphemes are expressed by the same sequence of elements of sign elements (letters)

e.g. homophones with identical phonemes: vejr-hver-vær homographs are spelled alike: al, syren and korset homonymes: søm, bed, ler, hede.

Polysemy is the case that the same morphemes can have different meanings in different contexts,

fx højt tårn, højt skrig, det høje C, høje omkostninger, høje idealer, højglans og i 1897, i København, i tre uger, i vrede, i koppen.

Only signs with double articulation have homonymy and polysemy In mathematics there are no homonymy or polysemy


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Doubble articulated signs = verbal signs


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Doubble articulated signs = verbal signs

Chinese characters are just as mathematics single articulated.


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DeixisDeictic elements are sign elements that refer to and distinguish between the communicative situation EGO-HERE-NOW and the represented situation NOT-US --- NOT- HERE --- NOT-NOW,

Statements with deictic elements can refer to themselves

This sentence claims to be a Epimenides paradox, but is not true.

This sentence contradicts itself – or rather – no, in fact it dosn’t.

Don’t read what is written in this box!


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Deixis

Verbal language has full deixis; it can refer to both proximal and distal things.

The dentist to the patient: It will not hurt to pull out the tooth – now – did it?

Pictograms (road signs) have only half (proximal) deixis and indicate what is here and now (for the recipient); they can not indicate NOT-US - NOT HERE, NOT NOW


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Regulatory and constitutive rules

Conventions are common standards and rules for people in a community, but there are two different types of rules: regulatory rules and constitutive rules.

Regulatory rules are conventions for how the community should carry out acts that exist independently of the rule. Rules for table manners are typical regulatory rules. Putting food into the

mouth is an action existing prior to the rule of having the knife in right hand and fork in the left; it is simply a regulation of it.

There is also constitutive rules that do not regulate existing actions, but in the interaction between people create new types of action not existing independently of the rule.

The rules of games like chess or football are typical examples of constitutive rules. The rule which says moving the ball over the goal line between the goalposts counts as a goal in soccer, creates a social event called a 'goal' which does not exist outside the game.

Such rules which creates new facts, always have the following form: X counts as Y in C


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X counts as Y in C X counts as Y in C

X is the sign, ie. a material form; Y is the fact created by issuing the sign in the situation

C, and C is a context situation of a particular type.

Examples: touching the ball with your hand (X) counts as a free kick (Y) in soccer (C), or: threatening the opponent's king not being able to move to a square where it is not threatened (X) counts as checkmate (Y) in check (C).


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More-or-less-meaningeither-or-meaning

• A painting of Tordenskjold is an analog sign indicating that the he should be seen as X, taking into account certain regulatory rules about how to make images look resemble, conventions that can be seen in the history of art; ideal of how images should look like, change over time. No constitutive rules in the painting of Tordeskjold,

• Even in the most realistic picture there are certain conventional features, and any conventional sign has analog aspects, such as the font and and size. There is therefore

• both-and-meaning • more-or-less-meaning.

• A conventional sign requires constitutive rules. You only understand the meaning of the sign if you know and accept that the letters (X) counts as the corresponding phonemes (Y) and that the series of phonemes (X) counts as morphemes (Y) and that combination of morphemes (X) counts as a warning and a justification of the importance 'drive carefully' 'children can play on the road' (Y) The result of using constitutive rules could be called: symbolic sings.

• The strips of tape on the wood plate placed by the road, count as a warning that children can play at that place and that the driver must drive carefully. Verbal Language involve constitutive rules where X counts as Y in C. These are

• either-or-meaning

X counts as Y in C


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Count-as-rules

X counts as Y in C


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Visual or auditory


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Classification of signs


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Diagrams


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More-or-less-meaningand either-or-truth

Considerable price increase insignificant price increase


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Degrees of conventionality of pictograms


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Pictogrammmatical syntax


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Pictogram inventory


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Combination of picture and text

What is the motif of this picture. What does it indicate? What is the message?


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What is the motif of this picture. What does it indicate? What is the message?


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Afghan woman and her daughter look at a demonstration in Kabul in Afghanistan. Later the police fired into the crowd, killing four people


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Kombination af billede og tekst

In this example, text and image are sabotaging each other, and probably the image will win. The interpreter will remember the message of the picture, but not the message of the text


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Literature Litteraturliste

Dretske, Fred 1995: Naturalizing the Mind, Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press.

Gombrich, E.H (1977) 2002: Art & Illusion. A study in the psychology of pictoral representation, London: Phaidon Press Ltd.

Goodman Nelson 1976: Languages of Art, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company

Habermas, Jürgen 1971: “Forberedende bemærkninger til en teori om den kommunikative kompetens”, oversat af Peter Widell og Niels Hornborg Jensen, i Henriksen, Carol (red) 2001: Can you reach the salt?, København: Roskilde Universitetsforlag

Peirce, Ch.S. (1994): Semiotik og pragmatisme, på dansk ved Lars Andersen, udg. af Anne Marie Dinesen og Frederik Stjernfelt, København: Samlerens Bogklub

Togeby, Ole, 1975: RO, Mål & Mæle 2. årg. nr. 3, Kbh.: Sigvaldis forlag

Togeby, Ole 2001: "Den sproglige beskrivelse af fiktion og tekstart" i Heltoft, Lars og Carol Henriksen (red) 2001: Den analytiske Gejst. Festskrift til Uwe Geist på 60_årsdagen 23. september 2001, Roskilde: Roskilde Universitetsforlag, side 233_246.

Togeby, Ole 2003: Fungerer denne sætning? Funktionel dansk sproglære, København: Gad.

Togeby, Ole 2005: “Ole tegner og fortæller. Om den semiotiske forskel på billeder og tekst” i Tidsskrift for Sprogforskning Årg. 3 nr. 1, Århus: Statsbiblioteket, side 29-46.

Togeby, Ole 2005: “Dette er (ikke) en pibe - billedtekster og tekstbilleder” i Widell, Peter og Mette Kunøe 2005: 10. møde om Udforskningen af Dansk Sprog. Aarhus Universitet 7.-8. oktober 2004, Århus: Aarhus Universitet, side 370-382.

Watzlawick, Paul, Janet Helmick Beavin and Don D. Jackson 1968: Pragmatics of Human Communication. A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies and Paradoxes, London: Faber and Faber.

Wille, Niels Erik 2007: Fra tegn til tekst. En indføring i teorier om sproglig kommunikation København: Samfundslitteratur

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