WHAT IS THE CONCEPT OF SOCIETY SEMIOTICALLY AND PRAGMATICALLY?

Rogers Michael Kazibwe

1. INTRODUCTION:

Contextualizing the specific meaning of the concepts of pragmatics and of semiotics.

In this paper I present the meaning of society from both the semiotic and the pragmatic points of view. Before discussing the meaning and implication of the conception of society along these two different, but complementary aspects, it is appropriate to first of all give the specific context and meaning of the terms: semiotic and pragmatic themselves. Then I will follow with an in-depth elucidation of the meaning of society as derived from either the semiotic point of view or the pragmatic point of view. In the conclusion I will give a combined meaning that arises from the combination of the two points of view. (a) What is semiotics and in what does it consist? Semiotics refers to the general science of signs. It is a science based on the understanding that naturally human beings have the natural capacity to read and use the signs in the process of developing their knowledge base. According to Peirces theory of signs, there are signs always present in nature, and their presence does not depend on the external agent of man who interprets them. Thus the universe is permeated with signs which stand apart from action of the interpretative will. For Charles Peirce: all things that exist, they also impose themselves as signs. The signs exist as a genuine mediation and are an inherent part of reality, one that manifests itself as a sign reality in interpretative processes, including everyday life. The signifying universe is manifested through such processes of signs and sign interpretations; it is generated and amplified through them. In this way of semiosis, or rather the semiotic

approach Peirce manages to discover the relationship between the signs and language with his translation theory. Language comes into play because the signs must be translated and interpreted into communicative language. Accordingly, the situation in which something subsists as a sign necessarily involve translation processes; and therefore semiosis is a translative and interpretative process.

(b) What is Pragmatics and in what does it consist? The study of pragmatics received their strong support in the scholarly works of Charles Morris. Pragmatics introduces the concept of what is called the pragmatic content It hold it that meaning does not come from the isolated words and sentences, but from the way in which those words and sentences are used. Pragmatics focus predominantly on the activity of language used, and in particular, on utterances but the meaning of the utterances according to pragmatics cannot be found in the naked words but are found by exploiting the contextual clues. For instance: Two people in a room with an open window. If the person farther from the window utters, it is cold here the other person understands his colleague is telling him to close the window; and will therefore close it. In this example, the hearer recognizes that, based on the context of the utterance, the speaker is requesting that the window be closed.

This example outlines a primary feature of pragmatics, viz a vis, the context. If we take the sentence, the sign or symbol and abstract away from the specific context we can see that there is nothing about it that would compel a specific interpretation to be made. If the same sentence is uttered in a different context, say, outside in the compound the interpretation will certainly be different.

In the context of pragmatics it follows that for every case of communicative inference the interpretation and translation depends on something more than the words or sign to include the specific context of the interpreter. This pragmatic process takes a sentence or a sign which, by itself, is assertive, and interprets it (and correctly for that matter), as a directive.

2. THE SOCIETY IN CONTEXT Now we are living in a fast moving society that produces drastic changes in the mode of human interactions. Once it was fragmented by various distinctive institutions like race, ethnicity, colour, language, social class, religion and culture. Due to the global networks and mass media the outlook of the world has changed to a global village1. Now we are living and interacting in a free and diverse society without any visible limits. In this regard there exist some fundamental questions: 1. Is it possible for human beings to have an understanding about themselves (their distinctive cultural background) and to justify their existence in the midst of various unknown social individualities? 2. Is it possible amidst the variety of signs, images, and voices from all around the world that bombard man , for him to still keep his calm and make a correct translation and interpretation of all this? 3. What choices are there in this contemporary global village for meaningful communicative processes to take place? This examination for these challenges is grounded in a pragmatic and hypothetical approach. If human beings are signs and everything around them is also a sign, and if signs belong to a situation that is more or less alienated, a critical theory of signs,

http://www.drustvo-antropologov.si/AN/PDF/2007_1/Anthropological_Notebooks_XIII-1_4.pdf

language, and ideology is necessary if man is to overcome social and linguistic alienation and the processes of dehumanization. The people in a given society interact with each other by interpreting each other's actions instead of merely reacting to each other's actions. Their response is not made directly to the actions of one another but instead is based on the meaning which they attach to such actions. Thus, human interaction is mediated by the use of symbols and language and their interpretation; or by defining the meaning of one another's actions2.

Herbert Blumer, a renowned American sociologist argued that human behavior of symbolic interaction is the basis of all human meaning making processes. According to him symbolic interactionism is based on three primary premises. First, that human beings act towards things on the basis of the meanings those things have for them, second that such meanings arise out of the interaction of the individual with others, and third, that an interpretive process is used by the person in each instance in which he/she must deal with things in his/her environment.

Symbolic interactionism also deals with society a whole and it distinguishes the nature of an individual in a society. It differentiates the human characteristics and their perception towards life. In this regard big fast food chains (McDonalds, Burger king, Coca-Cola etc) use this as a basic research manual for their product launching. Their usage of hardcontrasting colours for their products is not only meant for eye attraction, it plays with the human psyche too3. The red and yellow generate a hunger in society upon sight because they symbolically represent ketchup and mustard.

2 3

Mead, George Herbert, Critical Assessments, Taylor & Francis, 1992, P.147. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_interactionism

Therefore how individuals making meaning and generating senses in social interaction, how they construct the self, and how they define situations are purely based on their conception/ understanding about signs and symbols around them. And modern society is driven by a complex sign-system comprising many signs, symbols and ciphers. And thus only by the understanding of this sign system, we can comprehend the nature of our existence in society.

3. THE IMPLICATION OF PRAGMATISM AND SEMIOTICS IN MODERN SOCIETY Todays world, where processes have an unequal distribution of information in global and local level, challenges us to understand the need of individuals and societies for defining their identity. Semiotics is the only means to achieve this understanding as the study of how meaning is constructed and understood in a given sign system. Semiotics is a general methodology of humanities and life sciences which helps us to perceive the world more meaningfully. As just mentioned above, we owe it to Peirce who managed to put in relationship and to show the importance between the uses of signs and to devise a theory for their interpretation and translation into language - the translation theory. Peirce talks of the situation in which something subsists as a sign as necessarily involving translation processes as well as interpretative processes. In this context it is crucial to clarify the relationship between the interpretant and the interpreted sign in this society where we find ourselves. THE PERCEPTION ABOUT SOCIETY a) Socio-semiotics As defined by well known Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, semiotics is the science of the life of signs in society. It clearly examines the social dimension of meaning and

the role of signs in human behavior and in shaping of the societies. And in this sense it can be called as social semiotics which investigates the signifying practices of human beings in specific social and cultural circumstances, and which also tries to explain the act of meaning-making as a social practice. It includes all cultural codes, such as slang, fashion, and advertising. The captions in advertisements bill boards can be seen as the good example for this. In these respects, social semiotics was influenced by, and shares many of the preoccupations of pragmatics.

It

is

public

service

advertisement by Don Bosco society. They are trying to create awareness about the plight of homeless persons who reside on street.

In strict academic sense, pragmatism is the study of how the arrangements of words and phrase can alter the meaning of a sentence4. The Don Bosco society want to say, Help the homeless, but they used a different caption their buffet with the background of a waist bin on the street. Here the semiotics comes into action with the psyche of viewers in a society that doesnt care for the homeless and concerned more about their own buffet lunch/dinner. It ironically speaks about the message and obviously playing with subconscious mind. This kind of indirect message requires pragmatic inference to derive the intended meaning

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatics

In this regard social semiotics is also the study of the "signs of the time" by interpreting and deconstructing societal trends to find the deeper, more hidden meaning5. In other words, it helps the society to understand its role by manifesting its own realities and encouraging the collective social psyche. By becoming attuned to the provision of such signs and by knowing its intention we can also participate in what is driving the society.

b) Cultural Semiotics Its a yet another applicative side of semiotics or perception of semiotics towards society. Historically, semiotics is used as an approach to solve practical problems6. It is also used as a tool for medical practitioners in Greece; used to identify diseases by looking at symptoms as sign. During the time of enlightenment it also served as a measure to explain how certain art forms were represented to make meanings. As we have seen before it includes all cultural codes. To give an example of this semiotics perception of culture, Id like to deconstruct a current trend in mass media and it can be applied to all other cultural codes in modern society.

(c) A specific case of the Reality TV It is the most influential widely rated program among the new born TV programs of first half of 21st century. Even if it doesnt contain any meaningful contents, each day its viewership is getting unimaginable boom. To analyze its semiotic interest we can look at different elements that comprise these programs. The first and foremost attribute of reality show is its liveness. Although the audience may not watch the program as a real-time live show, the show basically comes out without any planned script or rehearsals. Why might this appeal to audiences? An unscripted and live telecast carries the form of an actual event and that emancipates the audience. We are now going through a society that firmly believes on
5 6

http://transformingsociety.blogspot.com/2007/04/semiotic-awareness.html Mead, George Herbert, Critical Assessments, Taylor & Francis, 1992, P.106.

mediated forms of life; a life that can appreciate all the things/events happening out side our life. We need certain media to receive them. We dont want to go over there and participate, but we have strong desire to do so. At the same time our society is also getting used to unanimated naturality; we dont have patience to nurture a flower, we go for a plastic flower to ornament our drawing room. We are exclusively happy with using all other forms of utilities also, like using imitation leather and ornaments, cosmetically enhanced beauty etc. In the midst of all these fakeness there is a deep longing for something real and authentic.

Reality TV always selects ordinary people and they squeeze out their emotions and temptations during the puzzling trials. These non-actors respond and act genuinely in each situation like any other imperfect human being. It helps the viewer to get a fast self identification with them. There will be unexpected surprises, joy, sorrow, defeat, triumph and all what the audience need to satisfy their hunger for reality. Like what we have seen before from the quoting of Ferdinand de Saussure, semiotics is the science of the life of signs in society. It interprets and creates meaning of the signs in each society.

CONCLUSION: A SEMIO-PRAGAMATIC PERCEPTION In general semiotic studies tend to be formalistic in its approach, abstracting signs from the context of use, but in social semiotics it takes part in the meaning. It examines semiotic practices, specific to a culture and community, how it works within a certain cultural codes. It is analyzing various kinds of texts and creating meanings in various situational contexts and contexts of culturally meaningful activity. Social semiotics therefore makes no radical separation between theoretical and applied semiotics and is more closely associated with analysis of social behaviour and cultural anthropology.

In this paper I show that it is possible to hold on semiotics as well as pragmatic approaches in the bid to find the meaning of society. It is possible to apply the two approaches because whereas pragmatics focus on language use between two or more interlocutors in a given situation, semiotics focus on the analysis of the function of various objects paintings, architectural elements, picture, signs. Now our society is abundantly characterized by all these. Even if semiotics tend to hold an immanentist perspective, that is the idea that the semiotic functioning of an object is to be found in the object itself, that is primarily on the functioning of the relatively inert objects, the signs, the paintings and pictures, prior to any specific communicational situation; and even if pragmatics tend rather to insist on the importance of resorting to extra-linguistic factors to account for the utterances meanings and their effects on the interpreters, one can find a wonderful intersection of these two approaches and make the best of the communicative and dialoguing encounter so necessary for our society. There is a possible interaction between the two since pragmatics mostly focus on the functioning of signs while semiotics is about the practical effects of language use.

Bibliography
1. Benjamin Lee, Greg Urban(eds), (1989) Semiotics, Self and Society NY: Walter de Gruyter. 2. Leeuwen, Theo Van. Introducing Social Semiotics: An Introductory Text book(2005) London: Routledge. 3. Thibault, Paul J., Social Semiotics: Text, Meaning (1990) Ada: Minnesota Press,

Websites
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics 09/02/09 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotic_anthropology 09/02/09 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_semiotics 09/02/09 4. http://library.georgetown.edu/newjour/s/msg02923.html 09/02/09 5. http://ebooks.ebookmall.com/ebook/263169-ebook.htm 09/02/09

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