Review of the book chapter Semiotics for Beginners
Author’s aims:
The author’s aims in this book chapter is to analyze the meaning of semiotics and what role it plays in contemporary life. For this chapter is used a method of deep introduction because it is confirmed that not everyone knows what semiotics means in real life.
Context and Content:
By reading this document a spectator will realize that the term like semiotics have been existing for many years. How it is written, both nowadays and some decades ago, semiotics involves not only study of signs. For instance, the author quoted the philosopher Charles Peirce, who mentioned that semiotics is close to logic and that ‘’a sign... is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity’’. These days the sense of signs become more expanded: semiotics studies how meanings are made. Besides that it is stated, that semiotics is represented as the essential part of studying art, literature, anthropology and mass media.
In the text is verified that symbolic system exists everywhere: in studies, television and even photography. The latter point was stressed by quote of Victor Burgin ‘There is no ‘language’ of photography, no single signifying system (as opposed to technical apparatus) upon which all photographs depend (in the sense in which all texts in English depend upon the English language); there is, rather, a heterogeneous complex of codes upon which photography may draw’ .
In conclusion, it was verified that semiotics is the crucial thing we have nowadays.
The conclusion the author made for this chapter is precisely described. He used a lot of knowledge, literature and examples from reality. This document makes to realize that people live in a world full of signs and makes to think that people should not take reality for granted . However , it was some extra information which , I think, was a bit off- topic and left me, as a spectator, confused.