weezy27-9/22 semiology

Dr. Rog
In class on Tuesday we talked about semiotics which is the study of signs. In the Saussure reading we learned a lot about the importance of language as compared to thinking. I think this is an interesting concept because Saussure claims that one cannot even think without language. This is something that I never stopped to think about. Oddly enough, something that really stuck with me in relation to this topic was someone’s comment on babies and language. I can’t remember who it was but they mentioned that when a baby is younger and cannot speak we sometimes wonder “what is he/she thinking?” Well, in accordance to Saussure that child is literally thinking about nothing. Nowadays, it is difficult for me to think that it is possible to have no thoughts. This is because I am so accustomed to constantly having a thought in my head. In class Dr. Rog kind of mentioned this by saying that he was once told to meditate and try to keep all thoughts from his head and this was almost an impossible task for him to accomplish. Furthermore, we talked about separating image from sound. This means that we are trained to see something and call it exactly what we learned it to be. For example, if I see a cat I automatically assume the word “meow.” This is also an interesting concept because our brains are trained to not stray away from this type of thought. Also in class, someone mentioned language as a prison house meaning one can never stray from the rules of language which is similar to the concept of separating image from sound. Lastly, we looked at a bunch of slides with random symbols and logos from different well known corporations. We discussed with the BP logo that even if the logo had been shown in black and white almost everyone in the room still would have been able to color in the correct colors where necessary. This introducers the idea of the signifier and signified, the signifier is just the BP logo as a picture with no meaning but the signifier is the meaning of this picture which could be interpreted many ways.