SSS: Sponges, Signs and Stuff

This is Spongebob Squarepants.

He lives in Bikini Bottom.

But we understand him..

because of semiotics. :)

(We also understand that emoticon I just posted, because of semiotics too)

If you saw that yellow monstrosity walking down the road in real life you would be horrified, it would scare you, because we could not comprehend what we were seeing, however because it has.. because HE has a face, we can identify it and understand what it is. Really its just a few lines drawn on a yellow block, here's one I did myself earlier..



I call him "Down On His Luck Bob"

and I genuinely feel sorry for him, even though he is something I knocked up on paint 5 mins ago.

Anyway what I'm trying to say, amongst all this procrastination (my mate Wilfred keeps talking to me on Facebook as well!)

Is that because of semiotics we understand those to arbitrary images above. Certain signifiers on these images help us understand what they are. The face, with mouth eyes and nose we recognise, and further more the way they are used, the mouth on Spongebob connotes happiness, the mouth on Down On His Luck Bob connotes sadness.

Put it like this, the signifier helps us understand the concept behind the drawing.

On spongebob:

Signifiers: Happy eyes and mouth, sponge like skin and shape, shirt and tie, goofy teeth
Signified: Happy go lucky, friendly sponge, dresses well but isnt all there


On Down On His Luck Bob:

Signifiers: Sad sunken eyes, sad eyebrows, pointy nose, sad mouth, five o'clock shadow and grimy shirt

Signified: Sad, lonely sponge, down on his luck, very tired, possibly alcoholic

So these are good examples of semantics. And they come in handy in everyday life all the time, road signs, door signs are all great examples.





Semantics are my favourite part of semiotics, its the easiest to understand.

Pragmatics on the other hand is not, basically it talks about how context contributes to meaning.

I could say the sentence " Paul had a long run"

but without knowing the context it would have many meanings, and no real meaning.

Therefore pragmatics touches alot on communication, and I guess context is a type of noise, distorting the message between the transmitter and the receiver.

Basically understanding context is important in understanding stuff, its the hardest part when learning communication, some experts say!