Semiotics for Beginners by Daniel Chandler

Semiotics for Beginners by Daniel Chandler
processing'. He adds that 'there has been much discussion about the structure of codes such as
architecture, photography, film, sign language and narratives, but no convincing conclusion has been
reached concerning the articulation of these codes' (e-mail 12/8/97). Susanne Langer claims that
whilst visual media such as photography, painting and drawing have lines, colours, shadings, shapes,
proportions and so on which are 'abstractable and combinatory', and which 'are just as capable of
articulation, i.e. of complex combination, as words', they have no vocabulary of units with independent
meanings (Langer 1951, 86-7).
A symbolism with so many elements, such myriad relationships, cannot be broken up into
basic units. It is impossible to find the smallest independent symbol, and recognize its identity
when the same unit is met in other contexts... There is, of course, a technique of picturing
objects, but the laws governing this technique cannot properly be called a 'syntax', since there
are no items that might be called, metaphorically, the 'words' of portraiture. (ibid., 88).
Rather than dismissing 'non-discursive' media for their limitations, however, Langer argues that they
are more complex and subtle than verbal language and are 'peculiarly well-suited to the expression of
ideas that defy linguistic "projection"'. She argues that we should not seek to impose linguistic models
upon other media since the laws that govern their articulation 'are altogether different from the laws of
syntax that govern language'. Treating them in linguistic terms leads us to 'misconceive' them: they
resist 'translation' (ibid., 86-9).
Some codes have first articulation only. These semiotic systems consist of
signs - meaningful elements which are systematically related to each other
- but there is no second articulation to structure these signs into minimal,
non-meaningful elements. Where the smallest recurrent structural unit in a
code is meaningful, the code has first articulation only. Many semioticians
argue that nonverbal communication and the various systems of animal
communication have only first articulation. Nöth notes that although bird
calls make use of basic units, each of these is a complete message, so bird
calls have first articulation only (Nöth 1990, 151). Other examples include
hotel and office room numbers where the first digit indicates the floor and
the second indicates the serial number of the room on that floor. The system of related traffic signs
(with red borders, triangular or circular shapes, and standardized, stylised images) is a code with first
articulation only (Eco 1976, 232). Some semioticians (such as Christian Metz) argue that codes
based on motivated signs - such as film and television - lack second articulation. Metz declared that
in film, 'it is impossible to break up the signifier without getting isomorphic segments of the signified'
(cited in Nöth 1990, 469).
Other semiotic codes lacking double articulation have second articulation only. These consist of signs
which have specific meanings which are not derived from their elements. They are divisible only into
figurae (minimal functional units). Nöth suggests that 'the most powerful code with second articulation
only is the binary code of information theory' (e-mail, 12/8/97): this has only 2 minimal functional units,
0 and 1, but these units can be combined to generate numbers, letters and other signs. A rather less
powerful system with second articulation only is that of accession codes for books, which are simply
serial numbers.