Semiotics is the science of signs and their systems. She appeared in the 19th century. Its creators are the philosopher and logician C. Pierce and the anthropologist F. de Saussure. The semiotic approach in culturology is closely associated with symbolic means in the process of communication and path phenomena through them. They carry certain information. Knowing them is necessary for studying the past of our planet and foreseeing its future.
Creating an approach
For the first time, ancient Greek philosophers tried to define culture. They considered her "paideia" - this means education, personal development. In Rome, the term "culturaagri" meant "development of the spirit." Since that time, a traditional understanding of the term has occurred. He has remained the same today. The concept of culture implies improvement, otherwise it is just an empty game.
As ideas about the world of Europeans became more complicated, it was increasingly determined in the context of all the achievements of mankind. The social nature of this phenomenon stood out clearly. From the 19th century, philosophers began to bring to the forefront precisely its spiritual subtext. There were allegations that culture is not only objects, works of art, but the meaning contained in them. In the end, the most important formal method of studying it was the semiotic approach to understanding culture.
Its use takes a person away from substantive aspects. At the same time, thanks to the semiotic approach to culture, the researcher penetrates deeper into its essence. The method is used only when the study of culture leads to a person. The formation of the semiotic approach has been going on for a long time. As M. Gorky said, it is a human desire to produce a second nature.
Final version
For the first time, Lotman, Ouspensky, finally formed a semiotic approach. They presented it at the Slavic Congress in 1973. Then the concept of “semiotics of culture” was introduced. It denoted the area of society that opposes disorganization. Thus, the semiotic approach defines culture as a sign system with a strict hierarchy.
A sign is a material and sensually perceived object that designates objects by means of a symbol. It is used to send to the item or to receive a signal about it. There are several varieties of signs. Their main systems are languages.
Answering the question why the semiotic approach is so named, one needs to return to Ancient Greece. There, the word "σημειωτική" meant "sign" or "sign." In modern Greek, the term is pronounced "simea" or "simia."
Language is an iconic system of any nature. There are gestural, linear, voluminous, as well as other varieties that are actively used by humans. A major role in history is played by verbal forms.
The text is a set of characters that are built in accordance with language standards. It forms a certain message, contains meaning.
The main unit of culture is the text. This is opposed to chaos, the absence of any organization. As a rule, it only seems to a person familiar with one concept of culture. In fact, it is only an organization of a different kind. So perceived foreign cultures, exoticism, subconscious.
The classic academic definition is that the text refers not only to essays, but also to any integrity that contains any meaning. For example, we can talk about a ritual or a work of art. Not every composition is a text from a cultural point of view. It must have certain functions, value. Examples of such texts: law, prayer, romance.
The semiotic approach to language suggests that an isolated system is not a culture, since this requires hierarchical relationships. They can be implemented in the system of natural languages. This theory was developed in the 1960-1970s in the USSR. Its origins were Yu Lotman, B. Uspensky and others.
Final definition
Culture is a combination of systems of signs through which people ensure the maintenance of cohesion, protect their own values, express the uniqueness of their connections with the world.
Sign systems of this kind are usually called secondary. These include various types of art, social activities, patterns of behavior that are available in society. The semiotic approach involves the assignment to this category of myths and history.
Any cultural product is considered a text that was created through one or more systems.
The basis of this approach V.V. Ivanov and his colleagues put natural language. It is a kind of material for secondary systems. And natural language is a unit that allows all the rest to interpret the systems that are fixed with its help in memory and are introduced into people's minds. It is also called the primary system.
Children begin to master the language from the first days of their lives. Of course, at first they do not know how to use it, they only listen to what others are saying to them. But they remember the intonation, the sound. All this helps them to adapt to a new world for them.
In the development of people, other methods are also used. They are built in the image of natural languages.
The cultural system is a modeling system. It is a means of human cognition, explanation and attempts to make changes in the surrounding reality. The language in this perspective is assigned one of the main functions. Concepts and means of a different kind are also applied. Thanks to them, a person produces, transfers, organizes data.
Moderation means processing, transferring information. Information is both knowledge, and human values, and his beliefs. Moreover, the term "information" means a fairly wide range of concepts.
Systems in culture
Any culture contains at least two secondary systems. As a rule, this is an art that is based on languages, and its visual varieties. For example, this is painting. Systems are symbolic as well as iconic. VV Ivanov associated this duality with the characteristics of the human brain.
Moreover, each culture builds secondary hierarchies in its own special system. In some, literature is at the top of the hierarchical chain. For example, this is precisely the situation observed in Russia in the 19th century. In some hierarchies, the most important place is given to visual art. This situation takes place in the modern culture of Western countries. In some peoples, musical art is brought to the forefront.
Culture is a positive term in contrast to its unculture (or anti-culture). The first is an organized system in which data is stored and updated. Neculture is a kind of entropy, erasing memory, destroying values. There is no specific definition for this term. Different peoples and groups of people within a single community have their own ideas about anti-culture.
“They” and “we” can be contrasted in the most varied variations of these terms. There are also concepts characterized by a greater degree of refinement. For example, this is consciousness and unconsciousness, chaos and space. In each of these cases, the second concept contains a positive meaning. Very often, unculture in the semiotic approach is considered a structural reserve for the development of certain values.
Typology
According to the above information, the culture is subject to classification. This makes it possible to compare their various types in the order in which they are arranged in hierarchical relationships. In some cultures, attention is focused on the origins, and in others, on the ultimate goals. A number of cultures use circular concepts, and some use linear ones. In the first case, they mean mythical time, and in the second - historical.
According to the semiotic approach, the geographical distribution of crops occurs in different ways. The "our" world is differentiated from the "alien".
A variety of variations appear in texts, secondary systems. Sometimes they undergo universalization processes. Then one of the systems is proclaimed the dominant ideology.
According to Y. Lotman, cultures can be classified depending on their attitude towards semiosis. Some emphasize expression, while others emphasize content.
That is, the difference between them is due to the fact that they give the greatest value to the existing information or the process of their search. If the first approach comes to light, we are talking about orientation to the text. If the second, then there is a focus on correctness.
In addition, V.V. Ivanov noticed that culture can be paradigmatic or syntagmatic. The first implies that each phenomenon is a sign of a higher reality. The second is that in the course of the interaction of phenomena among themselves, meaning arises.
Examples of these concepts are semiotization in the Middle Ages and during the Enlightenment.
Trends
Culture in the semiotic approach is the mechanism by which this or that information is processed and communicated. Secondary systems operate through codes. Their difference from natural language is due to the fact that among all participants in the linguistic community they are identical. Their understanding depends on the individual mastering this topic.
Noise is considered an obstacle in linguistic, psychological, social factors. He is able to block the channel of communication. Its imperfection is universal. Often noise is considered as a necessary element. Cultural exchange contains translation. Partial communication leads to the emergence of many new codes that compensate for the inadequacy of those that already exist. This is the so-called factor of "reproduction", which makes the culture dynamic.
Metalanguage
It is the organizing principle that provides the hierarchy and definition of culture. The ideology expressed by the modeling system gives it stable features and creates its image.
The metalanguage is inclined to simplify the subject; it gets rid of everything destroyed that exists outside the system. For this reason, it adds distortion to the subject. Therefore, it must be borne in mind that no culture is described only by a metalanguage.
Dynamism
Culture is able to constantly change. This is a function of the interaction of the metalanguage and the "multiplying" trends that it always possesses. The desire to increase the number of ties is considered the result of the need to overcome their imperfections. It also leads to the need to ensure order in the information accumulated by culture.
But when the increase in the number of codes is too intense, the consistency of cultural details is lost. In this case, communication is no longer possible.
When the metalanguage function dominates, the culture fades and changes are not possible. Communication in this case is no longer needed. Changes in culture happen when the components of the anti-cultural periphery, structural reserve, appear in it. But with the advent of these changes, the metalanguage is developing. The repetition of models of change is carried out at different speeds in every second system.
If the culture is complex, for example, as modern, the role of man in updating the code becomes the most significant. With the occurrence of various complications, the value of each person increases in proportion. The dynamism of a culture makes its diachronic description much more significant.
Nonverbal Semiotics
The most important component of the semiotic approach to culture is the non-verbal component. At the moment, it is believed that it contains disciplines between which there are fairly close ties. This is paralinguistics studying the sound codes of non-verbal communication. Kinesics, the science of gestures, their systems are also listed here. This is the main discipline that studies nonverbal semiotics.
Also, a modern look closely connects it with her and the oculus. The latter is the science of visual communication, human visual behavior during communications. Auscultation (the science of auditory perception) is endowed with the same role. It is most clearly manifested in music and singing, endowing with the meaning of speech in the course of its perception.
