Semiotics Saussure\'s Two-Part Model Offers

Semiotics

Saussure's two-part model offers a solid framework with which to understand how semiotics permeates everyday human communication. The signifier (a word, an image, an act, or a sound) conveys a concept. Together the signifier and the signified create the signs we see, hear, or even smell and taste. Moreover, Chandler points out that signs usually have multiple meanings: there is "no one to one link between signifier and signified," (12). Thus, any signifier can be misinterpreted. Any signifier can also convey layers of nuanced meanings depending on the background or psychology of the individual interpreter. Cultural nuances further complicate semiotics, influencing the impact of any given sign. Even within one language system like English, one word can have multiple meanings. One gesture can signify wholly different ideas depending on the geographic region and the social context.

A comedy club offered an ideal context from which to study semiotics in action. Stand-up comedy can be strictly linguistic but it can be almost devoid of language as well. Body language, props, and audience interactions add depth and dimension to the humor. The Comedy Cellar is an intimate room and headliner Lisa Landry uses gestures to accompany her quips.

To evaluate semiotics in such a uniquely conducive setting, I observed not only the performer but the audience members as well. My mother's reactions to Landry provided a means to uncover the multiple meanings of signs and language. For example, she commented on Landry's ring, something I would not have noticed. A ring is the signifier in the Saussure model: the form the sign takes. Not only was there a ring; the ring was a gold band around Landry's fourth finger. My mother, the interpreter of this particular signifier, relayed the sign to me. She mentioned marriage.

Her mentioning of marriage was itself a sign. On the one hand, her words were a sign of her emotional and psychological state. The signifier she used was derived from several separate social theaters: the cultural connotation of what a wedding ring signified; the cultural connotation of the act of marriage or the condition of being married; the visual signification of Lisa Landry's ring. My mother's language added yet another complex of signs: her words conveyed meaning and betrayed her psychological and social background and her particular views of marriage as a social institution with personal implications. Layers of meaning were embedded into a single object in one moment of time.

Signs are as arbitrary as Saussure implied. However, Landry would not be wearing a gold band on her fourth (the "ring") finger if that object did not itself signify something in the cultural context. A finger has a name associated with the object, and marriage is the sign. The symbol of ring on a ring finger is nearly universal and yet at the same time it is arbitrary. It is not as if the ring finger is the only one that can wear a ring, and there is no reason why the condition of being married cannot be signified by a different symbol: a necklace or a headband, for example.