The course will allow students to acquire a thorough understanding of the basic concepts of Semiotics, and to apply them to a wide range of interpretive, communicative and mediatic phenomena. Students will develop their ability to analyse the products of communication with regard to the specific characteristics of the cultural artefacts in question, the implicit grammars and the different communicative purposes they entail, as well as the type of recipients and cultural contexts they interact with. Students will enhance their ability to abstract elements that are common to a variety of communicative situations and, conversely, to distinguish between different aspects of the same class of phenomena, thus improving the standards of their analytical thinking and their argumentative style.
None.
Frontal lectures and, when necessary, slides in power point and videos to be analysed in class.
The exam is written. It lasts one hour and consists of three open-ended questions, some of which are of a general nature (for example, "What is a sign?"), while others ask students to comment on a quotation (for example, "What does Saussure mean when he states that 'language is a system of pure values'?"), or to apply and/or exemplify a semiotic concept. Each answer is worth ten points. The linguistic appropriateness and the consistency of the students' arguments will also be assessed.
Linguistic functions and Communicative Models; Codes and Subcodes; Inferential Model of Communication; Natural and Artificial Signs; Signs as Inferences and Signs as Equivalences; Synchrony and Diachrony; Langue and Parole; Signifier and Signified; Arbitrariness, Convention and Standardization of signs; Translation Theory; Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic Relations; Linguistic Value and Structure; Structural Semantics; Fallibility; Intuitionism and Nominalism; Perception as Inference; Three types of Inference; Doubt and Belief; Methods to Fix Belief; the Stages of Scientific Inquiry; Habit and the Pragmatic Maxim; Pragmatism and Semiosis; Object and Interpretant; Icon, Index and Symbol
The professor's communications with the students will take place via email and through the e-learning platform.
All students are required to periodically consult the e-learning area of the course.
The program is valid for both attending and non-attending students.
Erasmus students and students with PDP or PEI are invited to contact the teacher at the beginning of the courses.
