De Saussure and Peirce: the Semiotic Architecture

Abstract

Semiotics has been studied by linguists and philosophers for many years. The first attempts to define the components of a sign system were made in 1865 by the United States philosopher, Charles Sanders Peirce. After Peirce came Ferdinand de Saussure, Louis Hjelmslev, and Roland Barthes, each with differing views on the components of a sign system. In this chapter we will explore contributions made by the four aforementioned semiotic theorists and discuss the semiotic architecture that their theories illustrate.