Semiotics. What is it How does it serve the aims of Social Theory Research Paper

Semiotics. What is it How does it serve the aims of Social Theory - Research Paper Example In his work, he showed that signs cannot have a meaning that is definite and it must continue to change. Since then, semiotics have been seen to have very diverse and equally important anthropological dimensions. Some philosophers proposed that every cultural phenomenon can be studied as communication; others, though focus on the logical dimensions of the same, examining areas such as life sciences. In general, however, theories of semiotics take the signs as their objects of study, and have often been divided into syntactic (rules governing word combinations to form sentences), pragmatics and semantics. Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday, an Australian linguist describes language as a semiotic system and sees it as a systemic resource for meaning. For him, it holds a meaning potential and from this, he describes linguistics as the study of people exchange of meaning by language. Describing himself as a generalist, he says that he has tried point of view, even though he did favor social language referring it as creating the human society, while still a creature of the same. Halliday, in his book ‘an introduction to functional grammar’ makes some theories and descriptions of grammar, that suggest his view of grammar to be based on a general theory of language as a social semiotic resource as earlier stated. He argues that theoretical categories and their interrelations make an abstract model of language as they are interlocking and defining each other (Stjernfelt et al. 45). The theory’s structure draws from work on the description of natural discourse so that there is no clear distinction between applied and theoretical linguistics. The theory therefore continues to evolve, and has many aspects, considering the fact that our current social settings are being shaped by social media and not the traditional aspects of life as it used to be in