Semiotic square

The Carré semiotics - also known under the Right-angled name of of Greimas or of Rectangle semantics) - consists in a manner of classifying the concepts which refer to a pair opposed concepts, such as female-masculine, beautiful-ugly, etc and of thus extending corresponding ontology. The semiotic square was created by the linguist and Lithuanian semiotician Algirdas Julien Greimas, starting from the logical Carré of Aristote. Starting from a given opposition of two concepts S1 and S2, the semiotic square makes it possible first of all to obtain the existence of two other concepts, that is to say ~S1 and ~S2. The relations between the four concepts thus obtained are the following ones:

  • S1 and S2: opposition
  • S1 and ~S1, S2 and ~S2: contradiction
  • S1 and ~S2, S2 and ~S1: complementarity
The semiotic square also makes it possible to obtain, in a second movement, a certain number of méta-concepts, which are composed starting from the four first. Among these méta-concepts, most important are:
  • S1 and S2
  • neither S1 nor S2
For example, starting from the pair of opposite concepts female masculine/, one obtains:
  • S1: masculine
  • S2: female
  • ~S1: not-masculine
  • ~S2: not-female
  • S1 and S2: at the same time male and female, i.e. hermaphrodite, Bi-sexué
  • neither S1 nor S2: neither masculine nor female, i.e. asexual

Alternatives to the semiotic square were proposed. They are for example the conceptual graphs or the matrices of concepts.

References

  • Louis Hébert (2006), “the semiotic square”, in Louis Hébert (to dir.), Signo on-line, Rimouski (Quebec)
  • Courtès, J. (1991), semiotic Analysis of the speech. Statement with the stating , Paris, Hatchet
  • Algirdas Julien Greimas (1966). Structural semantics. Paris: Larousse

External bonds

  • Semantic textual - the semiotic square, Michel Ballabriga (2003), texto!

See too

Random links:Perlis | The Method (film) | Enigmas of Atlantis | Wladimir Belli | Organized Confusion | Liste_de_films_basés_sur_des_bandes_dessinées