Author(s): Pelin ÖNDER EROL
Language, from every aspect, is a system which is composed of signs made up of two parts: the signifier and the signified. It is the role of semiotics to find out and reveal the profound meanings which are arisen from the connection between those two elements. However since language is composed of social signs, everything that language signs/indicates come into the domain of social semiotics. In fact, semiotics, which examines the world of signs, carries out one of its most important functions by its effort to uncover the connections between language and society through social semiotics which can be evaluated as a sub-field of semiotics.
Since there is no connection between the words and their referents by nature, or in other words that this connection is arbitrary and unmotivated, this fact paves the way to a conclusion where language is conventional, which means it is based on a social contract and agreement. If we are to add this conventionality to the fact that the constitution of the signs is resulted from human agency, then it is clear that the language, which is made up of signs, is a significant area within the field of social semiotics. As a matter of fact, since the language is open to both cultural and ideological readings, linguistics signs are dependent on a semiotics that has social attributes.
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