It is challenging to give a short explanation of what semiotics is to someone who is not familiar with the academic vocabulary in our field. However, we received 14 creative explanations and stories from real life in our Facebook comments on how to explain what semiotics means to your granny. We can see that examples dominate in the responses, which indicates how important examples are in helping us understand abstract concepts. There are also some good and catchy short definitions like semiotics is “the study of meaning” and “a study of life itself”, and in addition a program that represents a new definition for semiotics each time you click “again” (http://misonsemiootika.ee/).
However, the contest winner and sweet prize belongs to Dipti Kotwal.
As she agreed to her story being shared, you can read her response in Hortus Semioticus blog!
Bunny and Granny – A semiotic dialogue.
Dipti Kotwal | October 22, 2020.
Bunny: Grammaaaa…..I’m home!
Granny: Oo…my little bunny is back from school!
Bunny: Nnaawww, Granny, not school again…it’s been college for so long now…almost a whole semester…!
Granny: Aww, okay, okay. But you’re shtill my little hoppity hop bunnyyy! Say, what took you so long today?
Bunny: Oh! We had this amazing workshop today after school…I mean…college! On a brand-new subject called Semiotics!
Granny: Oh? So, a workshop on …some kind of ticks??
Bunny: Haha, no, not ticks…but yes, that too! It’s called SE-MI-O-TICS…Semiotics!
Granny: SE-MI-O-TICS!
Bunny: It’s the study of what things mean…Things and happenings.
Granny: I see…how?
Bunny: …Haha, yes, the study of how something means what it means too! And why! And for whom! And where and when!
Granny: All of that? You have to tell me more…
Bunny: Okay, let me put it like this…It’s the study of signs.
Granny: Umm, you mean signs in the streets?
Bunny: Including all signs in the streets…or anywhere…like arrows that tell us where to go…And sooo many other signs…like the faces Bobby makes sometimes at the mirror in his room…
Granny: Ohh, sweet little monkey…He does that if he’s bored!
Bunny: Yes, that’s what it means…signs he’s bored! …You know? Animals exchange signs too! They communicate with the way they move and fly and with their calls. Even with all the different colors on their bodies…it’s like fashion of the animal world…So people’s fashion is a set of signs too! Cultural signs…
Granny: So…your SEMIO-TICS is about culture too?
Bunny: Yes! Very much about it! Culture is all meanings, a huuuge sphere of meanings! With all of its unsaid, unwritten, invisible things as well as meanings of all the various ways of expression…like traditions, celebrations, movies, art, literature…and music! Like the songs you told me Hari and his daughters would sing working on the farms and orchards…?
Granny: Hari? Our old farmhand at our village house? Oh, they would all sing together, it was so good to the ears! Songs about when to plant seeds, how to sow them…, songs to thank the bees and earthworms, songs to pray to the animal gods to bless the farm and keep it safe…And then… When harvest season came, they would praise the harvest goddess for her blessings, and sing more songs about all the things to make with it…Jams and flour and cotton thread and baskets…Ah, old, old songs that their forefathers passed on to them…
Bunny: Granny! You are really getting the idea of it all!
Granny: Really? Am I?
Bunny: …Oh yes, you are! You are my shweet wise Gramma with all your wisdom…like in your old sayings…all those idioms and proverbs you would teach me when I was small…now I know what little packets of wisdom they are! …Our culture from the past helping us make sense of things even today!
Granny: Isn’t that wonderful? …Eh?! What’s that sound?!
Bunny: Do you hear it? It’s just my empty stomach making noises! And this is a sign too!
Granny: A sign that you are hungry and must eat now?
Bunny: There you are, Granny!
Granny: SEMIOTICS?
Bunny: SEMIOTICS!
Granny: Then it’s time to have the Anarsa pastries I made for you!
Bunny: Anarsaaa! My favorite! And a sign to announce early that Diwali follows soon!