User:Feeeshboy/Sandbox

currently working on an essay

A Semiotic Analysis of the Purpose of an Encyclopedia Article

What is semiotics, and why is a semiotic analysis necessary/remotely useful?

This essay is intended to discuss issues regarding the role of Wikipedia articles by analyzing policy guidelines about what Wikipedia is and is not in terms of semiotics. Semiotics is a branch of linguistics that discusses the way words, idioms, images, and sounds refer to ideas (for our purposes on Wikipedia, we will be dealing chiefly with words and idioms). This is a process we take for granted every day, but, on occasion, it makes sense to question this process because its work becomes complicated or even ambiguous. The central question that this essay is intended to address is: should a Wikipedia article merely refer to a thing, or is it also the article's proper place to discuss the process of referring to that thing? Debates on this issue have taken place on numerous articles, talk pages, and Wikipolicy pages, with impassioned edits on both sides.

A definition of terms

Signifier: the word, idiom, image, or sound that refers to an idea. E.g. the word "chair" Signified: the idea that is referred to by a signifier. E.g. the idea that the word "chair" invokes in your mind. Note: there is a difference between the signified and the "thing itself." If I say

When DON'T we need to think about semiotics (when everything works smoothly) -signifier->signified one to one

Minor hiccups: redundancies, redirects, and disambiguation

What Wikipedia is NOT, semiotically speaking

Semiotic controversies: when signs are debatable

Paths to consensus