Pragmatics, Syntactics, Semantics

Definition

Charles Morris's tripartition of semiotic inquiry into three "inter-related matters," adopted by Broadbent as the organizing scheme for reviewing architecture semiotically (1980):

• Pragmatics — "that portion of semiotics which deals with the origins, uses and the effects of signs within the behaviour in which they occur." In architecture: how buildings are received and used — the multi-sensory impingement of built form, the information-channel model, and the empirical measurement of what buildings mean to their users (Semantic Differential, Repertory Grid).
• Semantics — "deals with the signification of signs in all modes of signifying." In architecture: what forms mean — the sign (Saussure, Vitruvius), the semiological triangle, denotation and connotation, buildings as icon/index/symbol.
• Syntactics — "deals with the combinations of signs without regard to their specific significations or their relations to the behaviour in which they occur." In architecture: how forms are put together — Chomsky's deep structures as a design-generation model, clustering and subdivision rules, generative algorithms, Eisenman's "pure syntax."

The scheme's architectural pay-off is Broadbent's coupling thesis: "the aspects of meaning and syntax cannot be completely separated" — so pure-syntax design (Eisenman) is impossible, and semantics deserves examination in its own right. Note that Saussure's own distinction between syntagmatic and associative relations (his column/architrave example) is the germ of the semantic/syntactic division inside language itself.

Key Thinkers

• Charles Morris (not yet paged — see log) — the tripartition itself (Foundations of the Theory of Signs, 1938).
• Geoffrey Broadbent — the architectural application and the inseparability thesis ("Architectural objects and their design as a subject for semiotic studies," 1980).
• Ferdinand de Saussure — the associative/syntagmatic distinction underlying the semantic/syntactic division.
• Charles Sanders Peirce — the sign theory the tripartition classifies (icon/index/symbol feeding the semantic dimension).

Related Concepts

• semiotics — the parent field the three dimensions divide.
• architectural-language — the syntactic dimension's architectural theatre (and the social contract architecture mostly lacks).
• deep-structures-of-architecture — the Chomskyan deep-structure programme inside the syntactic dimension.
• denotation-and-connotation — the semantic dimension's central distinction.
• semiotic-triangle — the semantic dimension's model of reference (symbol/thought/referent).

Source Support

Sources in the wiki that discuss this concept:

• Architectural Objects and Their Design as a Subject for Semiotic Studies (Broadbent 1980) — the scheme's definitive architectural exposition: Morris's three definitions quoted; pragmatics (multi-sensory reception, information channel, Koenig's communication system, Robinson's language-function parallels, Semantic Differential/Repertory Grid); syntactics (Chomsky's algorithms, Hillier & Leaman's clustering rules, Mitchell/Steadman/Liggett's subdivision, the Taller de Arquitectura at Walden 7, Eisenman's houses); semantics (Vitruvius, Saussure's sign and social contract, Ogden & Richards, Hjelmslev, Eco's referent debate, buildings as icon/index/symbol); conclusion — meaning and syntax "cannot be completely separated."

Open Questions

• Morris's dimensions are "inter-related" — but where exactly does the boundary run in architecture, where the same form simultaneously signifies, combines and is used? (Broadbent's own answer — inseparability — tends to dissolve the division he uses to organize the review.)
• Is pragmatics the dimension where a semiotic of the everyday (the wiki's core register) meets the semiotic of architecture proper?