EARLY FILM SEMIOTICS AND THE CINEMATIC SIGN EARLY FILM SEMIOTICS AND THE CINEMATIC SIGN By

ii This thesis explores the early attempts to extend semiotic theory to the study of the cinema, concentrating on the problem of the cinematic sign. The contributions of Christian Metz, Peter Wollen and Umberto Eco are discussed. Metz employs the language-based semiology of Saussure, whose conceptual framework is based on the arbitrary, conventional linguistic sign. Such a semiotic scheme cannot accommodate visual signs such as the cinematic image, which is considered to be motivated and natural. The language analogy encourages an identification of the semiotic sign with the linguistic sign, forcing Metz's semiotics to exclude the image as a basis for semiotic study. Wollen reassesses the nature of the image in light of Peirce's sign trichotomy o