Semiotics

Do you have rizz? The reason I ask is that the Oxford University Press chose ‘rizz’ as its Word of the Year for 2023. Every year, dictionary compilers produce lists of new words, or new meanings for old words, that have come into common use. ‘Rizz’ is thought to be derived from ‘charisma’ and means style, charm or attractiveness. An old word featuring among the finalists due to a new meaning was ‘prompt’, while others are formed by a combination of two existing words, such as ‘situationship’. I will let you search for the meanings.

The Collins Dictionary named ‘AI’ as its Word of the Year and the Merriam-Webster Word of the Year was ‘authentic’. Although the latter is not new, it was chosen because of the high level of online searches for it. These examples all show how language develops in line with changes in society. Although I cannot bring to mind a new word that entered the non-destructive testing (NDT) lexicon in 2023, there are many phrases that have made their debut in the not-too-distant past, especially in ultrasonics: full matrix capture; total focusing method; plane wave imaging; and virtual source aperture, all now referred to by their initials.

I only discovered my personal ‘word of the year’ for 2023 in late December. It is not new, having been used in the 17th century, but I had not come across it before. The word is ‘semiotics’: the study of signs and sign-using behaviour. The American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce identified three main types of sign: an icon, where the sign represents an object, for example a road sign for falling rocks; an index, which has an association with what it refers to, for example smoke indicates the presence of fire; and a symbol, which has meaning only by agreed convention. Examples of symbols are traffic lights or words. See: www.britannica.com/science/semiotics

When I read about these three categories, I immediately thought of NDT. When I describe NDT to someone new to the discipline, I emphasise that, with the exception of visual inspection, it is not an absolute measurement like temperature or pressure. It is an inferred measurement, obtained by identifying changes in a physical property, that indicates the presence of a defect. We look for the signs that we interpret as being caused by a defect: a returning echo on a flaw detector screen, a change in density on a radiograph or a gathering of magnetic particles on a surface. Using Peirce’s definition, we look for a sign and more specifically an index.

Evidence of this is plentiful. BS EN ISO 16827:2014 on ultrasonic characterisation and sizing provides illustrations in Annex B of a number of indices showing the echo dynamics generated by different defect morphologies. When using a black and white imaging system (yes, that long ago!), image indices were used to distinguish between good and cracked rotor teeth.

Semiotics is an interdisciplinary field, so do not rely on my recently derived interpretation, which may contain errors. Further reading highlights that signs have an influence on people and that interaction between the object, the sign and the sense made of the sign helps individuals to make meaning from their world. Delving deeper also introduced me to ‘mediated action’. As I understand it, this is the interaction shared among the individual(s) engaged in an activity, the resources used that generate the signs to assist in achieving the goal of the activity and the goal itself. Pole vaulting is used as an example of mediated action, highlighting its transformative influence. Very briefly, the advances in the materials used for the poles, as well as the athletes’ prior experiences, led to continuous alterations in their jumping techniques in order to achieve the maximum jump height.

It is not a large step to see a parallel with NDT as a mediated activity. The NDT profession comprises individuals and groups who engage in the application of inspections. The tools or resources that are used include the prior experiences of the individuals and groups, techniques and technologies, which have advanced considerably over the years, and changing the signs generated to achieve the inspection goals of defect detection and sizing.

When I look at the implementation of the new technologies and the associated signs generated, I cannot help but wonder if we have forgotten the importance of cataloguing signs and patterns?

Please note that the views expressed in this column are the author’s own personal ramblings for the purpose of encouraging discussion within NDT News. They do not represent the views of Jacobs or BINDT.