SEMIOTICS
ENEP50 HT16
• The study of signs and sign systems.
–Images
–Gestures
–Sounds
–Objects
–ALL OF THESE TOGETHER
• Associations ”… constitute, if not languages, at least
systems of signification.” (Roland Barthes)
• Not quite language…
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•Art
•Literature
•Anthropology
•Mass Media
•Multi-disciplinary!
SIGN SYSTEMS
Not just
communication:
semiotics are
concerned with
the construction
and maintenance
of reality.
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Why Semiotics?
– Improved ‘Literacy’ – ability to READ/ANALYZE texts
on many levels/dimensions.
– Critical awareness of cultural reading practices.
– To examine the ideological basis of assumptions of
taste, value, and cultural policy.
– Understanding that reality is a construction and that
we are the ones who construct it.
– Meaning is not contained within media, nor is it
transmitted to us: we create it using a system of
codes and conventions of which we are not
consciously aware.
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Semiotics: basic concepts
• langue/parole
– langue is language as a system of conventions and rules,
as opposed to
– parole, which refers to language in use.
• Sign – signified/signifier
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Semiotics: basic concepts
• the arbitrariness of the sign
• signs do not exist in isolation, but rather in
systems of associative relationships
• connotation/denotation
• syntagmatic/paradigmatic relationships
(linguistic examples, but also consider menus
& clothing)
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Paradigm & Syntagm
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Paradigm & Syntagm
•When you choose one sign over another,
you do so for a reason.
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• Encoding and decoding
• Codes – the keys to decyphering meaning
• Myths – a combination of paradigms & syntagms
that create a familiar cultural trope or story and its
associated ideas
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Some notes on ‘codes’ in Semiotics
Saussure & Jakobson
In semiotics, the concept of a code is of fundamental importance.
Saussure emphasized that signs only acquire meaning and value
when they are interpreted in relation to each other. He believed that
the relationship between the signifier and the signified was
arbitrary. Hence, interpreting signs requires familiarity with the sets
of conventions or codes currently in use to communicate
meaning.
Roman Jakobson elaborated the idea that the production and
interpretation of texts depends on the existence of codes or
conventions for communication. Since the meaning of a sign
depends on the code within which it is situated, codes provide a
framework within which signs make sense.
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Some notes on ‘codes’ in Semiotics
Arthur Asa Berger (from Media Analysis Techniques)
Codes are complex patterns of associations we learn in a given
society or culture. These codes or secret structures in our minds affect
the way we interpret signs and symbols found in media and the way
we live. (Berger, 1982)
In order to drive on the highways a code is needed. (Berger) The code
is a collection of rules that tells us what to do in all conceivable
situations. We carry over our rules and understanding about life to
media production and "mass mediated culture".
Since people bring different codes to a given message [because of
their social class, educational level, political ideologies, world view], it
is possible for misunderstandings to arise between the sender and the
receiver of the message.
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Some notes on ‘codes’ in Semiotics
Daniel Chandler (from Semiotics for Beginners)
Every text is a system of signs organized according to codes and
subcodes which reflect certain values, attitudes, beliefs, assumptions
and practices. Textual codes do not determine the meanings of texts but
dominant codes do tend to constrain them. Social conventions ensure
that signs cannot mean whatever an individual wants them to mean. The
use of codes helps to guide us towards 'a preferred reading' and away
from 'aberrant decoding', though media texts do vary in the extent to
which they are open to interpretation
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Barthes on Wrestling
In The World of Wrestling Barthes examines the manner in which a
complicated set of codes operate in “all-in-wrestling”. Wrestlers
engage in a complex series of moves, all known to the audience,
depending on their specific characters.
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Peirce: Unlimited Semiosis
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•“Juxtaposed pictorial images
in a deliberate sequence,
intended to convey
information and/or produce an
aesthetic response in the
viewer.” – Scott McCloud
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Understanding
Comics
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What are the codes,
myths, denotations,
cultural assumptions,
ideological assumptions,
etc. in this advert?
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Corporate Identity
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