CCT210 MIDTERM

Sign

something that stands for something or someone else in some capacity

Charles Sanders Peirce

3 part model; representamen, interpretant, an object

Ferdinand de Saussure

2 part model; signifier, signified

signifier

the form which the sign takes

Signified

the meaning we associate with the sign

representamen

form which the sign take (signifier)

interpretant

the sense made of the sign (signified)

object

what the sign refers to

Symbol/Symbolic

A mode in which the signifier does not resemble the signified but which is arbitrary or purely conventional-so that the relationship must be learned

icon/iconic

A mode in which the signifier is perceived as resembling or imitating the signified (recognizably looking, sounding, feeling, tasting or smelling like it)-being similar in possessing some of its qualities

index/indexical

a mode in which the signifier is not arbitrary and directly connected to the signified in some way

encode

use a code to create a sign

decode

deciphering something on the basis of the code

code

can be verbal or non-verbal

social codes

1. language

2. bodily codes (proxemics, facial expression)

3. commodity codes

4. Behavioural codes

textual codes

scientific codes

aesthetics codes within the various expressive arts

Genre, rhetorical and stylistic codes: narrative (plot, character)

Mass media codes (photography, film, radio)

interpretive codes

Perceptual codes

ideological codes: feminism, racism...

narrative

texts made up of composite signifiers, put together in terms of a specific code -arranged in a way we understand them and used in a reoccurring way

Social Semiotics

argues that truth is a construct of semiosis and as such the truth of a particular social group arising form the values and beliefs of that group

Modality

the reality status accorded to or claimed by a sign, text, or genre

Modality judgement

in making sense if a text, we make 'modality judgments', based on our knowledge of the world and the medium

aesthetic codes

in the discourse of semiotics, recurrent features of form and style within the various expressive arts (poetry, drama, painting, sculpture, music, etc.) or expressive and poetic functions (sometimes termed aesthetic functions) which may be evoked within any kind of text. These tend to celebrate connotation and diversity of interpretation in contrast to logical or scientific codes which seek to suppress these values

realism

everything we see is a representation of the original, the person with the camera decides what they want us to view

cool hunters

specialize in identifying trendy fads that appeal to young people

Merchants of Cool

A small number of corporations decide what pop-culture is. Individuals are molded by the media. Once everyone has that product it is no longer cool so the corp. move on. Media makes us think that the more we consume the better we feel.

inscribed reader

an ideal reader who is constructed by the text, or who is imagined/intended by the producers of the text

Polysemy

having many possible meanings or interpretations

myth

the connotative meaning that signs carry wherever they go; myth makes what is cultural seem natural

Generation Like

Social Media is everywhere and affects us in a big way

Denotation

The dictionary definition of a word

Connotation

the implied or associative meaning of a word