semiotics

Sign

A meaningful unit which is interpreted as “standing for” something other than itself

Codes

System in which signs are organized and determines how they relate to each other, so can be used for representation and communication

Denotation

The primary, intentional meaning of a sign, text, etc

Triangle of meaning

A model of communication that indicates the relationship among a thought, symbol, and referent

Connotation

The extended or secondary meaning of a sign; the symbolic or mythic meaning of a certain signifier (word, image, etc.).

Semiosis involves

a cooperation of three subjects such as sign, its object and its interpretant

Interpretant

The sense made of the sign in Pierces model, similar in meaning to the Saussure signified, a sign-meaning in the mind of the interpreters

Representamen

The form which the sign takes in Pierces model of the sign, similar in meaning to Saussure signifier

Object

To which the sign refers in Peirces model

Referent

Term used by Ogden and Richard’s for what the sign stands for

Paradigm

A set of associated signifiers which are all members of some defining category, but in which each signifier is significantly different

Symbol

A mode in which the signifier does not resemble the signified but which is fundamentally arbitrary or purely conventional

Icon

A mode in which the signifier is perceived as resembled or imitating the signified

Myth

extended metaphors, a metalanguage operating through codes and serving the ideological function of naturalization (Barthes)

Index

A mode in which the signifier is not arbitrary, but it’s directly connected in someway physically or casually to the signified

Symbolic codes

A battle between contrasting signs (Barthes)

Semantic/connotative codes

These signs carry connotations beyond their basic definition and give a little more insight to the phenomenon (Barthes)

Ideology

The tendency of socially constructed notions, narratives and assumptions to become naturalized in the process

Proairetic/action code

Something is going to happen, you already know a narrative is the sequencing of events into a coherent meaningful order

Hermeneutic/enigma codes

Caused by unanswered questions. Refers to those plot elements that raise questions on the part of a reader or a viewer

Cultural/referential codes

Concepts and ideas that exist outside the text. In order for these signifiers to be decoded, that info must be part of our knowledge

Intertextuality

Refers to the various links in a form and content which bind a text to other texts

Semiotics

The study of signs and sign-directed or meaning-based behaviour.

Sign

A conventional or arbitrary mark, figure, or symbol, any motion, gesture, image, sound, pattern, or event that conveys meaning.

Linguistic Semiotics

The study of linguistic signs communicating meanings on language structure, semantic structure and discourse analysis levels. (Phonology, Phonetics, Syntax, Semantics, Morphology)

Semiosis

an action or process involving the establishment of a relationship between a sign and its object and meaning

Semiotics as a science

the systematic study of sign processes (semiosis) and meaning making.

Triangle of meaning

model of communication that indicates the relationship among a thought, symbol, and referent, and highlights the indirect relationship between the symbol and the referent

Pierces thought

Signs take the form of words, images, sounds, odours, flavours, acts or objects, but such things have no intrinsic meaning and become signs only when we invest them with meaning.

Pierces vision

Anything can be a sign as long as someone interprets it as 'signifying'

Linguistic sign

These are bilateral, i.e. they have two aspects which are inseparably connected: the sound sequence (signifier) on the level of expression, and the concept (signified) on the level of meaning.

Signifier

the form which the sign takes

Signified

The concept it respresents

Language

Superior sign system that doesn’t reflect reality but rather constructs it

Semiosis

an inter/action, which is, or involves, a cooperation of three subjects, such as a sign, its object, and its interpretant

Index is when

the signifier is directly connected in some way to the signified

Icon is when

the signifier is perceived as resembling or imitating the signified

Symbol is when

signifier does not resemble the signified, arbitrary or conventional

Function of myths

to naturalize the cultural - in other words, to make  dominant cultural and historical values, attitudes and beliefs seem entirely 'natural', 'normal'

Dominant ideology

the tendency of socially constructed notions, narratives    and assumptions to become “naturalised” in the process, that is, taken    unquestioningly as given within a particular culture