Semiotics Lecture Notes

Flashcards generated from lecture notes on semiotics, covering key concepts, figures, and theories discussed in the lectures.

What is semiotics?

The study of the relationship between meaning and how it is constructed, explaining meaning as an effect using technical language to describe structure.

What problem did Leggo's try to correct with their adv campaign?

They tried to correct the image of being a fake Italian brand (produced in Australia) with irony, violating stereotypes.

What is the definition of culture to Edward Sapir?

Culture does not coincide with any language, ethnicity, religion; there are multilingual, multiethnic, and multi-religious cultures and languages shared by multiple cultures, ethnicities and religions.

According to Habermas, what is the conflict between?

There is a conflict between national cultures and material cultures, where goods can blur boundaries more easily than people.

Who founded the Tartu-Moscow semiotic school?

Juri Lotman, influenced by Russian formalism and cybernetics.

How does Juri Lotman believe culture should be studied?

As a system of texts, where all cultural expressions are seen as different variants of a single cultural text, reconstructing the 'text of culture'.

What is the difference between EMIC and ETIC perspectives of culture as 'text'?

EMIC is a cultural perspective of what is considered 'text' in a particular culture, while ETIC is a scientific perspective of what science allows us to consider 'text'.

What is ethnogenesis?

The process by which a group becomes self-aware as a distinct people through either external analysis (ETIC) or cultural self-perception (EMIC).

What is intersemiotic translation?

Meaning moving between different semiotic systems, such as adapting a novel into a film.

According to Lotman, how does the tension between text and context define meaning?

The context provides the background, and the text is a result of a conflict shaped by and interacting with this context. The text and context are reversible.

According to Lotman, how should cultures be defined?

Each culture can be considered as a self-representing system, culture is both the device that produces text and the content of some of these texts

How does Lotman see the relationship between language and world?

Human culture is the result of a dynamic interlace between language and world (how language describes reality), culture and extra-culture (how cultures influence and adapt external ideas).

According to Lotman, things are:

The anti-model of the textual model; they are negative models (disorder), but still models that are culturally established.

Why is it problematic to describe a different culture using one's own culture as a benchmark?

It can lead to bias, offensive stereotypes, and ineffective communication because the message would be misunderstood.

How can it be understood TOPOLOGICALLY when one is scientifically describing a different culture?

By understanding their whole 'storybook' and their unique 'picture of the world,' both the fixed structures and the moving stories within it.

What is Lotman's definition of culture?

A model of the world with a boundary, an internal space, an external space, subject to investment, and it allows for installation of a point of view from the inside to the outside or vice versa.

What does Lotman mean by Orientation?

The assumption of a point of view when a culture describes the world, either intern and oriented to the extern, or located in the external place and projected to the internal.

How does Lotman define how culture transforms the world?

Culture is a device which transforms the outer sphere into the inner one: disorganization into organization, ignoramuses into initiates, entropy into information.

What is Lotman's Semiosphere?

The space of communicative processes outside of which information is not given, acting as a unified mechanism for creating information and connecting different semiotic models.

What are the functions of boundaries in the Semiosphere?

To translate external stimuli into the internal codes, preserve individuality, and connect different spheres

What occurs at the border of that Semiosphere?

Accelerated semiotic processes occur where new structures are created. Meaning is generated.

How are Dialogic Systems expressed?

There's always an exchange of information between semiospheres, interrupted by pauses. Cultures mirror the sets and the differences between western and eastern are a case of chirality and enantiomorphism.

According to Lotman, culture changes gradually or explosively, how do these models correspond to historical moments?

Gradual changes correspond to Renaissance and Enlightenment, while explosive changes correspond to the XXth Century (ex: Nagasaki atomic bomb).

What is semiosis?

The process of signification (involving the establishment of a relationship between a sign and its object and meaning).

According to Eco and Lotman, just as the biosphere is an ecosystem of living organisms, the semiosphere is:

An ecosystem of cultural signs, texts, and meanings. Within a semiosphere, different cultural elements interact, shaping identities. Also each of us have their own Encyclopedia of life which they apply as well.

What is meant by Lotman's Modelling Systems?

A way to understand how individuals and cultures create meaning. Just as the biosphere is an ecosystem of living organisms, the semiosphere is an ecosystem of cultural signs, texts, and meanings. Within a semiosphere, different cultural elements interact, shaping identities. A brand, like an individual, exists within a semiosphere, constantly exchanging and negotiating meaning with its audience.

What is meant by Eco's Personal Encyclopedia of Life?

Each person develops their own 'Encyclopedia of life'—a mental framework of experiences, symbols, and meanings. When encountering a new message (e.g., a brand’s slogan), people interpret it based on their personal encyclopedia. Successful communication aligns a message with the audience’s existing cultural codes and memories.

When mapping the brand within its semiosphere and shaping brand language and creating narratives that reinforce identity, what does semiotics suggest?

Colors, symbols, and messages should align with audience expectations. A brand should have a consistent story that reflects its values and cultural significance.

According to semiotics, how can short-term and long-term insights determine how messages are to be received?

By exploring the context, intertextual relationships, levels of interpretations (social background and cultural exposure), and cultural significance.

What is the relationship between the expression and content plane semantically?

Different kinds of text (e.g. movies and books) share the same plane of content, their differences relate to the plane of expression.

According to Levi-Strauss, what are Binary Opposites?

Pairs of concepts with opposite meanings, such as 'up' vs. 'down'. Understanding each concept's full meaning, as one is defined in relation to the other.

What is the Semiotic Square that relates to wine branding?

It helps to organize meaning by showing oppositions and relationships between different categories. Categorizes customer into Enthusiasts, Experts, Connoisseurs, Drinkers, Novices and Event-goers.

According to Kapferer's Brand Identity Prism, how is a brand's identity and relationship with consumers built?

Physique, Personality, Culture, Relationship, Reflection, Self-image.

According to Saussure, what is language based upon?

Language consists only of differences, without intrinsic positive terms. Words and meanings do not exist in isolation; they gain significance only in relation to other words.

What structured method did Saussure write about?

Semiology (semiologie), study all systems of signs, not just language, but also symbols, gestures, and other forms of communication.

What are the linguistics' structures?

Not the totality of language, but just one part of language: a structured system, on the contrary, is both a self-contained whole and a principle of classification

What is Saussure's idea of linguistics as a circuit?

The speech circuit.It is composed by a speaker who says something which is transmitted to another person who in turn will become a speaker too (Communication uses systems of signs in which the one essential is the union of sense and sound pattern).

What does Saussure mean by Signified and Signifier?

-sound-image: arbor in latin -concept (thought): image of tree. The thought apart from its expression in words is only a shapeless and indistinct mass

What relationship does the linguistic sign (the relationship between signifier and signified) possess?

Completely arbitrary. There is no internal connection or natural decision that made us choose if the signifier or the signified is more appropriate.

What does Saussure mean when he labels value

a dissimilar thing that can be exchanged for the thing of which the value is to be determined (words that could replace it, like synonyms). similar things that can be compared with the thing of which the value is to be determined. (Words within the same category that help define it by contrast)

What are the types of Semiosis?

1. One signifier, one idea (symbols). 2. One signifier, more ideas. 3. Different signifiers, one idea. 4. Zero signifiers, one or more ideas (the plural genitive in different Slavic languages, such as Czech and Polish)

How does structure function with Saussure?

Signs function not through their intrinsic value but through their relative position. It is impossible for sound alone (a material element) to belong to a language.

What is Saussure's Language as a Quaternion?

四 is not the same as 'meaning.' Instead, it's the importance or function a word (or sign) has within the language system. Each language segment and divides the words in different ways

Why did Saussure call himself a Differential Nihilist?

there are no absolute meanings-only temporary, shifting relationships. Therefore, meaning is unstable, relative, and ultimately groundless.

What does Saussure communicate in his analysis of Language And Reality?

That by the tool of language you superimpose a particular grid (Relativism in contemporary culture has its roots here) in society that is used in order to identify elements of the world

What are the two fundamental ways that SAussure said language and meaning are to be structured?

SYNTAGMATIC (horizontal relationships, combined in a sequenze to make meaning) ASSOCIATIVE (vertical, ARE mentally linked based on similarity or association)

What did Saussure mean by the use of term 'syntagm' instead of sign?

The syntagm is always composed of two or more consecutive units (chain of signs). In the syntagm a term acquires its value only because it stands in opposition to everything that precedes or follows it or both

Diachronic?

how languages change over time

Synchronic linguistics?

how a language functions at one moment: for language users it is the only reality

What does Saussure mean by Semiology?

A language is a system of signs expressing ideas, and hence comparable to writing, the deaf-and-dumb alphabet, symbolic rites, forms of politeness, military signals, and so on.

How does theory of meaning develop through J. Greimas?

His theory is subdivided in rows (levels) and columns (components). Meaning is generated from some deep structures which are general.

Describe the process in Greimas' Semi Narrative Structure

Semiotic square (a tool from structural semiotics) is used to organize categories and meanings in opposition. At the surface level, narratives are structured using actants (roles like hero, villain, etc.) and narrative programs (sequences of actions).

According to Greimas, what is semantic language?

Each word is like a Lexeme and has different meanings (Sememe) and the complex meaning of the word can be analysed in simpler semantic values called Semem (we will find at the deep level of the semantic trajectory) -> smallest unit of meaning in language

What did Greimas mean by Sememe to give?

implies two actant” (the first one that gives, and the second one that receives). smallest unit of meaning in language

What does SEMIC FIGURE (Constant values) + CLASSEMATIC BASE OF VALUES (variables depending on the context) form?

Semem.

What does Actorialization mean?

A work performed by an author and the work is to specify who are the actors, to choose between possibilities - the term actor has progressively replaced that of character (or dramatis persona) for greater precision and generalization

According to Greimas, what is Spatialization?

For example, when talking about movies, it is important to distinguish indoor-outdoor spaces, daylight-nightlight spaces.

Whar is Temporalization?

Time can be identified as in the picture. This distinction can explain why stories are not told chronologically but through flashback as well.

What is Aspectualization?

The Sender delegates in the discourse, on the one hand, an actant-subject of doing and on the other a cognitive subject who observes and breaks down this doing, transforming it into a process, characterized by semes of: - inchoateness -durativeness - terminativeness.

How can figures be described?

general level (narrative level) we get to a more figurative one (discursive level). narrative level has abstract components, the discursive one has more concrete features. The examples of discourse moves quickly to images from film, fashion or advertisement.

According to Greimas, themes are:

Theme is a label resuming an isotopy: the dissemination, along programs and narrative paths, of values already actualized (i.e. in conjunction with the subjects) by narrative semantics

How did Greimas' approach knowledge?

The circulation of knowledge is therefore determined by the interaction between two subjects (observer and informant). It is the comparison of their respective modal positions that gives rise to the different regimes of intersubjectivity (communication, indiscretion, modesty, riddle, dissimulation, violation of information, etc

What is enunciation?

The act of producing an utterance - it’s not about what is said (the content), but about the event of saying it. It’s the shift from language as a system (abstract rules and structures) to language in use (speaking, writing, expressing)

How is Enunciation dimensionalized?

Engagement, Disengagement (personal to impersonal), Actorial (me not me), temporal (now not now), spatial (here not here)

What is the Canonical narrative trajectory?

Manipulation: a Sender convinces a Subject to undertake the action (persuasion. Acquisition of Competence. Performance: Causing-to-be. Sanction: a Sender evaluates (positively or negatively) the outcome of the subject’s performance (on the pragmatic or on the cognitive level

How Does semiotics relate to creating identity?

Modelling systems as a way to understand how individuals and cultures create meaning. This concept is key to identity formation, whether personal or brand-related.

What is the actantial model?

Receiver = Subject Helper: embodies the subject’s being-able-to doOpponent: embodies the subject’s not-being-able to do

What is the general program or Base NP?

general ask what’s the main general program (what is it about?)

What is Instrumental NP with regard to the general program

subprogram whose implementation is presupposed by the Basic program and is needed to complete the main goal (

What is Annex NP with regard to the general program

it differs from the instrumental program because its implementation is entrusted to a different subject from the one of the base NP

What is the basic structure of a story/ Narrative Program?

actions (D) lead to a new state (S ∩ Ov) D ⇒ (S ∩ Ov)

Distinguish Conjunction and Disjunction

Conjunction: the subject is connected to an object of value *il i have freedom, i possess a positive value)/Disjunction: the subject is separated from an object of value If I’m the subject and I’m disjoint from an object of value, it implies that another subject is conjoined to that object of value

Two kind of communication : Participatory communication?

The Sender is not always deprived of the valuable object that he transfers to the subject. shared in the same

Two kind of communication: Private Communication

if I gave you a treasure, I (the sender) lose it and you’ll be in conjunction with it

What does Greimas mean by Isotopy?

It is a coherent reading of the story which can present various levels as a theme, a figure. the iterativeness, along a syntagmatic chain, of classemes that ensure its homogeneity to the discourse-statement

How did Eric Landowski view Greimas' Junction?

Notes that the logic of junction concerns only the relationship between subject and object and proposes an alternative logic, based on union involving two subjects

What are the 4 faces of the Greimas Generative Trajectory for human narrativity?

Manipulation or contract phase / Skill acquisition phase/ Performance phase/ Realization

Why does Greimas' Formula: “the product (or message) transfers value to the user by allowing the user mean…

a gift. Unlike fairy tale princesses, the product, the message, is mostly not an actant "object": it transfers power and knowledge to the user. It makes the user do something or be someone

What are building blocks that support or enable actions as it related to consumer identity.

Modal Values (Virtualising/ Actualising/ Realizing). It includes concepts such as duty and will, meaning the subject now has the ability or means to act/ action is performed or embodied.

What are the 3 semantic axes as the building of a Sememe

Abstract:(world is imposed a grid on the natural world) /Phoric(the way we experience things bodily or emotionally) / Figural(they are more concrete than abstract semes, focusing on what we can see, feel, touch, etc

What tool is used in communication to analyze all the possible relations between different elements?

powerful semiotic square that enables us to reconstruct a specific system.

What tools did Hjelmslev offer

Scientific competition (with the Prague circle, led by Roman Jakobson)/ The principle of immanence

Whar does Hjelmsleve claim if the meaning if the world in considered a collective SIGN?

It must be outside of it. In the world everything is as it is, and everything happens as it happens; there is no value in it

What is it meant by Hjelmslev's Empirical Principle

The simplest is the preferred theory. Relativist and constructivist. constructed so that it is free of contradictions and as simple as possible

How does Hjelmslev describe arbitrariness and adequacy relationship

The theory is independent of any experience.A theory introduces certain premises, of which the author of the theory knows, based on previous experience, that they fulfil the conditions of application to certain empirical data.

According to Hjelmslev, what is the main goal of linguistic theory?

Analysis, finding connection between the elements of language. What matters is not the division of an object into parts, but a development of the analysis in accordance with the interdependencies between these parts.

Hjelsmlev: What happens regarding constant and Variables?

a finite number of constants which make an infinite number of variables. The constant in a manifestation (manifested) can call “form”

Hjelsmlev: Functions between the elements found:

Interdependencies (constant-constant)/ Determinations (variable-constant)/ Constellations (variable-variable)/ Catalysis

From the viewpoint described by Hjelsmlev,what tool is used to describe clothing in field semiotics?

Catalysis: it is that one element (in this case, X-such as the shirt) facilitates or activates the presence and meaning of another (the tie)

How is meaning according to the Hjelmslev, made?

semiotic that meaning starts from the system to assemble new meaningful processes

Hjelmslev stated Every time we think we impose…

that a form on our thoughts -> so a means and language determines the way we think. And this sort of grid mediate between us and the world

Who can be credited with cultural relativism?

Sapir- whorf theory -> the peculiar grid (language) that we project on our reality shapes our existence

How is language simplified for an audience

Reduced (reducing unlimited inventories to limited inventories/ This way we can reduce the complexity of a language according to the principle of reduction

Hjelmsev's tools

tools: premutation+commutation (permutability/switchability).

Distinguish variants and the variants

Semiotic system (the level of content and expression do not have the same form)/ symbolic systems (the two planes have the same shape)

What is a Semi-symbolic system

that is neither semiotics or symbolic system, the correspondence between levels that does not concern each element, but only categories (example: high / low = sacred / profane)

Types of semiotics:

otative semiotic/ connotative semiotic/meta semiotics/

Types of semiotics, the relation is quantitative while our explication will come across to people as

scientific because is a coherent way to describe it

What does Barthes' theory suggest with regard to photograph and politics?

Photography tends to restore the paternalistic nature of elections, whose elitist essence has been disrupted by proportional representation and the rule of parties.

How does communication relate to image myth (Mass communication) with Barthere?

Semiology here naturalise political values- for this reason it is a revolutionary book