(Previous Lecture on Thurs
20th October)
Main topics for this lecture
are
• signs and signification: signifier and signified
• iconic and arbitrary (or symbolic)
• denotation, connotation, myth
• paradigm and syntagm
Signification = the process of
signs-being-made-noticed-and-understood
Sign = signifier (physical form) + signified
(mental concept)
iconic: how close a sign is to ‘the real thing’, how constrained
it is by the thing it represents, e.g. a photographic portrait is typically
iconic, a doodled caricature less so
arbitrary (aka symbolic):
how far away a sign is from ‘the
real thing’, how unconstrained it is by the thing it represents, e.g. a
person’s name bears little physical resemblance to them, but is less arbitrary
than an employee number
denotation: what the sign is, at the most basic level of
understanding – what it denotes literally
connotation: what it suggests, a more subtle culturally
determined reading – what it connotes
myth: the ‘world-view’ it contains or implies – the
ideological or political meaning of the thing – not ‘myth’ as in not
true, fictitious, misleading (although it may be all three of these things)
paradigm: a set of signs available to be used in a
context (e.g. the paradigm of ‘landscape’, or ‘clothing’, or of ‘food’)
syntagm: the particular selection of signs (from the
paradigm(s) which are available (e.g. a coastal landscape, late afternoon, in
the rain, from a low angle; red shoes, fish-net stockings, grey jumper, furry
hat; cheese, pickle and a wedge of granary bread)
Playing with paradigm/syntagm
can subvert signs and create semiotic impact by generating unexpected
connotations and appealing to unexpected myth systems
A little introduction to
Semiotics ...
Semiotics is the study of
signs and the way itself create meaning, three points to emphasise the
definition,
• The
study of signs themselves
• The
way the signs are organised into codes or systems (languages)
• The
culture where those languages are used
Semiotics can be defined
with texts, could be either written or visual aid as long they portray their
own definitions, their meanings.
A text is a collection of
signs -- juxtaposition, sequence, relative emphasis and how much it is in
agreement with convention and previous examples, creates a (second) set of
signs out of the signs and can give the text an overall meaning that may not be
apparent from its constituent parts.
There are just a few important
notes about this lecture. Ivan have shown us examples (visual aids) to explain
each definitions. Which was VISUAL and certainly was exercising our brains. J
