lecture 2 - semiotics

Semiotics

Semiotics

• From Greek semion (sign)• How meanings are constructed in

language and culture• Language constructed by people to

produce meaning• People, events do not have inherent

meaning• Language and meaning inherited• Individuals don’t have a private language

SIGNS are ARBITRARY

• SIGN has a physical form SIGNIFIERe.g. R O S E• A SIGN is not a real world entity (there is

no sweet smell from the word ‘rose’)• A SIGN is arbitrary• A SIGN is defined by a society• Our perception of reality constructed by

‘our’ signs

Structuralism

• Basic concept identification of underlying structures in society (e.g. family organisation)

• Necessary when analyzing a media product

• Deconstruct text find underlying/hanging meaning

Freedom Fighters or Terrorists/Insurgents?

What do you think?

These Sunni insurgents have recently been named ‘freedom fighters’ by the Americans

(Telegraph 12 Jun 2007)

Emphases of Structuralism

• Human organization determined by large social or psychological structures

• These structures have their own irresistible logic, independent of human will or intention

• Freud – the human psyche is one of these structures; makes us behave in ways we are unaware of but which can be seen through dreams, slips of the tongue

• Marx – economic life is another structure. Person’s r/ship (owners or workers) to means of production determines their political sympathies.

• Meaning can only be understood within these structures and the differences and distinctions they generate

e.g. Consider how a culture organizes its rules on food as a system by:

rules of exclusion (English don’t eat snails);

signifying oppositions (sweet and savoury not eaten together); and

rules of association (steak and chips followed by ice cream not any other order)

Oppositions

• Structuralism emphasis on opposites helps to understand meaning

• Signs are interpreted in relation to their differences to other signs

Denotation and Connotation

• Two stages of interpretation• First interpreter sees the text and nothing

more; no assumptions• Then connotation: the meaning of the sign

or whole text determined by readers’ cultural experiences background knowledge

• Interpret the next two images using denotation and connotation

Anchoring

• Aims to fix or limit the interpretation of an image.

• Example: Caption under a photograph

Codes

• How do codes contribute to the interpretation?

• Dress• Colour• Non-verbal (facial expressions, posture,

position of hands, kissing, proxemics)• Technical codes (black and white, blur,

positioning, camera angle, etc)

What do these colours mean to you?

• Red• Black• Gold• Yellow• White• Green