Signs And Semiotics

Signs can be anything which give meaning, this includes words, pictures, colours, sounds and body language.

Signs in my magazine include the props I have used and the backgrounds too.

Roland Barthes termed denotation and connotations. The meanings vary according to who is interpreting the sign, the time of writing, the time of reading or watching and according to the form they take.

SIGNS

Signifier = Denotation Signified = Connotation

Saussure was the inventor of the theory of the sign. Barthes looked back at his work and from it created a course in general linguistics.

A polysemous sign is a sign that means lots of things. For example the denotation an X; this could signify a kiss on a birthday card, a wrong answer on a maths paper or the 24th letter of the alphabet.

All signs are composed of two parts:• The signifier – the physical word based form; what we can see or hear –

the exact definition. E.g: dog – a furry animal with four legs and a tail – canine

• The signified – it’s meaning to the reader/recipient; what we think when we say the word. (For example when I hear the word dog I think of my own dog)

Iconic signs are signs that closely resemble what they signify – possibly a photograph or picture.

Iconic signs are signs that everyone knows; like the Hollywood sign or the Statue of Liberty or the Eiffel Tower.

So the guitar in the pictures symbolizes the fact he plays guitar as everyone knows what a guitar is.

Indexical signs are signs that are some way connected to the image the represent but which are not directly linked. Instead the recipient is pointed towards the meaning instead of being given it straight away.

For example: Smoke = fire. : A cane, dark glasses and a guide dog in a harness = blind person.

The guitar and the treble clef are indexical signs because they are connected to the Rolling Stones t-shirt which gives the connotation of a music magazine.

Symbolic signs are signs that have no direct link to what they represent. These mostly depend on the recipients life experiences.

For example: White doves = Peace

Everyone can interoperate things differently so not everyone will see the same thing as you when something is said.

The posters in the background are music magazine posters and symbolic signs because some people may not know they are band posters.

I have found some iconic signs doing my magazine research such as the logos for the magazine (everyone pictures the same thing when you say the name of the magazine);

The amp in this picture is an indexical sign because it is linked to him as he plays the guitar but that is not directly linked to him as people know him for his singing more than him as a guitarist, but the amp is there to suggest to people about him playing the guitar.