Lecture Ten - Communication Theory.

• introduce key themes and concepts in semiotics
• explore key theories and theorists in the field of structural linguistics
• explore uses of semiotics in the analysis of art and design

Defining Semiotics

• Saussure defined semiology - a study of 'sign systems'
• introduced image based signs
• signifier/signified/referent, immediate structure of the sign system
• signifier - image, word, colour
• signified - mental concept of the word, what you see in your head, element of thinking
• referent - actual thing itself
• he separated the word sign from meaning, that meaning is not inherent within the sign
• he separated the act of speech from the system of language
• semiotics is a form of meta-language - a language about language
• systems and structures (the context of the sign) dictate the reading
• what dictates what we see as the signified

what do colours signify?

• green - grass, go
• blue - water, cold
• shown with a crisp
• green - cheese and onion
• blue - salt and vinegar
• walkers is reverse
• shows that there is an agreement within the system of communication

• meaning is established in differentiation
• rather than establish what it is we establish what it is not

Connotation and Denotation

• provides us with levels or orders of signification
• Roland Barthes warns that denotation isn't a literal meaning but is naturalised through language
• most evident where signifiers merely refer to other signifiers

Myth

• myths are signs that are culturally informed
• myths often appear to go without saying yet function to hide dominant cultural values or beliefs
• wine - intelligent, sophisticated
• milk - strong

Syntam and Paradigm

• syntagym - a collection of signifiers within a text (sentence)
• syntagmatic relations - how signifiers within a syntagym relate to each other
• paradigm - signifiers that relate through function or relative meaning
• paradigmatic relation - how paradigmatic signifiers construct and contrast meaning

Metaphor and Metonym

• both non-literal forms of signification, as such require a level on interpretation
• metaphor is where one signifier is replaced with another of similar concept or character
• metonym is where a signifier stands in for another to which is is conceptually or physically a part of (displacement)

Rhetoric

• the act of effective persuasion using language
• used by politicians, journalists, advertisers, pr
• subtle, you are unaware that it is working
• can also be used within photography

Meta...

• meta is a prefix used to alter purpose of a practice or system inwards
• meta-language - language within a language
• meta-narative - an overarching narrative of other smaller narratives

Structuralism

• is the term used for the broad application of semiotics/semiology to a range of sign systems
• further than the application solely to linguistics
• structuralism emphasises structures or systems of signification
• not what it means but how it comes to mean
• semiotic linguistic terms/structures act as analogies for other systems

Post structuralism

• while structuralism focusses on the structures of meaning in any signifying system
• possibilities of mis interpretation
• focuses on the interpreter and the precarious nature of the meaning
• structuralism reduces everything to related elements within a signifying system
• this is authoritarian in nature
• it assumes the presence of meaning, logocentrism
• post structuralists aim to deconstruct and emphasise the plurality of the interpretation

Differance

• differer - to differ and to defer
• differance is both differing and defering simultaneously

Deconstruction

• where structuralism identified/created structures of signification
• deconstruction aims to dismantle the structures - identifying gaps and instabilities
• emphasising what is lost or cast aside
• binary oppositions