Definitions

  • Barthes – French literary theorist / philosopher. Theoised the codes theory (Hermeneutic code), the way a story is told without revealing all the facts
  • Pierce – American philosopher, investigated how language is a way of connecting meaning to different signs, ICONIC, INDEXICAL, SYMBOLIC
  • Saussure – Swiss linguist / semiotican, theorised that the principle of language is a system of signs, each sign is composed of signifier and signified
  • Semiotics – The study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation
  • Sign – An object, quality, or event whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else.
  • Signifier – An object/thing (comes from Saussure)
  • Signified – The meaning of a signifier (comes from Saussure)
  • Icon – A sign that has a direct link to its object
  • Index – A sign that has an indirect link to its object
  • Symbol – Has a random or arbitrary link based on a shared knowledge
  • Code – A system of words, letters, figures, or symbols used to represent others
  • Dominant Signifier – Most important sign, main image
  • Anchorage – A sign that fixes the meaning
  • Ideology – Set of ideas, beliefs and values
  • Paradigm – A specific group of words/things, which can be used interchangeably all with the same meaning
  • Syntagm – A series of signs that all work together eg a sentence
  • Signifcation – Giving an object its purpose/meaning (process of making meaning)
  • Denotation – The object (Barthes)
  • Connotation – The meaning (Barthes)
  • Myth – Ideas created by connotations
  • Radical text – Challenges the dominant ideology
  • Reaction text – Supports the dominant ideology

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