Barthes – French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. Barthes’ ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of many schools of theory, including structuralism, semiotics, social theory, design theory, anthropology, and post-structuralism.

Pierce – American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist who is sometimes known as “the father of pragmatism”. He was educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for thirty years

Saussure – Swiss linguist and semiotician. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiology in the 20th century. He is widely considered one of the founders of 20th-century linguistics and one of two major founders of semiotics/semiology

Semiotics – the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation.

Sign – a gesture or action used to convey information or an instruction.

Signifier – a sign’s physical form (such as a sound, printed word, or image) as distinct from its meaning. (Saussure)

Signified – the meaning or idea expressed by a sign, as distinct from the physical form in which it is expressed. (Saussure)

Icon – a person or thing regarded as a representative symbol or as worthy of veneration.

Index – (in a book or set of books) an alphabetical list of names, subjects, etc. with reference to the pages on which they are mentioned.

Symbol – a thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.

Code – a system of words, letters, figures, or symbols used to represent others, especially for the purposes of secrecy.

Dominant Signifier – The main sign

Anchorage – Meaning of a sign

Ideology – a system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.

Paradigm – a group/collection of similar things

Syntagm – a linguistic unit consisting of a set of linguistic forms (phonemes, words, or phrases) that are in a sequential relationship to one another.

Signifcation – the representation or conveying of meaning.

Denotation – the literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests. (Barthes)

Connotation – an idea or feeling which a word invokes for a person in addition to its literal or primary meaning. (Barthes)

Myth – a belief that lots of people believe in however it isn’t true.

Dominant Ideology – the attitudes, beliefs, values, and morals shared by the majority of the people in a given society

A Radical Text – Text that challenges the dominant ideology

A Reactionary Text – Text that supports the dominant ideology