Roland Barthes – French literary theorist and social critic. Introduced the “denotation, connotation, myth” model.
Charles Sanders Peirce – American philosopher. “Icon, index, symbol”. Introduced the term ‘semiotics’.
Ferdinand de Saussure: Swiss linguist and semiotician. Saw language as a social-cultural reaction. Coined the term ‘seminology’.
Semiotics: the study of signs and symbols, their use, how they are represented and what they represent.
Sign: an object, quality, or event whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else.
Signifier: a sign’s physical form (such as a sound, printed word, or image) as distinct from its meaning.
Signified: the meaning expressed by a sign.
An iconic sign – is which has a direct connection to its’ object e.g. it looks or sounds like the object.
An indexical sign – is which has an indirect link to its’ object e.g. smells.
A symbolic sign – is which has a random link based on a shared knowledge or an agreement, e.g. letters, shapes, colours, sound effects, facial expressions, hand gestures, clothing, hair styles.
Code: a set of conventions or sub-codes currently in use to communicate meaning.
Dominant Signifier: dominant meaning of a sign.
Anchorage: directs the viewer to a given meaning.
Ideology: a system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.
Paradigm: a typical example of something.
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 process of making meaning.
Denotation: the literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests.
Connotation: an idea or feeling or meaning of the object.
Myth: a social narrative that reinforces a given belief system.
A radical text: a text that challenges the dominant ideology within a given society.
A reactionary text: a text that supports the dominant ideology within a given society.
