CS Pierce

index – A sign with a link to its object

icon– a sign which looks like its object

symbol– a sign with a more random link to its object

Semiotics

sign– something that stands in for something else

code– symbolic tools that are used to create meaning

dominant signifier– the main representative

anchorage– words that have an image to give context

Ferdinand De Saussure

signified– an idea which is summoned by the signifier

signifier– something which stands in for something else

Roland Barthes

Myth– the most apparent quantity of signification which disfigures the meaning by validating arbitrary cultural assumptions in a similar way to the denotative sign.

Radical– something which challenges dominant ideas.

Reactionary– dominant ideas which are confirmed by something

ideology– the reinforcement of codes which are congruent with structures of power

denotation– literal or basic meaning of a sign

connotation– the secondary cultural meaning of signs or “signifying signs,” which are then used as the signifiers for a secondary meaning.

paradigm – A collection of similar signs.

syntagm – The sequence which words have been put in to.