Semiotics:

Sign– something that could stand for something else, e.g words, drawings, photographs.

Code– Technical, written and symbolic tools used to construct or suggest meaning in media forms and products, e.g. camera.

Convention– Generally accepted ways of doing something.

Dominant Signifier– The main representative of something.

Anchorage – Words that go with an image to provide context.

Ferdinand De Saussure:

Signifier – Stands in for something else.

Signified -Idea being evoked by signifier.

C S Pierce:

Icon – A sign that looks like an object/person, e.g picture of a lamp.

Index – A sign that has a link to its object, e.g smoke and fire.

Symbol – A sign that has a more random link to its object, e.g colour, shape.

Roland Barthes:

Signification – Structural levels of signification, meaning or representation.

Denotation –  The most basic or literal meaning of a sign.

Connotation – The secondary, cultural meanings of signs; or “signifying signs,” signs that are used as signifiers for a secondary meaning. (what its associated with.)

Myth –  how words and images are systematically used to communicate cultural and political meanings, in texts such as advertisements, magazines, films, or TV programs.

Ideology – codes that reinforce or in agreement with structures of power.

Radical – Something that challenges dominant ideas.

Reactionary – Something that confirms dominant ideas.

Paradigm– a typical example or pattern of something. (collection of something)

Syntagm – an orderly combination of interacting signifiers which forms a meaningful whole. (sequence of signs)