Lecture 10//Communication theory?

Aims

• Introduce key themes and conepts in semiotics.
• To explore key theories and theorists in the field of structural linguistic.
• To explore uses of semiotics in the analysis of art and design. 

Defining Semiotics

• Ferdinand De Saussure defined semiology- a study of 'sign systems'
• Signifier/signified/referent
• He separated the word (sign) from meaning-that meaning is not inherent within the sign. 
• He also separated the act of speech (La Parole) from the system of language (La Langue).
• Semitics is a form of Meta-Language- a language about language.
• Systems and structures (the context of the sign) dictate somewhat the reading. 

What do these colour signify?

Green- grass, eco-friendly, go 

Blue- Sea, water, cold 

When crisps come into the frame, green is salt and vinegar and blue cheese and onion. The brand Walkers portrays this. Originally the colours meant the opposite flavours. 

Connotation and denotation

• Provide us with 'levels' or 'orders' of signification.
• Roland Barthers warns that denotation is NOT literal meaning but is naturalised through language.

Myth

• Myths are signs that are culturally informed.
• Barthes linked myths to ideology
• Myths often appear to 'go without saying' yet function to hide dominent cultural values or beliefs.
• Myths become 'third order' of significance. 

For example red wine is associated with class, intelligence and sophistication  Milk is associated with strength, which are factors that aren't necessarily correct. 

Syntagm and paradigm

• Syntagm- a series or collection of signifiers within a 'text' (eg. a sentence).
• Syntagmatic relations-how signifiers within a syntagm relate to each other.

• Paradigm- signifiers that relate though function or relative meaning (eg. boy/man, male/female)

Metaphor and metonyms

• ...are both non-literal forms of signification, as such require a level of interpretation.
• Metaphor is where one signifier is replaced with another of similar concept or character
• Metonymy is where a signifier stands in for another to which it is conceptually or physically a part of (displacement)
• A part to represent the whole or the whole to represent the part...

Rhetoric

• The act of effective persuasion using language.
• Politics
• Journalists
• Advertisers
• PR

'Meta...'

• Meta is a prefix used to alter purpose of a practice or system inwards.
• Meta language- a language within a language.

Structuralism 

• Is the term used for the broad application of semiotics/semiology to a range of sign systems.
• Further than the application solely to linguistics.
• Structuralism emphasises structures or systems of signification...
• Not what is means but how it comes to mean
• Semiotic linguistic terms/structures act as analogies for other systems. 

Roland Barthes - 'Image, music, text' 1977

• Barthes analyses a range of visual media in terms of their signifying structure. 

Post-Structuralism

• Structuralism reduces everything to related elements within a signifying system...
• This is authoritarian in nature
• It assumes the presence of meaning 'The metaphysics of presence') legocentrism.

Differance

• Jacques Derrida established this term both in development of Saussure and disagreement. 
• Differ-to differ and to defer
• Difference is both differing and deferring simultaneously.

Deconstruction

• Where structuralism identifies/created structures of signification...