The Two Ronnies - four candles
- how precarious communication is
- meaning isn't guaranteed in whatever you say
- being secure in what you're saying believing it won't be misinterpreted
Aims:
- to introduce key themes and concepts in semiotics
- to explore key theories and theorists in the field of structural linguistics
- to explore uses of semiotics in the analysis of art and design
Defining semiotics
- Ferdinand De Saussure defined semiology - study of sign systems
- signifier (word, image, colour, what you conjure up in your head)/signified (mental image/concept of thing itself)/referent (the actual thing itself)
- separated word sign from meaning - that meaning is not inherent within the sign/image/word, there is a involvement of communication, interpretation and translation
- also separated the act of speech from system of language - the process of speaking is a wilful thing, we decide what we want to say however language itself does not belong to us, it proceeds us, belongs to entire society
- semiotics is form of meta-language - a language about language
- systems and structures (the context of the sign) dictate somewhat the reading, what tells us what to think when we're faced with image or word e.g. English language is a system, advertising is a system, photography, fashion etc systems of communication, different elements within these systems mean what they do because there is an agreement about this
What do these colours signify?
- green = grass, go
- blue = water, cold
- these colours + image of crisps = cheese and onion, salt and vinegar
- the brand Walkers completely changed system, make people in agreement that salt and vinegar is now green
- agreement within a system of communication
Difference
- Saussure tells us that meaning is est. in differentiation
- rather than est. what it is we est. what it is not
- 'concepts...are defined not positively, in terms of their content, but negatively by contrast with other items in the same system. What characterises each most exactly is being whatever the others are not'
Connotation and denotation
- provides us with levels or orders of signification
- Roland Barthes warns that denotation is NOT literal meaning but is naturalised through language
- most evident where signifiers merely refer to other signifiers
Myth
- myths are signs that are culturally informed
- Barthes linked myths to ideology - 'Bourgeois ideology...turns culture into nature' 1974
- myths often appear to go without saying yet function to hide dominant cultural values or beliefs
- myths become a third order of signification after denotation (first) and connotation (second)
- bare no logical connection
- e.g. wine = red wine in France is associated with class, intelligence, intellectuals however there is no logical or realistic connection between the two
- e.g. milk = in US, wholesome, natural strength, freedom and liberty however there is no realistic relation between the two, it has merely been suggested over time
- through associations there becomes an agreed solution
- how precarious communication is
- meaning isn't guaranteed in whatever you say
- being secure in what you're saying believing it won't be misinterpreted
Aims:
- to introduce key themes and concepts in semiotics
- to explore key theories and theorists in the field of structural linguistics
- to explore uses of semiotics in the analysis of art and design
Defining semiotics
- Ferdinand De Saussure defined semiology - study of sign systems
- signifier (word, image, colour, what you conjure up in your head)/signified (mental image/concept of thing itself)/referent (the actual thing itself)
- separated word sign from meaning - that meaning is not inherent within the sign/image/word, there is a involvement of communication, interpretation and translation
- also separated the act of speech from system of language - the process of speaking is a wilful thing, we decide what we want to say however language itself does not belong to us, it proceeds us, belongs to entire society
- semiotics is form of meta-language - a language about language
- systems and structures (the context of the sign) dictate somewhat the reading, what tells us what to think when we're faced with image or word e.g. English language is a system, advertising is a system, photography, fashion etc systems of communication, different elements within these systems mean what they do because there is an agreement about this
What do these colours signify?
- green = grass, go
- blue = water, cold
- these colours + image of crisps = cheese and onion, salt and vinegar
- the brand Walkers completely changed system, make people in agreement that salt and vinegar is now green
- agreement within a system of communication
Difference
- Saussure tells us that meaning is est. in differentiation
- rather than est. what it is we est. what it is not
- 'concepts...are defined not positively, in terms of their content, but negatively by contrast with other items in the same system. What characterises each most exactly is being whatever the others are not'
Connotation and denotation
- provides us with levels or orders of signification
- Roland Barthes warns that denotation is NOT literal meaning but is naturalised through language
- most evident where signifiers merely refer to other signifiers
Myth
- myths are signs that are culturally informed
- Barthes linked myths to ideology - 'Bourgeois ideology...turns culture into nature' 1974
- myths often appear to go without saying yet function to hide dominant cultural values or beliefs
- myths become a third order of signification after denotation (first) and connotation (second)
- bare no logical connection
- e.g. wine = red wine in France is associated with class, intelligence, intellectuals however there is no logical or realistic connection between the two
- e.g. milk = in US, wholesome, natural strength, freedom and liberty however there is no realistic relation between the two, it has merely been suggested over time
- through associations there becomes an agreed solution
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