Semiotics- the study of signs and sign systems; the social production of meaning by sign systems, how things come to have significance and meaning
Symbol- an arbitrary sign in which the signifier has neither a direct nor an indexical relationship to the signified, but rather represents it through conventions
Signifier- any symbol, image or word that can be read (basically anything)
There are three types of signifier
- Iconic- these signifiers always resemble what they signify- they're always used to signify something
- Indexical- these signifiers act as evidence- smoke means fire, sweat is proof of effort, ambulance means someones been hurt
- Symbolic- these are visual signs that are arbitrarily linked to referents- crowns are now used to refer to monarchs, they are a symbol of the monarchy
Signified- the particular meaning or meanings of the signifier in a particular context or situation
Denotation- signs signify or ‘denote’ different aspects of our experience of the world. They are the work of that part of the sign (the signifier) which is immediately recognisable to the reader and which has a direct relationship to a real world entity or referent. It refers to something literal, as opposed to metaphorical. The colour red for example we know as a colour in the light spectrum, different from blue or pink
Connotation- these are the meanings interpreted from a sign which link other values to it. For example, the colour red brings up notions of love, blood, anger, danger, stop signs, heat etc.
Polysemic- literally ‘many signed’- an image in which there are several possible meanings depending on the ways in which its constituent signs are read
Index- measures a quality not because it is identical to it but has an inherent relationship to it
Icon- A sign in which the signifier represents the signified mainly by its similarity to it, its likeness
Binary oppositions- sets of opposite values said to reveal the structure of media texts. These define through their opposite and chose a lesser and greater position. For example, man/woman; weak/strong; black/white; civilised/savage; good/evil etc
Conventions - ‘un-written rules’ in the production of mainstream texts. Conventions are the dominant codings in any media
Anchoring- written text used to control or select a specific reading of an image
Mode of address- How a text ‘speaks’ to its audience. How the audience is positioned in relation to the text
Metonymy- literally ‘substitue naming’ a figure of speech in which an associated detail or notion is used to invoke an idea or represent on object. For example, the phrase "the pen is mightier than the sword" uses metonymy as it is using the pen as a representation of the power of written word and the sword as a representation of war
Synecdoche- The idea that ‘part’ of a person, an object, a machine, etc, can be used to represent the ‘whole’, and work as an emotive or suggestive shorthand for the viewer, who invests the ‘part’ with symbolic associations. For example, in Othello, he is referred to as "thick lips" as a racist term. Thick lips is used to describe the whole of him
Mise en scene- literally ‘putting together the scene’; how we read the actions of the creative personnel in a film crew who visualise. Everything on screen
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