This Means That

SEMIOTICS the theory of signs

• tools, processes and contexts we have for creating interpreting and understanding meaning in a variety of different ways
• signing is vital to human existence; it underlies all forms of communication
• very diverse; include gestures, facial expressions, drawings, designs, food, rituals, & primitive symbols
• signs are important because they can mean something other than themselves (apple means apple BUT apple also means healthy)

signs are not isolated, they are dependent for their meaning on the contexts in which they are read and understood

signs formed through...

• the society that creates them
• by the structures they employ
• through the sources they use
• ex. health (western culture) we would say the WAR against aids or the FIGHT against caner or the topic of time; we talk about using time wasting time saving time and spending time as if it were money.
  

signs we find in each society are superficially different yet they seem to have the same underlying structures

structural similarities

• perform rituals
• play games
• adhere to moral systems
• engage in forms of symbolic representation
• creating hierarchy

Societies have 2 basic sources of signing

1. natural (wearing clothes in the cold)

2. conventional (the kind of clothes/ how we wear them)

• conventional depends on the rules of the particular society which were in

THE JOURNEY OF A MESSAGE

sender // who
intention // with what aim
message // says what
transmission // by which means
noise // with what interference
reciever // to whom
destination // with what result

SIGNIFIER & SIGNIFIED

1. same signifier with different signifieds

• one object can have different meanings
• (apple can mean temptation, healthy, fruit)
  

2. different signifiers with the same signifieds

• different things can all mean the same thing
• (different languages have their own word for apple)

ICON
with any icon there is some degree of resemblance between signifier and signified (degree can be high or low)

INDEX
When there is a physical or causal relationship between the signifier (the photograph) and the signified (what the photograph depicts) the non arbitrary relationship is indexical
It is important that we can detect the causal link between a signifier and what is being signified (smoke caused by fire)

SYMBOL
arbitrary relationship between signifier and signified

TRANSMISSION
messages are always transmitted through a medium
medium carries the message from SENDER to RECIEVER
mediums can be..

• presentatinal // voice, face, mouth, eyes
• representational // through paintings books drawings
• mechanical // internet TV radio fim

ex. With a smiley face where the eyes are exactly the same, the mouth is the transmitter of emotion - differentiates between if the face is happy or sad.

SENDER & RECIEVER
How we make sense of the message depends on how we interpret it and who we think is receiving it

• distinction between “receiver” (the actual person that gets the message) and the “addressee” the person (real or imaginary) who is said to be the target of the message
• the aim of the sender is to make sure the message has reached the right receiver without anything going wrong

Sometimes we mean what we say / sometimes we say one thing and mean another (sarcasm)

• Non litteral forms of meaning enable us to make the familiar seem unfamiliar and the unfamiliar seem familiar.
• Non literal communication will make us work harder when it comes to deciphering the various meanings that human beings create.
• All of these things (used judiciously) can be used to create more resonate meanings

Similie X is like Y

• the likening of one thing to another; a stated comparison between two different objects images ideas or likenesses
• Ex. busy as a bee, dead as a doornail, flat as a pancake, at the crack of dawn
• Also appear in visual communication… light bulb above persons head to represent having an image, heart for love (clichés)
• When we like one thing to another we tend to highlight the features that interest us
• helpful simile enables us to see an old object or image in a new light by making a connection with another object or image in respect of a certain property or feature

Metaphor X is Y

• most interesting when they link something familiar with something unfamiliar
• (by drawing attention to the ways in which a familiar thing x can be seen in terms of an unfamiliar thing y, we help to show that the qualities of the first thing are more like the second thing than we had initially thought
• they work by a process of transference showing … while x doesn’t have certain properties literally it can still have them metaphorically
• Implied comparison between two similar or dissimilar things that share a certain quality

METONYM
when one thing is closely associated to – or directly related to – another, it can be substituted for it so as to create meaning

SYNECDOCHE
not what you put into a piece that matters but what you leave out: using a part of something to stand for the whole thing, or the whole thing to stand for part