Class 2: Codes Flashcards
Codes
- the meaning of a sign depends on the code
within which it is situated - provide a framework within which signs make sense
- can be verbal or non-verbal
ex. language, painting, music
Encode
using a code to create a sign
Decode
deciphering something on the basis of the code
Semiotics of Food
- for survival
- think of food on a social level because it is in this sense that food social level because it is in this sense that food transcends this function
Denotative level of food
we eat to survive
Connotative level of food
- food evokes cuisine
- cuisine tells us what certain people eat, how they make it, etc., but perhaps most significantly it tells us something about them
Historic Semiotics of Food
- ancient humans ate what they could find for survival
- today, food and culture is so closely associated and used for evaluating other people and cultures
Food as “codes”
- eating events are coded
- manners (learned from birth) are coded
- how is spaghetti eaten?
- table manners are coded
- fast food restaurants are coded
Nonverbal communication
- involves signs
- eye contact, gazing, facial expressions, gestures, touch, proxemic
Main research approaches to this study
- Psychological
- Structural
- Ethnographic
Psychological
relation between NVC and psychological states
Structural
verbal and non-verbal structures
Ethnographic
living and interacting about social groups to observe and assess
Codes = Knowledge
- the world (social knowledge);
- the medium and the genre (textual knowledge);
- the relationship between (1) and (2) known as modality judgment
Modality
the reality status accorded to or claimed by a sign, text or genre
Modality judgment
- in making sense of a text, we make “modality judgments”, based on our knowledge of the world and of the medium
- the media which are typically judged to be the most ‘realistic’ are photographic - especially film and television
Roman Jakobson’s Basic Model of Communication
- the addresser
- the message
- the addressee
- the context
- the mode of contact
- the code
The addresser
the creator of the text
The message
the message to be conveyed in that text
The addressee
the intended receiver of the text
The addressee
the intended receiver of the text
The context
is what allows the audience to recognize and understand the text; its authenticity
The mode of contact
is the method by which the addresser and addressee are linked
The code
the system of recurrent story elements that allow the audience to decipher a text
Stuart Hall (Interpretative Codes/Social Positioning)
- Dominant reading
- Negotiated reading
- Oppositional reading
Dominant reading
the most common and widely-accepted interpretations of a given text
Negotiated reading
differs from the commonly accepted interpretation
Oppositional reading
opposes the dominant reading
Narratives
- texts
- made up of composite signifiers
- put together in terms of a specific code
ex. “the Superman code”
