Media and Language - Semiology

Question 1

Signs

Answer 1

• created all the time
• read signs using cultural understanding

Question 2

Semiotics

Answer 2

• study of signs
• anything that is used for human communication is defined as a sign

Question 3

Saussure (1857-1913)

Answer 3

• Swiss structural linguist
• credited along with Peirce with founding of semiotic theory
• written or spoken is the primary form of communication
• mass media are forms of communication which deploy traditional language structures
• allows us to access other codes and to understand the sense that audiences make of them

Question 4

Saussure’s model of the sign and significtaion process

Answer 4

• sign = signifier + signified
• signifier cannot exist without a signified

Question 5

Saussure definition of a sign

Answer 5

• any single thing that creates separate meaning on its own
• usually denote meaning when viewed individually

Question 6

how do we read a signifier

Answer 6

denotation

Question 7

how do we read a signified

Answer 7

connotation

Question 8

Code

Answer 8

• a collection / group of signs that seem to ‘go naturally together’
• creates a larger meaning than the individual signs

Question 9

Technical codes

Answer 9

• ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a media text

Question 10

Symbolic codes

Answer 10

• show what is beneath the surface of what we see

Question 11

Syntagm

Answer 11

• chain of signs, an element which follows another in a particular sequence

Question 12

What did Saussure identify in syntagm

Answer 12

• a syntagmatic relationship in language
• language is linear so there is a relationship between the words

Question 13

what does a syntagmatic analysis involve in film and television

Answer 13

• analysis of how each shot, scene or sequence related to others

Question 14

when analysing a still image what would you focus on

Answer 14

• syntagmatic analysis would focus on the spatial relationship between objects

Question 15

Paradigm

Answer 15

• a class of objects or concepts which are all members of a defining category but markedly different in themselves
• releases one sign choice at the expense of all others

Question 16

in film and television what does paradigms include

Answer 16

• ways of changing shot

Question 17

Types of signs By Peirce

Answer 17

• Peirce (1839-1914)
• contributed to the field of semantic theory
• focused on developing idea that there were different levels of meaning that could be attached to signs and that they operated in different ways on audiences

Question 18

Icon

Answer 18

• created to represent the thing itself so that an image signifies the image
• work to create extra meaning

Question 19

Index

Answer 19

• factual or casual connection that points towards its object

Question 20

Symbol

Answer 20

• has an arbitrary relationship between the signifier and the signified
• interpreter understands the symbol through previous knowledge
• spoken or written words are symbols

Question 21

Symbolic codes

Answer 21

• act as signifiers of meaning which are not remotely the same as what they actually look like
• culturally determined

Question 22

Brief understanding of iconic signs

Answer 22

• resembles something
• you can see this

Question 24

Brief understanding of symbolic signs

Answer 24

• cultural/learned
• you must learn this

Question 25

Brief understanding of indexical signs

Answer 25

• casual connection
• you can figure this out

Question 26

Barthes (1915 -1980)

Answer 26

• wrote extensively on language and meaning
• focused on developing the idea that meaning of signs outlined by Saussure and Pierce lacked a crucial element
• the interpretants live in societies, meanings we decode are hugely influenced by where we live and lives we lead