Understanding semiotics

Useful vocab:

Semiotics: The study of Signs
Sign: A sign is anything that conveys meaning. A sign is made up of two parts; the signifier and the signified.

Signifier: Is the sign itself. A picture, words, music whatever.
Signified: Is the meaning taken from the sign.
Denotation: Is the first order meaning – the obvious meaning of the sign.
Connotation: Is a deeper less obvious meaning – often implied through convention.
Intertextuality: Refers to the relationship between texts, where texts reference one another. For example all texts from one particular genre are intertextually linked. A Music Magazine will be intertextually linked to a song that the magazine reviews/features.
Polysemic: Literally means many meanings. All signs have multiple meanings. This might refer more to connotative meaning more than denotative meaning. The meaning we take from a sign might be influenced by our, age, gender, ethnicity or the context of viewing amongst other things.
Didactic: Didactic texts are more likely to have denotative obvious meaning and are less open to interpretation.
Syntagmatic: Syntagmatic connotation refers to the meaning signs make when they work together. For example a caption under a photograph.
Anchorage: Media Producers use anchorage to prevent signs from being polysemic. They anchor the meaning of a text by using a supporting to sign. There fore signs work together syntagmatically to anchor the meaning and prevent polysemic readings.

There are three main types of signs:

*Iconic signs: The signifier is connected to the signified through the principle of resemblance. Iconic signs are obviously important for images, since many images resemble what they refer to – but not always. such as the image on a male/female toilet.

*Indexical signs: The signifier makes you think of the signified because the two are frequently physically connected in the real world (the principle of contiguity). Cause-and-effect links are good examples of indexical signs: smoke is caused by fire and contiguous with it, and therefore the smell of smoke (signifier) makes you think of fire (signified).

*Symbolic signs: [purely artificial] the signifier is linked to the signified only by an arbitrary, human-imposed convention. There is no physical connection or natural resemblance between the English word “dog” and the concept *dog*.