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74 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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aberrant decoding
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An understanding of a media product which is not the one intended by its maker. Also, Eco's term for decoding a text by means of a different code from that used to encode it
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addresser and addressee
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Jakobson 's terms for what, in transmission models of communication, are called the 'sender' and the 'receiver' of a message. Other commentators use them to refer to constructions of these two roles within the text, so that the addresser refers to an authorial persona, while addresee refers to an 'ideal reader'.
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anchorage
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Barthes' terms for linguistic elements that serve to 'anchor' or constrain the preferred readings of an image. Conversely, an image can anchor an ambiguous verbal text.
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arbitrariness
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Sausseure emphasized that the relationship between the linguistic signifier and signified is arbitrary: the link between them is not necessary, intrinsic or natural. Many subsequent theorists apply this also to the relation between the signifier and any real-world referent. Peirce noted that the relationship between signifiers and their signifieds varies in arbitrariness.
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Augustine of Hippo (354-430) I
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"The first to articulate explicitly the idea of sign that forms the basis of modern semiotics. In De doctrina christiana, Augustine defines a sign as ""a thing which, over and above the impression which it makes on the senses makes another thing come into thought."" Augustine makes the key distinction between natural and conventional signs.
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Augustine of Hippo (354-430) II
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In the first part of his De magistro (On the Teacher) Augustine demonstrates that everything is learned through signs. Then, in the second part, he demonstrates that in reality nothing is learned through signs but only through the illumination of Christ.
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Augustine of Hippo (354-430) III
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However, no sooner has Augustine enunciated what we would call a semiotic point of view (the treatment of things purely in terms of their signifying function) that he closes it down again by narrowing his consideration to some very specific religous and theological concerns. His purpose is to develop the specific case of the conventional signs instituted by God, namely, the words of scripture and the sacraments.
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Augustine of Hippo (354-430) IV
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Following Augustine, the medieval church believed that every biblical passage contained four levels of meaning: the literal, the allegorical, the moral, and the eschatological. The fourth book of Peter Lombard's Sentences, wherein Augustine's definition of the sign is incorporated, became the focus of what is in effect the "high semiotics" of the Latin age- namely, sacramental theology as it developed down to the present day.
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Augustine of Hippo (354-430) V
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Under this school of interpretation it was the church that established the correct meaning of passages on all four levels. Martin Luther argued that the church shouldn't determine what the Scriptures mean, that a proper understanding of what a passage teaches comes from a literal interpretation. This method was a result of Luther's belief that the Scriptures are clear, in opposition to the medieval church's position that they are so obscure that only the church can uncover their true meaning.
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author
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the sender of a message or discourse. We speak of the author of a written text or any sign system that eminates from a competent source intent on transmitting a message
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binary oppositions
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Pairs of mutualy exclusive signifiers representing categories [signifieds] which are logically opposed, e.g. alive- not-alive.
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broadcast codes
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Fiske's term for codes which are shared by members of a mass audience and which are learned informally through experience rather than deliberately or institutionally. In contrast to narrowcast codes, broadcast codes are more repetitive and predictable - 'overcoded' - having a high degree of redundancy.
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channel
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A sensory mode utilized by a medium (e.g. visual, auditory, tactile). Available channel(s) are dictated by the technical features of the medium in which the text appears.
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codes
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semiotic codes are conventions for correlating signifiers and signifieds within interpretative communities. In order for a message to be effectively transmitted, it must contain a code that is understood by both sender and receiver of the message. In other words, there must be agreement about the meaning of the words, gestures, forms, sounds that are used. [Wildman]
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codification
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Historical-social process whereby the conventions of a particular code become established.
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complex sign
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Sausseure's term for a sign which contains other signs.
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connotation
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procedure in which a signifier, in addition to meanings allotted to it in a dictionary (denotative meanings), aquires further significance from the context in which it is applied. For example, the signifier 'white', apart from denoting a color, might connote 'absence', 'spirituality', 'purity', etc. DS
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conventionalism
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the position of epistemological relativism that denies the existence of any knowable reality outside representational conventions. Conventionalism is associated with the 'severing' of signs from real world referents and with the notion that reality is a construction of language or a product of theories.
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decoding
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the comprehention and interpretation of texts by decoders by means of codes. Most commentators assume that the reader actively constructs meaning rather than simply 'extracting' it from the text
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denaturalization
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Barthe's term for revealing the socially coded basis of phenomena which are taken for granted as natural. The goal of denaturalization to make explicit and to understand the process of encoding and decoding which produces these associations and also to reveal the usually invisible operation of ideological forces.
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denotation
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In the pairing denotation/ connotation, the term is routinely treated as the literal, obvious or common-sense meaning of a sign, but semioticians tend to treat it as a signified about which there is a broad consensus. For instance, the word 'rose' denotes a flower while in a particular context it might connote love, or the House of Tudor.
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discourse
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a set of representational codes (concepts, tropes, myths) used for constructing and maintaining particular forms of reality within a given topic
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dominant or hegemonic code and reading
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Within Stuart Hall's framework, this is an ideological code in which the decoder fully shares the text's code and accepts and reproduces the preferred reading
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figurative
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figurative elements are those elements in a text that correspond to the physical world and can be apprehended by one or more of the five senses (vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell). Figurative elements are essential ingredients in the construction of a reality effect or illusion of a real world. Figurative elements should be contrasted with abstract or conceptual elements. In the sentence, "I remember as if it were yesterday, he was a tall, strong man" the second part is figurative while 'remember' and 'yesterday' are abstract notions.
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figure
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the expression of an abstract concept on the figurative level of discourse. The abstract concept 'life', for example, might be expressed on the figurative level in the figure of a newly born baby or a flowing river.
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iconic
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a mode in which the signifier is perceived as resembling or imitating the [sensory qualities or aspects of the] signified (looking, sounding, feeling, tasting or smelling like it) An icon is thus a sign that resembles the object it signifies
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indexical
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a mode in which the signifier is perceived to be directly connected, physically or causally, to the signified. An index is thus a sign that is caused by the object it signifies. Examples given by Peirce are a barometer and a sundial.
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object
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In Peirce's triadic model of the sign the object or referent is the thing the interpretant 'stands for'.
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interpretant
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In Peirce's triadic model of the sign, the interpretant is the sense made of the sign (not an interpreter)
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representamen
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In Perice's triadic model of the sign, "a representamen or sign is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity. It addresses somebody, that is, creates in the mind of that person an equivalent sign, or perhaps a more developed sign. That sign which it creates I call the interpretant of the first sign. The sign stands for something, its object. It stands for that object, not in all respects, but in reference to a sort of idea, which I have sometimes called the ground of the representamen.
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interpretative community
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a group whose members share the same codes
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interpretative repertoire
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the interpretative codes available to those within an interpretative community. The code user is able to understand texts which employ the codes in his or her interpretative repertoir, and if the code user has appropriate symbolic capital, to produce texts which employ these codes.
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intertextuality
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elements of form and content which link a text to other texts. Although the debts of a text to other texts are seldom acknowledged, texts owe as much to other texts than to their own makers. [or rather, the same schemata tend to be applied over and over]. The notion of intertextuality problematizes the idea of a text having boundaries: where does a text begin and end?
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irony
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a rhetorical trope in which the 'literal sign' combines with another sign to signify the opposite meaning
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langue and parole
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Saussure's term langue refers to the rules and conventions of a signifying system in the abstract, while parole refers to specific instances of its use.
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linguistic determinism
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Holds that our thinking and worldview is determined by language - by the grammatical structures, semantic distinctions and inbuilt ontologies within a language. A more moderate stance is that thinking is 'influenced' rather than unavoidably 'determined' by language, that thinking is a two-way process in which the language we use is influenced by objects and events in the world.
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literalism
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the fallacy that the meaning of a text [for instance, a painting] is contained within it and is completely determined by it so that all the reader does is 'extract' this meaning from the signs that form the text.
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logocentrism
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an interpretative bias which priveleges linguistic communication over non-verbal forms of communication and expression
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metaphor
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a figure of speech in which one thing is understood in reference or analogy to another. Metaphors compare things without using "like" or "as." For example: "Her eyes were glistening jewels."
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metonymy
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a rhetorical figure in which an object or concept is called by the name of something associated with it. For instance, "Westminster" is used as a metonym for the Parliament of the United Kingdom, because Parliament is located there.
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modes of address
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implicit or explicit ways in which aspects of the style, structure or content of a text position readers as subjects, in relation to class, age, gender, ethnicity or other categories
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motivation and constraint
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the more a signified is constrained by the signifier, the more 'motivated' the sign is. The less motivated the sign, the more learning of an agreed code is required. Thus iconic signs are highly motivated, symbolic signs are unmotivated
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myth
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For Levy-Strauss, myths are systems of binary alignments mediating between nature and culture. For Barthes, myths are the dominant discourses of contemporary culture, operating through codes and serving the ideological function of naturalization.
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narrowcast codes
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codes that are used by the members of a limited audience, and which tend to be structually more complex, subtle, and original than broadcast codes
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natural signs
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signs not intentionally created but nevertheless interpreted as signifying, such as smoke signifying fire (St. Augustine); also signs perceived as being produced/ comprehended without the intervention of a code (such as Barthe's initial characterization of a photograph.)
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naturalized codes
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codes that are widely distributed in a culture and which are learned at an early age, so that they appear not to be constructed but to be naturally given. According to Barthes, myths serve the ideological function of naturalization.
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negotiated code and reading
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in Stuart Hall's framework, an ideological code in which the reader partly shares the text's code and accepts the preferred reading, but sometimes resists and modifies it in a way which reflects their own social position, experiences and interests.
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oppositional code and reading
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in Stuart Hall's framework, an ideological code in which a reader whose social situation places them in a directly oppositional relation to the dominant code, understands the preferred reading but rejects it, bringing to bear an alternative ideological code
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orders of signification
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Barthes adopted from Hjelmslev the notion that there are different orders of signification, or levels of meaning, in semiotic systems. The first order of signification is that of denotiation: at this level there is a sign consisting of a signifier and a signified. Connotation is a second order of signification which uses the denotative sign (signifier and signified) as its signifier and attaches to it an additional signified. [A triadic model]
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overcoding
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refers to structurally simple, conventional and repetitive texts having what information theorists call a high degree of redundancy. Under-coding is a feature of texts using less conventional narrowcast codes.
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phonocentrism
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a typically unconscious interpretive bias which privileges speech over writing (and consequently the oral-aural over the visual)
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preferred reading
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An understanding of a media product intended by its maker
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referent
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term used by some theorists for the object, ideas or events that the sign 'stands for'. In Peirce's triadic model of the sign this is called the object. In Saussure's dyadic model of the sign a referent in the world is not explicitly featured - this is sometimes referred to as 'bracketing the referent'.
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reflexivity
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reflexive' aesthetic practices foreground their textuality - the signs of their production (the materials and techniques used) - thus reducing the transparency of their style. Postmodernism often involves a highly reflexive intertextuality.
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relative autonomy
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Saussure's model of the sign assumes the relative autonomy of language in relation to reality - it does not directly feature a 'real world' referent; there is no essential bond between words and things
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representation
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something which stands for or in place of something else. All texts, however realistic they may seem to be, are constructed representations rather than simply transparent reflections
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semeiosis
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term used by Peirce to refer to the process of meaning-making-- specifically to the interaction between representamen, the object and the interpretant
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sign
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a sign is a meaningful unit which is interpreted as 'standing for' something other than itself. Signs are found in the physical form of words, images, sounds, acts, or objects (this physical form is sometimes known as the sign vehicle). Signs have no intrinsic meaning and become signs only when sign-users invest them with meaning through the process of encoding and decoding.
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sign vehicle
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a term sometimes used to refer to the physical or material form of the sign (e.g. words, images, sounds, acts or objects). For some commentators this means the same as the signifier (which for Saussure did not refer to material form). The Peircean equivalent is the representamen: the form that the sign takes, but even for Peirce this was not necessarily a material form
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signifier
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In Saussure's diadic model of the sign, the form which the sign takes in the mind of a subject. Subsequent semioticians have treated it as the material (or physical) form of the sign-- something which can be seen, heard, felt, smelt or tasted (also called the sign vehicle).
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signified
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In Saussure's diadic model of the sign, the mental concept represented by the signifier (not a material thing). This does not exclude the reference of signs to physical objects in the world as well as to abstract concepts and fictional entities, but the signified is not itself a referent in the world
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signifying practices
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the meaning-making behaviors in which people engage (including the production and reading of texts) following particular conventions or rules of construction and interpretation.
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simulacrum
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Baudrillard's term (borrowed from Plato), 'simulacra' are 'copies without originals' - the main form in which we encounter texts in postmodern culture. More broadly, he used the term to refer to a representation which bears no relation to any reality.
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subject
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In theories of subjectivity a distinction is made bewteen 'the subject' and 'the individual'. While the individual is an actual person, the subject is a set of roles constructed by dominant cultural and ideological values. Poststructuralist theorists critique the concept of the unified subject.
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symbolic
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a mode in which the signifier does not resemble the signified but is purely arbitrary or conventional - so that the ralationship must be learnt (e.g. the word 'stop', a red traffic light, a national flag, a number)
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synchronic analysis
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studies a phenomenon (such as a code) as if it were frozen at one moment in time. Saussurean structuralism focused on synchronic rather than diachronic analysis and was criticized for ignoring historicity.
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synecdoche
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a figure of speech involving the substitution of part for whole. Some theorists do not distinguish it from metonymy.
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syntagm
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a syntagm is an orderly combination of interacting signifiers which forms a meaningful whole. Syntagmatic relations are the various ways in which constituent units within the same text may be structurally related to each other. These can be either sequential (e.g. in film and television narrative sequences), or spatial (e.g. in paintings or photographs) Syntagmatic analys is a structuralist technique which seeks to establish the 'surface structure' of a text and the relationship between its parts.
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text
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most broadly, this term is used to refer to anything which can be 'read' for meaning. Although the term appears to privilege written texts (it seems graphocentric and logocentric), to most semioticians a text is a system of signs (in the form of words, images, sounds and/or gestures). The term is often used to refer to recorded (e.g. written) texts which are independent of their users (used in this sense the term excludes unrecorded speech)
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transcendental signifier
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any metaphysical, hierarchical principle that presumes to determine which constructions of signifiers are "natural" or "proper." Examples of transcendental signifiers include Truth, God, Allah, Reason, Being, and various political ideologies. Différance is an alternative to and escape from the logic of the transcendental signifier. -Wikipedia "deconstruction and religion"
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transcendent(al) signified
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Derrida argued that dominant ideological discourse relies on the metaphysical illusion of a transcentental signified- an ultimate referent at the heart of a signifying system which is portrayed as 'absolute and irreducible', stable, timeless and transparent- as if it were independent of and prior to that system.
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transmission model of communication
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everyday references to communication are based on a 'transmission' model in which a 'sender' 'transmits' a message to a 'receiver' - a formula which reduces meaning to content (delivered like a parcel) and which tends to support the intentional fallacy. Such models make no allowance for the importance of either codes or social contexts
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trope
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tropes are rhetorical 'figures of speech' such as metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and irony
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unlimited semiosis
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Umberto Eco's term refering to the way in which, for Peirce (via the 'interpretant'), for Barthes (via connotation), for Derrida (via 'freeplay') and for Lacan (via 'the sliding signified'), the signified is endlessly commutable- functioning in its turn as a signifier for a further signified
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