Semiotics is, in simple words, the study of signs. Semiotics can be exercised to anything that can be seen as signifying something, that is to say, to everything that has meaning within a culture. The main goal of a semiotic analysis is to establish the elemental conventions by identifying significant differences and oppositions in an attempt to show the system of categories, syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations, connotations, distinctions and the rules of combination present. Using a semiotics approach, this essay will analyze the pop culture classic 2004 movie Mean Girls.
To start of, I will introduce you to some key terms that are essential to deeply understand this semiotic analysis.
• A sign is a cultural symbol. It can take the form …show more content…
you cannot smoke in that area).
• A syntagmatic relationship is one where signs occur in sequence or parallel and operate together to create meaning. In semiotic study, a syntagm is a chain that leads, through syntagmatic analysis, to understanding of how a sequence of events forms a narrative.
• A paradigmatic relationship is one in which an individual sign can be easily replaced by another.
Now that I’ve explained those key terms, we can start the analysis of the film. Mean Girls is a teen comedy about survival of the fittest in the world of teenage girls. This film follows Cady, a sixteen year old who moves from Africa, where she was home schooled, to the evil halls of public high school in the United States. Cady joins the queen bee of her high school and becomes an official Mean Girl. But by the end of the movie she discovers that there are more important things in the world than being …show more content…
According to Berger, semiotics helps a viewer become aware of the viewer’s own underlying assumption while coming across a text. In this case for example, hair color works as a sign because different hair colors convey different hidden meanings that viewers may or may not even be deliberately aware of. Berger argues that when analyzing a sign it’s meaning has both a denotation and a connotation. The denotation is the literal meaning the sign carries. That is blonde means fair or light colored hair, while brunette denotes dark brown colored hair. These meanings are the signifiers. However, their connotations hint to the cultural meaning that is carried, which is the signified. These meanings are learned through culture and exposure to media. For example, dark hair can mean high intellect while blonde hair is associated with ignorance. This is primary due to long-lived stereotypes within our culture. Because of this we know that the fact that the actress who plays Cady has red hair was not a coincidence. Her red hair is too vague to be associated with any cultural stereotype specially because there are not enough red heads in the media to have a specific implication associated with that particular hair color. This ambiguousness of Cady’s hair color grants Cady the unusual ability to define herself as a nerd at the beginning of the film, a beauty in the middle, and both by the
To start of, I will introduce you to some key terms that are essential to deeply understand this semiotic analysis.
• A sign is a cultural symbol. It can take the form …show more content…
you cannot smoke in that area).
• A syntagmatic relationship is one where signs occur in sequence or parallel and operate together to create meaning. In semiotic study, a syntagm is a chain that leads, through syntagmatic analysis, to understanding of how a sequence of events forms a narrative.
• A paradigmatic relationship is one in which an individual sign can be easily replaced by another.
Now that I’ve explained those key terms, we can start the analysis of the film. Mean Girls is a teen comedy about survival of the fittest in the world of teenage girls. This film follows Cady, a sixteen year old who moves from Africa, where she was home schooled, to the evil halls of public high school in the United States. Cady joins the queen bee of her high school and becomes an official Mean Girl. But by the end of the movie she discovers that there are more important things in the world than being …show more content…
According to Berger, semiotics helps a viewer become aware of the viewer’s own underlying assumption while coming across a text. In this case for example, hair color works as a sign because different hair colors convey different hidden meanings that viewers may or may not even be deliberately aware of. Berger argues that when analyzing a sign it’s meaning has both a denotation and a connotation. The denotation is the literal meaning the sign carries. That is blonde means fair or light colored hair, while brunette denotes dark brown colored hair. These meanings are the signifiers. However, their connotations hint to the cultural meaning that is carried, which is the signified. These meanings are learned through culture and exposure to media. For example, dark hair can mean high intellect while blonde hair is associated with ignorance. This is primary due to long-lived stereotypes within our culture. Because of this we know that the fact that the actress who plays Cady has red hair was not a coincidence. Her red hair is too vague to be associated with any cultural stereotype specially because there are not enough red heads in the media to have a specific implication associated with that particular hair color. This ambiguousness of Cady’s hair color grants Cady the unusual ability to define herself as a nerd at the beginning of the film, a beauty in the middle, and both by the