Communication Theory // 7th March 2012
Communication Theory // 7th March 2012
- Semiotics: Three basic concepts
Semantics addresses what a sign stands for. Dictionaries are semantic reference books; they tell us what a sign means.
Syntactics is the relationships among signs.
»Signs rarely stand alone. They are almost always part of a larger sign system referred to as codes.
»Codes are organized rules that designate what different signs stand for.
Pragmatics studies the practical use and effects of signs.
"Pragmatic use of the understanding of semiotics"
•Semiotics and the ‘Semiosphere'
•The whole semiotic space of the culture.
•Semiotics examines signs as if they are part of a language.
•Structuralists adopted language as their model in exploring a much wider range of social phenomena: i. e. culturally shared codes
•Lévi-Strauss for ethnography; myth, kinship rules and totemism;
•Lacan for the unconscious; psychology, the subjective aspects of signification, “language is first of all a foreign one”
•Barthes for the 'grammar' of narrative;
•Julia Kristeva declared that 'what semiotics has discovered... is that the major constraint affecting any social practice lies in the fact
that it signifies; i.e. that it is articulated like a language'
The language of medicine
Tryptanol/Tofranil
Akamin/Accomin
Lasix/Losec
Lamictal/Lamisil
Aratac/Aropax
Amlodipine/Amiloride
Pramin/Premarin
Adalat/Aldomet
Hycor/Hyoscine
Prostin VR/Prostin F2 alpha
Zocor/Zoton
Oxynorm/Oxycontin
Sotahexal/Metahexal
Diclohexal/Diltahexal
- Damian Hirst created the liver and bacon medicine bottle, to show how we visually just accept medicine design as having certain
characteristics and style.
- Semiotics:
Useful for:
- Researching how we make meaning within any given situation and how art/design is ‘read’ within that situation.
- Semiotics teaches us that reality can be read as a system of signs and can assist us to become more aware of reality as a
construction and of the roles played by ourselves and others in constructing it. It can help us to realize that information or meaning is
not 'contained' in art objects, design or audio-visual media. Meaning is not 'transmitted' to us - we actively create it according to a
complex interplay of codes or conventions of which we are normally unaware.
Main limitations: The prioritization of structure over usage does not easily recognise the socially mediated and constantly evolving
nature of communication.
Prioritises verbal/linguistic structures over embodied knowledge.
Meaning consists of functional relationships within dynamic information systems. Semiotics fails to explain factors that influence the
production and interpretation of messages. Sign systems are not autonomous; they exist only in the shared practices of actual
communities. Meaning is not fixed by a code; it is a site of social conflict.
Using semiotics to analyse an image
The first code is linguistic. To encode it we need to be able to read French.
The next linguistic sign ‘Panzani’ is Italian and encodes not simply the name of the firm but also an additional signified, that of 'Italianicity'. The linguistic message is therefore twofold: denotational and connotational. This would not work in Italy.
The next code involves the image. This provides a series of discontinuous signs. First (the order is unimportant as these signs are not linear), the scene represents a return from the market. A signified which itself implies two values: that of the freshness of the products and that of the essentially domestic preparation for which they are destined. Its signifier is the half-open bag which lets the provisions spill out over the table, 'unpacked'. You can read this sign in a variety of ways. The bag is a net. Fishing is a basic form of catching food, and if ‘in the net’ the food must be very fresh. A second sign is more or less equally evident; its signifier is the bringing together of the tomato, the pepper and the tricoloured hues (yellow, green, red) of the poster; its signified is Italianicity.
The collection of different foods (onions, tomatoes, mushrooms etc) makes it feel is as though Panzani provides everything necessary for a carefully balanced dish and it also seems as though the concentrate in the tin were equivalent to the natural produce surrounding it.
The composition of the image, evokes the memory of innumerable paintings, and produces an aesthetic signified: the 'still life'; the knowledge on which this sign depends is therefore also heavily cultural.
The colour is rich and sensual suggesting that this is a ‘quality’ product.
The shape and orientation of the image is ‘portrait’, suggesting this is person to person communication, therefore you should be interested.
Language
- no language, even if it is a visual language, is self explanatory
- Languages have to be studied and learnt
- Danger due to proximity of a place where aircraft fly frequently at low altitude over the road
- Drivers of cars are obliged to use the road at the entrance of which this sign is placed
- Drivers of cars are forbidden from driving in this area
- Note that the blue sign could contain the plane and would be a syntactically valid signal, although it would be useless. The same
happens with written language, where you can write a valid sentence but it can be completely meaningless.
