Week 4: Semiotics

Semiotics, in essence, is the study of signs. We analyze texts on how they work and how we use them. The sign could be anything that consist of words, images, sounds or gestures; in which they are related with a genre in a particular medium of communication.

Let us apply this theory on the text as shown below.

The sign is the result from the combination of the component signifier with the signified. Signifiers can be interpreted as a form of sign, in which it is something that we can use our five senses to detect. In this text above, the signifiers are the human figure, shadow, dark background, wet and gloomy street, and the moon beam.

Signified is the concept derived from the signifier, but the signified can change its meaning or have different meanings. According to Barthes, however, signified is not a 'thing', but the mental representation of the 'thing'. In this example shown, the signified is the image of a stranger in the dark.

Most signs have at least one common meaning, i.e. literal meaning, which is shared amongst many people. This meaning is called the sign's denotation. On a denotation level, we can see a man walking on the wet street at a dark hour with nothing else except the moon shining down on him.

But signs also have many different 'subjective' meanings depending on how we perceive them from our experience. This is called sign's connotation. And thus, connotation refers to the representation and concept presented in a sign, and in this case, the man walking alone during the night would mean that he is fearless of the dark. Darkness brings out the fear from our inner self. In addition, the moonlight shining down on his vision connotes a path - guiding the man's state of mind, and giving him hope. While the darkness is consuming his surrounding, the man is unaffected in the essence of light.

Signs are present everywhere, even in the absence of adequate light, as shown in the example above. The silhouette, the figure and the surrounding are shown to have a strong relationship with one another to tell us what is the signified of the sign.

Reference:
Chandler, D. (2009). Semiotics For Beginners. Prifysgol Aberystwyth University. Retrieved from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem02.html

Thwaites, Tony, Lloyd Davis & Warwick Mules (1994). Tools for Cultural Studies: An Introduction. South Melbourne: Macmillan.

Barthes, R. (1968). Elements of Semiology. New York: Hill and Wang.