barthes semiotics

• sign 


  the complete unit of meaning

  can be heard or seen
• signifier

  The visual information or sound that the person decoding it experiences.
• signified 


  the meaning made in the mind of the decoder
• icon

  A visual image that has been reduced to a simplified signifier that looks like the thing being signified (like a simplified cigarette with a crossed circle for “no smoking” or a walking stick-person for pedestrians).
• index

  An index describes the connection between signifier and signified.

  With an index, the signifier can not exist without the presence of the signified.

  For example smoke is an index of fire.

  Dark clouds are an index of rain.
• symbol

  The connection between signifier and signified in symbols is completely random and must be culturally learned.

  E.g. letter shapes or religious symbols.
• denotation


  the literal representation the sign
• connotation

  The connections and meanings made in the mind of the decoder beyond the literal (e.g. fire might connote passion – not simply heat).
• Myths

  • myths are the culturally constructed products and understandings that are passed off as being in some way natural and inevitable. 
  • they are used to represent certain ideologies and through layers of signification become regarded as facts
  • e.g pink signifies a baby girl in gender reveals
  • become regarded as social norms and values
• ideology


  norms and values created by society that are regarded as true

  The opinions and values of a historically and socially specific class are held up as `universal truths'.
• anchorage

  Extra information that limits the potential meanings of a sign (e.g. explanatory text for a photograph).
• paradigm

  • Signs relate to each other as alternatives to create different meanings.
  • The use of certain signs such as lighting, sound, costumes (wise-en-scene) to convey certain meanings to audiences
  • paradigms include ways of changing shot (such as cut, fade, dissolve and wipe)
• syntagm

  • Signs relate to each other in order to make meaning

  (e.g. events in a television drama).

  • must be in specific order and correct signs chosen to make meaning
  • A printed advertisement is a syntagm of visual signifiers.
  • Syntagms are created by the linking of signifiers from paradigm sets which are chosen on the basis of whether they are conventionally regarded as appropriate or may be required by some rule system
• orders of signification


   Barthes ideas of two orders of signification being denotation and connotation.
• enigma codes


  occur when writers deliberately withhold information, creating a sense of intrigue and mystery

  relevation of truth
• action codes 


  plot points leading up to next beat of the story