Introduction to Social Semiotics

Matthew Tyler Giobbi, Ph.D.

REQUIREDSUGGESTED

SEMIOTICS

• “A science that studies the life of signs within society.” -Ferdinand de Saussure

• Semeion (Gr) sign

• Semiotic resource (Halliday)- grammar of a language is not a code, not a set of rules for producing correct sentences, but a “resource for making Meanings”.

• Also called signs.

• Pens, paper, computer, facial expression… gestures.

• Sign- union of a signifier & a signified.

• Semiotic potential- what possibilities there can be for meaning for a sign (Halliday).

Meanings not meaning.

Meanings used in a society.

• Affordance- (Gibson) The potential uses for a given object.

• Meaning is both subjective & objective.

• Meanings not yet recognized by society.

• Context determines meanings.

• The code is the context.

• Code- rules that give meaning.

• Inventorizing

• Use Description

• Semiotic Innovation (Lecture 2)

• Semiotic Inventories

Collections

• Semiotic inventories begin with collections.

• Video taped (overt or covert).

• Clips from TV, film, video.

• Text, magazines, newspapers, lyrics

• New media

• Framing- lines, space, color, text, font, image.

• Distinguishes likeness & difference.

• Color rhyming

• Contextualizing

• De-contextualizing

• Gradient

• Diegetic (part of)

• Non-diegetic (superimposed)

Framing

diegetic

• Segregation-two or more elements occupy entirely different territories, and this indicates that they should be seen as belonging to different orders.

• Separation- two or more elements are separated by empty space, and this suggests that they should be seen as similar in some respects and different in others.

“ separation will always signify that the separated elements are the same or similar in some respects, and different in others.”

• Integration- text and picture occupy the same space- either the text is integrated in (for example superimposed on) the pictorial space, or the picture in the textual space.

• Overlap- frames may be porous- for example, part of the picture may break through the frame or letters my be half in the pictorial space and half in the textual space.

• Rhyme- two elements, although separate, have a quality in common- what that quality is depends on the common feature (color, shape, angle).

• Contrast- two elements differ in terms of a quality.

Meaning potential

Specific meaning

“In different contexts, people make different choices form the same overall semiotic potential and make different meanings with these choices.”

Semiotic register- the set of choices that typify a given context.