Download - Represntation Semiotics

8/6/2019 Represntation Semiotics

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Edited by Stuart Hall

The Open University Publication

Sneha Subhedar, Department of Mass Media, Ramnarain Ruia College


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Making meaning, representing things` Representation is production of meaning through

language

` Oxford dictionary suggests 2 meanings

`A) To represent something is to describe or depict it, tocall it up in the mind by description or portrayal orimagination; to place a likeness of it before us in ourmind or in the senses; as for eg. This picture represents ...

` B) it also means to symbolize, stand for, to be a specimenof, or to substitute for; as in the sentence, In Hinduism,the swastika refers to something holy.



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Picture

` Give meaning through language /make sense of theworld

`We speak only the word i.e ... Which is a linguisticsign which we use in a particular language.

` This is representation` Representation is the production of meaning of the

concepts in our minds through language eg. Apple

` It is a link between concepts and language which

enables us to refer to either the real world of objects, people or events or imaginary worlds



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Two systems of representation

yAll sorts of things are correlated with a set of conceptsor mental representations which we carry around inour world

yWe also make concepts of things we have never seen oreven heard of. Eg. Characters in books, god etc

y It consists of different ways of organising, clustering,arranging and classifying concepts and of establishingcomplex relations between them. E.g. tea and coffee



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` Language is second system of representationConstructing meaning

` Shared concepts to be translated into a commonlanguage.

`Words, sounds and images carrying meaning are called

signs. E.g. Grape is a sign` Stand for the concept or conceptual relations between

them which we carry around in our heads.

` Language is not only spoken or writing but visuals when

used to express meaning.`At heart of meaning or language is culture



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` People belonging to a same culture share a broadly

similar conceptual map` Therefore, share the same way of interpreting signs of

language. Eg What ... goes

`Visual signs and images are signs which have to beinterpreted

`Visual signs are called iconic signs

` That is they bear in their form, a certain resemblance

to the object, person or event to which theyrefer.`Written or spoken signs are indexical as they bear no

obvious resemblance to things they refer. E.g. Apple



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We fix meaning

`Meaning is reconstructed by the system of

representation.` It is fixed by a code

` It sets up a the correlation between our conceptualsystem and our language system in a way, that every

time we think of an apple the code tells us to use thesign Apple.

` Codes fix relationships between concepts and signs.

` They stabilise meaning within different languages and

cultures` They enable us to speak and communicate, andestablish translatability.

Sneha Subhedar, Department of Mass Media, Ramnarian Ruia College


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y Translatability is not fixed by nature but by social

conventions within a culture.y Meaning, language and representation are important

elements in study of culture.

y To belong to a culture is to know all the above

yA window to our culture. E.g. Snow/ Barf is only one todescribe it in English/ Hindi but Inuits have 17 words forit.

y Therefore, if meaning is the outcome of our social,

cultural and linguistic conventions then meaning cannever be fixed. E.g. Gay

y Meaning is a Construct, Produced



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Theories of Representationy Three theories:

y Reflective orMimetic; Lies in the object, person, idea, orevent in the real world and language functions as amirror to the real world.

y Intentional Approach; It is the speaker, the author, who

imposes his or her unique meaning on the worldthrough language. Words mean what the author meansto say.

y Constructionist Approach; Recognises the public, social

character of language. It acknowledges that neitherthings in themselves nor the individual users oflanguage can fix meaning in language. i.e. things dontmean we construct meaning.



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Saussure(father of modern linguistics)

y Production of meaning depends on languagey Sounds, images written words, paintings ,

photographs etc... function as signs within languageonly when they serve to communicate ideas....(TO)

communicate ideas they must be a part of a system ofconventions

yAnalysed signs into two further elements.

y Signifier and signified



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y Signifier- is the word or image

y Signified corresponding image which it correlates to

y The relationship between them is fixed because of ourcultural and linguistic codes sustainingrepresentation

y Sign = Signifier + Signified

y Signs are in relation to something e.g. Red is whatgreen is not or father

yLanguage is fundamental to production of meaning

y Simplest way of differences is binary opposition, i.e.Black/white



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y Binaries are simple ways of establishing meanings.

y There are many differences between black/ white

y It is the difference between the signifiers which signify

y But meaning is not constant, words shift their meanings

y Concepts also undergo a historical change. Eg. Black

y If the above holds true, then there is no single,unchanging true universal meaning.

y The sign is subject to history and combination at theparticular moment of a given signifier and signified.

y Therefore, representation to the constant play orslippage of meaning, to the constant production of newmeanings new interpretation.



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y Taking on meaning involves active process ofinterpretation

y

Meaning has to be actively read or interpreted.y The meanings we take as viewers, readers or audiences

is never exactly the meaning which has been given bythe speaker or writer.

y To order to stay something meaningful we have to enterlanguage.

y Doing this we use stored information from previousyears, we can never cleanse language complete

yA constant sliding of meaning in all interpretation amargin.

y The reader is as important as the writer in theproduction of meaning is given and taken.



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Social part of languagey Langue the language systemy Parole is actual speech or writing the speech acts

which are made possible by the language (Culler)

y Studying of underlying codes and rules as the social part

of language is called structuralist.y Parole, the second part of language(utterance) was

always seen as the surface of language.

y It therefore lacked structural properties.



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y Language is social phenomenon

y It cannot be individual matter because we cannot

make up the rules of language individuallyy Studied linguistic is a narrow sense



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From Language to culture: Semiotics

The study of signs, culture and of culture as a sort oflanguage is termed as Semiotics

One of the broadest definitions is that of Umberto

Eco, who states that 'semiotics is concerned witheverything that can be taken as a sign' (Eco 1976).

Semiotics involves the study not only of what we referto as 'signs' in everyday speech, but of anything which'stands for' something else.

In a semiotic sense, signs take the form of words,images, sounds, gestures and objects.



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For the linguist Saussure, 'semiology' was 'a sciencewhich studies the role of signs as part of social life', for

the philosopher Charles Peirce 'semiotic' was the'formal doctrine of signs' which was closely related toLogic (Peirce 1931-58).

For him, 'a sign... is something which stands to

somebody for something in some respect or capacity'(Peirce 1931-58, 2.228). He declared that 'everythought is a sign' (Peirce 1931-58)



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y Since all cultural objects convey meaning and allcultural practices depend on meaning, they mustmake use of signs and in so far as they do, they must

work like language works, and be amenable to ananalysis which basically makes use of Saussures

linguistic concepts.

y Therefore, we have Barthes in Mythologies studyingthe world of wrestling and soaps and detergents.

y He bought this approach to popular culture , treatingthese activities and objects as signs as a languagethrough which meaning is communicated.



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yAll images are texts to be read, to be interpreted.

y E.g. Mahabharat serial as signifiers and the code of the

television soap opera as a genre, to discover how eachimage on the screen made use of these rules to saysomething, which the viewer could read or interpret.

y E.g. Clothes are a good signifiers



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y Guernica byPicasso, depictedthe Nazi Germanbombing ofGuernica, Spain,by twenty-fourbombers, on April

26, 1937during theSpanish Civil War,in which a numberof people variouslyestimated

between 250 and1,600 were killedand many morewere injured.


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y Denotation is simple, basic, descriptive level where

consensus is wide. E.g She is wearing jeansy Connotations these signifiers we have been able to

decode at a simple level by using our conventionalconceptual classifications of dress to read their

meanings, enter a wider, second kind of code - thelanguage of fashion which connects them to broaderthemes and meanings, linking them with what, we maycall the wider semantic fields of our culture: ideas of

elegance, formality, casualness and romance.y The second, wider meaning is no longer a descriptive

level of obvious interpretation.
