SEMIOTICIANS
ROLAND
BARTHES
He was a French literary theorist, critic, and he was also interested in semiotics.
His semiotic theory focuses on how signs and photographs represent different cultures and ideologies in different ways.
Barths basically took Saussure's work a notch further. He talks
about various levels of meanings
Denotation
The literal meaning of the sign.
Example: Home, dwelling and residence, where a person lives at a given time.
Connotation
The suggested meaning of the sign and
the cultural conventions associated with the sign.
Example:
Home: cozy, living, comfortable.
Dwelling: primitive or basic surroundings.
Residence: cold, no feeling
FERDINAND DE
SAUSSURE
He was a Swiss linguistic who created the therm "semiotics".
Ferdinand de Saussure, describes the sign and its arbitrary
relation to reality.
He called semiology, the concept of the bilateral sign which consists of 'the signifier' and 'the signified'.
Sign is a symbol which is understood to refer to something other than itself.
Signifier
The image or sound that gives a meaning.
Example: blue colour.
Signified
The concept or meaning that the sign refers to.
Example: blue colour is often associated with sadness or the sea..
Symbol is an Object that represents, stands for or suggest an idea or visual images.
CHARLES
SANDERS
PIERCE
His semiotic theory focuses on how signs and photographs represent different cultures and ideologies in different ways.
These messages are established in two ways through: denotation and connotation.
Signs can take many forms.However, while signs can be many things, they can be categorized as one of a few types.
Icon
Resembles what it represents. Imitates the signified.
Example: a pictorial representation, a photograph, an architect´s model.
Symbol
Signifier does not resemble the signified. The connection between the signifier and the signified must be culturally learned.
Example: flags.
Index
Shows evidence for the existence it refers to. Signifier is directly connected in some way to the signified.
Example: a nest image is an icon but also an index of a bird.