JAKOBSONS MODEL

Transmitter/ expressive function Context/referential function Message/poetic function Contact/phatic function Code/ metalinguistic function Addressee/conative function

SEMIOTICS
The study of sign and the way they operate.

It studies: - signs - codes - culture

SIGNS (SAUSSURE)
Saussure: The sign is a physical object that has a meaning It has a significant (the image of the sign) and a significate (the mental concept associated with the significant)
Saussure is interested in the relation between the two Significates are mental concepts which we use to understand reality and classify it. Sign are organised in codes in a paradigmatic and a syntagmatic way.

SIGNS (PEIRCE)
Three categories of signs 1. Icon the sign resembles somehow the object (looks or sounds the same) 2. Index there is a direct link between the sign and its object 3. Symbol no connection between the sign and the object

BARTHES
DENOTATION (the first level of meaning -the obvious meaning of the sign)

CONOTATION (the second level of meaning the interaction between the sign and the receivers feelings, emotions, cultural experience)

MYTHS
Definition: a story by means of which a culture explains or understands certain aspects of reality or nature
Myth is a way of considering an issue in a culture, a way of conceptualising and understanding a problem The myth is a chain of interconnected concepts Myths hide their origin, and therefore their social and political origins There are dominant myths and counter-myths

SYMBOLS
An object becomes a symbol when because of convention and use it acquires a significance that allows it to stand for something else.

(Eg. Rolls Royce richness)

METAPHORS
A way of expressing what is unfamiliar in familiar terms Eg. The ship ploughed the sea The plough ploughed the land
Every-day metaphors (Johnson and Lakoff) up/down, time is money

METONYMY
Associates meanings belonging to the same level/area Eg. a street stands for a town Images on the news are metonymies, they operate a highly subjective selection

AN EXAMPLE OF APPLYING SEMIOTIC METHODS

A. AGO

FAVOURED READING
- DOMINANT CODE
- SUBORDINATE CODE - RADIAL/OPPOSITIONAL CODE

The structuralist theory and its uses

Levi Strauss
The wild vs the scientific way of thinking

Binary opposition Ambivalent categories Structural repetition Borderline rituals Culture and nature

MYTH AND SOCIAL VALUES

Barthes - myth is not recognised as such, only the chain of concepts is - it has a social function

Levi Strauss - myth is recognised as such but its meanings are not negotiated - it helps us deal with anxieties common to mankind