semiotics lecture 1
DESCRIPTION
Lecture 1 of Social Semiotics for Media Psychology. Dr. Matthew GiobbiTRANSCRIPT
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.