AQA Terminology

SEMIOTICS – SAUSSURE

Sign – anything that communicates a meaning

Signifier – a thing, item or code that we read for example a drawing, word or photo

Signified – the idea or meaning expressed by the signifier

SIGNIFIER + SIGNIFIED = SIGN

Dominant Signifier –

Icon – icons are signs where meaning is based on similarity of appearance. A drawing of a tree stands in for the notion of ‘tree’ based on the similarity of appearance.

Index – indexical signs have a cause-and-effect relationship between the sign and the meaning of the sign.  There is a direct link between the two.  So a leaf might be an indexical sign.

Symbol –  these signs have an arbitrary or conventional link.  The word tree, t-r-e-e only comes to stand in for the notion of tree because of the conventions of our language.  In another convention, the symbolic sign for tree might be ‘arbor’ (German) or ‘木’ (Japanese)

Code – media codes generally have an agreed meaning, or connotation, to their audience. There are three types of media codes, symbolic codes, technical codes and written codes.

Symbolic Codes – what is beneath the surface of what we see. For example, a character’s actions show you how the character is feeling.

Technical Codes – all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a media text, for example the camera work in a film.

Written Codes – the formal written language used in a media product. Written codes can be used to advance a narrative, communicate information about a character or issues and themes in the media product. Written codes include printed language which is text you can see within the frame and how it is presented, and also spoken language, which includes dialogue and song lyrics.

Anchorage –  attaching meaning to something through either the matching of words to images or the juxtaposition of two images which construct a meaning.

Ideology – a world view, a system of values, attitudes and beliefs which an individual, group or society holds to be true or important; these are shared by a culture or society about how that society should function.

Dominant Ideologies – ideologies that are told to us repeatedly by important social institutions such as the church, the law, education, government, and the media

Paradigm – a paradigmatic relationship is one where an individual sign may be replaced by another. Items on a menu have paradigmatic relationship when they are in the same group (starters, main course, sweet) as a choice is made. Courses have a sequential (syntagmatic) relationship, and thus an item from the starter menu does not have a paradigmatic relationship with the sweet menu.

Syntagm – a syntagmatic relationship is one where signs occur in sequence or parallel and operate together to create meaning. For example in Score the mise en scene and outfits together create otherness and exotic appeal.