Week 3 - Semiotic Revisited

Signifiers, Signifieds, and Connotations.

In this week, we are introduced to the theory of Semiotics. Basically semiotics is defined as ‘the study of sign’. We learn the how sign could be use as communicative method in the world. According to Chandler (2007) “semiotics involves the study not only what we refer to as ‘sign’ as everyday speech, but of anything which ‘stands for’ something else.”

We can see sign in our everyday life such as letter, words, sound, objects or images. It teaches us how the meaning was formed. There are two elements for the sign to be formed which are the signifier and signified.

  

The signifier is the physical form of the sign such as sound, image, written word. The signifiers consist of five senses: smell, sight, hear, touch, sound and taste. For example:

While signified is the concept that indicated from the signifiers. However, one signifiers are not determining only as one signifier but it also has many signified. Such as from the above written word of ‘Social Media’, in my mind the image of facebook was appeared but different people have different perceptions towards the meaning of it. There also another signified for social media. For instance:

      Another aspect of analysing the semiotics is the denotation and connotation. Denotation is defined as the description of the sign. For example, the image below is a golden Rolex watch with the diamond.

                                             

Connotation on the other side is the mental concept that is generated from the signifier. For instance, the images above represent the luxury, expensive, status, symbols, wealth and elegant.

References:

• Chandler, D. (2007). Semiotics: The basics (2^nd ed.). London: Routhledge Taylor & Francis Group.
•  Griffin, E. (1997). A First Look at Communication Theory. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies.
• Schirato, T., & Yell, S. (2000). Communication and culture. London, Thousand Oaks & New Delhi: SAGE Publications.