Intro

Question 1

how does the media construct our reality for us

Answer 1

uses certain language

Question 2

why do we need semiotics

Answer 2

useful as it can help us make a sense of visual and media contexts

• advertising
• news and current affairs
• fashion
• music
• politics
• celebrities

Question 3

what is the difference between semiotics and discourse

Answer 3

• semiotics teaches us the way to identify signs and to deconstruct codes to reveal meaning in the deeper structure of text
• discourse examines the power relations at work in seemingly innocent media texts and enables us to identify the ideology at work.

Question 4

what is semiotics

Answer 4

the general science of signs: the production of meaning

Question 5

what is semiosis

Answer 5

the study of the human activity and the production and interpretation of signs by human beings

Question 6

what is semiotics closely tied to

Answer 6

linguistics: the study of language as a formal system: semantics (how words have meaning) and syntax (grammar): how units of meaning arranged in the bigger structures (Eg a sentence)

Question 7

what does semiotics include

Answer 7

verbal language as well as other patterned human communication (e.g. images, clothes, cultural artefacts.

Question 8

what can texts be

Answer 8

anything that conveys meaning

Question 9

what is a sign

Answer 9

any word, symbol, visual imagine, bodily movement, gesture, facial expression which can be used to indicate and convey thoughts, information, ideas, commands etc.

Question 10

give example of a literal sign

Answer 10

shop sign indicating ‘open’

Question 11

give example of a word sign

Answer 11

some words may refer to things eg ‘tree’, ‘river’; ideas - ‘justice’, ‘fairness’.

Question 12

give example of a visual sign

Answer 12

persons, bodies, shapes, colours

Question 13

give example of bodily sign

Answer 13

gestures, facial expressions: smiles, tears, handshakes, bows

Question 14

what are the pan-cultural basic emotions

Answer 14

1. anger
2. fear
3. happiness

Question 15

definition of signs

Answer 15

union of something which signifies, the signifier and n idea/thing which it signifies the signified

Question 16

when thinking about the sign

Answer 16

the signifier and the signified do not separate. word and concept are inseparable

Question 17

what is the signified

Answer 17

mental concept of something - concept

Question 18

what is the signifier

Answer 18

ability to communicate - sound image

Question 19

how do signs get their meaning

Answer 19

must look at linguistic theory. two main linguistic traditions

• saussure
• pierce

Question 20

what did saussure propose

Answer 20

that general science of signs, ‘semiology’ of which linguistics was to be one special branch.

Question 21

what are the two different ways of looking at language

Answer 21

1. how it is used (in practice - sociolinguistics) eg. regional variations
2. how it has developed (history)

Question 22

when is a system of language shaped by a community

Answer 22

in structuralism

Question 23

saussures theory of language

Answer 23

langue and parole

Question 24

what is langue

Answer 24

langue is the system of language, the system of forms an individual assimilates where he/she learns a language.
-langue is the structure used to create meaning

Question 25

what is parole

Answer 25

parole is the actual speech acts made possible by the structure of language (micro structure) how it is used by individuals. -parole is language practice

Question 26

what is the point of saussures division of language into langue and parole

Answer 26

we are separating what is social from what is individual and what is essential from what is ancillary or accidental (saussure) creates meaning by distinguishing one sign from another

Question 27

what is the relationship between the signifier and the signified dependent on

Answer 27

facts related to the linguistic system, not facts about reality itself

Question 28

what are the five basic principles of semiotics

Answer 28

1. we make meaning through our shared use of signs, including language as a sign system. 2. what signs mean is not inevitable. it is based on socio-political and cultural agreement and conventions 3. meaning cannot be divorced from (social/cultural) context. 4. meaning is relational. we make sense of signs in relation to other signs (difference) 5. we engage in the processes of meaning making and decoding meaning largely subconsciously.