WEEK #1

Question 1

What is semiotics ?

Answer 1

Science of signs within society

Question 2

What is language ?

Answer 2

System of signs that express ideas with two components : langue and parole

Question 3

What is langue ?

Answer 3

System of language that is internalized by a given speech community

Question 4

What is parole ?

Answer 4

The individual art of speech

Question 5

What are signs ?

Answer 5

Signs are made up of signifiers and siginified. They can be words, images, sounds, gestures, objects

Question 6

What can be signifiers ?

Answer 6

Sound or image

Question 7

What can be signified ?

Answer 7

Concept or meaning

Question 8

What are Arts made up of ?

Answer 8

Arts combine visual signs and linguistic principles

Question 9

What is symbolism ?

Answer 9

A literary movement that spread to painting in the 1880’s

Question 10

What can aesthetics be ?

Answer 10

Texture, colour, light

Question 11

How is Art understood ?

Answer 11

Art is generally understood as any activity or product done by people with a communicative or aesthetic purpose.

Question 12

What is semiotics/semiology ?

Answer 12

Semiology is the science which study the role of signs as part of social life (Saussure)

Question 13

What does semiotics do ?

Answer 13

Semiotics investigates the nature of signs and the laws governing them

Question 14

According to Saussure, what is the signified ?

Answer 14

The concept it represents.

Question 15

According to Saussure, what is the signifier ?

Answer 15

The form which the sign takes.

Question 16

According to Saussure, what is the sign ?

Answer 16

The sign is the whole thing that results from the association of the signifier with the signified.

Question 17

According to Pierce, what is a sign ?

Answer 17

A sign is something which stands for something in respect or in capacity for…”

Question 18

According to Pierce, what is a sign composed of ?

Answer 18

A sign is composed of the representamen, object and interpretant.

Question 19

What is the representamen (Pierce) ?

Answer 19

It is the form which the sign takes (not necessarily material)

Question 20

What is the object (Pierce) ?

Answer 20

It is to which the sign refers

Question 21

What is the interpretant ? (Pierce)

Answer 21

It is the idea, interpretation in mind

Question 22

How many classes of signs are there ?

Answer 22

3 : symbol, icon and index

Question 23

What is a symbol ?

Answer 23

signifier does not ressemble the signified (fundamentally arbitrary or purely conventional)

Question 24

What is an icon ?

Answer 24

Signifier is perceived as resembling or imitating the signified (e.g. open : face, door)

Question 25

What is an index ?

Answer 25

Signifier is directly connected/ in relationship in some way (physically or causally) to the signified

Question 26

When did photojournalism start ?

Answer 26

1925

Question 27

When did the first photograph was taken ?

Answer 27

1826-27

Question 28

What are the basic features of codes ?

Answer 28

All codes have a paradigmatic (they are members of a category) and syntagmatic (the chaining together of the paradigmatic) dimension. All codes convey meaning. Codes depend upon agreement between their users. (EG red traffic)

Question 29

What are the two types of codes ?

Answer 29

Representational and presentational

Question 30

What is a representational code ?

Answer 30

The codes that are used to create texts; something that stands for something else independent of its encoder

Question 31

What is a presentational code ?

Answer 31

Limited to face to face communication through orientation, gestures, eye movement, proximity, facial expressions, and other examples of "body language".

Question 32

What is a myth (Barthes) ?

Answer 32

It is the dominant ideology of the time. It is when connotation/ meanings become "natural". Meaning of a myth changes with time periods.

Question 33

What is encoding/decoding ? (Stuart)

Answer 33

A message is encoded with one meaning but may be decoded as another. The reading of a text may be read (decoded) in 3 different ways : dominant, negotiated and oppositional.