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Intro to Communication
Dr. P.M.G. Verstraete
WEEK 7
Signification:
Codes & Conventions
Processing & Signification
(Semiosis)
Signification
Recap:
signifier & signified
degrees of convention
(Guiraud & Barthes)
entropy/redundancy
(Shannon & Weaver)
Signification
Signification
Signification
Denotation vs.
Connotation
P. Guiraud & R.Barthes
To study the relationship between signifier and signified:
• Arbitrary: determined by convention, rule, agreement
the more arbitrary = the more unmotivated
• Iconic: the form of the signifier is constrained by the signified
the more motivated, the more its signifier is constrained by the signified
Shannon and Weaver’s model
A few weeks earlier…
 Redundancy
= that which is predictable or
conventional in a message (technical/social:
overcoming communication problems)
 Entropy
= the opposite of redundancy, a
maximum unpredictability (constituting
communication problems)
 Convention
= source of redundancy, and thus of
easy decoding (structure, pattern = predictable)
Shannon and Weaver’s model
Redundancy/Entropy
On a technical level:
accuracy of any message checked against the
probable;

what is probable is determined by our experience of the
code, context, and type of message = by our experience
of convention
On a social level:
phatic communication

= acts of communication that contain nothing new, no
information, but that use existing channels simply to keep
them open and usable
Signification
meaning making = identification of significant
differences, units (cf. categorizing our reality)
+ seeing the relationship between these units =
creating paradigms & syntagms
Signification
Culturalspecific
Our perception and understanding of reality is as
specific to our culture as our language is.
It is in this sense that
we talk of reality as a
social construct.
Signification: Codes
Today’s Class
- Codes and Conventions
- Aberrant Decoding
- Pairs of Codes:
Analogue/Digital
Presentational/Representational; Non-Verbal
Communication
Elaborated/Restricted
Broadcast/Narrowcast
Arbitrary / Conventional; Aesthetic codes
Signification: Codes
Codes and Conventions
Signification: Codes
Codes = systems into which signs are
organized, governed by rules (= convention!)
which are consented to by all members of
the community using that code (= social
dimension!)
 codes
of behavior
 signifying codes: systems of signs

All codes rely on
commonality, that is
an agreement
amongst their users
on their basics

Forms of agreement:
convention & use,
explicit agreement,
clues within the text
Convention:
 raises expectations
 relies on redundancy
(easy decoding)
 creates cultural
membership
 relies on similarity of
experience
 is reassuring
Dressing = encoding a message
Signification: Codes
 We
select a unit from each paradigm and
combine it with others to make a statement.
This statement uses a presentational, indexical
code and conveys a meaning about:
(1)
(2)
(3)
us as the wearer of the clothes,
our perception of our relationships with the
people we expect to meet,
our status or role within the social situations
we shall come across during the day.
Signification: Codes
‘aberrant meaning’
= different meaning
 when
different codes are used in the
encoding and decoding of the message
 For example: if the message is read by a
member of a different culture who brings
different codes to it
= beyond the encoder’s intention
(‘inferred intention’)
Signification: Codes
Different Pairs of Codes
1. Analogue vs.
Digital
Analogue vs Digital Codes
A
digital code is one whose units (both
signifiers and signifieds) are clearly
separated
 an analogue code is one that works on a
continuous scale.
Analogue vs Digital Codes
Analogue vs Digital Codes
 The
search for meaning, however, involves
the identification of significant differences
and thus the imposition of digital features
upon an analogical reality (‘nature’).
2. Presentational vs.
Representational Codes
Presentational vs Representational
Codes
 Representational
codes are used to produce
texts, that is messages with an independent
existence.
A text stands for something apart from itself and its
encoder.
A text is composed of iconic or symbolic signs.
 Presentational
codes are indexical: they
cannot stand for something apart from
themselves and their encoder.
For example: non-verbal communication
Presentational vs Representational
Codes
Non-verbal Communication
(NVC)
= carried on through presentational codes
such as gestures, eye movements, or
qualities of voice. These codes can give
messages only about the here and now.
limited to face-to-face communication or
communication when the communicator is
present.
Presentational vs Representational
Codes
Functions:
- Indexical information: about the speaker and his or her situation
- Interaction management: manage the sort of relationship the
encoder wants with the other
Functions of the body:










bodily contact
proximity / proxemics
orientation
appearance (level of
control)
head nods (interaction
management)
facial expression
(mimics)
gestures (kinesics)
posture
eye movement /
contact
non-verbal aspects of
speech (prosodic &
paralinguistic codes)
Presentational vs Representational
Codes
Presentational vs Representational
Codes
3. Elaborated vs.
Restricted Codes
Elaborated vs Restricted
Codes
Basil Bernstein:
What actually determines the code used
is the type of social relations that exist.
A
tight, closed, traditional community tends
to use restricted codes.
 A more fluid, changing, mobile, impersonal
type of social relations typical of the modern
middle class tends to produce elaborated
codes.
Be careful with judgment!
Elaborated vs Restricted
Codes
NO! I don't care if you're educated! I don't care if
you're using elaborate codes or restricted codes of
languages! You're still grounded!

Restricted Codes
Elaborated vs Restricted
Codes
= simpler, less complex
= oral, closer to representational, indexical, non-verbal
= redundant, predictable, phatic
= oriented towards social relations (restricting individuality),
shared, local cultural identity
= interacting with non-verbal code (NVC)
= expressing concrete, specific, here and now
= depending cultural experience

Elaborated Codes
= complex
= written or spoken, representational, symbolic
= entropic, harder to predict, referential
= towards the individual as a person, precise/personally unique
meaning
= downplaying NVC
= expressing abstractions, generalities, the absent
= depending on formal education, training (to be learned)
4. Broadcast vs.
Narrowcast Codes
Broadcast vs Narrowcast
Codes
A little difference…
 Elaborated/Restricted
Codes = defined by
the nature of the code itself and by the
type of social relationship it serves.
 Broadcast/Narrowcast
Codes = defined by
the nature of the audience.
Broadcast vs Narrowcast
Codes
Broadcast Codes
= shared by members of a mass audience
(a degree of heterogeneity)
Like restricted codes: immediate appeal, not much
education needed, community-oriented

The broadcast codes are the means by which a
culture communicates with itself.
Stuart Hall (1973):
“The television audience is both source and receiver
of the message.”

Broadcast vs Narrowcast
Codes
“The television audience is both source and receiver of the message.”
• In content: If a broadcast is to
receive the mass reception it needs,
it must deal with matters of general
concern.
• In form: The audience has certain
expectations, based on a cultural
experience shared with the
broadcasters.
• Broadcasting is an institutional
activity: the priorities within each
institution are the product of their
staff and their society, and all of
these add up to influence the type
of broadcasting
Broadcast vs Narrowcast
Codes
Like the bard (Hall: ‘bardic’ television)
by broadcast codes in a mass society
and by restricted codes in a subculture or a local community
Audience members negotiate their response with
reference to their own particular circumstances,
and by so doing situate themselves in their culture.
Broadcast vs Narrowcast
Codes
Narrowcast Codes
= aimed at a specific, defined, limited audience,
often defined by the codes that it uses
(one has to learn the codes involved)
= individualist, person-orientated, not communal,
status-orientated; elitist, socially divisive (specialist
jargon, highbrow art); stressing a difference
between ‘us’ and ‘them’, between
communicator and audience
Note: different from restricted codes!
but
they do not rely on a shared communal experience,
on a common educational or intellectual experience
5. Arbitrary (or Logical) vs.
Conventional Codes
Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
Arbitrary Code
= simply defined, and easily understood;
where the agreement among the users is
explicit and defined; with a stated and
agreed relationship between signifiers and
signifieds
= symbolic, denotative, impersonal, and
static
Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes

Arbitrary codes have a defined, limited paradigm of
signifiers with a precisely related paradigm of signifieds.
They emphasize denotative meaning.
Arbitrary codes are static and can only change by explicit
agreement amongst the users.
= closed: meaning within the text, not much negotiation,
you need to know the code
Example: mathematics, 4x7=28

Conventional codes have open-ended paradigms: new
units can be added; existing ones can drop out of use.
Conventional codes tend not to have an agreed paradigm of
signifieds. They are thus more dynamic and capable of change.
= open: active negotiation from the reader
Example: Folk art, car design, low-brow art, cliché
Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
Aesthetic Codes
(= conventional)
= more varied, loosely
defined, change rapidly
 aberrant decodings are
the norm
 They are expressive;
they encompass the
interior, subjective
world.
 They can be a source of
pleasure and meaning
in themselves: style is a
relevant concept
Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
A. Warhol
unique in a
culture of mass
production
Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
Unique?
Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
Unique?
Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
S. Dali
clues or hints towards its own decoding
Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
Conventionalisation
Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
Kitsch?
R. Magritte
Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
R. Magritte
Degradation? Cliché?
Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
Arbitrary vs Conventional
Codes
Non-verbal, visual language of advertisement…
Signification: Codes
Codes and Conventions
constitute the shared centre of any culture’s
experience. They enable us to understand our
social existence and to locate ourselves within
our culture. Only through the common codes
can we feel and express our membership of
our culture.