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211MKT Buyer Behaviour
Barry Emery
Week 3: Semiotics
Karolos Papadas
This week’s objectives
• To explore communication as generation,
negotiation and exchange of meaning
• To understand the concept of the sign,
paradigm and syntagm
• To understand the use of semiotics in
marketing communications
• To review the contributions of Saussure and
Peirce to understanding semiotics
Communication, meaning and signs
Linear / process
• Message
transmission
• Steps and stages
• Message
direction
• Receiver
(passive)
A linear process of communication?
Source /
Sender
Channel
Encoding
MESSAGE
Decoding
Noise
Response Feedback Loop
Receiver /
Audience
Communication, meaning and signs
Meaning generation
Linear / process
• What makes marks on
• Message
paper and sounds in the
transmission
• Steps and stages air a message?
• Messages
have
• Message
significance as a result of
direction
the relationships between
• Receiver
the elements involved
(passive)
• Reader of messages
(active)
Semiotics
The study of signs
‘The study of the social production of
meaning from sign systems’
O’Sullivan et al (1994)
‘a science that studies the life of signs
within society’
Ferdinand de Saussure (1916)
Sign
‘an all-inclusive notion that comprises words,
visualisations, tactile objects, olfactory
sensations and anything else that is
perceived by the senses and has the
potential to communicate meaning…’
Shimp (2008)
Sign
Has 3 essential characteristics:
• Physical form
• Refer to something other than itself
• Recognised and used as a sign - that is, it is an
element in a shared cultural code or system
Sign
A present for my wife…
•
•
•
•
•
Cabbage
Cactus
Rose
White rose – surrender?
Red rose – passion?
Saussure (1916) sees a constant dynamic interaction
between the two elements of the sign
S
I
G
N
SIGNIFIER
SIGNIFIED
See Cobley and Jansz (1997)
Sign
Saussure (1916)
Sign has two constituent elements:
Red rose - a flower = the signifier: its physical form
as perceived by our senses - denotative meaning objective
Red rose - passionate love = the signified: the
mental concept referred to by the sign - connotative
meaning - subjective
Using signs…
The same sign can mean different things to
different people at different times, in different
contexts
Red rose
Partido Socialista Obrero Español
A traditional gift given to women in Cataluña on
23rd April – El dia de San Jordi
Semiotics: 3 areas of study
• The sign
• The codes and systems into which signs are
organised. Codes involve ‘choice and chain’ –
‘paradigm and syntagm’
• The culture within which signs and codes
operate. Meaning is dependent on shared
structures of understanding, shared cultural
codes.
Peirce
Sign
(Connotative
meaning)
Interpretant
Object
(Denotative meaning)
See Jappy (2016)
Peirce
• Double
ended
arrows
emphasise that each term is
understood in relation to the
others
Sign
• Interpretant = the effect of the
sign in the mind of the reader
• The interpretation of the
object (as a sign) is
dependent on and derives
from
the
receiver’s
experience of that sign
Interpretant
Object
Paradigm
Paradigm – a set of signs from which a
particular sign is chosen. A paradigm is a set
of signs that are interchangeable within a given
context.
The choice made from a particular set will be
highly significant.
Semiotics: 3 areas of study
Paradigmatic analysis – what signs have been chosen at
the expense of others?
•
•
•
•
•
Soldier
Guerrilla
Spy
Terrorist
Freedom fighter
Meaning is partly determined and understood in relation
to other signs in the same code/system and determined
by what it is not.
Paradigms:
Units in a paradigm must have something in
common … must share characteristics that
determine their membership of that paradigm
What signs have been chosen at the expense
of others?
(Paradigmatic analysis –
distinguished from others)
meaning
is
Syntagm
Syntagm – a ‘chain’ of signs which are
combined or organised in a meaningful order
from a paradigmatic set of choices.
A sentence – a syntagm of words (signs)
A melody – a syntagm of notes (signs)
Syntagms
Menus are paradigmatic lists
• Starter
• Main course
• Dessert
• Diners choose individual dishes to produce
their meal – the syntagm
• The combination of chosen signs which
produce a syntagm is rule-governed
(so no one chooses chocolate cake followed
by roast lamb rounded off with herring pate)
Culture
• Meaning is dependent on shared structures
of understanding, shared cultural codes.
‘Semiotics gave the reader something to do’
Hartley (2002)
The reader plays an active role in the
meaning-making process
References
Cobley, P and Jansz, L. (1997) Semiotics for Beginners London: Totem
Books.
Hartley, J. (2002) Communication, Cultural and Media Studies: The Key
Concepts, London: Routledge.
Jappy, T (2016) Peirces Twenty-Eight Classes of Signs and the Philosophy
of Representation (Bloomsbury Advances in Semiotics) London:
Bloomsbury.
O’Sullivan, T. et al. (1994) Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural
Studies (Studies in Culture and Communication) London: Routledge.
Shimp, T. A. (2008) Advertising Promotion, and Other Aspects of Integrated
Marketing Communications New York: South-Western.