IndexSemiotic analysis is a way of looking at the world around us in a structured, scientific way, so that we realise that the signs and symbols we encounter have a culturally determined basis, rather than occurring naturally through mere coincidence. The concept of semiotics as a specific tool allowing us to do this emerged only at the beginning of this century, thanks to the work of the Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Sanders Pierce, an American philosopher, although many other cultural theorists have also contributed to modern understanding of semiotics. Semiotics allows us to study the technical systems of communication using non-linguistic signals; to study social communications and can also be used to study signs in the arts and in literature. For this purpose, there is a specific terminology, five key terms from which will be defined within this essay - sign, signifier, signified, denotation and connotation; along with references to texts where these terms have been encountered and examples, to show an understanding of the basic principles of semiotic analysis.
Signs are the basic tools of semiotics. It has been said by C.S.Pierce, that...
"A sign...is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect..." 1
It is possible to say that anything can be considered to be a sign, an obvious example being a road sign. When someone encounters a road sign, their reaction to it is usually unconscious. The person will usually do as the road sign asks, for example, restrict speed to within 30 miles per hour, without wondering whether they have understood it clearly. Semiotics demonstrates that although we carry out the action without relating it to the sign, in fact the sign is culturally determined i.e. one has to learn how to respond to the stimulus. Following the Saussurian explanation of this phenomenon, we know that a sign has two parts: the signifier, which in this case would be the actual road sign; and the signified, the concept of maintaining a speed limit of 30 miles per hour. A sign does not convey any meaning by itself: the meaning is determined by those who use the sign system. The sign only has meaning because of its difference from other signs, so one has to be aware of this to understand any one sign.
So, the signifier is the entity which first catches our attention. If one imagines a sign to be a coin, then the signifier is the objective, cognitive side of the coin: the logical aspect of the sign. The signifier is the physical part of the sign, or the spoken word, or the shape written on paper. A signifier can take any form.
"The fact that the relation between signifier and signified is arbitrary means, then, that since there are no fixed universal concepts or fixed universal signifiers, the signifier itself is arbitrary, and so is the signified." 2
Furthermore, it takes no special skill in order to be aware of a sign, either to see the notice or to hear the word: this is the passive part of the process. The only rule which must be obeyed in relation to a signified is that everyone within the group using the specific sign system recognises the same signifier as referring to a certain concept. An interesting example of a signifier not meaning anything to someone comes from J.M Barrie's 'Peter Pan':
"'I'll give you a kiss for that if you like,' she said. 'All right,' he said, 'thanks' - and held out his hand for it. Wendy stared at such ignorance. 'Don't you really know what a kiss is?' she asked. 'I shall when you give me it,' he replied. She was not sure what to do, but not wishing to hurt his feelings, she felt in her pocket for something to give, and found her thimble. 'There,' she said and dropped it into his hand. 'Oh, that's a kiss, is it?' he responded cheer- fully. 'Now, would you like me to give you one?' 'If you please,' Wendy replied demurely. expecting it to be a real kiss, in spite of what had just happened, but he pulled a button off his tunic and gave her that. She saw it was a small acorn. 'Thank you very much,' she said. 'I'll wear it on a chain round my neck.'" 3
It can be seen from the example that Peter Pan obviously does not know what a kiss is, and the Concise Oxford Dictionary definition of a kiss is 'a touch with the lips, especially as a sign of love, affection, greeting or reverence', but Peter is perfectly happy to accept Wendy's explanation of it. The word 'kiss' is a signifier, and because Wendy offers no explanation of the real concept of a kiss, but effectively offers a new one, she is showing the arbitrariness of both the signifier and the signified.
To illustrate the other side of the coin, one must consider the term 'signified'. The signified is the referent...the concept being referred to by the signifier. As Pierre Guiraud said:
"A sign is always marked by an intention of communicating something meaningful" 4
and the signified is the active part of the sign from which the meaningful concept is derived. To refer back to the example of Peter Pan, the concept of a kiss, as Wendy understands it, is the same concept we as English speakers would understand it - that of 'a touch with the lips...'. We can relate the dictionary definition to our own experience. The signified is significant to us because we have kissed and have been kissed. Various leading characters in the semiotic field have been able to push the notion of the signified further, such as: Roland Barthes with his 'denotative signified' and 'connotative signified', which build another level onto the level discussed here and Jacques Derrida's 'central transcendental signified', which explains that each signified gains meaning from its place in a bigger system, but these are beyond the scope of this essay, which only aims to show a basic understanding of the terms.
Denotation can be described in the simplest way as what the sign is actually showing us. What does one actually see (or hear etc.) when they observe a sign? Imagine the recent advertisements for the Irish beer 'Kilkenny' (see appendix): what the advertisement shows is a picture of a man pursing his lips to take a drink from a pint of beer and a legend, which says 'You never forget your first kiss'. The main title on the advert is 'Kiss the Kilkenny'. From looking at this advertisement the first thing we have is the denotation, which is exactly what has just been described - the image of the man taking a drink and the words appearing around it. The denotation catches our attention and leads us to examine the sign and derive some message from it - connotation. According to Kaja Silverman, the notion of describing something as 'denotative' is generally attributed to Roland Barthes:
"...would be described by Barthes as 'denotative'. The denotative complex yields immediately to a series of connotative transactions..." 5
A popular television quiz show, 'Catchphrase', (LWT, Fridays 7 p.m.) has its underlying basis in the denotative / connotative process. The game is played by showing the contestants graphical images and asking them to describe what they see in terms of a word or phrase. Having observed the actual picture, they must then participate in a quick series of mental 'connotative transactions' in order to guess the answer, which leads us next to define the term 'connotation' before we can analyse it.
Connotation is the process by which we make associations and assumptions based on previously learned cultural perspectives in relation to the actual stimulus of the denotative level of the sign. Referring back to the last example, we note that the contestants have to participate in an active process in order to deduce the correct answer. They have to observe the denotation in each picture, sift through all the possible connotative answers in order to arrive at the correct one. A very simple example of the type of question posed is that of the word 'gum' made up of many small bubble shapes. The contestant is able to denote that the answer involves the word 'gum' and that bubbles are relevant. The obvious answer to those of us in late twentieth century western cultures is 'bubble-gum', but the concept of bubble-gum may mean nothing to other cultures. This process was formulated by the Danish linguist, Louis Hjelmslev:
"...after the analysis of the denotative semiotic is completed, the connotative semiotic must be subjected to just the same procedure..." 6
This essay has aimed to show a basic understanding of the principles of semiotic analysis through the definition of key terms, the use of references, and examples to highlight important points throughout. A very apt quotation to form the basis of the conclusion comes from Pierre Guiraud:
"Thus if semiology is to be the science of signs it encompasses all knowledge and all experience, for everything is a sign: everything is signified and everything is signifier." 7
If everything is sign, signified and signifier, then it is therefore possible to say that everything is also subject to the denotative and connotative processes: it is the instinct of human nature to examine both itself and its environment.
Bibliography
Aston, Elaine and Savona, George, Theatre as Sign System: A Semiotics of Text and Performance, Routledge, London 1991.
Culler, Jonathan, Barthes, Fontana, London, 1990.
Saussure, Fontana, London 1986, (2nd Edition).
Easthope, Anthony (Ed), A Critical and Cultural Theory Reader,
Open University Press, Buckingham 1996.
Guirard, Pierre, Semiology, Routledge, London 1988.
Rylance, Rick, Roland Barthes, Harvester Wheatsheaf, London 1994.
Silverman, Kaja, The Subject of Semiotics,
Oxford University Press, New York, 1984.
Index