[Media Homework]

(`v´)...Theories...Semiotics...(`v´)

Semiotics is the study of sign processes. Semioticians classify signs or sign systems in relation to the way they are transmitted. This process of carrying meaning depends on the use of codes that may be the individual sounds or letters that humans use to form words, the body movements they make to show attitude or emotion, or even something as general as the clothes they wear. Codes also represent the values of the culture, and are able to add new shades of connotation to every aspect of life. Denotation is the surface or literal meaning encoded to a signifier, and the definition most likely to appear in a dictionary. Decoding is more than simply recognising the content of the message. In semiotics, connotation arises when the denotative relationship between a signifier and its signified is inadequate to serve the needs of the community. As a signifier, i.e. it will have a form that a person can see, touch, smell, and/or hear, and as the signified, i.e. it will represent an idea or mental construct of a thing rather than the thing itself. Connotative meanings are developed by the community and do not represent the inherent qualities of the thing or concept originally signified as the meaning. If a signifier has only a single denotational meaning, the use of the sign will always be unambiguously decoded by the audience. Theorist Louis Hjelmslev (1899-1965) proposes that although the function of signification may be a single process, denotation is the first step, and connotation the second.