1 / 5

Semiotics and Television Criticism

Semiotics and Television Criticism. Nick Burnett ComS 169 Feb. 8, 2006. Some Historical Notes. 1900, Ferdinand de Saussure, Swiss linguist, noted that all languages are perfect systems, no one is better The word “tree” = the word “baum” = “arbre”, rightness depends on your language

jfrancisco
Download Presentation

Semiotics and Television Criticism

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Semiotics and Television Criticism Nick Burnett ComS 169 Feb. 8, 2006

  2. Some Historical Notes • 1900, Ferdinand de Saussure, Swiss linguist, noted that all languages are perfect systems, no one is better • The word “tree” = the word “baum” = “arbre”, rightness depends on your language • A split exists between the word, the actual object…it is important to understand that they are not the same

  3. More historical notes • At about the same time, CS Pierce, (pronounced “purse”) American, argues for a three part split…word, object, and our mental image called to mind by the word • Saussere…meanings are arbitrary • Would a rose smell as sweet? Sure! • Semiotics is the study of how connections are made, what changes them, and why that is important

  4. Syntagms and Paradigms • Syntagms defined as a coherent sequence of signs • A sentence (Jack jumped over the candlestick.) • Whole story lines as in sit coms • Paradigmatic analysis looks at sets of signs and how they come to stand for something else

  5. Applying Semiotics to Televisual Texts • In class analysis of an infomercial • Can you identify the important signs? • How does the sequencing of signs come to bring meaning? • Are there collections of signs that, taken together, mean something other than what we might at first believe them to be?

More Related