Semiotics,
also known as semiology, is the study of signs and the social construction of
its’ meaning which was initiated by a linguist named Ferdinand de Saussure
(Branston & Stafford, 1996, p. 5). Griffin
(2009) defined semiotics as “the study of the social production of meaning from
sign systems; the analysis of anything that can stand for something else.”
There are
three types of sign: iconic, indexical and symbolic. Any sign we see has its’
own inseparable combination of signifier and signified. A signifier is the term
for any sign in its’ physical form as we perceive it through our senses whereas
a signified is the meaning associated with the sign (Griffin, 2009, p. 324).
“According to de Saussure, the
process of signification is accomplished by two elements of the sign. He called
the physical element (word, image, sound) the signifier and used the term signified
to refer to the mental concept invoked by a physical sign in a given
language code” (McQuail, 1994, p. 245)
Denotation as described by Barthes (1967) is
the ‘first order of signification’ as it explains the connection between the
signifier (physical aspect) and the signified (mental concept) of a sign.
Whilst connotation is the ‘second
order of signification’ as it refers to other related meaning which may be
brought up by the object signified (McQuail, 1994, p. 246)
For example:
The image
above is a sign of a man hugging a woman from behind as well as two bottles of
perfume. The denotation to this image is that a man wearing a black long
sleeves shirt is standing behind a woman wearing a black tube, circling his
left arm around the woman’s neck and his hand grasping the woman’s right arm
which the woman extended to the back of his hair. The man is staring straight
while kissing the woman’s right cheek whilst the woman is closing her eyes, parting
her red lips with her head slightly tilted upward and her left hand with a ring
on her finger touching the man’s left arm. In front of them are two squared
bottles of perfume, the dark blue bottle on the left side and the dark purple
bottle on the right side and between the bottles of perfume, at the very top is
a 10 small letter word ‘intimately’, in the middle is a 7 capital letter word
‘BECKHAM’ and at the very bottom with a darker coloured font is a 5 capital
letter word ‘NIGHT’.
The
connotation to this image is that the man and the woman want to appear looking
sophisticated, authoritative and powerful by wearing black and the black tube
the woman is wearing represents sexiness as well as femininity. Their postures
connote passion for sexual and intimate and somehow arousal as they are seen to
be sniffing each other. Since there are two different coloured bottles of
perfume, the blue coloured bottle connotes masculinity, coolness and calmness
and so it is likely made for man whereas the purple coloured bottle connotes
elegance, spirituality, mind and nerve calming and so the purple coloured
bottle is likely made for woman. The word ‘intimately’ connotes personal and
closeness whereas ‘BECKHAM’ connotes a surname of the famous English couple; a
footballer named David Beckham and his singer turns fashion designer wife
Victoria Beckham.
References:
Branston,
G. &Stafford, R. (2006). The Media Student's Book (4th ed.). New
York: Routledge.
Griffin, E. (2009). A first look at communication theory. (7th ed). New
York: The McGraw-Hill Companies.
McQuail,
D. (1994). Mass Communication Theory: An Introduction. Great Britain: The Cromwell Press Ltd.
