CMNS 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Connotation, Social Forces, Syntagmatic Analysis

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Communication
• Course: CMNS 110
• Professor: Gary Mc Carron

Document Summary

Semiotics is frequently used to unravel the way that words meanings are subject to change. But it is particularly important that such transformations in meaning usually come about in response to the power of overarching cultural, religious, moral, political, or social forces. The most common and persistent criticism of semiotics is the argument that its results are subjective, and that they lack the objectivity that makes for good, scientific research. Semiotics: the study of the social production of meaning from sign systems. The idea that meaning is a social product suggests that meaning is a phenomenon that exists not solely in texts, not solely in the author"s/maker"s intentions, and not solely in the interpretive acts performed by the reader/viewer: Meaning exists (or is produced) in the interaction of all of these agents and agencies. Meaning is a dynamic practice, not a static thing-like entity. Meanings are unstable, liable to change over time.