CCT210H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Semiotics, Ferdinand De Saussure, Polysemy

• School: UTM
• Department: Communication, Culture and Technology
• Course: CCT210H5
• Professor: All

Document Summary

"denotation" tends to be described as the definitional, "literal", "obvious" or "commonsense" meaning of a sign. The term "connotation" is used to refer to the socio-cultural and "personal" associations (ideological, emotional etc. ) of the sign. These are typically related to the interpreter"s class, age, gender, ethnicity and so on. Signs are more "polysemic" - more open to interpretation - in their connotations than their denotations. Denotation is sometimes regarded as a digital code and connotation as an analogue code. Besides the "literal" meaning (its denotation), a particular word may have connotations: for instance, sexual connotations. Both denotation and connotation involve the use of codes. Denotation and connotation combine to produce myths ideologies of our time (ideology: the shared set of values and beliefs that exist within a given society and through which we live our lives) Signs and codes are generated by myths and in turn serve to maintain them.