ENGC44H3 Lecture Notes - Semiotics
Document Summary
We create meaning about the world around us through representation. This process of meaning-making through representation takes place through systems. You must learn the rules and conventions of the system of writing in order to write. Likewise, you must also learn the rules and conventions of visual images. A way to understand culture as if it were a language. A sign = a representation and a representation = a sign. They encode norms that have a taken for granted-ness quality. Semiotics is an intellectual tool widely used within humanities disciplines. Charles sanders peirce (pronounced purse ) (1839-1914) and ferdinand de saussure (1857-1913) The connection between signifier and signified is arbitrary; they are not in a. This idea of binary oppositions is very important because one pole in the binary is often privileged over the other. The meaning of any individual sign is derived from the system itself. We can only think within the terms of the sign system.
