CCT210H5 Study Guide - Performativity, Metrosexual, Julia Kristeva

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

Document Summary

Saussure emphasized that meaning arises from the differences between signifiers; these differences are of two kinds: syntagmatic (concerning positioning) and paradigmatic (concerning substitution). A paradigm is a set of associated signifiers or signified which are all members of some defining category, but in which each is significantly different. For example, in film and television, paradigms include ways of changing shot (such as cut, fade, dissolve and wipe. A syntagm is an orderly combination of interacting signifiers which forms a meaningful whole within a text. for example, for instance, is a syntagm of words; so too are paragraphs and chapters. These two dimensions are often presented as "axes", where the horizontal axis is the syntagmatic and the vertical axis is the paradigmatic. Whilst syntagmatic relations are possibilities of combination, paradigmatic relations are functional contrasts - they involve differentiation . the "value" of a sign is determined by both its paradigmatic and its syntagmatic relations.