Signs + Semiotics
Saussure says a sign is made up of two parts
What are the signifier and signified?
This term refers to any set of signs that can be read for meaning—images, film, ads, etc.
What is a text?
This Althusser term describes how ads “hail” us, turning individuals into subjects.
What is interpellation?
This level of meaning tells “what is literally there.”
What is denotation?
The practical usefulness of a commodity (like a shirt keeping someone warm).
What is use value
This part of the sign is the concept we associate with a sound-image
What is the signified
A shared system of rules that lets people interpret or combine signs.
What is a code?
Williamson says this is the imaginary person an ad creates and speaks to.
What is the spectator/subject?
A Marlboro ad showing a cowboy doesn’t just show a cowboy, it implies ruggedness and freedom. This is:
What is connotation?
The monetary worth of a commodity in the market.
What is exchange value?
In semiotics, this term refers to the basic unit of meaning.
What is a sign?
This stance assumes that texts determine how we decode them.
What is textual determinism?
Chanel No. 5 uses Catherine Deneuve’s face to borrow her meaning. This process is called what?
What is the transfer or translation of meaning between sign systems?
Lighting, framing, and editing create this type of connoted message in photography.
What is photogenia?
Marx’s idea that commodities appear as magical objects instead of products of labour.
What is commodity fetishism?
Barthes says photographs always contain these two simultaneous messages.
What are denotation and connotation?
These frameworks shape how groups interpret the world—examples include feminism, nationalism, and consumerism.
What are ideological codes?
This feature of ads makes us feel like we’re unique, but actually places us in a totemic group of consumers.
What is individualized interpellation (“you are special” messaging)?
Since every sign supposes a code, this is known as...
What is Code of Connotation?
Making sense of texts and the world from the shared perspective of a particular epistemic or interpretive community.
What is Interpretive Frameworks
This principle from Saussure argues that language has no positive terms (only differences between signs create meaning, not the signs themselves).
What is “meaning through difference”
Barthes says a newspaper photo plus its caption creates this combined meaning system.
What is the photographic message (denoted + connoted meaning)?
Judith Williamson uses this term to describe how ads create an imaginary “ideal viewer,” a constructed figure that you mentally step into so the ad feels personally addressed to you.
What is the spectator (or constructed spectator)?
According to Barthes, headlines do this to photos—adding a “parasitic” layer of meaning.
What is load or adding the image with connotation?
The process by which ads make commodities seem to represent identity, belonging, and personality.
What is ideological interpellation through advertising?