Semiotics and Television Criticism

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Semiotics and Television Criticism

• Nick Burnett
• ComS 169
• Feb. 8, 2006

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Some Historical Notes

• 1900, Ferdinand de Saussure, Swiss linguist,
  noted that all languages are perfect systems, no
  one is better
• The word tree the word baum arbre,
  rightness depends on your language
• A split exists between the word, the actual
  objectit is important to understand that they
  are not the same

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More historical notes

• At about the same time, CS Pierce, (pronounced
  purse) American, argues for a three part
  splitword, object, and our mental image called
  to mind by the word
• Sausseremeanings are arbitrary
• Would a rose smell as sweet? Sure!
• Semiotics is the study of how connections are
  made, what changes them, and why that is important

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Syntagms and Paradigms

• Syntagms defined as a coherent sequence of signs
• A sentence (Jack jumped over the candlestick.)
• Whole story lines as in sit coms
• Paradigmatic analysis looks at sets of signs and
  how they come to stand for something else

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Applying Semiotics to Televisual Texts

• In class analysis of an infomercial
• Can you identify the important signs?
• How does the sequencing of signs come to bring
  meaning?
• Are there collections of signs that, taken
  together, mean something other than what we might
  at first believe them to be?