Semiology or Semiotics is defined as the study of signs. These signs are not just physical road or informational signs, they can also be categorised under human interactions such as body language and gestures.
Texts can also be broken down into signs such as graphic, lexical (how words are spelt), and audible. As a society, we culturally agree on the structure of certain texts for example, we agree that a book has an introduction, a middle and a conclusion – within this text there are further signs such as specific storylines i.e. romance, horror. As a collective, we know how these stories will progress, in a romance for example, we know a girl meets a boy, they fall in love, an event happens to break them apart, they come together again and it is a happy ending.
To break this down further, written texts involve the sequence of letters and words to create a sentence, these sentences make up a paragraph, these paragraphs create chapters and these chapters create the books. This structure is used to make sense of the construction of meaning. This is also the case for other forms of texts such as images, songs, films, adverts and news reports.
Semiotics also applies to film and TV, we culturally agree to a particular arrangement of music, lighting, camera shots and tone within audio-visual texts. For example, we agree that creaky floors, fast edits and darkly lit scenes are that of a horror movie, whereas, long edits, brightly lit scenes and happy music is that of a romance or comedy movie.
There are different levels of meaning these are Denotation and Connotation. Denotation is the first, most immediate level of meaning, this is the most basic or obvious level of intelligibility. Connotation is the second level of meaning, which involves analysing a text. We are able to understand more about a text on a connotative level. Therefore, denotation can be explained as the object you see, whereas connotation is the thoughts that object provokes. For example, a rocking chair can be denoted as a chair, an object that is used for sitting. At a connotative level, someone could see a rocking chair and think of a relative who spends their time sitting on a chair, evoking memories of childhood or evoking emotions.
According to DeSaussare, signs are organised into codes in two ways – Paradigms and Syntagms. A paradigm is a vertical set of units e.g. C A T, each letter can be replaced on a vertical scale, i.e. C A T changes to C A R to change the meaning from a feline to a mechanical vehicle. A syntagm is a horizontal chain of units which are linked to create meaning e.g. I have a cat. Similar to a paradigm, syntagms can be replaced on a horizontal scale i.e. I have a cat changes to I have a dog changing possession from a feline to a canine animal.
Within semiotic theory, there are three levels of signification:
- The First Order – This is the denotative level, i.e. the simplest form in which an object, or text can be understood. e.g. A car is a vehicle.
- The Second Order – This is the connotative level i.e. the analysed form of the object e.g. The car is red, the wheels have been worn down and the car is a danger to drive.
- The Third Order – This is the cultural level, this level varies with different cultures. A societies ideologies or values contribute to how an object or text can be understood at the third level of signification. e.g. A Mercedes may signify a rich person, or to signify it further, it could signify a snob.
Rachel McDonnell CM4 
