Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of signs and signifying practices, is largely the creation
of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and the American pragmatist
Charles Sanders Peirce. Independently, they worked to better understand how
certain structures were able to produce meaning rather than work on the
traditional matter of meaning itself.

The sign
Semiotics studies not only ”signs” in everyday speech such as traffic signs,
symbols, pictures, buildings, furniture and products. But the most common
object for semiotic analyses is a text. Text usually refers to a recorded
message, so that it is physically independent of its sender or receiver. It could
be a book, a picture, TV-program, film or a product.
The sign is the central term in semiotics. Saussure defined a sign as being
composed of:
The Signified – the concept it represents a sign
A Signifier – the form that the sign takes

A sign must have both a signifier and a signified; you cannot have a
meaningless signifier form or a meaningless signified concept. The two always
go together, they are like the two sides of a coin and Saussure introduced a
model where they are represented on each side of a line. For example a sign
on a shop door that reads OPEN signifies that the shop is open.

The Signifier is the physical form of the object, the aesthetics. This is what we
see, touch, smell and experience. The signified is the content, whatever
meaning we make out of what we meet and experience.

Saussure argued that there was no inherent or necessary relationship between

that which carries the meaning and the actual meaning which is carried. For
example, the word "car" is not actually a car the meaning of car could be
carried by any random string of letters. It just so happens that, in English, that
meaning is carried by the letter c-a-r.

Peirce's ideas about semiotics distinguished between three types of signs: icon,
index and symbol. Whether a sign belongs in one category or another is
dependent upon the nature
of its relationship between the sign itself and the actual mening. An icon is a
meaning which is based upon similarity or appearance.
According to Pierce, icons are "the only means of directly communicating an
idea." An index is a meaning based upon some cause and effect relationship.
Because the indexical sign is understood to be connected to the real object, it
is capable of making that object conceptually present.

Denotation and Connotation

Denotation and Connotation are two basic concepts in semiotics that are very
useful. Denotation refers to the literal, actual meaning of a sign. Connotation is
how you do it, the choice of words or media.Denotation and Connotation are
often described as different levels of meaning. Barthes introduces the idea of
different orders of signification. The first order of signification is that of
denotation, this is the sign consisting of signifier and signified. Connotation is
the second order of signification, which uses the denotative sign as its signifier
and attach to it an additional signified.

Mediums and messages

Signs and codes are always anchored in the material form of a medium. It
might refer to such different categories as typewriting, print, film, radio,
handwriting or different types of mass communication.In semiotic term, a
metaphor is something that explains the unknown in wellknown terms.

Icon
Icons are signs whose signifier bears a close resemblance to the thing they
refer to. According to Pierce, icons are "the only means of directly
communicating an idea."

Index
In a sense, indexes lie between icons and symbols. An index is a sign whose
signifier we have learnt to associate with a particular signified.

Iconic cigarette

Indexical bar (“You can’t do this”)

Symbolic red circle on a white background

The sign of “smoking forbidden”

This kind of pictorial sign is also referred as icon in some cases.

Studying semiotics can assist us to become more

aware of reality as a construction and of the roles
played by ourselves constructing or designing it.
It can help us understand that information or
meaning is not ’contained’ in the world, in books or
products. Meaning is not ’transmitted’ to us we
actively create it according to a complex interplay of
codes of which we are normally not aware.
A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF TWO WHİTE GOODS ADVERTISEMENTS

The analysis focus on two refrigerator advertisement by Siemens Germany and Vestel of Turkey. The specific
advertisements were found in the companies’ websites and are a convenient sample, chosen due to the fact that both
companies are wellknown in our country. We analyze the external characteristics and forms of these two
advertisements, with the aim of constructing meaning. After a general description of the two advertisements, we then
focus on specific elements such as background, color and form.

The siemens advertisement is consist of two door refrigerator, winebin, coffetable, house model on table, blanknote,
porcelain cup, candy package and the scene on the background. We are looking the perspective side to the scene, and
we fell the comfort. The room is quietly wide