Signifier and Signified

1. Signifier and Signified
By Louise Douse &Tasneem Ramadan
Week
5
Analysing
Performance

2. Quick Task
You have 15 seconds to
describe this…
Week 5
Analysing Performance

3. …conclusions
What do we notice or
understand from that
experiment?
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Analysing Performance

4. Semiotics
 Looks at the relationship between culture and communication – concerned with
meaning.
 Looks at the position of the spectator – in particular; cultural context of relationship
between spectator and performer
 How can you interpret the meaning from performance?
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Analysing Performance
Work
Choreographer/
Playwright
Audience/
Spectator

5. Ferdinand de Saussure
 Swiss Linguist 1875-1913
 Father of Structuralism
 Key work: Course in General Linguistics (Cours de linguistique
générale)
 Takes a synchronic rather than diachronic approach to the study
of language
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Analysing Performance

6. Synchronic and Diachronic
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Analysing Performance
Present
2010
2000
1990
1980
1970
Diachronic
Synchronic

7. Langue and Parole
What is ‘Structuralist’ about this?
 Langue and parole translate directly as ‘language and speech’
Langue
 La langue is the whole system of language that precedes and
makes speech possible.A sign is the most basic unit of langue;
the system of grammar, syntax and punctuation.
Parole
 Parole is the concrete use of the language, the actual utterances
– it is an external manifestation of langue. It is the usage of the
system, but not the system
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Analysing Performance

8. The Sign
 Ferdinand de Saussure wanted to break down meaning
 It is not the meaning itself, it is the method by which we
communicate meaning
 How language means, rather than what language means.
 The smallest unit of meaning is the sign
 The sign refers us to a particular object or idea of an object
Week 5
Analysing Performance
Receiver
Sign Object

9. The Sign
 The sign and the object are culturally agreed.
 The sign has two aspects:
 The signifier – this is a sensory perception (a spoken word has an aspect we can
hear, a written word has an aspect we can see).
 The signified – a concept or meaning associated with that sensory perception.
 A sign to be a sign, needs both aspects, something we sense and something
we think, a relationship.
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Analysing Performance

10. The Sign
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Analysing Performance

11. Week 5
Analysing Performance
CAT

12. The Sign
 Therefore the sign depends on three elements:
 An aspect of it is perceivable to our senses.
 It refers to something other than itself.
 It depends on a recognition by its users that it is a sign
 Something to be learnt – culturally agreed.
 Meaning occurs in the relationship between the ideas of a sign – there has
to be rules, order, sentence structure etc.
 Meaning is NOT inherent, essential and/or present within any part of the
sign
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Analysing Performance

13. Structuralism
Meaning is the result of relationship
and difference
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Analysing Performance

14. Meaning and relationship
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Analysing Performance
DOG
Louise is a

15. Meaning and difference
Good/Bad
Male/Female
Straight/Gay
White/Black
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Analysing Performance

16. Charles Peirce
 Another theorist who extended on the
ideas of Saussure:
 Charles Peirce – American Philosopher (1839
– 1914)
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Analysing Performance

17. Charles Peirce
 Expanded on the definition of a sign – three different and
distinct relationships between the signifier and signified.
 ICONIC SIGN: Signifier represents or resembles the signified
 INDEXICAL SIGN: Signifier has a causal relationship to the signified
 SYMBOLIC SIGN: Signifier has a conventional/arbitrary relationship
to the signified
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Analysing Performance

18. Iconic Sign
 Signifier represents or
resembles the signified
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Analysing Performance

19. Indexical Sign
 Signifier has a causal
relationship to the
signified
 Signifier has an existential
relationship to the
signifier.The signifier
cannot exist without the
presence of the signified.
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Analysing Performance

20. Symbolic Sign
 Signifier has a
conventional/ arbitrary
relationship to the
signified
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Analysing Performance
CAT

21. So…
the type of relationship between the
signifier and signified (that constitute the sign)
 can change
 can be multiple
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Analysing Performance

22. So how do we apply this to
reading performance?
Week
5
Analysing
Performance

23. Everything on the
stage is a sign
1. Describe the signifiers.
What do you perceive
(performer, movement
sound space)
2. What is the signified
concept/meaning?
3. How do the signs produce
their meaning?What is the
relationship between the
signifier and signified?
Indexical, iconic, symbolic?
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Analysing Performance
“This dream has got me all shook up, treat me nice and tell me
what it means”