Reading Response: Crow & Meggs

The Meggs and Crow readings were very similar to what was mentioned. 

Saussure understood that linguistics was part of semiotics, however, it was one of his followers Roland Barthes that strove out to develop Saussure’s concept. Barthes believed that semiotics is part of all sign systems including images, sounds, gestures and objects. Barthe was the one who realized that there were two levels of identification that he was noticing, that was denotation and connotation.

Denotation is a “straightforward, referencing a physical reality of the object that is being represented.” “Connotation is arbitrary in that the meanings brought to the image are based on rules or conventions that the reader has learnt.” In being able to read a sign, we must now convention, which is “an agreement about how we should respond to a sign.” “Motivation is used to denote how much the signifier describes the signified; it looks like the thing or person it represents.” 

“Anchorage directs the beholder through a number of possible readings of an object, through what he calls a floating chain of signifiers, which causes the reader to ignore some of the signifiers and read others. The text answers the question ’What is it?’”   Relay is the result of text used in comic books, dialogue and films. “Relay text advances the reading of the images by supplying meanings that are not to be found in the images themselves.”