Psychoanalytic term for mental processes in which the unconscious focuses or condenses multiple latent meanings into a single manifested element. In condensation, we observe the formation of a new signifier from the merging of other signifiers, which in previous...
C
Home » Semiology Glossary » C »
Connotation
Connotation is a term meaning the associations (often emotionally charged) that accompany a word, as opposed to its denotation, its exact or strict meaning. In semiotic works, connotation means the secondary or derived meaning, while denotation means the primary or...
Consciousness
Synonymous with awareness is also the ability of an organism to respond to or at least respond to intra- or extra somatic phenomena and objects. According to Charles S. Peirce, "every time we think, we present to our consciousness some feeling, image, concept, or...
Conspicuous Consumption
In The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Thorstein Veblen draws attention to the phenomenon of consuming goods and services not as a means of satisfying needs, but as communicating status and well-being. This suggests that semiotics should be used on an equal footing...
Constative
A name given by John L. Austin to messages that are appropriate to ask whether they are true or false (for example, "the cat is on the mat"). Austin was mostly interested in performative utterances (statements that make no sense to ask whether they are true or false,...
Contact
To learn more about the term Contact, please see Channel.
Contemporary
A term often used by philosophers and historians for ideas, it differs from the modern definition. Modern means post-medieval (Middle Ages - a period covering roughly the period from 500 to 1500) and post-modern. The beginning of the modern era is debatable. It is...
Content vs. Expression
A distinction made by Louis Hjelmslev, corresponds, at least roughly, to Saussure's distinction between signifier and signified. At the heart of each sign is (according to Hjelmslev) a correlation between a plan of expression and a plan of content. These are two...
Context
The circumstances or situation in which the message was transmitted and received. Context is one of the six most important factors in any communication process. The other factors are the addresser, the addressee, the contact (channel), the code, and the message...
Contextualism
Contextualism is an emphasis on the importance and indivisibility of observing the sign process in the light of the context or contexts in which the process takes place. Of course, the context can be constructed in a broader or narrower way. For example, the immediate...
Connect
Latest posts:
General
Fetish, Fetishizing
The most common understanding of the word Fetish is related to people's sexual desires and peculiarities. This meaning we owe to nonother but Sigmund Freud. While studying human sexuality, Freud found out that there are people that can only be aroused by specific...
Sign System
Sign system is a key concept in semiotics. It is used to refer to any system of signs and relations between signs. For example, the term language is frequently used as a synonym of a sign system. But, as the term language carries certain connotations of human...
Abduction
A term used by Charles Peirce to denote the process of inquiry in which a hypothesis is formed or generated; The result of such a process - the conclusion reached or the assumed guess, respectively, is called retroduction and hypothesis. The word "abduction" has more...
Abject
A term used by Julia Kristeva to mean something that confuses violates or undermines some established order or stable position. It has this effect because it is in the middle of what we normally consider to be absolute oppositions (eg life/death, human/machine). Many...
Free Course in Semiology
A completely and truly free course on Semiology (Semiotics). Learn about the meaning of signs, how and why did the field emerged. What is the relationship between the street signs and the signs that we use every day - words.
