The addressee - the one who receives the message, considered in his role of understanding (decoding), interpreting the message. The addresser - the sender of the message - encrypts the message, ie. transmits the information through some code while the decoder...
Semiology Glossary
Deconstruction, Deconstructionism
A contemporary intellectual current, especially in philosophy, literary theory, and criticism, which (among many other things) tests the rigor of established hierarchies so central to Western thought and culture. For example, in the oppositions: work/play,...
Deduction
A type of inference in which it is assumed that the conclusion necessarily follows from the premise. For example, if it is true that A is greater than B and that B is greater than B, then it necessarily follows that A is greater than C. In this example A is greater...
Deep Structure
A term often used in linguistics and less often in semiotics (mostly in narrative analysis), which is the opposite of surface structure. The deep structure is the subsurface, often hidden structure through which the surface structure, say the sentence or narrative, is...
Defamiliarization
A term that (except for defamiliarization) is often used in the translation of the Russian word ostranenie, used by Russian formalists, to denote an important function of the fairy tale. The main function of poetry and other works of art is to provoke our usual...
Definiendum
A Latin word meaning a word or expression that is subject to definition differs from definiens (the definition or expression proposed as such). When defining "hammer" as "a tool for forging and removing nails and similar objects", "hammer" is the definition, and "tool...
Deictic
A definition, used by linguists and sometimes by semioticians to denote signs that relate directly to the temporal, spatial, or personal aspects of the situation in which the utterance or discourse takes place. Now/then; here/there; I/you and this/that are deictic...
Denotation
To learn more about denotation, please visit the connotation article.
Denotatum
An object, event, or thing of any kind, denoted by a word or expression, to which the word or sentence refers. The terms denotation and reference, as used by Charles Morris, almost always coincide in reference (Bedeutung) and meaning (Sinn).
Diachronic
From Greek, dia- through, across and Chronos, time. Dealing with phenomena (e.g., the spelling of words or grammar rules) according to their changes over a period of time; more roughly, the equivalent of historical or temporal. Ferdinand de Saussure clearly...
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Death of the Author
A phrase showing the deep reorientation of some literary critics and theorists to the text. It shows the authors' turn in critical and theoretical attention to the texts and the mechanisms by which they are created. In many contemporary literary theories and...
Method of Authority
Method of Authority is a term used by Charles S. Peirce to identify one of four possible ways to establish the strengthening of beliefs, namely the method of co-referring to some publicly recognized authority. According to Peirce, beliefs are habits of action. When...
Author’s Intention
It is usually used to show that the meaning of the text is limited to what the author intends. William Wimsat Jr. and Munrow Birdzley in The Conscious Mistake, a manifesto of so-called new criticism, reduce the researcher's criticique to this view. Later, E.D. Hirsch...
Auto-
A common prefix in English (coming from Greek), meaning self- (for example, autodidact are those who teach themselves, self-taught). Opposite heter- or hetero- (different) is also a common English prefix (a heterosexual is a person who is attracted to representatives...
Autocriticism, Autocritique
It means self-criticism. Related: Heterocriticism Self-criticism, according to Julia Kristeva and other contemporary semiotics, is a hallmark of semiotic research. At every stage of its production, such research is not encouraged (according to Kristeva) to think...
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.
