An actor or character from the surface field of narrative discourse, other than the abstract function of the actant from the level of the deep structure.
Semiology Glossary
Actuality
Status of existence other than potential. Objects do not just exist in different shapes and sizes; the real way of being one thing may be different from the way other things are. While the newborn is only a potential member of one language community, the competent...
Actualization
The process by which something purely potential becomes real (for example, the emergence of a flower from a seed). A.J. Greimas and J. Courte explain that in the context of semiotics this term means "transition from system to process" Thus language (langue) is a real...
Addressee
One of the six factors that make up any speech event or communication process. The addressee is the being to whom the message is addressed or transmitted; The addresser is the agent or mechanism that sends or transmits the message. If I shout to warn you of a danger,...
Addresser
One of the six factors in any communication exchange; in particular, the agent or mechanism that sends or transmits the message. Corresponding to this factor is one important function, namely the expressive or emotional function. When the communicative process focuses...
Adequacy
Three realities or degrees of the theory, moving respectively from one minimum requirement for reporting (observing) adequacy to the ultimate goal of explanatory adequacy through the mediation of descriptive adequacy. This three-threshold difference can best be...
Adequatio
Latin word meaning equivalence, equality, or conformity. Unification is a process in which one thing is done to be the same as another. In medieval thought, the truth was defined in terms of adequatio. According to Thomas Aquinas, truth is adequatio rei et...
Ad Hoc
A Latin term meaning "for this", used as a definition to describe something (such as a committee or hypothesis), specifically intended to solve a particular problem, result, or desire. If an administrator at a university organizes a committee tasked with approving...
Ad Hominem
A Latin expression commonly used as an abbreviation of argumentum ad hominem. One of the meanings is an argument that applies specifically to a person (for example, "If you maintain or assume this, you cannot consistently defend another position"), by which a person...
Adjuvant
A French term, that means helper. The term was used by A.J. Greimas to denote something that originally had an actant role attributed but was later classified as an auxilliant of the same significance.
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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.
