Umberto Ecos reading of Charles Sanders Peirce

connotation CONTENT connotation connotation

denotation --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| |1st "star" |

EXPRESSION | |2nd |

/star/ symbolic iconic indexical

1. A sign is a material representation (representamen). 2. A representation is recognized to be a sign through an act of interpretation (interpretant). 3. A sign is recognized as standing for its referent on the basis of a rule or convention. Convention establishes principles of correlation between representation and interpretation. These principles of correlation may be motivated or arbitrary. 4. The function of a sign is to correlate an expression and a content. 5. A code is a repertoire of these correlations of expression and content. 6. Expression and content are independent of one another. In other words, the meaning (content) of the expression changes with context. 7. Both expression and content have pertinent, articulated features. 8. The content of an expression can be described as independent of any "real" referent. In other words, an expression can refer to an imaginary or false world as well as a real and truthful one. 9. The rules of semiotics are not necessarily the rules of linguistics. There are many kinds of codes or correlations that are not those of verbal speech. 10. The content of an expression is both denotative and connotative. Denotation is often established by the context of an expression. While connotations need previous denotations in order to be understood, their meaning is no less consistent and no less set by context. Thus connotations serve as subcodes that establish variant meanings of given denotations. 11. Every act of signification is both complex and heterogeneous. It can encompass or combine: multiple modes of representation: iconic, indexical, symbolic; different kinds of articulation; both arbitrary and motivated correlation of expression and content; different kinds of interpretive labor: recognition, categorization, combination, invention.