Hall, Sean. This Means This, This Means That : A User’s Guide to Semiotics, Laurence King Publishing, 2012 (Chapters 1 & 2) pgs 21-67.

Questions/prompts

Here are the questions to which you should respond in your reading response:

  • Using an example, define Saussure’s terms sign, signifier, and signified in your own words.
  • How are signs employed in visual communication? Provide a visual example from contemporary or historical advertising and explain why the example is considered an icon, index, or symbol in Peirce’s terms.
  • How are non-literal devices used to convey meaning in advertising and/or social media? Provide a visual example from contemporary or historical advertising and explain which type of non-literal device (simile, metaphor, metonym, synecdoche, irony, lies, impossibility, depiction, or representation) is being used and why.

According to my understanding, Saussure’s term sign means an initial idea or thought it could be a word or a symbol, or a picture and once we have a sign we can identify the signifier and the signified. for instance, when we speak let’s say in English to convey our message we use words and vocabulary in English, and if the person who is listening knows English will understand what we are talking about, if I say an elephant then it will create a picture of an animal who is big and grey and have a long nose all these details without me telling them in that person mind. this is how a sign of common language can signify its meaning.

An Apple logo can also be a symbol of Peirce’s terms. Since this logo is so papular and it’s actually an apple, therefore, it’s not really hard to guess and when people talk about iPhone or mac we immediately know that they are talking about apple products.

Non-literal devices are those that coveys the message through indirect ways like metaphorically. Like in this funeral home billboard we can see that there is caution and awareness about texting and driving. Since it’s a funeral home ad therefore it conveys the metaphorical meaning that if you text while driving you are probably gonna involve yourself in an accident and endup your life.