The Signs: Roland Barthes Concept Of Sign

The Signs
Roland Barthes’ progressive interest in the meaning of anything that can be interpreted constitute to his own concept of sign. Signs have two premises. Firstly, a sign is a combination of its signifier and signified (Barthes as cited in Griffin, 2012, 333). An object can never be qualified as a sign if it can’t be interpreted. Also, an object will not be treated as a sign if it does not encompass a signifier and a signified. A signifier is the “physical manifestation of a sign as people perceive it using their senses” (Barthes as cited in Griffin, 2012, 333). A signifier can be any object perceivable by our five senses. Meanwhile, a signified is “the meaning that people associate with a particular sign” (Barthes as cited in

In describing the sign system, Barthes used the concept of the denotation and connotation. A denotation is considered to be the first order semiotic system. The denotative sign system is “a system of meaning association without ideological content” (Barthes as cited in Griffin, 2012, 336). On the other hand, connotation is regarded as the second order semiotic system. The connotative sign system is the “mythic signs that has lost its historical referent” (Barthes as cited in Griffin, 2012, 337). The connotation of a sign is pluralistic in nature. This means that the interpretation of the sign varies from one person to another’s intersubjectivity. The signified in the connotative sign system involves a person’s interpretation of the signifier as well as the ideologies associated with it. The plurality of these interpretations and ideologies resulted to a diverse position of meaning creation and involvement to the

The print media paved the way for the present generation to gather and transmit information all together. Capitalists invested in printing books and improving media for mass production of information leading to the emergence of print capitalism. The print capitalism acknowledges the role of language in terms of one’s national identity in the imagined community. Thus, the mass produced information is already written in the most inclusive language that even the plebian individuals can understand. The print capitalism’s use of inclusive language resulted in the emergence of normalized discourse. The emergence of normalized discourse had an important role in people’s national