Language Theory

Roland Barthes (1967) noted Saussure's model of the sign focused on denotation and the expense of connotation and it was left to subsequent theorists to offer an account of this important dimension of meaning.

Charles Sanders Peirce (1931) believes that "we think only in signs". Signs take the form of words, images, sounds, odours, flavours, acts or objects, but such things have no intrinsic meaning and become signs only when we invest them with meaning. "Nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as a sign".

John Fiske (1982) puts it "denotation is what is photographed, connotation is how it is photographed". 

Fiske and Hartley (1982) described a third order of signification - the 1st and 2nd orders of signification called denotation and connotation combine to produce ideology. 

Image Essay: Beyonce - Pretty Hurts

Every medium has its own ‘language’ – or combination of languages – that it uses to communicate meaning. Television, for example uses verbal and written language as well as the languages of moving images and sound. We call these ‘languages’ because they use familiar codes and conventions that are generally understood. Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules. Each form of communication has its own creative language; for example, scary music heightens fear, camera close-ups convey intimacy and big headlines signal significance.

Understanding the grammar, syntax and metaphor system of media language – especially the language of sounds and visuals which can reach beyond the rational to our deepest emotional core – increases our appreciation and enjoyment of media experiences as well as helps us to be less susceptible to manipulation.

Within the video ‘Pretty Hurts’ by Beyoncé, this medium has its ‘own’ language as it communicates to the audience the truth and brutal reality of what beauty pageants are really like. According to Peirce, anything can be a sign as long as someone interprets it as ‘signifying’ something – referring to or standing for something other than itself. We interpret things as sings largely unconsciously by relating them to familiar systems of conventions. Therefore, in the video as minor piano chords are playing at the start, we immediately know that the song is going to be emotionally moving. Furthermore, through the narrative, it focuses upon how distorted body image is a common issue amongst women in society – hence, the video is relatable and the audience can interpret the signs. “Nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as a sign” (Peirce, 1931).

Roman Jakobson (1956), and later Claude Levi-Strauss, emphasized that meaning arises from the differences between signifiers; these differences are of two kinds: syntagmatic (concerning positioning) and paradigmatic (concerning substitution). In film and television, paradigms include ways of changing shot (such as cut, fade, dissolve and wipe). Within ‘Pretty Hurts’ the text only includes simple cuts throughout – which is a typical convention of music videos as it creates continuity through the editing. However, the medium or genre are also paradigms, and particular media texts derive meaning from the ways in which the medium and genre differs from the alternatives.

Included in all music videos, the micro technical elements (mise-en-scene, editing, sound and cinematography) create meaning to inform the audience about genre, narrative and representations/ideology. The mise-en-scene constitutes the key aspect of the pre-production phase of the film and can be taken to include all aspects of production design and cinematography. It creates the diegetic world/diegesis – the fictional space and time implied by the narrative. Furthermore, the camera work (shot types, composition, movement and angles) along with the editing (post-production) and the diegetic sound contributes to the diegetic world created in ‘Pretty Hurts’.