Denotations with evidence.

An important part in semiology is that the signs hold different levels of meaning - the denotative level and the connotative level. In this post, I will talk about the denotative level and what denotations means as a whole. 

Denotation like I said in one of the previous posts is about the literal meaning or description of a word or object. For example, if there is a picture of a old fashioned room with people dressed of a different time period, you are to say what you see. So you could end up writing that there is an old fashioned TV. That would be a denotation and these can be very important as they are the first thing that a viewer would see on a TV programme or film and therefore they need to send the right messages.

An example to help explain what I have mentioned above is shown below.

This is the picture of what I was trying to describe in my example. It shows a family in the 60's (probably!) watching TV together. The notes around the edge show the denotations that I have written. The denotations around the edge just describe what's in the picture. There are closer pictures taken and shown below of what I have written down in the picture.

This shows the top right hand corner of the image. Here I have said that it's a small room, it's in black and white and that there it an old fashioned radio on the shelves.

This shows the top right hand corner of the image. You can clearly see what it says but some of them wont make much sense unless you can actually see the object in the image. I have written down 'concentration faces' down as a denotation as the people in the image will have this face expression because they are watching the TV.

This is the bottom right hand corner of the image. I have written much in this part just because I can't find anything to write without being really obvious and without repeating myself again. These denotations can be used to write connotations which is what I will do in the second post but use different pictures.

This is the bottom left hand corner of the image. I have written picture of family with a question mark next to it because it could be a family but it could also be children being cared for by two adults because their parents have had them adopted or they could have been put into care for other reasons.

Another example could be taken from the Brokeback Mountain film poster which is illustrated below.

The denotations of this film poster would include the following:

1. The background is that of a blue sky and white clouds.

2. A mountain range and the forest on the horizon across the centre of the image.

3. Reflections of the mountains and the forest in a lake or river.

4. 2 young men in denim jackets and cowboy hats looking down to the ground and facing away from each other.