Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...

structures similar to language (like a road code, art, music and literature); whereas
semiology is the general theory, the metalanguage 73 dealing with all common semiotic
aspects. These dual origins have long been studied by theorists (some, like Julia Kristeva,
would argue that “semiotics” studies the signifier) but, over time, both terms have been
applied in an alternate manner, although more recently the term “semiotics” is more
extensively employed and seems to be replacing the more static term of “semiology”.
Although Saussure had identified the way to express the combination between the
two elements of S/s (capital “S” for signifier and lower case “s” for signified) 74 and the
relationship that exists between signs in these two planes, it was Barthes who more fully set
about an analysis of the rapidly developing forms of contemporary popular culture, as seen
above, and the way signs operate in culture. He worked most exclusively on a semiological
system, that of langue, and identified two orders of signification: denotation and
connotation. The linguistic sign (the word) is hence imbued in the signification, as he
stresses in his Mythologies: “Le mot est ici d’autant mieux justifié, que le mythe a
justement une double fonction: il désigne et il notifie, il fait comprendre et il impose”
(Barthes 1970:202). 75 Barthes explains in his book the way the photograph of a young
black African in French uniform conceals a hidden meaning, clearly stressing the idea of
signification and myth in the visual media in the light of the work of linguists, such as
Saussure and the Danish linguist Louis Hjelmslev. Here is the cover of the magazine
followed by his remarks:
73
When the term “metalanguage” was first coined by the logicians of the School of Vienna (Rudolph Carnap
(1891-1970) being its major contributor), a certain controversy was installed. All in all, Carnap wanted to
show that the language we use to speak can also speak of itself.
74
Interestingly, Jacques Lacan himself was very keen on Saussure’s theories and wanted to demonstrate the
primacy of the signifier in the psyche by placing the capitalised Signifier above a lower case and italicising
the signified (S/s) so as to prove that they both interrelate.
75
“The word is better justified, the myth has precisely two functions: it designates and it notifies, it makes it
clear and it imposes” (my translation).
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