Essay On Social Semiotics

Social meaning making
Social semiotic draws on the semiotic notion of communication or language as a system of signs, which provides a range of potential meanings to its users. There is not difference between the code or langue and performance or use in the social semiotic. The actual meanings made are limited by the conditions of access and context: The cultural trajectories (historical map) of individuals and groups endows them with different dispositions and literacies. Cultural patterns we use to make sense always shapes and frames contexts.

Text
Text is product and process. Texts are spread through time and space. They keep changing, so they don’t have final forms. They are changed through undergoing different kinds of communication within

First, Field. It means a meaningful activity within a social system. Fields regulate social action when they are under the over control of a central institution. The social action is not always “official field”, because a tractic which means using the “official” rules for own purposes sometimes happens.
Second, Tenor. It concerns the relations between participants and the positions they are being assigned. It is separated by social distance, emotion or attitude (affect), and power. Social distance means the positioning of the participants as socially intimate or distant. Affect means emotion or attitude produced as part of the textual interaction. Power mans the extent to which the participants are positioned as equal or unequal. Power relations are contingent on field. Culture fields are shaped by discourses which also produce social positions, hierarchies and values.
Third, Mode. It is the formation of the communication as a text. Medium refers to the means of communication, which is divided by physical or technical categories. Code is a system of signs based on rules. It also means organizing rules or principles. Medium and code provide a diversity of materials (mediums) and ways of shaping these materials