RESEARCH: SEMIOTICS AND BINARY OPPOSITIONS

Semiotics Semiotics suggests how an idea or concept is portrayed through signs, symbols and motifs. A semantic field shows how many words are linked together through a semantic field, which all suggest a recurring theme throughout the text or film. The Cohen brothers used a lot of motifs and symbols to suggest a hidden topic or theme through the film. Often the words in the semantic field are binary opposites and for example a semantic field of money might have (wealth, poverty and capital), where wealth and poverty are binary opposites.

Binary opposition

Binary opposition is the way a word has meaning, and how these meaning are associated with them, the positive and negative connotations evoke how a word is understood. It is used in the media and in literature and is often used in poems to demonstrate controversy and conflict in ideas, a theory introduced by Claude Levi Strauss and Roland Barthes.
In filming, it is a common dramatic technique used to bring 2 ideas together and using the difference to suggest possibility or conflict.
The meaning assigned to a word is ‘culturally constructed’ and so a word has more meaning when you consider its opposite, and the connotations of the word, brings more meaning than the word itself. For example ‘hero’ and ‘coward’ these words are binary opposites and using one with the other provides some of the core meaning, and each meaning is ‘shaped’ by the opposite lexis, for example the way the youth is viewed and represented in a film, changes dramatically through how the idea of old age. A poor person might be judged and looked down upon and the negative stereotypes associated with the poor are reinforced and maintained through the ideas associated with being wealthy, and how everyone would rather be wealthy than poor. Masculinity is often more valued than femininity. And this is an example of how 1 side of the opposition tends to be viewed slightly higher than the other. Jacques Derride recognized why we judge one side of the opposition more than the other, finding that one of the words is more culturally ‘marked’ as being positive and one can be ‘unmarked’ so has less positivity or can be ‘marked’ negatively. For example, one word can be more privileged, shown in the table.

This shows how they represent reality but labels represent the directors version of reality, and what they want to portray, showing they’re ideological, they act to reinforce judgments.

Strong Weak

Dominant Submissive

Active Passive

Truth Lies

Calm Moody

Tough Gentle

Logical Emotional

Peaceful Aggressive

Examples

Hot fuzz uses binary opposition between old and young, the children cling onto what the policeman is saying, showing his authority over them.

In the ugly truth, binary opposition between male and female is evident, showing how Gerand Butler feels he is superior and manipulates women.

In the freedom writers, the binary opposition of black against white shows the battle against racism and the freedom and justice that they deserve, which white people just acquire.

In our film, we are using binary opposition through masculinity and femininity, we see this with both the migrant and The Ghost as he threatens her, showing he feels more superior. We also see this with The Ghost and Sydney, as he is portrayed much stronger as he kills her.


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