activityocean

In both linguistics and cinema, the signifier and the signified operate within a form of double discourse. In cinema, this double discourse of the sign is at times more direct than in verbal language ^(66/22)1. A shot or image of a chair, for example, maintains a closer perceptual connection to what the word “chair” signifies—that is, an object designed for sitting comfortably. However, the signified meaning of a chair can shift depending on how it is positioned and articulated within a sequence.

Thus, although the cinematic image appears to establish a more immediate relationship between signifier and signified, its meaning is not fixed. It is shaped, transformed, and sometimes even contradicted by its placement within the broader syntagmatic structure of the film.

1. 22
   But in film, the signifier and the signified are almost identical: the sign of cin­ema is a short-circuit sign. A picture of a book is much closer to a book, conceptu­ally, than the word “book” is.
   > Structure > Language
   How to Read a Film: The World of Movies, Media, and Multimedia : Language, History, Theory
   by  James Monaco ↩︎