69249454-chandler-semiotics

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SEMIOTICS: THE BASICS
the
girl
man
sang
died
cried
paradigmatic axis
syntagmatic axis
FIGURE 3.1 Syntagmatic and paradigmatic axes
121), but Roman Jakobson’s term is now used. The distinction is a
key one in structuralist semiotic analysis in which these two structural
‘axes’ (horizontal as syntagmatic and vertical as paradigmatic)
are seen as applicable to all sign systems (see Figure 3.1). The plane
of the syntagm is that of the combination of ‘this-and-this-and-this’
(as in the sentence, ‘the man cried’) while the plane of the paradigm
is that of the selection of ‘this-or-this-or-this’ (e.g. the replacement
of the last word in the same sentence with ‘died’ or ‘sang’). While
syntagmatic relations are possibilities of combination, paradigmatic
relations are functional contrasts – they involve differentiation.
Temporally, syntagmatic relations refer intratextually to other signifiers
co-present within the text, while paradigmatic relations refer
intertextually to signifiers which are absent from the text (ibid., 122).
The ‘value’ of a sign is determined by both its paradigmatic and its
syntagmatic relations. Syntagms and paradigms provide a structural
context within which signs make sense; they are the structural forms
through which signs are organized into codes.
Paradigmatic relationships can operate on the level of the signifier
and on the level of the signified (ibid., 121–4; Silverman 1983,
10; Harris 1987, 124). A paradigm is a set of associated signifiers or
signifieds which are all members of some defining category, but in