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SEMIOTICS: THE BASICS
principles. It remains important for anyone interested in the analysis
of texts to be aware of what these principles are. Structuralists study
texts as syntagmatic structures. The syntagmatic analysis of a text
(whether it is verbal or non-verbal) involves studying its structure and
the relationships between its parts. Structuralist semioticians seek to
identify elementary constituent segments within the text – its syntagms.
The study of syntagmatic relations reveals the conventions
or ‘rules of combination’ underlying the production and interpretation
of texts (such as the grammar of a language). The use of one
syntagmatic structure rather than another within a text influences
meaning.
SPATIAL RELATIONS
Reversing Saussure’s priorities, we will begin with spatial rather than
temporal relations. As a result of Saussure’s influence, syntagms are
often defined only as ‘sequential’ (and thus temporal – as in speech
and music). Saussure emphasized ‘auditory signifiers’ which ‘are presented
one after another’ and ‘form a chain’. But even in auditory
signs sequential relations are not the only dimension: in music, while
sequence may seem the most obvious feature, chords, polyphony and
orchestration are manifestations of simultaneity. Furthermore, we
may grant that temporal relations tend to be dominant in auditory
signs, but in visual signs it is spatial relations that are dominant. As
we have seen, the visual medium of written language for Saussure
was secondary. ‘Linearity’, a consequence of Saussure’s phonocentric
stance, was the second of his two ‘general principles’ of the sign
(Saussure 1983, 67). As Jakobson noted, we need to recognize the
importance of not only temporal but also spatial syntagmatic relations
(Jakobson 1956, 74–5; 1963a, 59; 1963d, 336). Spatial syntagms
are important not only in the whole range of what we usually
think of as visual media (such as drawing, painting and photography)
but also in writing – in circumstances where specific layout contributes
to the meaning (not only in relatively unusual genres such as
‘shape poems’ but also routinely in contexts such as notices, newspapers
and magazines). Jakobson recognizes key differences between
the dimensions of sequentiality and simultaneity and suggests that