Elements of Semiology.
And that is just what I had in mind. It will be elements of semiology. No more than that.
This is also the title of a famous little book written by French philosopher Roland Barthes in 1964. Translated into English 3 years later.
I will refer to the English translation. And I will use the book as the steppingstone to the semiological tools that will go into the barebones toolbox. As you remember, semiology, or the American cousin semiotics, are one of the main resources for the barebones project. As I used Wertheimer’s early article as the door to gestalt theory, I will use Barthes book as the opening door to semiology.
Some of you may argue that this is a shift of source “sincerity”: Wertheimer was a primary source. Barthes is not. In particularly not in this book where he first and foremost refers to the Swiss scientist Ferninand de Saussure, and his “Course on General Linguistics”, published in 1916.
And yes, you are right, maybe I should have walked straight back to Saussure? But that will not be.
Barthes makes and excellent and brief introduction to the area, and since his book is written about half a century later, he has an historical outlook on semiology, that was not possible for Saussure to have in the beginning of the century. And besides, Barthes talks about the wider notion of semiology, as opposed to the more narrow linguistics.
Barthes operates with 4 main themes in his book. Those are:
1. Language and Speech
2. Signified and Signifier
3. Syntagme and System
4. Denotation and Connotation
These 4 areas will be the headlines for the semiology themes, that I will cover in the blog. Some words have already been said about denotations and connotations. The light version that is, because Barthes text in the book are much more troublesome to get through.
As always, I will do my best to illustrate the themes in question.
Let me just warn you that it is not my intention to write a summary of the book, or even stay very faithful to it. I will simply use it, as I already said, as a first steppingstone to semiology. Or rather; I will use elements of it, since what I am interested in here, as elsewhere, are the bits and pieces of semiology that are handy as communications instruments in the barebones project.
And is was my intention, actually, to move beyond Roland Barthes, but again with offset in his book.
If you want to precede me in this project, please be my guest, since the first half of the book is to be found right here.
May I add, there is also another very good reason for spending time in the company of Roland Barthes. He is heavy into visual communication. He writes a lot about photography - and I am a fan of Barthes’ trials in this fields. That much for my personal bias 
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Please be aware that I am still in the process of gearing up the garage.
As usual, stay tuned.
