Essential terms:

Polysemy/Polysemic: refers to the capacity of a text or part of a text to be read in 
several different ways. For example, a red rose might communicate love, a fondness 
for horticulture, a political allegiance or Lancashire. 
"The sign is polysemic, having connotations of freshness, nice odour, forgiveness, gardening and nature/habitiat."

Narrative: the way in which a text reveals information to the audience in order to 

create a ‘story’. 

"Teenagers tend to be very different due to technology in their generation, therefor creating a cyber narrative to live up to."

Open and closed texts: Eco talked about two tendencies of texts: the tendency to 

be ‘open’ and allow/invite/encourage a wide range of different interpretations: the 

opposite tendency presents ‘closed’ text which can only be read in a limited number 

of ways, sometimes only one way. 

"This text is very closed as the signs given do not have many preffered readings"

"This is an open text due to there being many connotations being intended"

Noise source: the origin of any barrier to communication. 

"The noise source of this barrier is the misunderstanding of the connotations intended by the sender."

Index: a type of sign (in C.S. Peirce’s categorisation) that has a direct or causal 

relationship with its signified. The sign points (like an index finger) to its signified. 

Smoke is an index of fire. 

"The ring on the womans hand is an index of marriage, showing that she is unavailable and in commitment."

Function: what a text, group of texts, or indeed communication itself, ‘does’ (inform, 

persuade, entertain, socialise etc).

"The function of this text is to inform its audience of the dangers of smoking"

Anchorage: directing receivers towards one particular meaning from a range of 

possible meanings. A caption can anchor the meaning of a photograph. 

Style shifting: this refers to the way in which we may modify our use of the same 

dialect within different situations. For example, we may use more formal language at 

an interview than we would use at home. 

"In the public self, style shifting is common as we form a mask and become more covered up to appear more suited to the context of the situation"

Olfactics: smell, odour. 

"The onion has connotations of vile olfactics"

Mirror self: the tendency for us to see ourselves through a reflection of how others 

see us. 

Paralanguage: consists of the non-verbal elements that accompany speech. It 

includes the way we speak (also known as prosodic features); volume; pitch; 

intonation; speed of delivery; articulation; rhythm; the sounds we make other than 

language; laughter; crying; lip smacking; yawning; sighing; screeching; coughing; 

filled pauses such as ‘Mmmm’, ‘Ahhh’, Errr’, Ummm; unfilled pauses. 

Bodily Adornment: all the ways in which ‘furnish’ and decorate the body (clothing, 

jewellery, make-up, tattooing etc). 

"The bodily adornments of the woman in the text represent wealth and class."

Context: the situation within which communication takes place.