【正文】 rence would be in their connotation. Connotation Basic concept Connotation is the term Barthes uses to describe one of the three ways in which signs work in the second order of signification. It describes the interaction that occurs when the sign meets the feelings or emotions of the users and the values of their culture. This is when meanings move 5 towards the subjective, or at least the intersubjective: it is when the interpretant is influenced as much by the interpreter as by the object or the sign. For Barthes, the critical factor in connotation is the signifier in the first order. The firstorder signifier is the sign of the connotation. Our imaginary photographs are both of the same street。 the difference between them lies in the form, the appearance of the photograph, that is, in the signifier. Barthes (1977) argues that in photography at least, the difference between connotation and denotation is clear. Denotation is the mechanical reproduction on film of the object at which the camera is pointed. Connotation is the human part of the process: it is the selection of what to include in the frame, of focus, aperture, camera angle, quality of film, and so on. Denotation is what is photographed。 connotation is how it is photographed. Further implications We can extend this idea further. Our tone of voice, how we speak, connotes the feelings or values about what we say。 in music, the Italian direction allegro ma non troppo is the poser?s instruction about how to play the notes, about what connotative or emotional values to convey. The choice of words is often a choice of connotation—?dispute? or ?strike?, ?oiling the wheels of merce? or ?bribery?. These examples showemotional or subjective connotations, although we have to assume that others in our culture share at least a large part of them, that they are intersubjective. Other connotations may be much more social, less personal. A frequently used example is the signs of a highranking officer?s uniform. In a hierarchical society, one that emphasizes distinctions between classes or ranks and that consequently puts a high value on a high social position, these signs of rank are designed to connote high values. They are usually of gold, models of crowns or of laurel wreaths, and the more there are, the higher the rank they denote. Symbols But Barthes (1977) does refer to a third way of signifying in this order. This he terms the symbolic. An object bees a symbol when it acquires through convention and use a meaning that enables it to stand for something else. A RollsRoyce is a symbol of wealth, and a scene in a play in which a man is forced to sell his Rolls can be symbolic of the failure of his business and the loss of his fortune. Barthes uses the example of the young Tsar in Ivan the Terrible being baptized in gold coins as a symbolic scene in which gold is a symbol of wealth, power, and status. Barthes?s ideas of the symbolic are less systematically developed than those of connotation and myth, and are therefore less satisfactory. We might prefer Peirce?s terms. The RollsRoyce is an index of wealth, but a symbol (Peirce?s use, not Barthes?s) of the owner?s social status. Gold is an index of wealth but a symbol of power. Or we might find it useful to leave the Saussurean tradition of linguistics altogether and turn to two other concepts which are widely used to describe aspects of semiosis. These are metaphor and metonymy. Jakobson (Jakobson and Halle 1956) believes that 6 these two concepts identify the fundamental ways that messages perform their referential function. Metaphor Basic concepts If we say that a ship ploughed through the waves, we are using a metaphor. We are using the action of a ploughshare to stand for that of a ship?s bow. What we are doing is expressing the unfamiliar in terms of the familiar (the metaphor assumes that the ploughshare?s action is familiar, that of the ship?s bow is not). The jargon terms are ?vehicle? for the familiar, ?tenor? for the unfamiliar. One further characteristic we must note is that a metaphor exploits simultaneous similarity and difference. Thus we can say it works paradigmatically, for vehicle and tenor must have enough similarity to place them in the same paradigm, but enough difference for the parison to have this necessary element of contrast. They are units with distinctive features in a paradigm. Thus the metaphor ?ploughed? is in the paradigm of verbs meaning ?to cleave?. Further implications This is the traditional literary definition of a metaphor. When we transfer our attention from arbitrary signs to iconic signs we encounter a few problems. Metaphors are rarer in visual languages and we will better understand why after our discussion of metonymy (below). It is sufficient to say here that the visual language that most frequently works metaphorically is that used by advertisers. Often an event or object is set up as a metaphor for a product. Mustangs in the Wild West are a metaphor for Marlboro cigarettes。 waterfalls and natural greenery are a metaphor for menthol cigarettes. These are clear, manifest metaphors in which both vehicle (mustangs and waterfalls) and tenor (cigarettes) are visually present. Even here, the difference is played down though obvious. But there is currently a style of surrealist advertisements which approximate much more closely to verbal metaphors, in that the difference is exploited as much as the similarity (plate 8, p. 83). This is a visual version of the metaphor ?It is raining cigarettes?. Metonymy Basic concepts If metaphor works by transposing qualities from one plane of reality to another, metonymy works by associating meanings within the same plane. Its basic definition is making a part stand for the whole. If we talk of the ?crowned heads of Europe? we are using a metonym. For Jakobson, metonyms are the predominant mode of the novel, while metaphors are that of poetry. The representation of reality inevitably involves a metonym: we choose a part of ?reality? to stand for the whole. The urban settings of television crime serials are metonyms—a photographed street is not meant to stand for the street itself, but as a metonym of a particular type of city life—innercity squalor, suburban respectability, or citycentre sophistication. 7 The selection of the metonym is clearly crucial, for from it we construct the unknown remainder of reality. On a recent television programme, The Editors, two shots of picket lines were shown. One was of an orderly group of men standing outside a works while two of them spoke to a lorry driver。 another was of a group of workers violently struggling with the police. The point is that both shots were of the same picket line on the same day. The second, of course, was the one shown on the news that night. The selection of metonym determines the rest of the picture of the event that we construct, and trade unions frequently protest that the metonyms given in the news lead the viewer to construct a very one sided and inplete picture of their activities. James Monaco (1977) shows how metonyms are used in film. For instance, a shot of a weeping woman?s head beside a pile of banknotes on a pillow is a metonym of prostitution: he sees a gesture or pose as a metonym of the emotion it expresses. Further implications Metonyms are powerful conveyors of reality because they work ind