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{{Semiotics}}
In [[semiotics]], the '''commutation test''' is used to identify the [[value (Semiotics)|value]] or significance of any of the signifiers used in the material to be analysed.
==Discussion==▼
The first stage of development in semiotics related to the spoken and/or written form of [[language]]. Later, it was expanded to cover all [[sign (semiotics)|sign]] systems that have an [[information]]al content. As [[Umberto Eco]] says, "A sign is everything which can be taken as significantly substituting for something else." (1976)▼
Semiotics studies the relationship between the form of the sign (the ''signifier'') and the [[Meaning (semiotics)|meaning]] expressed (the ''signified''), and thereby attempts to reveal the process of communicating [[understanding]]. In each case, a message is to be sent by an addresser to an addressee. For this to occur, the addresser and addressee must use a common [[code (semiotics)|code]], Hence, language evolves dynamically. The [[community]] will identify a [[lexical (semiotics)|lexical]] thing that needs to be referred to in their language. By common agreement, a sign (sometimes called a ''signal'') will be selected. Of the many possible shades of meanings that it can be used to convey, one or more will be selected and ''encoded'', i.e. the chosen meaning(s) will be [[denotation (semiotics)|denoted]] or associated with the sign within the broader framework of [[syntactic]] and [[semantic]] systems available within the community. When the [[audience]] is exposed to the sign, the expectation is that they will be able to decode the meaning. As [[Roman Jakobson]] adds, there will also be an [[emotion]]al element or [[value (Semiotics)|value]] which represents the addresser's [[attitude (psychology)|attitude]] towards the ''thing''. This will either become a [[connotation (Semiotics)|connotative]] meaning attached directly to the sign itself, or it will be communicated by the context in which the sign is used by the addresser. ▼
In [[lexicography]], the fact that a [[neologism]] is used marks its acceptance into the language. This will not be a difficult process so long as each sign has a limited and immediately useful meaning. The problem arises when several possible meanings or shades of meaning become associated with the sign. This is a shift from denotational to connotational meanings. Rules of interpretation are required to resolve uncertainty. Within the community, such rules are, for the most part, experiential and applied without conscious control. Members of a [[community]] have a shared [[memory]] of language [[pattern]]s and [[norm (philosophy)|norm]]s which, for the most part, are stable over long periods of time. [[Individual]]s are therefore able to build up a [[cognitive]] framework which identifies the possible meanings from any grouping of signs and selects one considered the most appropriate from the context. This [[Intuition (knowledge)|intuitive]] system is continuously tested through the audience's responses. If the responses are satisfying, intuition prevails. If the responses are obviously inappropriate, the audience will consciously review the thought process and decide whether to modify the framework. Semiotics has developed a more precise methodology for this interpretive process, seeking to expose the unstated habitual practices for interpreting signifiers.▼
==The commutation test==
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If we now contextualise the image in a school, seminary, prison, training gym or home environment different sets of meanings emerge depending on the presence or absence of other signifiers demonstrating the relationship between the protagonists, the time the image was created (a Victorian image of corporal punishment in a school would have a different significance from a more recent image of judicial caning in Britain, Canada or Singapore), the nature of the activity (e.g. a boxing training session or a game of tennis in which the blow is struck accidentally, etc), the presence or absence of other people, etc.. The values are therefore added or subtracted according to the presence or absence of other signifiers.
▲==Discussion==
▲The first stage of development in semiotics related to the spoken and/or written form of [[language]]. Later, it was expanded to cover all [[sign (semiotics)|sign]] systems that have an [[information]]al content. As [[Umberto Eco]] says, "A sign is everything which can be taken as significantly substituting for something else." (1976)
▲Semiotics studies the relationship between the form of the sign (the ''signifier'') and the [[Meaning (semiotics)|meaning]] expressed (the ''signified''), and thereby attempts to reveal the process of communicating [[understanding]]. In each case, a message is to be sent by an addresser to an addressee. For this to occur, the addresser and addressee must use a common [[code (semiotics)|code]], Hence, language evolves dynamically. The [[community]] will identify a [[lexical (semiotics)|lexical]] thing that needs to be referred to in their language. By common agreement, a sign (sometimes called a ''signal'') will be selected. Of the many possible shades of meanings that it can be used to convey, one or more will be selected and ''encoded'', i.e. the chosen meaning(s) will be [[denotation (semiotics)|denoted]] or associated with the sign within the broader framework of [[syntactic]] and [[semantic]] systems available within the community. When the [[audience]] is exposed to the sign, the expectation is that they will be able to decode the meaning. As [[Roman Jakobson]] adds, there will also be an [[emotion]]al element or [[value (Semiotics)|value]] which represents the addresser's [[attitude (psychology)|attitude]] towards the ''thing''. This will either become a [[connotation (Semiotics)|connotative]] meaning attached directly to the sign itself, or it will be communicated by the context in which the sign is used by the addresser.
▲In [[lexicography]], the fact that a [[neologism]] is used marks its acceptance into the language. This will not be a difficult process so long as each sign has a limited and immediately useful meaning. The problem arises when several possible meanings or shades of meaning become associated with the sign. This is a shift from denotational to connotational meanings. Rules of interpretation are required to resolve uncertainty. Within the community, such rules are, for the most part, experiential and applied without conscious control. Members of a [[community]] have a shared [[memory]] of language [[pattern]]s and [[norm (philosophy)|norm]]s which, for the most part, are stable over long periods of time. [[Individual]]s are therefore able to build up a [[cognitive]] framework which identifies the possible meanings from any grouping of signs and selects one considered the most appropriate from the context. This [[Intuition (knowledge)|intuitive]] system is continuously tested through the audience's responses. If the responses are satisfying, intuition prevails. If the responses are obviously inappropriate, the audience will consciously review the thought process and decide whether to modify the framework. Semiotics has developed a more precise methodology for this interpretive process, seeking to expose the unstated habitual practices for interpreting signifiers.
==References==
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