In semiotics, modality refers to the particular way in which the information is to be encoded for presentation to humans, i.e. to the type of sign and to the status of reality ascribed to or claimed by a sign, text or genre. It is more closely associated with the semiotics of Charles Peirce (1839-1914) than Saussure (1857-1913) because meaning is conceived as an effect of a set of signs. In the Peircian model, a reference is made to an object when the sign-carrier (a representamen) is interpreted recursively by another sign (becoming its interpretant), a conception of meaning that does in fact imply a classification of sign types. Semiotics - or semiology - is the study of signs, both individually and grouped in sign systems, and includes the study of how meaning is made and understood. ... Information is a word which has many different meanings in everyday usage and in specialized contexts, but as a rule, the concept is closely related to others such as data, instruction, knowledge, meaning, communication, representation, and mental stimulus. ... In semiotics, the process of creating a message for transmission by the addresser to the addressee is called encoding. ... Presentation is the process of presenting the content of a topic to an audience. ... In semiotics, a sign is generally defined as, ...something that stands for something else, to someone in some capacity. ... Reality in everyday usage means everything that exists. ... Charles Sanders Santiago Peirce (pronounced purse), September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914, was an American polymath. ... Saussure Ferdinand de Saussure (November 26, 1857 - February 22, 1913) was a Swiss linguist. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ...

Discussion of sign-type

The psychology of perception seems to suggest the existence of a common cognitive system which treats all or most sensorily conveyed meanings in the same way. If all signs must also be objects of perception, there is every reason to believe that their modality will determine at least part of their nature. Thus, the sensory modalities will be visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, kinetic, etc. A list of sign types would include: text, symbol, index, image, map, graph, diagram, etc. Some combinations of signs can be multi-modal, i.e. different types of signs grouped together for effect. But the distinction between a medium and a modality should be clarified: Psychology (ancient Greek: psyche = soul or mind, logos/-ology = study of) is an academic and applied field involving the study of mind and behavior. ... PSYCHOLOGY In psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizing sensory information. ... Cognitive The scientific study of how people obtain, retrieve, store and manipulate information. ...

• text is a medium for presenting the modality of natural language;
• image is both a medium and a modality;
• music is a modality for the auditory media.

So, the modality refers to a certain type of information and/or the representation format in which information is stored. The medium is the means whereby this information is delivered to the senses of the interpreter. Natural language is the primary modality, having many invariant properties across the auditory media as spoken language, the visual media as written language, the tactile media as Braille, and kinetic media as sign language. When meaning is conveyed by spoken language, it is converted into sound waves broadcast by the speaker and received by another's ears. Yet this stimulus cannot be divorced from the visual evidence of the speaker's manner and gestures, and the general awareness of the physical location and its possible connotative significance. Similarly, meaning that is contained in a visual form cannot be divorced from the iconicity and implications of the form. If handwritten, is the writing neat or does it evidence emotion in its style. What type of paper is used, what colour ink, what kind of writing instrument: all such questions are relevant to an interpretation of the significance of what is represented. But images are distinguishable from natural language. For Roland Barthes (1915-80), language functions with relatively determinate meanings whereas images "say" nothing. Nevertheless, there is a rhetoric for arranging the parts which are to signify, and an emerging, if not yet generally accepted, syntax that articulates their parts and binds them into an effective whole. In semiotics, connotation arises when the denotative relationship between a signifier and its signified is inadequate to serve the needs of the community. ... In cognitive linguistics, iconicity is the conceived similarity between a form of language and its meaning. ... Roland Barthes (November 12, 1915 – March 25, 1980) was a French literary critic, literary and social theorist, philosopher and semiotician. ... Rhetoric (from Greek ρήτωρ, rhêtôr, orator) is one of the three original liberal arts or trivium (the other members are dialectic and grammar) in Western culture. ... Syntax, originating from the Greek words συν (syn, meaning co- or together) and τάξις (táxis, meaning sequence, order, arrangement), can be described as the study of the rules, or patterned relations that govern the way the words in a sentence come together. ...

Discussion of reality status

When interpreting a system of signs, the audience will make a judgement about the modality of the whole, i.e. they will decide whether it is more likely to be fact or fiction, real or unreal. It also refers to how the audience feels about the message's validity and reliability. Images with higher modality appear more real than those with a lesser modality. To make this calibration, the audience will draw on its collective experience and understanding of the real world and of the particular medium of communication being used. Hence, those who enter a cineplex or theatre are aware that the content of the system they are about to view will usually be delivered by actors. But, if an individual randomly switches channel on the television, the new set of signifers must be evaluated: does this appear to be live or recorded, are these people known to be actors or do they have real-world roles that would explain their presence on the television, what does the genre or format of the programme appear to be. etc? If a provisional assessment is made that real events are being depicted, the more detailed credibility or plausibility can be evaluated by reference to the viewer's narrative sense. Has the viewer personal or vicarious experience of this type of event? Is this how real people would be expected to react and, say, explain their motives? This form of analysis to determine possibility and familiarity, whether conscious or unconscious, enables the audience to assess the authority of the speakers and the reliability of their message. Thus, the audience might believe what a person says in an interview because it matches their own experience. What happens in a soap opera may be emotionally involving because, although fictional, it represents real world situations. An audience is a group of people who participate in and experience or encounter a work of art, literature, theatre, music or academics in any medium. ... Look up Fact in Wiktionary, the free dictionary A Fact is any of the following: A statement of an event or condition where the statement can be proven and shown to be correct (or disproven and thus shown to be incorrect) on the basis of some evidence, generally by other... The Three Graces, here in a painting by Sandro Botticelli, were the goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility in Greek mythology. ... Look up Experience on Wiktionary, the free dictionary This article discusses the general concept of experience. ... Understanding is a psychological state in relation to an object or person whereby one is able to think about it and use concepts to be able to deal adequately with that object. ... // Communication is the process of exchanging information, usually via a common system of symbols. ... A function is part of an answer to a question about why some object or process occurred in a system that evolved or was designed with some goal. ... A genre is a division of a particular form of art according to criteria particular to that form. ... Credibility is the believability of a statement, action, or source, and the ability of the observer to believe the above. ... In non-technical terms, no matter what the context (whether scientific, philosophical, legal, etc) a narrative is a story, an interpretation of some aspect of the world that is historically and culturally grounded and shaped by human personality (per Walter Fisher). ... A soap opera is an ongoing, episodic work of fiction, usually broadcast on television or radio . ...

See also

• denotation
• narrative paradigm

In semiotics, denotation is the surface or literal meaning encoded to a signifier, and the definition most likely to appear in a dictionary. ... The Narrative Paradigm is a theory proposed by Walter Fisher that all meaningful communication is a form of storytelling or to give a report of events (see narrative) and so human beings experience and comprehend life as a series of ongoing narratives, each with their own conflicts, characters, beginnings, middles...

References

• Barthes, Roland. Elements of Semiology. (Translated by Annette Lavers & Colin Smith). London: Jonathan Cape. ([1964] 1967)
• Barthes, Roland. "The Rhetoric of the Image" in Image, Music, Text, (Translated by Stephen Heath). Hill and Wang. (1977)
• Chandler, Daniel. Semiotics: The Basics. London: Routledge. (2002)