Roland Barthes' Semiotics

Roland Barthes (pictured left) was a French theorist. His theory was that not only was verbal communication a way to communicate, but that aspects of the person such as, their hairstyle, clothing, body language and make up, were also forms of communication. A theory I believe to be accurate, as we have first impressions of people when we first see them, for example someone who dressed in predominately black, and wore black eyeliner, would communicate a sense of their personalty, in this case gothic. The structure of his theory revolved around three points, the Signifier which is the physical form of something, the Signified which is the message the Signifier produces, and finally the Referent which is the actual individual thing without being given a meaning. For example a red rose (Signifier), could connote the emotion love (Signified), and a red rose is the Referent.