Semiotics are the study of signs and symbols and their meanings.

Denotations are the meaning of a word or image or phrase. They are used to give a meaning to things so people can understand them. For example: A use of denotations would be: a black cat, which tells us that the colour of cat’s fur is black.

Connotations are words that link to a certain word or image. They are used to give different associoations. They can be either positive or negative. For example: A use of connotations would be: a black cat having connotations of witchcraft, good/bad luck.

Polysemic readings of signs mean that there are multiple meanings in words or phrases. Usually referring to words that sound alike but have different meanings (homonyms). For example: a homonym would be ate and eight. eight as in the number, ate as in “you ate”.

Context is given by the connotations of a product. It helps make an event setting, idea or statement fully understandable. Context is therefore important because it shows the ways that signs communicate ideas and beliefs to us, showing information to the audience.

Zeitgeist is the spirit of time, the defining of a period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time. For example: in the first back to the future movie, the movie is set in 1985 and they travel to the year 2015. And most of its predictions are wrong as the year 2015 has already passed. the predictions of 2015 show what people believed at the time.

Anchorage in semiotics is when an image shows and tells the audience what it is intended to connote. It therefore prevents polysemic or multiple connotations / meanings from being interpreted by the audience, as without it the intended message of the product is unclear, and can therefore be connoted incorrectly.