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Linguistics II

Assignment Nº 2
Mama Lucchetti: A Semiological Analysis

Professor:
Prof. Silvia Rivero

M.A., M.Phil. in Linguistics

Student:
Estefania Monastero

LICENCIATURA EN LENGUA Y LITERATURA INGLESAS

21 August 2009
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Introduction

While inspecting different signifying objects, Lucchetti brand’s advertising campaign

appeared as a challenging choice. However, and since this is meant to be a semiological

exploration, this paper will not dwell on the meanings that can easily be found in the object

under discussion. Rather, the purpose of this paper is to explore and hopefully discover how

this specific system works and produces meaning. For such is the aim of any semiological

analysis: to uncover how meaning is produced and not what meaning is.

To achieve this goal, the analysis has been organized into two sections which have

sub-sections. The first section deals with the signifying entities of the system: the system

itself, the signs and the syntagm and the paradigm. The second explores the mechanisms

that produce meaning – the concepts of metaphor and metonymy will be examined.

What follows, then, is the theoretical background in which the concepts above

mentioned acquired importance.

Theoretical background

The world we live in is flooded with meaning. However, it is not for everybody to

discover meaning there where it is supposed to be. This is simply because meaning is not a

ready made product. Quite the opposite, it is the result of an ever evolving system in which

signs associate, combine and ultimately 'signify'. Signs signify due to the existence – in the

system – of mechanisms that produce meaning: signs acquire significance to him who

knows how to interpret them. In the quest for how meaning is produced, it is necessary to

resort to a science that concentrates on how signs signify. Such a science is semiology and it

has its origin in linguistics as developed by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. For

Saussure, language was the most complex sign system and this belief led him to concentrate

exclusively on linguistic signs. After him, other semioticians (such as Roland Barthes) have
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reformulated Saussure’s notions of the sign and the sign systems in order to apply them to

other areas of human life. Semiology, thus, provides the analyst with the necessary tools

“...to dissect and articulate...” the signifying object (Barthes, Roland. “The Structuralist

Activity,” trans, Richard Howard in Critical Essays. Evanston, II: Northwestern University

Press, 1972) in order to first “...find in it certain mobile fragments whose differential

situtation engenders a certain meaning” (Barthes 1972); and second "... discover in them or

establish certain rules of association: this is the activity of articulation". (Barthes 1972). And

indeed, it is in the articulation of the dismantled units of a system that a text appears

“constructed, i.e. endowed with meaning”. (Barthes 1972).

It has to be made clear, though, that any semiological system will always be read

through language. This is why semiology should be placed within the larger scope of

linguistics and not the reverse, as Saussure believed. For there exists no meaning which is

not translated into words, and the “the world of signifieds is none other than that of

language." (Barthes, R. Elements of Semiology. New York: Hill & Wang. 1997. p. 10). This

concept acknowledges not only the relevance of language as a necessary medium to analyse

other systems of signification, but also its validity as a structural framework that will

provide this analysis with fundamental knowledge for the interpretation of the nature of

other non-linguistic systems of signification.

In the transition from the linguistic approach to the semiological standpoint, a

comparison can be traced between the constituent elements of each type of system. While

concerning the linguistic system, Saussure established that it was “...the set of systematized

conventions necessary to communicate...” (Barthes 13) agreed upon by the speaking mass

what constitutes the object of the linguistic science, i.e. langue; in the semiological system,

a sort of langue could be conceived but there are certain differences with that of linguistics.

First, a language is a system of contractual values developed by the members of the speech
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community, while a semiological system is a set of values devised by a “deciding group”

(Barthes 31). Second, a language is a process by which a continuum of thought meets the

shapeless mass of sound -langue is pure form, not substance (de Saussure, Ferdinand.

Course in General Linguistics,....). However, in the most interesting semiological systems

this concept is enriched, since most of these systems are complex systems, where a number

of different substances relate to one another engaging the senses in a simoultaneous fashion.

Saussure claimed that the way in which the signs articulate within the system could be

best understood as taking place in the intersection of two dimensions - that of the

syntagmatic relations or combination and that of the associative relations or substitution.

Henceforth, these two dimensions shall be referred to as syntagm and system – where the

syntagm adheres to the Saussurean concept of linear combination and the system conforms

to the Barthian notion of paradigmatic oppositions.

This concept of oppositions, which is central to the analysis of the systematic relations,

was fully developed by phonologists as Jakobson and Trubetzkoy and applied to the field of

phonology. Notwithstanding, some types of oppositions as advanced by Turbetzkoy mainly,

can me fruitfully applied to the analysis of non-linguistic systems of signification

-especially in those where many substances are articulated, such as the media and

advertising. From the many classifications of oppositions, the following deserve

consideration: bilateral oppositions are those where the basis for comparison is not found in

any other opposition of the system; conversely, multilateral oppositions are those whose

basis of comparison is found in other oppositions of the system. Another type of relevant

opposition to the current analysis is the zero degree of the opposition, which is understood

not as a total absence of an element, but rather as a meaningful absence since this absence

bears witness of the “...power held by any system of signs of creating meaning out of

nothing..."(Barthes 77).
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Thus, an account of the system and the relevant relationships at work between the signs

has been made. Nonetheless, it would be defective to continue this research without

mentioning the constituent elements of semiological systems. Any system is made up of

signs. Semiological signs will be distinguished from linguistic signs on account of their

nature, which in many cases is not primarily that of signifying: “...the semiological sign is

compounded of a signifier and a signified, but it differs from its linguistic model at the level

of its substances. Many semiological systems have a substance whose essence is not to

signify; they are objects of everyday use, used by society in a derivative way, to signify

something:...we propose to call them sign-functions.” (Barthes 41). In spite of this variation

in the notion of the semiological sign respect the linguistic sign, Peirce's triadic model of

classification of signs is still applicable, since the semiological is only a type of sign.

According to Peirce, a sign is “something which stands to somebody in some respect or

capacity" ( Peirce, C.S., Collected Papers, Vol. 2 Para. 228). Signs, Peirce argues, can be

classified according to the relationship the "signans” and the “signatum” ( signifier and

signified respectively) bear. Therefore, an icon is something which functions as a sign by

means of features of itself that resemble the object, an index functions as a sign by virtue of

some sort of factual or causal connections with its object, and a symbol signifies because of

some 'rule' of conventional or habitual association between itself and its object.

To complete the map of concepts that will enlighten this analysis, it is necessary to

ponder the underlying implications of metonymy and metaphor. Jakobson extended the

saussurian notion of the syntagmatic and the associative as realisations of two modes of

mental activity. He applied this concept to non-linguistic systems claiming that signs

acquire value, i.e. signify, by means of their articulation within two planes, namely the

plane of the contiguities and the plane of the substitutions. These two ways would
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determine two types of discourse, none of which is mutually exclusive. On the contrary,

they interact within the inevitable predominance of one over the other to produce meaning.

Analysis

The signifying elements in the Lucchetti brand's Advertising campaing.

The system : The conventional family

It is interesting then to pose here the following question: in what ways is the system in

Lucchetti's advertising campaign a sign system?

First of all, an identification of the signs at play should be advanced. The Lucchetti

brand has chosen the conventional family, where there is a father, a mother, a child, and the

kitchen as scenario. Thus, the fragments of the Lucchetti’s advertising system have been

“dissected”. Another challenging question would be to ask whether in the Lucchetti’

commercials different substances, hence more than one system, could be identified. An

affirmative answered may be ventured, since as Barthes claims the task of the semiologist is

to dismantle and articulate all the elements in the sign system to discover what the functions

that generate meaning are. But in dismantling the elements, it can be easily observed that

there are other sign systems that clash with the one that seems to be the embracing structural

system: that of the family. These systems are: the music system, the food system, the image

system, the social conventions system, to name the most prominent ones. It follows that the

Lucchetti commercials can be classed as a complex system.

The signs : the family members

It might be illuminating to apply Peirce's classification to see which type of sign is

predominant and how this fact creates meaning. Let us take the "Advertising mom"

commercial. The mother lists a series of elements that she thinks are the necessary ones to

be considered a "a typical advertising mom". These elements are: a golden retriever, a well

brushed daughter, extractor hood made of stainless steel, a husband -with a tie, a dish full of
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delicious noodle soup, more noodles, and a smile to the camera. The items listed by the

mom are all units of different paradigms which in turn contain different sub-paradigms and

therefore systems. To expand briefly on some of these paradigms we can say that a golden

retriever has been chosen from the pet paradigm and within this paradigm the paradigms of

all the possible animals that could be kept as pets in a family. The golden retriever, though,

displays certain behavioural attributes and physical characteristics that make of him an icon

of "the family pet". Likewise, we could apply the same analysis to each of the items, but the

"delicious noodle soup" deserves special attention, since this is a food product advertising

campaign. It is interesting to notice here the existence of no pure signs within Peirce’s

classification. An example of this is the concept of the soup which would be an iconical

index since it bears witness of the presence of the mother in the kitchen and, at the same

time, it stands for the fact that eating soup is nurturing. This soup could have been a chicken

soup, a vegetable soup, but noodles had to be advertised as well. The concept of soup is an

element that will appear again later in the campaign, since it symbolises "the typical

nurturing family dish”. An in this way it can be regarded as a symbolical index.

Concerning the substance of the signs in this system, it can be argued that most of the sign-

functions comply to the definition developed by Barthes. This fact can be illustrated with

the signs present in the commercial above mentioned, where the golden retriever's essence

in life is not to stand for the family pet, but only as a member of the animal kingdom. The

stainless steel hood's primal essence is merely utilitarian, but in this system acquires the

status of a synecdoche for a well equiped kitchen and therefore the system of connotation is

at work. Likewise, the noodle soup's basic purpose is that of feeding the members of the

family, but in this system it acts as a sign-function whose presence stands for the concepts

of nurturing, and maternal love and care.

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Up to here, though, we have inspected the signs in isolation and how their individual

meanings are conveyed in the whole system. It is necessary, at this point to see how all this

elements signify into a specific and linear combination. This idea brings us to the syntagm.

The syntagm: how the signs are combined in "Perfect mom"

As previously stated in this paper, the system consists of paradigms and these in turn

contain sub-paradigms. This concept of the paradigm is of paramount importance for

Barthes and his structural outlook of semiological systems. For “ ...a paradigm is a group, a

reservoir of objects from which one summons, by an act of citation, the object or unit one

wishes to endow with an actual meaning” (Barthes 1972).

Therefore, in order to make the system work, we will apply this act of summoning to

construct our syntagm: a unique combination that will stand for a text message. So, from the

paradigm of family members we choose the mother, a daughter and a husband. From the

paradigm of mothers: we summon the mother with a bracelet and shoulder-length wavy

hair. From the paradigm of children: we summon a well brushed daughter. From the

paradigm of husbands: we summon a husband with a tie who opens his mouth only to

criticise, and from the paradigm of anything else that would be missing to be a perfect

advertising mom: we summon the disappearence of the critical husband-with tie.

Hence, one of the many syntagms the campaing has produced. All the summoned elements

are combined linearly and respect the rule of difference from one another. This is also a well

constructed syntagm in the sense that to change one element, we would be to change the

relationship with the rest of the elements present and the paradigm would be altered as well.

A perfect web where one tinckle here makes the whole resonate. For how would the

audience like making the “well brushed daughter” disappear? Or “the stainless steel hood”?

It would break the harmony of the meaning perfectly created by each one of the elements

present and absent. It would not simply make sense. Since the one disposable element is the
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husband in tie who is only there to dart negative remarks at the almost perfect mom.

However, the fact that the husband can be removed from the scene is a key meaning

producing operation. The audience is confronted here with a clear example of opposition –

the zero degree of the opposition, since by withdrawing the husband-sign it can be

understood that his absence means the successful completion of the "perfect advertising

mom” stereotype. Notwithstanding, the husband-sign re-appears again at the end of the

commercial, and the natural order of the traditional close-knit family is restored.

The meaning-producing mechanisms.

Metonymy and metaphor in "Perfect Mom"

The sign-functions in the Lucchetti campaign system relate to one another in an

organized way that can be best explained in terms of metonymy and metaphor. Let us

analyse some examples. A metonymical type of discourse is created by the arrangement of

the elements in the commercial. The characters appear together in the kitchen space, and

this detail creates a metonymical combination - the kitchen stands for "home" and the

characters stand in metonymical adjacency because they are all summoned around the table

by the mother. At the same time, the items that appear in the scene are in an instancial

relationship of metonymy, for they are parts of different fields of discourse that are brought

together in a single instance of reality building a syntagmatic metaphorical relationship. The

husband, who is the breadwinner, is characterised by his “tie”. The tie is a metonymy for the

smartly-dressed husband, with all the possible connections we can draw from this minute

detail: success, well-being, high social class. The tie is also an index that the "perfect mom"

has been careful with her husband's attire.

Another sign whose syntagmatic relationships are worth commenting on is the “noodle

soup”. The soup is a metonymy of all the nurturing dishes a mother can cook for her family;

the soup “stands for” nurturing food. At the same time, the metaphorical axis is projected
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onto the metonymic axis, because "the image of the noodle soup" with “more noodles" is a

comparison between the love with which the mother performs the house chores and her

cooking skills –more love means more noodles and more nutrients.

Relationships of oppositions

“Lucchetti's Crumbled Bouillon" (“Caldo desgranado")

Probably the most illustrative examples of oppositions are found in "Lucchetti's

Crumbled Bouillon". The mother, in this particular commercial, seen from her wife role, is

testing the crumbled bouillon on the food she is preparing. Here we find the first set of

oppositions which may be classed as an instance of multilateral opposition: before pouring the

bouillon on the raw ingredients they look unattractive, and then they look delicious and

inviting. This kind of opposition is of the multilateral type, because the same basis of

comparison is operative when the bouillon is poured on the husband's head: he does not turn

into food, but into an attractive soap opera actor, famous among housewives.

“Kitchen Light”

A Bilateral opposition can be found in this commercial. It is illustrated in the

"Dirty/Clean" opposition which relate syntagmatically with the concepts of "Light off/Light

on". The basis for this opposition is not found in any of the other commercials, except for the

Blender commercial. In the latter, the on/off opposition appears in connection with listening or

not listening to the boy's request to buy a robot.

Conclusion

From this brief analysis on the Lucchetti Brand's Advertising campaign, it can be

concluded that this campaign constitutes a proper system of signs. In it, the elements of any

signifying system are present and maybe the one thing that distinguishes it from a linguistic

system is that its meaning has been decided by a group. It follows then, that this a motivated
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arbitrary system, where the sign-functions have been endowed with very specific meanings

which are not, in general, those the signs possessed instrinsically. These sign-functions have

acquired meanings different from their utilitarian nature, by virtue of their combination and

selection into different syntagms – the different commercials. The system is indeed very

successful as a text, since it can be easily read by an audience that shares the necessary

schematic and systemic knowledge and which will, eventually , be affected by its message. For

such is the ultimate goal of advertising as a creator of systems of signs –that of leaving an

indelible imprint that will result in purchasing a product.

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Works cited

• Barthes, Roland. “The Structuralist Activity,” trans, Richard Howard in Critical

Essays. Evanston, II: Northwestern University Press, 1972.

• De Saussure, Ferdinand. Course in General Linguistics. Ed. Charles Bally and

Albert Schehaye. Seventh Edition. La Salle, Illinois: Open Court, 1995.

• Hawkes, Terence. Chapter 4 "A science of signs". Structuralism and Semiotics.

Routledge. New York, 2004.

• Jakobson, Roman. Halle,Morris. Ch. 5 The metaphoric and metonymic poles.

Fundamentals of Language. Mouton Publishers.The Hague. Great Britain. 1980.