SYNTAGM all media
Syntagm and Paradigm Connection
Syntagm and Paradigm are tightly connected. So, we can talk about the syntagmic and the paradigmatic as relating to each other.
Both are terms that we use in the discipline of semiotics which is a process of undertaking textual analysis.
More specifically both terms allow us to undertake structural analysis because we are thinking about how narratives are put together and organised.
Syntagm refers to combinations of words or images.
Paradigm refers to how we can create differentiation in meaning (we might write: “the boy cried” but if we write “the man cried” there is a change in meaning, albeit a subtle one)
Syntagm
Syntagm refers to “an orderly combination of interacting signifiers which forms a meaningful whole.” Syntagm refers to where you put a word or an image in a sequence. See the Oxford Reference definition here.
A prime example of a syntagm is a written sentence: it is a syntagm of words.
“Syntagmic relations are the various ways in which constituent units within the same text may be structurally related to each other.” (Oxford Reference)
Therefore, each shot in a film scene demonstrates this orderly combination of interacting signifiers. Another example would be each ‘frame’ of a comic.
So, a syntagm is a specific way of organising individual signifiers (words, images, sounds).
A syntagm can be sequential (films, comics, tv) or spatial (montage in posters and photographs).
Paradigm
Paradigm is absolutely related to the idea of a syntagm. Paradigm refers to replacing replace one word or image with another to create a different emphasis in meaning.
When we talk of a paradigm in terms of modes of written communication, we must remember that all elements of language can be understood through the idea of syntagm and the idea of paradigm.
So, to speak of the paradigmatic is to refer to the “relationship between an element (a word) at a given point within a sentence and an element with which, syntactically, it is interchangeable.” (The Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought, p.840) The simplest example to illustrate this is if we take the statement: “He is coming.” the relationship between the words He, is and coming is syntagmic (it’s a specific way of ordering these three words) and the relationship between He and She and is and will be is paradigmatic: you can swap out He for She and ‘is coming’ for ‘will be coming’ and it creates a slightly different meaning. It’s a way of subtly shaping the intended meaning of a text. So, a paradigm allows one signifier (e.g.: he or she) to be replaced with another.
In the context of film and tv, film language demonstrates how the idea of paradigm works: a wide shot can be replaced by a close up but still show us the same subject (a man smiling) but puts a particular emphasis on it due to which shot type is being used.
Genre can also be understood as a paradigm. A horror movie and a science fiction movie can both explore the same subject but do so using their particular genre conventions.
