Wanky Words! That's what my students call them. Long words that are only used by people who want to sound clever. "Why can't they use simple words?" they ask me.
Well, the reason is that it's easier to use a single (wanky) word which has a specific meaning, than it is to use a lot of little words - which can often have a number of different meanings. It's about precision.
For an effective approach to the analysis of images, for example, you will find it useful to be familiar with the words listed below:
Denotation - This involves giving an objective, plain description of the image in question; actually quite difficult to do. Try it and see if you can avoid interpreting even as you read it. I have tried to offer a denotation of Magritte's "Time Transfixed."
Connotation - This offers interpretations of the details of the image that you can bring to mind. It is in the connotation of images that the cultural baggage can be found. My second paragraph of the discussion of "Time Transfixed" offers connotations of its details.
Icon - An icon is a type of image that works by resembling what it means. Pictogrammes are iconic in the way they work. Icons are image equivalents of onomatopoeic words (words that sound like their meaning; pop, crash etc.). Images of film stars are iconic - though they also carry powerful connotions, and can become symbols.
Index - An index is an image or sign that is logically connected to what it means. Smoke is an index of fire; a symptom is an index of a disease; Bogart is an index of Casablanca (the movie, not the place!). An index does not resemble what it stands for but there is usually a way of figuring out the connection.
Symbol - A symbol need not be an image at all! I am using symbols to write this. A synbol is pure sign. The relationship between the symbol and what it stands for has to be learned, and is culturally specific; the thumbs-up sign can be understood as meaning 'well-being' or for asking for a ride (hitch-hiking). But in some countries no one would stop for you because it means the same as we understand by using your middle finger to someone! Culture dictates meaning.
Semiology / Semiotics - These words mean the same thing. The first is the American version of the second (french - "semiotique"). They denote the name given to the study of signs - some call it the science of signs. In fact all the words above are part of the vocabulary of semiology or semiotics. Whole books have been written about it - so that's as much as I'm saying here.
The following words are useful in an approach to analysing narrative:
Syntagmatic - Syntax is the name given to the rules of grammar that dictate the correct order of words in a sentence. A syntagmatic analysis of a narrative examines the order of events and considers whether they they occur in a pattern that may be considered conventional.
Paradigmatic - When we choose what words to put into our sentence we are selecting from a bank or clusters of words: do we use the word "smell" to place in this particular context? Or would the word "stench" be better? Or "fragrance"? Or "odor"? Words often come in families. They keep company with each other. A paradigm is a perfect example of something. A paradigmatic analysis looks at the choices that have been made in selecting a way of presenting a particular situation.
Diegesis - This is the world of the film (or cultural product in question); the fictional world that the movie creates. Things that exist in that world are described as diegetic. Things that are added to this fiction, or spill over the edges of its narrative are non-diegetic. For example, Sam's (piano) music in Rick's Cafe Americain (in Casablanca) is diegetic (sometimes called source music, because we see, or understand, where it is coming from). But the music that accompanies the close-up of Rick when he first sees Ilsa is an orchestral score laid onto the sound track. It is meant to be an index of Rick's emotional shock and is non-diegetic.