ABSTRACT
The concept of code is prominent in structuralist discourse. There is only a passing reference in the Cours to the language code. Codes organize signs into meaningful systems, and in language-like systems they correlate signifiers and signifieds through the structural forms of syntagms and paradigms. Codes are thus regarded as central in communication and representation. A semiotic code is closely associated with a set of interpretive and representational practices familiar to its users, and the conventions of codes represent a social dimension in structuralist semiotics. Despite the limitations of the language model in relation to non-linguistic sign systems, it is fundamental in structuralist theory. Denotation is sometimes regarded as a digital code, based on either/or distinctions of kind, and connotation as an analogue code, based on 'more-or-less' differences of degree. A range of typologies of codes can be found in the literature of semiotics. All codes are social since their conventions are constructed in social and cultural contexts.
