ABSTRACT
The distinction is a key one in structuralist semiotic analysis in which these two structural 'axes' (horizontal as syntagmatic and vertical as paradigmatic) are seen as applicable to all sign systems. Both syntagmatic and paradigmatic analysis treat signs as part of a system– exploring their functions within codes and subcodes. Whereas syntagmatic analysis studies the manifest structure of a text, paradigmatic analysis seeks to identify latent elements – significant absences on which its meaning depends and to assess positive or negative connotations. Structuralist semioticians refer to the 'commutation test', which can be used in order to determine the significance of signs. Roman Jakobson generalized Nicholai Trubetzkoy's phonemic theory of markedness: 'every single constituent of any linguistic system is built on an opposition of two logical contradictories: the presence of an attribute in contraposition to its absence'. The concept of markedness can be applied to the poles of a paradigmatic opposition: paired signs consist of an 'unmarked' and a 'marked' form.
