The semiology has been the fundamental method of the ideological criticism. It is fit for the semiological mode to analyse
ideology, because the social collectivity is the internal character of the semiology, meanwhile the ideology is a collective conscience and representation, a mode of signification. F. d. Saussure distinguished la langue and la parole(sociality / individuality), he took semiology as criterion to determine that la langue is the object of linguistic study, because it is characterized by the social collectivity;L.Hjelmslev substituted schéma / usage for langue / parole,he thought both schéma and usage possess sociality;Roland Barthes depended on L. Hjelmslev’s theory——the schéma / usage of the language govern the sign’s structure, operation and signification,and he inverted Saussure’s declaration that linguistics is a part of semiology as he claims it is semiology that is a part of linguistics. Thus, he applied linguistics’ mode(the
syntagmatic order and the
paradigmatic order)to analyse all the facts of semiology, the phenomena of signification, in which the sentence is a typical syntagme. The sentence is a complete construction,a latent power of accomplishment. It accords with the ideology which is characterized by repetition,fixty and accomplishment; therefore, it becomes the model, channel and object of the analysis of cultural signification and ideology. The paradigmatic order is the class of connotation units (signifiers or signifieds). The denotation denotes verity (language’s verity), and transfers itself into the signifiers or the signifieds of connotation;in other words, the signifiers or the signifieds of connotation loads the denotation. The ideology is the constant of the signifieds of connotation, which realizes the verisimilitude of ideology by means of the denotation. The rhetoric is the constant of the signifiers of connotation, i. e. it appears as the signifying aspect of ideology,and,which is a semantic conversion, deviation and deformation.This is the very way to fulfil and unveil the ideological phantasm.So,we can say that the analysis of cultural signification is essentially the research of ideology and rhetoric.