The Study Of The Syntagmatic And Paradigmatic Relations Of Stage Costume Symbols

The main object of this paper is the character costumes on the current theatrical stage.Through the perspective of semiotics,this thesis regards the theater costume as a non-verbal symbol,and uses the semiotic method to analyze and interpret theater costume symbols.The purpose of this paper is to explore and summarize the law of theatrical costume as a non-verbal symbol to convey meaning,thus providing a new perspective for the study of theatrical costume design.In the first part,the author combs and summarizes the functions and characteristics of theatrical costumes.In the second part,combined with the basic theory of semiotics,the drama costume is regarded as a symbolic system that can be interpreted rationally.By using a pair of basic categories that are useful and effective in semiotics – syntagmatic and paradigmatic,the author establishes a pair of axes to observe theatrical costumes.The constituent elements of the drama costume symbol and its influencing factors construct the syntagmatic axis and the paradigmatic axis of a theatrical costume symbol.The author divides the theatrical costume symbols into colors,styles,materials and patterns along the direction of the syntagmatic axis;and classifies influencing factors into the genre type,character setting and actor conditions,plot and relationship,the overall presentation style and value orientation along the paradigmatic direction.The third part of this paper,by taking the Broadway classic musical "Rent" as an example,tries to use the research method which is summarized in the second part to exam the costume symbols of An Qi in the play.Thus the author wants to make a systematic,rational and in-depth analysis of the information and meaning that the costume designer tends to convey in the play,and to grasp the design law full of symbolic beauty in the design of the theatrical costume.