mise-en-scène of a set piece, the various signs combine to give the viewer a greater understanding of what they are viewing. The syntagmatic chain is constructed in such a way that it sets the feel of the scene and is particularly apparent when considering genre. A western for example may have many of the paradigmatic signs that the viewer has grown accustomed to. That everything is where they expect to see it is following the rules of this syntagmatic chain. If the horse is riding the cowboy, it breaks these rules and becomes a very different movie. References Semiotics Syntax Linguistics