Notions of the syntagm and the paradigm were first formulated by Ferdinand de Saussure in his Course in General Linguistics (Saussure, 1983). Saussure describes two dimensions of language: syntagmatic and paradigmatic. The syntagmatic dimension refers to the stringing together of elements in time. In language, the formation of a sentence occurs as we place word after word along the syntagmatic dimension. In the paradigmatic dimension, each word we choose in a sentence comes from a vast set of possible words. If we begin a sentence, "The lizard crawled over to the ...". What comes next is chosen from the set of possible words taken from the paradigmatic dimension. As Manovich describes it, "Elements in the syntagmatic dimension are related in praesentia, while elements in the paradigmatic dimension are related in absentia.... Thus, syntagm is explicit and paradigm is implicit; one is real and the other is imagined" (Manovich 2001, 230).

This traditional application of syntagm and paradigm has been applied extensively. (see Methodology #2) Manovich sees the application of these terms quite differently, when applied to new media. Manovich claims, "New media reverse this relationship. ... (the paradigm) is given material existence, while ... (the syntagm) is dematerialised. Paradigm is privileged, syntagm is downplayed. Paradigm is real; syntagm, virtual" (Manovich 2001, 231). Speaking specifically of the interactive new media object, Manovich notes that in a screen-based work, a user chooses from a number of icons to click, to send the user to another screen in the work. "On the level of an individual screen, these choices form a paradigm of their own that is explicitly presented to the user. On the level of the whole object, the user is made aware that she is following one possible trajectory among many others. In other words, she is selecting one trajectory from the paradigm of all trajectories that are defined" (Manovich 2001, 231). For Manovich, the trajectories, which are the realized paths through the work, form a set of possibilities. Here Manovich is referring to the interactivity in a relatively straight-forward interactive new media object. I would consider the interactivity in this thesis to be such an example. All options, the paradigm, are clearly laid out as buttons in the interface. There is nothing hidden; nothing that needs to be manipulated or figured out to reveal changing elements. Puppet Motel is, however, not quite so obvious in the presentation of its paradigms.