Term
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Definition
Language is the premo of technology àOur primary vehicle
As a by-product of our drive to communicate and to create meaning, we have an instinct for representation and
symbols
-we ‘speak’ the world into existence
-we are completely wrapped in and conditioned by language
àWe are primarily representing beings who use language to express experiences and to make sense of things
-we are conditioned by language
-We need to use language to explore language |
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Term
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Definition
-media theorist
-Why not study the signs?
-semiology (sign, signification, signified)
-Semiology: Work to make people's expilict knowledge implicit, to understand what is not natural |
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Term
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Definition
-The sign is the smallest unit of meaning
-Made up of the signifier (SR)-the material element
-And signified (SD)- the mental concept
-In practice, the SD and SR are not seperable
ex/ Sign: Rose, Signifier (picture a rose), Signified: idea of a rose (love, romance)
You cannot divide the signifier and the signified (the idea and the representation of the idea) |
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Term
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Definition
| -the study of signs of how they exist in that particular moment, without any reference to history |
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Definition
| -the study of signs and how they worked throughout history |
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Term
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Definition
-believed in innate structure compacity of humans
-French anthropologist
Surface: speech/discourse, folk tales/stories, patterns of marriage/family
Deep: structure of language, structure of myth, structure of kinship |
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Term
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Definition
-humans uncover the world through binary oppositions
-create meaning through tranjectory, black/white |
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Definition
-The function of stories is to make the world intelligible –but according to the interests of those with power
-Myths and stories ‘naturalize’ the world the way it is (maintain the status quo)
àNaturalize—rips the history out
-We are products of history
Nothing is EVER just there
-He is tired of the mainstream media saying things were just that way |
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Term
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Definition
What is MYTH?
-A type of ‘depoliticized’speech
-Consists of all kinds of cultural products, photos, ads, film, newspapers,
-It transforms what are social and historical products into natural ‘facts’
-Represents this interests of those in power
-Impossible to escape the workings of mth |
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Term
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Definition
-we are always told we are reading too much into things
-those in power's interests are served by the photograph/ad and therefore deny this |
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Term
| Barthe's Levels of Meaning |
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Definition
Denotative- obvious literal meaning
Connotative- cultural associations that shift and change
Mythic- well established, overarching ideological meanings |
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Term
| 2nd Level of Signification |
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Definition
Barthes:
2nd level of signifcation
àAt first you have Saussure, then you have a new meaning created by ads, etc.
ex/ Signifier- Red Rose (idea of rose + word: rose)
Signified- Romance, Valentine’s Day
Sign- Symbolic meaning of rose: LOVE (Concept)
THIS IS A MYTH
àSign is how the idea gets attached to the signifier
-Depoliticized, taking the history out of things
-Not natural, we culturally created the rose as a symbol of love
-Myth makes things that are historical seem natural
-WE culturally create value
–myths make us not think that we have created it |
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Term
| Langue and Parole (saussure) |
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Definition
Langue: makes speech possible, creates meaning--> underlying rules codes and grammers
because of these it makes speech possible
parole: the actual utterance and speech acts of language |
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Term
| Language is arbitrary: Where is produced from? |
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Definition
1. Meaning is produced through difference. (black/white)
a) 1. paradigm: meaning is produced through difference (vertical axis)
2. syntax: rules of combination (change in sequence=change in meaning, x horizontal axis) |
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