DOCSLIB.ORG

CUST 100 Week 17: 29 January Stuart Hall: Encoding/Decoding Reading: Stuart Hall, ‘Encoding/Decoding’ (Coursepack)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
CUST 100 Week 17: 29 January Stuart Hall: Encoding/Decoding Reading: Stuart Hall, ‘Encoding/Decoding’ (Coursepack) CUST 100 Week 17: 29 January Stuart Hall: Encoding/Decoding Reading: Stuart Hall, ‘Encoding/Decoding’ (Coursepack) N.B. If you want a semiotics refesher in relation to ‘Encoding-Decoding,’ please check the following site: Daniel Chandler, ‘Semiotics for Beginners—Encoding/Decoding’ http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem08c.htmls The domains of ‘preferred meanings’ have the whole social order embedded in them as a set of meanings, practices and beliefs: the everyday knowledge of the social structures of ‘how things work for all practical purposes in this culture’, the rank order of power and interest and the structure of legitimations, limits and sanctions. And [encoding] cannot determine or guarantee, in a simple sense, which decoding codes will be employed. Otherwise communication would be a perfectly equivalent circuit, and every message would be an instance of ‘perfectly transparent communication. Introductory remarks This week we are going to look at the active role of the audience in the construction of meaning that takes place in the circuits of commodified culture Hall’s basic thesis: circuits of communication reproduce a pattern of domination—meaning is interrelated with power This takes place during a process of what Hall calls encoding and decoding Encoding: refers to the creation of cultural texts (i.e. TV program) Decoding: refers to the interpretation of cultural texts While Hall emphasizes the active role of the audience, he also realizes that interpretation is conditioned by the preferred reading that is encoded into the text upon production This encoding is imprinted by institutional power relations and express a ‘complex structure of dominance’—ideology Nonetheless, meaning (the preferred reading) is never guaranteed So while we always have agency in the construction of meaning, our interpretation is always in relation to the preferred reading—even if it radically differs Thus Hall situates meaning as polysemic not pluralistic Key themes and concepts 1 Process of Encoding-Decoding 2) Semiotic aspect of Encoding-Decoding 1) Process of Encoding-Decoding Hall offers a four-stage model for the process of communication (he originally wrote this paper specifically about television broadcasting) He does so because he wants to understand how meaning is produced Specifically, he wants to know two things: • 1) how do we actively participate in the construction of meaning • 2) how does dominant meaning gets reproduced He emphasizes how meaning (the symbolic) always occurs in a specific context (material) As such, he is implicitly critical of Behaviourist models (like ‘effects, uses and gratifications’ as used in Psychology) which focus exclusively on the interior interpretation of the individual There are four ‘relatively autonomous’ stages in the production and dissemination of meaning i) Production—ENCODING ii) Circulation iii) Use (reception/consumption)—DECODING iv) Reproduction Each stage “has its specific modality and conditions of existence” In short, one stages does not strictly determine the following stage Thus decoding often differs (slightly or greatly) from encoding—i.e. how a message is interpreted is not always the same as how it was constructed i) Production • both material and symbolic This is a set of material practices w/n a given media apparatus The institutional structures of broadcasting, with their practices and networks of production, their organized relations and technical infrastructures, are required to produce a programme. The symbolic is the actual construction of the message • is it where the message in encoded The encoding is the key moment in the entire circuit of communication 2 key points about ‘encoding’ in production 1) The ‘event’ or content must be put into ‘message form’ • a privileged moment in the overall circuit/process • i.e. ‘raw’ events cannot be circulated (they must be ‘encoded’ first) 2) Encoding takes place via what Hall calls the “institutional-societal r/ns of production” • this production structure does not form a ‘closed system’ • it is w/n “a wider socio-cultural, and political structure” ii) Circulation There is a difference in how we perceive something that is circulated on a major network vs. community television On a more basic level, there is a difference in how we perceive a visual image as opposed to the written word (C.F. Medium theory) • each medium as its own ‘conditions of perception’ In short, how the content is circulated is going to influence how it is received The visual image of TV is a good example The dog in a film can bark but it cannot bite. In other words, TV violence is not violence; rather, it is a message about violence Many (most?) have difficulty making this distinction because visual images appear as if they are transparent representations of reality We often forget that visual images are themselves encoded We must understand how ‘reality’ is both mediated and coded • reality is not natural • reality is articulated thru. codes • reality is mediated • reality is naturalized thru. codes This brings us to another basic point made by Hall: Communication is not a process by which ‘reality’ is transparently represented We need to look not for verisimilitude but for how reality is naturalized thru. codes In short, reality only becomes reality thru. a process of codification The operation of naturalized codes reveals not the transparency and ‘naturalness’ of language but the depth, the habituation and the near-universality of the codes in use. Naturalized codes produce a seemingly natural or transparent recognition of reality that has the ideological effect of concealing the practice of coding It is thru. the naturalization of codes that dominant meaning gets produced— thus constructing equivalency b/n encoding and decoding We read signs as natural even though they are only ever coded When codes are naturalized to this degree, Hall calls it an ideological effect— the practice and intervention of the codes (in ordering reality) are concealed iii) Use—Decoding Some of the most important details of decoding will be covered in section 2) below Here I will outline the three key positions Hall outlines for decoding This is the site in the circuit of communication where the audience is active The preferred reading or encoding is not always fully accepted—although the encoding sets parameters and limits for decoding Hall emphasizes the structural (not the individual) aspect of such variations A) Dominant or Hegemonic A virtually identical equivalence b/n encoding and decoding • you receive the cultural text fully within the dominant code • the coding seems natural and transparent B) Negotiated The preferred reading is accepted as ‘legitimate’ with some alteration • a mixture of adaptive and oppositional elements • overall the decoding is very similar to the encoding but there are specific modifications • full of contradictions and disjunctions C) Oppositional The preferred reading is rejected • a clear understanding of the dominant coding • but it is wholly refused and replaced by a different set of codes that reflects the receivers alternative frame of reference 2) Semiotic aspect of Encoding-Decoding iii) Use—Decoding CONT’D What is unique about Hall’s approach is that he inserts a semiotic paradigm into a social framework This is important because semiotics were typically used for an abstract analysis of meaning (synchronic structuralist method) Hall situates our active participation in the construction of meaning in both its material and symbolic context Semiotics refresher in relation to ‘Encoding-Decoding’ Semiotics is the study of signs—dvlpd in the early 20th c. by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure Sign (word/symbol and its meaning) = signifier (thing represented by sign) + signified (concept or idea of signifier) Meaning is produced thru. a system of signs—codification Denotation and Connotation The level of connotation…is where already coded signs intersect with the deep semantic codes of a culture and take on additional, more active ideological dimensions. Important conceptual tools necessary for understanding the process of encoding/decoding The semiotic construction of meaning is broken down into two levels by Roland Barthes in the late 1950s (Mythologies) Denotative level • the literal meaning of something Connotative level • associative meaning • where the ‘struggle over meanings’ occurs (Volosinov) Denotative-Connotative level and the construction of meaning Denotative level • the level of meaning that is naturalized • coding (ideology) as deeply sedimented • a reflection of structural power r/ns • a reflection of the “dominant cultural order” This level is part of what Hall calls “the structure of discourses in dominance” In other words, it helps to produce the dominant or preferred reading (which is encoded into the message) This dominant or preferred reading has both • i) the institutional/political/ideological order imprinted in them • ii) become institutionalized themselves (in encoding) Connotative level Where our active participation in the construction of meaning takes place When decoding is negotiated or oppositional, it occurs on the connotative level But the connotative level always operates in r/n to the denotative level If we take the negotiated or oppositional position, we are working against the preferred meaning • against “the orders of social life, of economic and political power, and of ideology” Thus even oppositional readings are never an individual or private matter but are in r/n to encoding that
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Charles Sanders Peirce - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia 9/2/10 4:55 PM
    Charles Sanders Peirce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 9/2/10 4:55 PM Charles Sanders Peirce From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Charles Sanders Peirce (pronounced /ˈpɜrs/ purse[1]) Charles Sanders Peirce (September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Peirce was educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for 30 years. It is largely his contributions to logic, mathematics, philosophy, and semiotics (and his founding of pragmatism) that are appreciated today. In 1934, the philosopher Paul Weiss called Peirce "the most original and versatile of American philosophers and America's greatest logician".[2] An innovator in many fields (including philosophy of science, epistemology, metaphysics, mathematics, statistics, research methodology, and the design of experiments in astronomy, geophysics, and psychology) Peirce considered himself a logician first and foremost. He made major contributions to logic, but logic for him encompassed much of that which is now called epistemology and philosophy of science. He saw logic as the Charles Sanders Peirce formal branch of semiotics, of which he is a founder. As early as 1886 he saw that logical operations could be carried out by Born September 10, 1839 electrical switching circuits, an idea used decades later to Cambridge, Massachusetts produce digital computers.[3] Died April 19, 1914 (aged 74) Milford, Pennsylvania Contents Nationality American 1 Life Fields Logic, Mathematics, 1.1 United States Coast Survey Statistics, Philosophy, 1.2 Johns Hopkins University Metrology, Chemistry 1.3 Poverty Religious Episcopal but 2 Reception 3 Works stance unconventional 4 Mathematics 4.1 Mathematics of logic C.
    [Show full text]
  • A Semiotic Perspective on the Denotation and Connotation of Colours in the Quran
    International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature E-ISSN: 2200-3452 & P-ISSN: 2200-3592 www.ijalel.aiac.org.au A Semiotic Perspective on the Denotation and Connotation of Colours in the Quran Mona Al-Shraideh1, Ahmad El-Sharif2* 1Post-Graduate Student, Department of English Language and Literature, Al-alBayt University, Jordan 2Associate Professor of Linguistics, Department of English Language and Literature, Al-alBayt University, Jordan Corresponding Author: Ahmad El-Sharif, E-mail: [email protected] ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history This study investigates the significance and representation of colours in the Quran from the Received: September 11, 2018 perspective of meaning and connotation according to the semiotic models of sign interpretation; Accepted: December 06, 2018 namely, Saussure’s dyadic approach and Peirce’s triadic model. Such approaches are used Published: January 31, 2019 to analyze colours from the perspective of cultural semiotics. The study presents both the Volume: 8 Issue: 1 semantic and cultural semiotics aspects of colour signs in the Quran to demonstrate the various Advance access: December 2018 semiotic meanings and interpretations of the six basic colours (white, black, red, green, yellow, and blue). The study reveals that Arabic colour system agrees with colour universals, especially in terms of their categorization and connotations, and that semiotic analysis makes Conflicts of interest: None an efficient device for analyzing and interpreting the denotations and connotations of colour Funding: None signs in the Quran. Key words: Semiotics, Signs, Denotation, Connotation, Colours, Quran INTRODUCTION or reading, a colour ‘term’ instead of seeing the chromatic Colours affect the behaviour by which we perceive the features of the colour.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter Ii Review of Related Literature
    CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This chapter covers the discussion of general theory of semiotics, general concept of Roland Barthes’ terms orders of signification that are denotative and connotative meaning and the definition of context and song lyrics in literature and also the preview of the previous studies. A. Definition of Semiotics Beyond the most basic definition as ―the study of signs‖, there is considerable variation among leading semioticians as to what semiotics involves. As Chandler (2002) cited from Eco (1976) that one of the broadest definitions is that of Umberto Eco, who states that ―semiotics is concerned with everything that can be taken as a sign‖. The study is involved by semiotics, not only as ―sign‖ of what we refer to call or say in daily speech, but as anything which ―stands for‖ something else. In the sense of semiotic, the form of words, images, sounds, gestures and objects are taken by the signs. Modern semioticians study the signs not in isolation but as part of ―sign-systems‖ of semiotics (such as a genre or medium or). They study how to make meanings and how to represent the reality. Knowledge to study human life’s sign is called Semiotics. It is acquiescent as the method of the study in the Association for Semiotics Studies’ first conference in 1974. A sign is something which means something else for someone. On the side of etymology, the Greek word 14 15 ―semeion” was taken to make the word of ―Semiotics‖ itself which has a ―sign‖ meaning. A sign thereat means a thing referring other thing.
    [Show full text]
  • Eating the Other. a Semiotic Approach to the Translation of the Culinary Code
    UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI TORINO (UNITO) UNIVERSITÀ DELLA SVIZZERA ITALIANA (USI) Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici (UNITO) / Faculty of Communication Sciences (USI) DOTTORATO DI RICERCA (IN CO-TUTELA) IN: Scienze del Linguaggio e della Comunicazione (UNITO) / Scienze della Comunicazione (USI) CICLO: XXVI (UNITO) TITOLO DELLA TESI: Eating the Other. A Semiotic Approach to the Translation of the Culinary Code TESI PRESENTATA DA: Simona Stano TUTORS: prof. Ugo Volli (UNITO) prof. Andrea Rocci (USI) prof. Marcel Danesi (UofT, Canada e USI, Svizzera) COORDINATORI DEL DOTTORATO: prof. Tullio Telmon (UNITO) prof. Michael Gilbert (USI) ANNI ACCADEMICI: 2011 – 2013 SETTORE SCIENTIFICO-DISCIPLINARE DI AFFERENZA: M-FIL/05 EATING THE OTHER A Semiotic Approach to the Translation of the Culinary Code A dissertation presented by Simona Stano Supervised by Prof. Ugo Volli (UNITO, Italy) Prof. Andrea Rocci (USI, Switzerland) Prof. Marcel Danesi (UofT, Canada and USI, Switzerland) Submitted to the Faculty of Communication Sciences Università della Svizzera Italiana Scuola di Dottorato in Studi Umanistici Università degli Studi di Torino (Co-tutorship of Thesis / Thèse en Co-tutelle) for the degree of Ph.D. in Communication Sciences (USI) Dottorato in Scienze del Linguaggio e della Comunicazione (UNITO) May, 2014 BOARD / MEMBRI DELLA GIURIA: Prof. Ugo Volli (UNITO, Italy) Prof. Andrea Rocci (USI, Switzerland) Prof. Marcel Danesi (UofT, Canada and USI, Switzerland) Prof. Gianfranco Marrone (UNIPA, Italy) PLACES OF THE RESEARCH / LUOGHI IN CUI SI È SVOLTA LA RICERCA: Italy (Turin) Switzerland (Lugano, Geneva, Zurich) Canada (Toronto) DEFENSE / DISCUSSIONE: Turin, May 8, 2014 / Torino, 8 maggio 2014 ABSTRACT [English] Eating the Other. A Semiotic Approach to the Translation of the Culinary Code Eating and food are often compared to language and communication: anthropologically speaking, food is undoubtedly the primary need.
    [Show full text]
  • 22-Barthes-Semiotics.Pdf
    gri34307_ch26_332-343.indd Page 332 17/01/11 9:35 AM user-f469 /Volumes/208/MHSF234/gri34307_disk1of1/0073534307/gri34307_pagefiles Objective Interpretive CHAPTER 26 ● Semiotic tradition F r om : E . M . G r i f f i n , A F i r s t L o o k a t C ommu n i c a t i o n T h e ory , 8 t h E d . , Ne w Y o r k , Ne w Y o r k : Mc G r a w H i l l ,2 0 1 2 . Semiotics of Roland Barthes French literary critic and semiologist Roland Barthes (rhymes with “smart”) wrote that for him, semiotics was not a cause, a science, a discipline, a school, a movement, nor presumably even a theory. “It is,” he claimed, “an adventure.” 1 The goal of semiotics is interpreting both verbal and nonverbal signs . The verbal side of the fi eld is called linguistics. Barthes, however, was mainly interested in the nonverbal side—multifaceted visual signs just waiting to be read. Barthes held the chair of literary semiology at the College of France when he was struck and killed by a laundry truck in 1980. In his highly regarded book Mythologies , Barthes sought to decipher the cultural meaning of a wide variety of visual signs—from sweat on the faces of actors in the fi lm Julius Caesar to a magazine photograph of a young African soldier saluting the French fl ag. Unlike most intellectuals, Barthes frequently wrote for the popular press and occasionally appeared on television to comment on the foibles of the French middle class.
    [Show full text]
  • Animal Umwelten in a Changing World
    Tartu Semiotics Library 18 Tartu Tartu Semiotics Library 18 Animal umwelten in a changing world: Zoosemiotic perspectives represents a clear and concise review of zoosemiotics, present- ing theories, models and methods, and providing interesting examples of human–animal interactions. The reader is invited to explore the umwelten of animals in a successful attempt to retrieve the relationship of people with animals: a cornerstone of the past common evolutionary processes. The twelve chapters, which cover recent developments in zoosemiotics and much more, inspire the reader to think about the human condition and about ways to recover our lost contact with the animal world. Written in a clear, concise style, this collection of articles creates a wonderful bridge between Timo Maran, Morten Tønnessen, human and animal worlds. It represents a holistic approach Kristin Armstrong Oma, rich with suggestions for how to educate people to face the dynamic relationships with nature within the conceptual Laura Kiiroja, Riin Magnus, framework of the umwelt, providing stimulus and opportuni- Nelly Mäekivi, Silver Rattasepp, ties to develop new studies in zoosemiotics. Professor Almo Farina, CHANGING WORLD A IN UMWELTEN ANIMAL Paul Thibault, Kadri Tüür University of Urbino “Carlo Bo” This important book offers the first coherent gathering of perspectives on the way animals are communicating with each ANIMAL UMWELTEN other and with us as environmental change requires increasing adaptation. Produced by a young generation of zoosemiotics scholars engaged in international research programs at Tartu, IN A CHANGING this work introduces an exciting research field linking the biological sciences with the humanities. Its key premises are that all animals participate in a dynamic web of meanings WORLD: and signs in their own distinctive styles, and all animal spe- cies have distinctive cultures.
    [Show full text]
  • Human Values in a Postmodern World
    Human Values in a Postmodern World Steven L. Winter* More than forty years ago, Maurice Merleau-Ponty identified a philosophical fault line that continues to rumble through diverse contem- porary debates. "Today," he proclaimed, "a humanism does not oppose religion with an explanation of the world. It begins by becoming aware of contingency. ' In the current period of deconstruction and other postmodernisms, Merleau-Ponty's rejection and reconception of the Enlightenment idea of humanism has greater resonance than ever.2 For many, it has become a postmodern truism that "the human condition" cannot be represented, described, or explained as just so many facts about the world. According to the now standard (if somewhat overstated) axiom of postmodernism, everything about humanity is socially contingent. Reactions vary dramatically. For some, the recognition of contingency appears to open up conceptual space for transformative politics and radical social change. For others, however, the specter of contingency is radically destabilizing. Because they equate social contingency with the loss of foundations, they believe that social contingency leads inevitably from moral relativism to nihilism. For them, the logic of this trajectory is ineluctable. If everything is socially contingent, no social or moral system can claim greater validity than any other. And if all such systems are equally valid, then we are left with no reliable values, no moral standards, and no criteria of choice. The absence of sure foundations, they are convinced, means that we are left with an alarming and intolerable nihilism.3 * © Steven L. Winter, 1994. All rights reserved. 1. MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY, SIGNS 241 (Richard C.
    [Show full text]
  • The Work of David Foster Wallace and Post-Postmodernism Charles Reginald Nixon Submitted in Accordance with the Requirements
    - i - The work of David Foster Wallace and post-postmodernism Charles Reginald Nixon Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of English September 2013 - ii - - iii - The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. © 2013 The University of Leeds and Charles Reginald Nixon The right of Charles Reginald Nixon to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. - iv - - v - Acknowledgements (With apologies to anyone I have failed to name): Many thanks to Hamilton Carroll for guiding this thesis from its earliest stages. Anything good here has been encouraged into existence by him, anything bad is the result of my stubborn refusal to listen to his advice. Thanks, too, to Andrew Warnes for additional guidance and help along the way, and to the many friends and colleagues at the University of Leeds and beyond who have provided assistance, advice and encouragement. Stephen Burn, in particular, and the large and growing number of fellow Wallace scholars I have met around the world have contributed much to this work's intellectual value; our conversations have been amongst my most treasured, from a scholarly perspective and just because they have been so enjoyable.
    [Show full text]
  • Full-Text (PDF)
    Vol.7(3), pp. 59-66, March 2015 DOI: 10.5897/JMCS2014.0412 Article Number: ABC767050719 Journal of Media and Communication ISSN 2141 -2189 Copyright © 2015 Studies Author(s) retain the copyright of this article http://www.academicjournlas.org/JMCS Full Length Research Paper Reinterpreting some key concepts in Barthes’ theory Sui Yan and Fan Ming* Foreign Languages Department, Beijing University of Agriculture, 7 Beinong Road, Changping District, Beijing, 102206, China. Received 16 September; 2014; Accepted 12 February, 2015 The paper makes clear some basic concepts in semiotic studies like signifier, signified and referent and core concepts in Roland Barthes’s theory are restudied with new developments especially in connotateurs, meta-language and meaning transfer, which play a key role in understanding how myth is constructed with the two mechanisms of naturalizing and generalizing. With the new understanding, the paper studies the representative signs from television and their semiotic function and concludes that meaning transfer is the fundamental way for media signs to construct new meanings. Key words: semiotics, Barthes, media signs INTRODUCTION Signification, denotation, connotation and meta- community’ (Cullen, 1976: 19) buys into. But for Barthes, language the culmination of meaning created by signifier plus signified is more than just a system of random naming or It is Ferdinand de Saussure who makes the important nomenclature. It is subject to a rich layering of meaning distinction between signifier and signified of a sign according to each country’s cultures. Barthes (1981) and (Saussure, 1915/1966), which incurs persistent and Moriarty (1991) extend the study of signs in culture, and diversified study on the structural characteristics of signs.
    [Show full text]
  • Syntagmatic Paradigmatic
    Analysing Structure (Summary of Chandler’s “Semiotics: the Basic”) -Semiotics- Ni Wayan Swardhani W. 2012 Semiotics An approach to textual analysis Structural analysis Focuses on the structural relations which are functional in the signifying system at a particular moment of history Involves identifying constituent units in a semiotics system (text or socio-cultural practice), the structural relationship between them (the opposition, correlation, and logical relations) and the relation of the parts to the whole (Chandler p. 83) Horizontal and Vertical Axes • Syntagmatic positioning • Paradigmatic substitution associative relations (Saussure) girl kisses boyfriend Paradigmatic axis Paradigmatic old man punches his friend The young lady calls her parents Syntactic axis cloudy seems raining Paradigmatic axis Paradigmatic sky shows sunny The weather looks stormy Syntactic axis buys book axis Paradigmatic Mother reads newspaper Father writes letters Syntactic axis Source: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/semiotic.html • Semiotics can be applied to: • anything which can be seen as signifying something • to everything which has meaning within a culture. • media texts (including television and radio programmes, films, cartoons, newspaper and magazine articles, posters and other ads) • the practices involved in producing and interpreting such texts. • The task of the semiotician (Saussurean tradition) • to look beyond the specific texts or practices to the systems of functional distinctions operating within them. • to establish the underlying conventions, identifying significant differences and oppositions in an attempt to model the system of categories, relations (syntagmatic and paradigmatic), connotations, distinctions and rules of combination employed. Conducting Semiotic Analysis Identifying the text • Include a copy of the text with your analysis of it (if possible), noting any significant shortcomings of the copy.
    [Show full text]
  • Semiotic Analysis
    1 Semiotic Analysis face this assignment—explaining semiotics and showing how it can be I applied to television and popular culture to those who know little or nothing about the subject—with a certain amount of apprehension. I’m not sure whether semiotics is a subject, a movement, a philosophy, or a cult-like reli- gion. I do know that there is a large and rapidly expanding literature on the subject and that many of the writings of semioticians are difficult to under- stand and highly technical. So my mission, if not impossible, is quite challenging: Not only am I to explain the fundamental notions or elements of semiotics, but I am also to apply them to television and television productions as well as to popular cul- ture in general. It is a large undertaking, but I think it can be done. The price I must pay involves a certain amount of simplification and narrowness of focus. I am going to explain the basic principles of semiotics and discuss some sample applications. I hope that after reading this chapter and the annotated bibliog- raphy provided, those interested in semiotics will probe more deeply into it at their own convenience. A Brief History of the Subject Although interest in signs and the way they communicate has a long history (medieval philosophers, John Locke, and others have shown interest), mod- ern semiotic analysis can be said to have begun with two men: Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913) and American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914). (Peirce called his system semiotics, and that has become the dominant term used for the science of signs.
    [Show full text]
  • Meaning in the Age of Modernism: CK Ogden and His Contemporaries
    COPYRIGHT AND USE OF THIS THESIS This thesis must be used in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. Reproduction of material protected by copyright may be an infringement of copyright and copyright owners may be entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. Section 51 (2) of the Copyright Act permits an authorized officer of a university library or archives to provide a copy (by communication or otherwise) of an unpublished thesis kept in the library or archives, to a person who satisfies the authorized officer that he or she requires the reproduction for the purposes of research or study. The Copyright Act grants the creator of a work a number of moral rights, specifically the right of attribution, the right against false attribution and the right of integrity. You may infringe the author’s moral rights if you: - fail to acknowledge the author of this thesis if you quote sections from the work - attribute this thesis to another author - subject this thesis to derogatory treatment which may prejudice the author’s reputation For further information contact the University’s Director of Copyright Services sydney.edu.au/copyright Meaning in the Age of Modernism: C. K. Ogden and his contemporaries James McElvenny Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English University of Sydney 2013 ABSTRACT This dissertation is a historical study of influential currents in the philosophy of language and linguistics of the first half of the twentieth century, explored from the perspective of the English scholar C.
    [Show full text]