page 61 "There is no guarantee that every object in one culture will have an equivalent meaning in another precisely because cultures differ, sometimes radically."
There can never be one shape and constructed meaning as sich associations and interpretations of subjects vary.
page 56 "discourse itself produces subjects" meaning that through which knowledge is digested and observations are made is in which those can give meaning and internalize messages from the subject that is given meaning through experiences and associations.
page 46 " The main point to get hold of here is the way discourse representation, knowledge, and truth are radically historicized by Foucault." Foucault had a completely different claim in that meaning to a subject aligned with a specific historical context in which it is brought up.
" Language is not an object which can be studied with law-like precision of a science." Language is not certain and rigid in the sense where one cause has a guaranteed certain outcome.
A critique of Sassure is that he only studied and paid attention to " signifier and signified". And did not analyze its regard to references.
2.0" Furthermore, the relation between the signifier and the signified are fixed by our cultural codes, is not -Saussure argued- permanent fixed. Words shift their meanings. The concepts (signifieds) to which they refer also change ,historically, and every shift alters the conceptual map of the culture, leading different cultures, at different historical moments to classify and think about the world differently." Words over time shift meaning with cultural implications and alters the conceptual map.
"Saussure called the first element, the signifier, and the second element- the corresponding element it triggered off in your head- the signified... Both are required to produced meaning but is the relation between them, fixed by our cultural and linguistic codes, which sustains representation." page 31). 32 - signifiers ares formed into a system of differences
pg 30 -2.0 "The social constructionist view of language and representation which we have been discussing owes a great deal to the work and influence of linguist Saussure... He is kown as the 'father of modern linguistics'....His importance lies in his general view of representation and the way his model of language shaped the semiotic approach to the problem of representation in a wide variety of cultural fields."
pg 26 1.5 " Red and Green work in the language of traffic lights because 'Stop' and 'Go' are the meanings which have been assigned to them in our culture by the code or conventions governing this language, and this code is widely known and universally obeyed in our culture and culture like ours-though we can well imagine other culture which did not possess the code, in which this language would be a complete mystery." We are able to give these colors assigned meanings because it's been internalized and have been accustomed to our familiar culture.
1.4 pg 24 " In the Reflective approach, meaning is thought to lie in the object, person, idea or event in the real world, and language functions like a mirror, to reflect the true meaning as it already exists in the world."
while(pg 25)- " Words mean what the author intends they should ,mean. This is the intentional approach. Again there is some point to this argument since we all , as individuals, do use language to convey or communicate things that are special or unique to us to our way of seeing the world.
pg 25 - " Things don't mean: we construct meaning using representational systems- concepts and signs. Hence, it is called the constructivist or constructionist approach to meaning in language."
page 22 "Early anthropologists of language, like Sapir and Whorf , took this insight to its logical extreme when they argued that we are all, as it were locked into our cultural perspectives or 'mind-sets' and that language is the best clue we have to that conceptual universe. This observation, when applied to all human cultures, lies at the root of what, today, we may think of cultural or linguistic relativism."
pg 22 1.3 " Not because such knowledge is imprinted in their genes but because they learn it's conventions and so gradually become 'cultured' persons. They unconsciously internalize the codes which allow them to express certain concepts and ideas through their systems of representation writing, speech, gesture, visualization, and so on." page 22 Such codes and ways of communicating are internalized by those and their surroundings, not by genes.
"And so are other things which aren't linguistic in any ordinary sense the "language" of facial expressions or of gesture, for example or the "language" with complex relations between different sounds and chords though it is a very special case since it can't easily be used to refer to things or objects in the world....Any sound, word, image or object which is capable as a sign, and is organized with other signs into a system which is carrying and expressing meaning is from this point of view ' a language'. ( pg 19). "Language is very faceted and can be translated through different ways in which we understand 1.1.
"But we cannot communicate this meaning without a second system of representation, a language. Language consists of
17-" So there are two processes, two systems of representations, involved. First, there is the 'system' by which all sorts of objects, people and events are correlated with a set of concepts or mental representations which we carry around in our heads. Without them, we could not interpret the world meaningfully at all. In the first place, then, meaning depends on the concepts and images formed in our thoughts which can stand for or represent the world enabling us to refer to things both inside and outside our heads." (page 17) This expresses the idea that as a system of representation there is a part of it that is regarding to our mental representations and our way of internalizing information of what is around us and creating our interpretations or perspectives of what is represented in the world.While having such interpretations we only have a very simple understanding.
CHAPTER I THE WORK OF Rf PRESENTATION (page 5) if we possess codes which allow us to translate our concepts into language - and vice versa. These codes are crucial for meaning and representation. They do not exist in nature hut are the result of social conventions. They are a crucial part of our culture - our shared 'maps of meaning' - which we learn and unconsciously internalize as we become members of our culture." (Intro) Language is crucial and integral in communicating and expressing an ideas. It functions as a way of enabling those who observe media to understand what is represented and internalize the "meaning that was given" to the topic ( people, topics, cultures) and shape their own perspectives on such subjects within society. "But we cannot communicate this meaning without a second system of representation, a language. Language consists of signs organized into various relationships. But signs can only convey meaning
CHAPTER I THE WORK OF Rf PRESENTATION 29 if we possess codes which allow us to translate our concepts into language - and vice versa. These codes are crucial for meaning and representation. They do not exist in nature hut are the result of social conventions. They are a crucial part of our culture - our shared 'maps of meaning' - which we learn and unconsciously internalize as we become members of our culture." (Page 6) It is integral part of the function of culture and representation.
Another understanding of system of representation is language. For example as stated on page 18 " Language is ttherefore the second syatem of representation involved in the overall process of constructing meaning. Our shared conceptual map must be translated into a common language so that we can correlate our concepts and idea with certain written words, spoken sounds or visual images. The general term we use for words, sounds or images which carry meaning is signs. These signs stand for or represent the concepts and the conceptual relations between them which we carry around in our heads and together they make up the meaning-systems of our culture."
page 21 "The meaning is constructed by the system of representation. It is constructed and fixed by the code, which sets up the correlation between our conceptual system and our language system in such a way that, every time we think of a tree, the code tells us to use the english word TREE or the French word ARBRE" This is expressing the idea that the way we internalize certain objects or subjects correlates with idea of having a certain understanding through representation.
page 20 " Visual signs are what called iconic signs. That is they bear in their form as certain resemblance to the object, person or event which they refer". This is a significant idea to point out as when at symbols and signs we are able to create and understanding of the subject shown and have a category and understanding of what is shown.
"But we cannot communicate this meaning without a second system of representation, a language. Language consists of signs organized into various relationships. But signs can only convey meaning
FIGURE 1.3 Juan Cotan, Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber, c.1602.
CHAPTER I THE WORK OF Rf PRESENTATION 29 if we possess codes which allow us to translate our concepts into language - and vice versa. These codes are crucial for meaning and representation. They do not exist in nature hut are the result of social conventions. They are a crucial part of our culture - our shared 'maps of meaning' - which we learn and unconsciously internalize as we become members of our culture.' pages 16-17) Meaning is given through language as a way of understanding the world around us and communicating with other.
'But we cannot communicate this meaning without a second system of representation, a language. Language consists of signs organized into various relationships. But signs can only convey meaning
FIGURE 1.3 Juan Cotan, Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber, c.1602.
CHAPTER I THE WORK OF Rf PRESENTATION 29 if we possess codes which allow us to translate our concepts into language - and vice versa. These codes are crucial for meaning and representation. They do not exist in nature hut are the result of social conventions. They are a crucial part of our culture - our shared 'maps of meaning' - which we learn and unconsciously internalize as we become members of our culture." page 6 Semiotic approach is how language produces meaning. And dfiscursive approach is about the effects and consequences of representation and how certain things are represented as well as how power plays a role in representation as how certain subjects are labeled or categorized. As well as it's signifgicance in regards to history.
page 145" Young man, accompanied by immortal charioteers, who reach my house by the horses which bring you welcome- since it was not an evil; destiny that sent you forth to travel this route ( for indeed it is far from the beaten path of humans) but Right and Justice. There is need for you to learn all things both the unshaken heart of persuasive Truth.There is need for you to learn all things both the unshaken heart of persuasive Truth and the opinions of mortals, in which there is no true reliance." page 145- Perhaps this is some enlightening revelation from a divinity or higher being.
page 145"There are gates of the roads of Night and Day, and a lintel and a stone threshold contain them. High in the sky they are filled by huge doors of which avenging Justice holds the keys that fit them." Maybe this is figuratively a description of a feeling of being enlightened? Or a kind of realization of something that has shaped some kind of thinking?
page 145" The mares which carry me as far as my spirit ever aspired were escorting me, when they brought me and proceeded alone a renowened. route of the godess, which brings a knowing mortal to all cities one by one. On this route I was being brought, on it wise mares were bringing me, straining the chariot, and maidens being on the way (11.1) Is this refering to some kind of estasy. Or a perceived kind of divine phase?
1- Mares carrying such spirit.
These elements- sounds, words, notes, gestures, expressions, clothes-ru:e part of our natural and material world; but their importai,ce forlanguage is not what they a.re hut what they do, their function. Theyconstruct meaning and transmit it. They signify. They don't have any clearmeaning in themselves
We have given these everyday objects these meanings as they don't have meanings within themselves without humans giving them significance.
However, in all theseinstances, and at all these different institutional sites, one of the privileged'media' through which meaning is produced and circulated is language.
Language is an essential necessity as it carries these messages of representation through from the main outlets perhaps "privileged"projecting these messages.
Similarly, in order tocommunicate these meanings to other people, the participants to anymeaningful exchange must also be able to use the same linguistic codes-they must, in a very broad sense, 'speak the same language'. This doesnot mean that they must all, literally, speak German o:r French or Chinese.Nor does it mean that they understand perfectly what anyone who speaksthe same language is saying. We mean 'language' here in a much widersense. Our partners must speak enough of the same language to be able to•translate' what 'you' say into what T understand, and vice versa. Theymust also be able to read visual images in roughly similar ways.
As a way of communicating with one another we come up with various ways of mutual understandings.
In part, we give objects,people and events meaning by the frameworks of interpretation which webring to them. In part, we give things meaning by how we use them, orintegrate them into our everyday practices. It is our use of a pile of bricksand mortar which makes it a 'house'; and what we feel, think or say about itthat makes a 'house' a 'home'. In part, we give things meaning by how werepresent them - the words we use about th.em, the stories we tell aboutthem, the images of them
We as human beings often bring interpretation to everyday life's objects and many objects we see and use have come symbolize something as we often associate with a purpose.
n any culture, there is always a great diversity ofmeanings about any topic, and more than one way of interpreting orrepresenting it.
It is important to remember that within a culture there is always various attitudes, thoughts and feeling toward different subjects.
'Culture' is one of the most difficult concepts in the human and socialsciences and there are many different ways of defining it. Inwe produce, the emotions we associate with them. the ways we classifyand conceptualize them, the values we place on them.
Culture is complex as there are many ways of interpreting it as a term as we have given it various definitions and interpretations.
In recent years, and in a more •social science' context,the word 'culture' is used to refer to whatever is distinctive about the •wayof life' of a people, community, nation or social group. This has come to beknown as the 'anthropological' definition. Alternatively. the word can beused to describe the 'shared values' of a group or of society-which is likethe anthropologicalmore traditional definitions of the term, culture is said to embody the 'bestthat has been thought and said' in a society.
Presently this idea of culture has turned into a term that is in regards to socially how a group commonly identifies as far as common values and traditions.
To say that two people belong to the same culture is to say that theyinterpret the world in roughly the same ways and can express themselves,their thoughts and feelings about the world, in ways which will beunderstood by each other. Thus culture depends on its participantsinterpreting meaningfully what is happening around them, and 'makingsense' of the world, in broadly similar ways.
When expressing that several people share a culture it means that they share a perspective or a way of viewing the world and share also certain values and ideas.
Primarily,culture is concerned with. the production and the exchange of meanings -the 'giving and taking of meaning' -between the members of a society orgroup.
Culture revolves around what something means and how it is given meaning.
Representation through language is thereforecentral to the processes by which meaning is produced.
Language is important as it is the main integral part of the fdunction in which people understand what is represented and how something is represented.
How does it sustain thedialogue between participants which enables them to build up a culture ofshared understandings and so interpret the world in roughly the sameways? Language is able to do this because it operates as a representationalsystem
Language in it's self is a way of communicating and relaying such information.