MediaSpace Wiki

Intercultural Spr2006 Sess14

Language and Semiotics

• Chapter 6 of Intercultural Communication in Context gives a very general introduction to language
  • today I want to go into more detail
  • with the expectation that some aspects of the chapter will be covered better next time.
  • I want to introduce you to semiotics
    • as a method for exploring Intercultural texts
    • as the method of your second short paper
• Semiotics is the study of language and meaning
  • all language
  • verbal
  • written
  • non-verbal
  • if you can lie with it, its language
  • if you can use it to communicate, semiotics treats it as a representation of meaning
• Semiotics is concerned with how meaning is created
  • It makes no assumptions about what meaning is or where it resides
• Semiotics is closely related to several other disciplines of study:
  • Pragmatism
    • a philosophy of meaning and truth
    • via C. S. Pierce, who developed both approaches in the course of exploring the nature of meaning
    • semiotics is sometimes viewed as an application of pragmatism to language
  • Linguistics
    • the study of language and its structure
    • via Saussure, better known for General Semantics
  • Structuralism
    • the reduction of complex systems to fundamental units
    • and the rules with which those units can be put together
    • also via Saussure, who developed general semantics:
      • phonemes
      • rules of grammar
  • ethnography
    • a method which studies cultures
    • by attempting to describe its rules and meanings
    • applies a similar principles to the study of culture

• Some fundamentals of Semiotic Analysis
  • La langue and la parole
    • System versus usage (discourse)
    • Code versus data
  • Types of Language
    • Current
    • Dialect
    • Historical
    • Creole
    • Pidgin
  • Elements of Language
    • Phonetics: signals
      • Different languages use different sounds
        • Usually 15 to 50 per language
      • We may not even hear the sounds another culture uses
        • Hawaiian versus Polynesian
      • International Phonetic Alphabet
        • Hundreds of sounds
    • Semantics: meanings
      • Pragmatics: receiver oriented meanings
    • Syntactics: grammar or assembly rules
  • the sign
    • the fundamental unit of semiotics
    • a cultural construct that in which meaning is represented through collective use
    • signs connect signals to meaning in a particular way
    • signs collect in languages
  • a sign is built of two parts:
    • a signifier
      • any observable difference that has a meaning associated with it
      • a word, a sound, a gesture, an image, a "bit" of data
      • all that matters is that:
        • we can observe it
        • it is different than other signifiers
      • a signifier without a signified is simply a signal: an observable, but meaningless, difference
    • a signified
      • the meaning
      • a 'referent' (real or imagined) or 'abstraction'
      • any idea that we might want to communicate to someone else
      • note that the signified exists only in our imagination
        • denotatively, it may be associated with a specific referent ("doves") or abstraction ("peace")
        • but connotatively, it includes all of the memories and feelings that we associate with that referent or abstraction
    • a single signifier will often have multiple signifieds
      • multiple definitions (operator overloading)
      • puns
      • the denotation and connotation
        • the denotation is the first order meaning: the idea of the referent or abstraction
        • the connotation is the second order meaning: how we feel about a signifier, its signified, and its referent(s)
          • connotations are often described as 'personal' meaning
          • but they are often shared (nobility, romance, grit, patriotism, humor)
          • a parasite that attaches itself to the denotation?
          • or our personal experience of the relationship of the signified to the referent

• We viewed a scene from the movie "Kill Bill Part 2"; the beginning of Track 8: "Chapter 8: The Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei". After viewing this scene we identified a number of signs associated with the scene:
  • The flute
  • The campfire
  • The differential positions of the actors
  • The sounds of the flute
  • The apparent isolation of the characters
  • The actors themselves
• There was more, but that will do for now.
• We'll talk more about this next time

Index Card Assignment due Thursday

Select one of the signs we identified in this scene. Describe three different meanings that might be associated with this sign.