Communicating Culture

Course Aims

Reading

Assessment

Representation - Meaning

Systems of Representation

• Product

• Representation refers to the construction in any medium (especially the public media) of aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, abstract concepts.

• Process

• Representation is a process. It involves not only how for example, identities are represented but also how they are constructed in the process of production and reception

• Conceptual Maps

• Iconic sign

Systems of Representation

• Language Systems

Beer

Bier

Birra

• Indexical sign

Systems of Representation

Language socialisation: Learning the Code

Theories of Representation

• Reflective/Mimetic

– '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' (Hall, 1997, 24)

• Intentional

– 'The intentional approach 'holds that it is the speaker, the author, who imposes his or her unique meaning on the world through language. Words mean what the author intends they should mean' (Hall, 1997, 25).

Theories of Representation

• Constructionist

– 'The constructionist approach 'acknowledges that neither things in themselves nor the individual users of language can fix meaning in language. Things don't mean: we construct meaning, using representational systems – concepts and signs' (Hall, 1997, 25).

Symbols - Saussure

• Synchronic v diachronic linguistics

• Language v speech

• The unit of study = the sign

• Signifier and Signified

– When a perceivable sound (a signifier) means something (a signified) to the people who perceive it, then the two together make up a sign.

What is a semiological system?

• A semiological system is a closed system of signs.

• Because the system is closed, part of the sign’s value comes from being not the values of the other signs in the system (Saussure’s negative meaning).

Symbols - Saussure

• Why is this so important?

– Because it is arbitrary the sign is totally subject to history and the combination at a particular moment of a given signifier and signifier is a contingent result of the historical process. (Culler, cited in Hall, 1997: 32)

Semiotic Chains

Paradigmatic dimension

Syntagmatic dimension

Semiotics: the menu

Starters:

– Alba truffle, cepe duxelle, Soft poached hens egg white bean velouté – Terrine of foie gras, Sauternes jelly – Tempura of Whitby cod, pea purée, mint dressing

Mains:

– Roasted squab pigeon, braised puy lentils, raviolo of wild mushrooms port jus – Curry spiced loin of lamb finished with roasting juices and watermelon– Fillet of Scotch beef, girolles, baby leeks, foie gras – Pan-fried fillet of halibut, mussels, saffron cream sauce – Roasted monkfish wrapped in Carpegna ham, clam minestrone Cavolo Nero, black olive oil – Curry spiced loin of lamb finished with roasting juices and watermelon

Desert

– Melange of Ice Cream– Apple Pie

Semiotics: fashion

Decoding the message

A B

Decoding the message

• Observation Exercise

Date ____ Place ____ Time ____

Notes to myself: Fieldnotes:

Semiotic Chains

Paradigmatic dimension

Syntagmatic dimension

A: Hi, How’s things?B: Well. You?A: Going to the lecture?B: Yep, lets go.

A: Hi, How’s things?B: Crap. Don’t want to talk about it.A: Sorry, OK.