MDSA01H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Ferdinand De Saussure, Paris Hilton, Linguistic System
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Mdsa01 chapter 5 rhetorical analysis (p 99-122) Rhetorical scholars of the media (rhetorical critics) analyze texts for the ways they encourage audiences to inhabit certain moods, believe certain ideas, or undertake certain actions. They view texts as complex webs of interrelated parts that work together to influence consumers in a particular way. Without it, no social structures or institutions could exist (cid:120) no sign can guarantee that everyone will interpret it the same way, communication is an extremely fragile thing (cid:120) signs are fundamental building blocks of meaning and hence communication. For saussure, the linguistic sign has two defining traits. Second key trait of the linguistic sign is linearity. This means that signifiers operate in a sequential chain, which if reordered, changes the meaning of what is being said. He called his program semiotic- the quasi-necessary, or formal, doctrine of signs .
