COMS 201 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: General Semantics, Family Values
19 Apr 2016
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Symbols such as words, art, and music have no direct or natural relationship to what. - - line means the two are indirectly related. Dog and the actual referent of the furry animal is arbitrary. Symbols are abstract because they are not concrete or tangible. When we rely on symbols to refer to actual phenomenon, we abstract or move away from those phenomena. Symbols can be more or less abstract. Some words like table" are less abstract than others words like love," honour," dignity". Richards (1936: argued that the key to understanding (and misunderstanding) is the context because meaning changes as symbols move rom one context to another. Context, then, is the entire field of experience that is related to communication. No 2 individuals have precisely the same field of experience, it"s impossible for them to have exactly the same meanings for words. Reminding ourselves that the map is not the territory .
