CS251 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1-2: Roland Barthes, Semiotics, Connotation
Document Summary
Swiss linguist ferdinand de saussure (1897 1915) Saussure laboured in obscurity for most of his life. His revolutionary ideas (semiotics) have all had a major impact on our understanding of the spoken and written word. Most significant contribution = viewing language as a structure rather than historical phenomenon: don"t study a word by looking at its origins and evolution, look at words as part of a system of signs . Langue: social phenomenon of language invoked by each individual instance of parole". Meaning is neither ordained by god nor emanates naturally from an object. Meaning is derived from 3-part structure: 1. Signified (individual concepts, such as the idea of cat : 2. Signifiers (the words, sounds or images that communicate this idea, i. e. cat : 3. Codes and conventions (rules used for interpreting speech, i. e. grammar) In every act of communication, we activate this structure in order to convey/understand meaning.
