Language, culture & communication study notes
LING109- LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION STUDY NOTES
Week 1 Introduction
Systemic functional social semiotics asks questions about meaning making in cultural contexts e.g. functions of language
Experiential function: Representational meaning- what does the text represent?
Interpersonal function: Modal meaning/ interpersonal meaning- how does the text engage with the viewer/reader/listener….?
Textual function: Compositional meaning- how a text is organised?
Week 2 Language
Language is a system of signs and meanings that a community of people share.
Communication is a broader concept than language it refers to the sending and receiving of information between life forms.
Culture refers to social practices; the production, circulation and exchange of meanings; within a group, from one group to another or from one generation to another.
Structuralism: meaning is relational- meaning is not generated in isolation; the meaning of words are generated in their relationship to other words.
3 main points from Saussure: - Language is an arbitrary structure: there is no necessary connection between a sound pattern and a concept (i.e. signal and signification). - The meanings of words are relational: meaning arises through a network of differences. Language is a system of differences without fixed terms. – Language constitutes the world.
Language is a system of signs. A sign is composed of two elements: (sign=signifier +signified)
The signifier is the material or physical form perceivable by the senses.
The signified is the mental concept or the meaning.
- Iconic signs resemble what they signify (mirror image,
Week 1 Introduction
Systemic functional social semiotics asks questions about meaning making in cultural contexts e.g. functions of language
Experiential function: Representational meaning- what does the text represent?
Interpersonal function: Modal meaning/ interpersonal meaning- how does the text engage with the viewer/reader/listener….?
Textual function: Compositional meaning- how a text is organised?
Week 2 Language
Language is a system of signs and meanings that a community of people share.
Communication is a broader concept than language it refers to the sending and receiving of information between life forms.
Culture refers to social practices; the production, circulation and exchange of meanings; within a group, from one group to another or from one generation to another.
Structuralism: meaning is relational- meaning is not generated in isolation; the meaning of words are generated in their relationship to other words.
3 main points from Saussure: - Language is an arbitrary structure: there is no necessary connection between a sound pattern and a concept (i.e. signal and signification). - The meanings of words are relational: meaning arises through a network of differences. Language is a system of differences without fixed terms. – Language constitutes the world.
Language is a system of signs. A sign is composed of two elements: (sign=signifier +signified)
The signifier is the material or physical form perceivable by the senses.
The signified is the mental concept or the meaning.
- Iconic signs resemble what they signify (mirror image,