chapter 5

So now we have all these signs and their meanings that are conveniently already associated with them, but how did we get to these meanings? If the signs are going to have meaning, society must carry these meanings and teach everyone to interpret them this way. Many believed that individual actions created a society but Culler believes that the society creates individual actions. Yes we have thoughts and feelings of our own but it is society that allows this to happen. For signs to even exist with a meaning there has to be an underlying set of rules; just like we said before, it’s a game. Saussure’s definition of semiotics did end with “life of signs within society” which means that the society plays an important role. 

 

chapter 2

According to Saussure, language is a social institution that consists of many signs (sound image) and their concept or meaning. The study of these signs and their function is called semiotics (formerly, semiology). Saussure elaborates that there is a little more to it than this, and to understand it we must break down language even further. The sound image is also called the signifier, which is basically the word without its connotation. The signified is the concept or meaning implied by or associated with the word (signifier). The relationship between these two, the signifier and signified, is based on what definitions are socially developed based on usage and can change over the years (just as we talked about a few days ago). While Saussure believes language is a social institution, he says speech is social and speaking is individual. 

In my ad, the signifier was the word "small" and the signified is that it is secret or easy to hide (like the woman hides them behind her back).

chapter 9

According to the reading, much of our thinking is metaphoric in nature. I definitely agree with this idea, I know that most of what I say is metaphorical. A metaphor is talking about one thing in terms of another. So it’s like saying someone ‘is a pig’ if you want to imply that they are greedy or sloppy. What I think is interesting is that “metaphor” comes from the Greek word metapherin which means "transfer”. Metonymy is based on association with something. From a young age we associate things with other things to understand their meaning. If we see something expensive we learn to associate that item with money and it implies then, that the owner of that expensive item is rich. In addition, the more we know about an item such as a specific type of car like a classy car versus a sports car, we associate that with a specific type of person. These are similar to those inferences we make according to the relevance theory, based on what we already know. (ironically, I did that just now.) A part of metonymy where a part is used to stand for a whole or vice versa is called “synecdoche.” We use the Statue of Liberty to represent America or freedom. Metaphors and similes are analogies while metonymy and synecdoche are associations. However, metaphors and metonymy are stronger than similes and synecdoche. Of course, the media makes use of these literary elements. They can actually use a metaphor and be metonymic simultaneously.

Again, I look back to the Tao Te Ching, partially just because I love it, but also because of the interesting and uncommon way it is written. It’s largely a collection of similes and metaphors.

Simile: verse 8- “The supreme good is like water, which benefits all of creation without trying to compete with it. It gathers in unpopular places.”

Metaphor: verse 29- “The world is a sacred vessel.”


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chapter 4

The quote in this chapter that says “it is clear that everything on this planet is relative and has independent existence only insofar as it is distinguished in its relations to and from other things” really interested me. It’s interesting to think about Freud’s idea that if it were always light we wouldn’t call it “light” because it would just be what it is. With no dark to classify light as something different, there would be no classification for it. It’s interesting to think about because Europeans probably didn’t think of themselves as “white” before they found darker skinned cultures, they were just people. Yes, there are words that don’t exactly come from an opposite but many things are indeed defined by what they are based on what they are not. Freud also talks about the iceberg theory which says that there are three parts of thinking, consciousness, precociousness, and unconsciousness. These parts modeled like an iceberg in the water would have a small part out of the water (consciousness) with a small slice visible just under the water’s surface (precociousness) and the mass of the iceberg would be under water (unconsciousness). This implies that about ninety percent of what is in our minds is not necessarily accessible to us. However, this unconsciousness shapes our behavior, it’s a “power within us we cannot control.” There are three forces proposed by Freud in our human psyche as well and they are the id, superego and ego. Id represents lust and desire, superego shows conscience and guilt, and the ego is what tries to even out the two others. These are all unconscious processes that happen “underwater” in the iceberg diagram. Freud goes on to say that we use unconscious behaviors to mask our true intentions. We tend to represent things in our dreams with their opposites. He calls this “reaction formation” which basically means that we express a feeling such as love with its opposite such as hate. So, in a dream, we may love someone and in the dream we would hate them. Saussure says “in language there are only differences” which is interesting to think about. Saussure also talks about semiotics saying that “signs function, then, not through their intrinsic value but through their relative position.” This is similar to what Freud said in that it’s saying words for example, are not just what they are but are defined by what they are not. Freud said “sometimes a cigar is only a cigar” (and not a phallic symbol). This means we could consider the possibility that a cigar is sometimes not only a cigar. What’s interesting is that in this, Freud is possibly coding his own statement in an opposite form to get us to consider the converse meaning. 

Wow I wrote a lot...but I found this chapter really interesting. Especially the part about opposites playing such a large role in our dreams. One of my favorite books is the Tao Te Ching which is pretty much all written in contradictions and opposing statements. For example, verse number 24 says:

"those who stand on tiptoes do not stand firmly"

and verse 81 which is my favorite says:

"true words do not sound beautiful; beautiful sounding words are not true." 

this is actually one of my favorite quotes of all time because to me, it's so incredibly true and to some, it's so very impossible sounding. It always interests me to hear how people take this statement.

chapter 3

Words have different meanings and sometimes there can be miscommunications between people because of the meaning they assume is to be associated with the word. In addition, meanings to words change over time with technology advances and general cultural changes. It's not just about the words we say but what words mean. 

I wonder, how do homophones play into this?

I LOVE THIS SITE: http://learnyourdamnhomophones.com/


3 words that are important to history not mentioned in reading- trust, war, nation, republic
3 words important in my life- evolution, facetious, lifeguard
2 words that changed meaning over time- tweet, computer, awful, lame
2 words that are new now- tweet, bromance

chapter 1

We’re always following rules, like playing a game. Once we learn the rules and master them, we can create sentences we’ve never heard or seen before. “Language is the cornerstone of culture.” It’s how we communicate what it important to us. We unconsciously search for the most relevant information as it’s coming into our brain. We use this information to make inferences and thus draw conclusions from the simple and sometimes meaningless words we hear. We know and understand what meaning is generally associated with the words in the context and order in which we heard them. From a very young age we learn not only how to speak these words but the meanings associated with them. For example, we learn the word “mom” or “dad” but we also know who and what that refers to. Our brains usually even know to desire to know the meaning of a word we may not have heard before. There is so much emphasis placed on words, for instance our vocabulary terms from each chapter are things we need to understand to get the meaning of the whole reading. 

What interested me was, when I learned German, at first I translated every word from English to German in my head before I understood it. Eventually, I was able to hear a word and German and think of the meaning in German. This made it SO much easier to speak and understand German. The reading mentioned how sometimes there's different meanings for the same word in a different language. I just thought it was interesting how that works. It also makes me wonder, do words change meaning at the same pace with technology and fads in multiple languages if the languages are close together? (as in, not English but maybe French and German or French and Italian)

chapter 25

The provocateur is a seemingly ideal image that would arouse a feeling. Generally seen in advertising and through women, the provocateur is usually a sexual-response provoking image. This image is flawless in body and dress. No blemishes, long thin legs, perhaps tan and of course skinny.  This image causes terrible anxiety for most women because they feel they need to measure up to this look to be acceptable to men. In reality, this image does not exist. The provocateur is perfected with use of computers, airbrushing and photo editing. What's sad and shocking is that most of the money women spend on cosmetic products is only for packaging and advertising. Only a mere eight cents of every dollar goes to the actual ingredients of the cosmetics. So women spend so much money to try to reach this ideal when they're actually paying for advertisements to continue to make them feel inferior and like they need to continue to reach for this impossible goal. 

chapter 20

Even as young children we become aware of sex-specific ways of acting and dressing that are appropriate in our society. Men are of course supposed to be more strong and straightforward while women are supposed to be gentile and to caress things. Sex-specific attire (clothing, accessories, etc) are supposed to solicit a sexual response from the opposite gender. This simple concept of dress has the power to arouse someone and force them into sexual responses. While these styles may be ever changing, the underlying concept remains the same. Women wear clothes to make them look suitable for sex and men wear clothing that beg the same response in women. Men wear things that reflect their hierarchical standing while female attire is to make them look less important and more like sexual objects. Women’s fashion makes them look precious and delicate. Magazines show various women as the perfect sexual objects. What’s ironic is that people who tend to not want to stand out by trying to keep up with new fashions end up standing out because they’re not “fashionable” to society.

I know times have changed and women don’t wear skirts like they used to, we wear pants a lot and skirts are short and sexy. However, I wonder if women always tried to elicit this sexual response from men. Wasn’t there a time when women weren’t supposed to be sexy but were supposed to be good and pure and wear clothes that were white and covered as much skin as possible? In the same sense, does Arthur Asa Burger and the people who helped write this book realize that women do view themselves as more than sexual objects and actually, so do men? The way this chapter was written seemed almost offensive (probably because of the vague and general way it had to be written to cover such a wide topic on just a few pages). I feel that our dress today, at least some of it, for women does reflect our social standing and professional image. In addition, with so many “band tshirts” or propaganda-like shirts that promote things like “being green” our clothes say more about us, personally, than ever.

Body Language

If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.  ~Mark Twain

When our brains are processing certain information sometimes it causes our bodies to have uncontrollable related actions. Similar to saying that our emotions are inseparable from our nonverbal actions such as facial expressions and gestures, sometimes our reactions to certain situations can be uncontrollable. For example, sometimes when people lie they look away for various reasons. One can be because their brain is trying to make up something to say in which case they would look up and to the right, or left for lefties. However, if someone is trying to remember something they may look up and to the left in attempts to access their memories. In addition, if we’re suddenly scared, surprised or disgusted we may make certain facial expressions such as scrunching up our face or widening our eyes and opening our mouths. This is in response to the situation. For example, when one is scared they may widen their eyes an open their mouths which research has shown helps for better peripheral vision and greater air intake without any extra effort to inhale more strongly. Also, the facial expression most associated with disgust has been found to reduce the amount of open space in the nasal passages reducing the amount of sensory input such as smell. It’s no wonder why our bodies react this way for us. It’s actually quite amazing that we react in a way that benefits us without even realizing it or doing anything consciously to make it happen. With lying, this may or may not be to our benefit however, it’s to someone’s benefit! Things like crossed arms come off as defensive and we can use knowledge of these nonverbal actions and expressions to help us know if someone is telling the truth, or possibly to get away with our own lies!

chapter 19

Arthur Schopenhauer said “a man's face as a rule says more, and more interesting things, than his mouth.” This shows how valuable facial expressions truly are. Facial expressions provide us with information about five main things which are affective state, cognitive activity, temperament, truthfulness and psychopathology. This means that from someone’s face we can potentially figure out how they’re feeling, thinking, some personality traits, if they’re lying and information regarding their mental state. Research shows that facial expressions can show when a specific mental action is occurring. Many professions rely on facial expressions to back up their verbal communication. Teachers for example have “the look” we all know well. Parents tend to have it too, that look that without a word stops you dead in your tracks and tells you everything you need to know. However we’re now learning that we’re capable of training our brains to read faces very well and use that to our advantage. For example, a lawyer could hire someone specifically to pick jurors who will be on their side or lenient to their case. When we naturally read faces we look for certain distinct signs or expressions that send a message to our brain. A good way to look at it is that faces are “windows” into a person. By reading faces we can better judge if what a person is communicating verbally is true and accurate.