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MDSA01 Midterm > Chapter 5: Rhetorical Analysis > Flashcards

Chapter 5: Rhetorical Analysis Flashcards

1
Q

What is rhetoric?

A

Rhetoric – use of symbols by humans to influence & move other humans

Rhetoric ➔ attempts to shape & influence its viewers’ attitudes & actions

Media products are rhetorical

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2
Q

Def sign

A

Sign – something that invites someone to think of something other than itself

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3
Q

Who is Ferdinard de saussure?

A

founder of modern linguistics ➔ study of language as strcutured system

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4
Q

Def semiology

A

semiology – science which studies the role of signs as part of social life, investigates nature of signs & laws governing them

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5
Q

Def signifier and signified

A

all linguistic signs were a combination of SIGNIFIER (significant) and SIGNIFIED (signifié)

signifier – sound-image, material form of a sign as perceived by the senses

signified – mental concept, idea evoked by signifier

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6
Q

What are the 2 defining traits of a linguistic sign?

A

Signs are arbitrary – no natural correspondence, no necessary relationship b/n signifier & signified
- is no fixed universal concepts or fixed universal signifiers

Linguistic sign is linearity – impossible to utter two distinct linguistic signs simultaneously

  • operate in a temporal chain, if recorded  changes meaning of what’s being said
  • not true with images because more than one dimension
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7
Q

What is Langue vs Parole

A

linguistic system vs. individual speech acts/utterances

La langue: study the rules and conventions that organize the system
Parole - study specific uses or performances of language

Saussure believed la langue was the proper goal of linguistics

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8
Q

What is synchronic vs diachronic?

A

Synchronic analysis: concerns the state of language in general, linguistic system in a static state – aims to illuminate conditions for the existence of any language by examining the rules of combination & substitutability w/in a system

Diachronic analysis/evolutionary linguistics: concerns origins of languages & changes in sound or pronunciation over time (phonology)

Saussure thought synchronic was the way to study la langue

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9
Q

what is difference according to Saussure?

A

Recognize that signs signify by virtue of their difference from other signs

specific character of such differences is unimportant – as long as meaning is socially agreed upon

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10
Q

Def semiotic

A

quasi-necessary or formal doctrine of signs

expands category of signs to include all modes of human communication, not just languages (unlike Saussure’s semiology)

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11
Q

What 3 things does semiotic depend on (Peirce)?

A

sign/representamen – something which stands to somebody for something in respect or capacity

equivalent sign – creates in person’s mind = interpretant

object – something that sign stands for

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12
Q

What were the 3 categories of signs according to Pierce?

A

Iconic signs – operate according to logic of similarity or likeness, representamen that structurally resemble objects they stand for

Indexical signs – linked by cause or association to objects they represent

Symbols – linked to their corresponding objects purely by social convention or agreement, learned vs. intuited

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13
Q

Who is Roland Barthes?

A

French thinker that emerged for refining and expanding upon ideas of others

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14
Q

Def signifying system

A

Signifying system – grew out of Barthe’s fascination w/ how “cultural” practices & beliefs are “naturalized”

signifying system—Roland Barthes’s approach to the study of signs.

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15
Q

Def denotation

A

denotation—The literal meaning of a text; first-order signification.

Involves literal or explicit meaning of words and other phenomena

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16
Q

Def connotation

A

Connotation – second-order signification & operates at lvl of ideology & myth

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17
Q

Def anchorage

A

Anchorage limits (potentially infinite) meanings an image can have by “directing” the reading through the visual signifiers

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18
Q

Def texts

A

Texts – set of signs related to each other insofar as their meanings all contribute to the same set of effects or functions

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19
Q

Def cluster

A

Cluster – the way individual signs are associated w/ and dissociated from one another

20
Q

Def form

A

form—(1) The overall structure or configuration of a message; (2) the creation and satisfaction of desire.

21
Q

What are the 4 general varieties of form? List them

A

progressive form, repetitive form, conventional form, minor/incidental forms

22
Q

Def progressive form

A

Progressive form – describes the way a story advances step by step, each step following logically from previous step

23
Q

Def repritive form

A

Repetitive form – consistent maintaining of a principle under new guises, restatement of the same thing in diff ways

24
Q

Def conventional form

A

Conventional form – not so much an appeal within the text (as progressive & repetitive forms are)  appeal OF the text

we select media texts b/c we desire particular set of conventions at particular moment in time

25
Q

Def minor/incidental forms

A

Minor/incidental forms – brief, frequently literary devices that may appear w/in a text such as metaphor, paradox, reversal, contraction, expansion etc. ➔ allows us to take pleasure in segments, sections or pieces of larger texts

26
Q

Def genre

A

Genre – class or constellation of mssgs that share discernible stylistic or formal (syntactic), substantive (semantic) & situational (pragmatic) characteristics

27
Q

What are the two ways genre is studied?

A

Inductively or deductively

Inductively: created by drawing general conclusion based upon the analysis of specfiic instances ➔ corresponds to historical genres

Deductively: working from a set of general proposition to specific conclusions ➔ generates and testts theoretical genres (defined by critics)

28
Q

Def historical genre

A

Historical genres – rooted in observation of shared traits across media texts, well known to most ppl (popular television genres ➔ soap operas, game shows, reality TV, sitcoms & dramas)

accepted by culture

29
Q

What are the 3 key genres for Diomedes’ classification of lit works?

A
  • Those in which only narrator speaks
  • Only characters speak
  • Those in which BOTH speak
30
Q

Def narrative

A

Narrative – series of real or fictitious events that occur in (often chronological) succession

31
Q

What are the three levels of narrative?

A

Story (histoire) – what happens to who in a narrative ➔ comprised of events and existents

Discourse (récit) – describes the actual words, written/spoken used to tell a story (+images or pictures)

Narrating (narration) – actual act of recounting – situation WITHIN which discourse is uttered

32
Q

Def events

A

Events – particular events that occur within a story are further dived according to function they perform

  • Kernels ➔ key notes/hinges that actively contribute to the story’s progression
  • Satellites/catalyzers ➔ minor plot events that fill in the narrative
33
Q

Def existents

A

 Existents – includes characters (actants) & indices (informants and setting)

Characters – classified w/ respect to actions they perform w/in a story

34
Q

Def tense/temporal relations of the narrative

A

divided into 3 categories

Order: how time unfolds for the narrator ➔ reach: how far back or ahead the events the narrator recalls or anticipates lie

Duration/speed: relation b/n period of time described (story-time) & period of time required for the telling (discourse-time)

Frequency; number of times a single event/incident is recounted by narraotry

35
Q

What are hte 5 possible relations b/n story time and discourse time?

A

Scene – discourse-time & story-time roughly equal
Summary – discourse-time SHORTER than story-time
Ellipsis – discourse-time is 0
Stretch – discourse-time is LONGER than story-time
Pause – discourse-time is LONGER than story-time, which is ZERO

36
Q

Def mood

A

Mood – describes narrative temporality ➔ employs term mood to describe “regulation of narrative information”

37
Q

Def voice

A

Voice – entails the position, type & relation of the narrator

narrative voices FRAMES how audiences understand & relate to narrative mood

38
Q

Def affect

A

affect—An intensity registered directly by the body that operates on a non-representational or asignifying register.

39
Q

Def aesthetic

A

Aesthetic – qualities of an artwork that, while asignifying, generates sensual experiences & evokes affective responses from audiences

presence effects – effects that prime our bodies, essentially predisposing us to experience an event and its attendant symbols in a particular way

40
Q

Def colour

A

Color – emotional quality, derives partly from personal associations – partly from experience in nature

41
Q

Def lighting

A

Lighting – strong symbolic dimension, operates on material lvl & have profound effects on emotional states

42
Q

Def editing

A

Editing – sequencing & length of individual shots w/in film & television + type (cuts, fades, dissolves, wipes, etc.) & frequency of transitions or shifts b/m shots

43
Q

Def movement & framing

A

Movement & framing – camera mvmt along w/ framing techniques ➔ powerfully shape the way audiences feel about a person/event they see on screen

44
Q

Def sound

A

sound – omnipresent, noises can generate sense of verisimilitude by actualizing time & space vs. music – establishing mood

45
Q

Def structuralism

A

structuralism – idea that each element in cultural system derives its meaning in relation to other elements in the system, tend to regard such systems as relatively closed & independent

MDSA01 Midterm (6 decks)

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