Lecture 3

Question 1

Semiotics

Answer 1

the study of sign-based language systems.

Question 2

Signs

Answer 2

signifier + signified.

Question 3

Signifier

Answer 3

the symbol used to transmit meaning.

• Saussure

Question 4

Signified

Answer 4

the concept the symbol represents.

• Saussure

Question 5

Roland Barthes

Answer 5

argues “myth” (ideology) is created moving from denotation to connotation.

Question 6

Peirce’s three types of signs

Answer 6

1. ) icon: literal.
   - ex: a cat.
2. ) index: implied.
   - ex: a paw print.
3. ) symbol: learned.
   - ex: the letters ‘CAT’.

Question 7

Symtagm

Answer 7

a single word that when altered can change the overall meaning.

Question 8

Paradigm

Answer 8

a group of related ideas that are interchangeable in a sentence.

Question 9

Reality

Answer 9

constructed through language and pop culture.

Question 10

What does Levi Strauss say about language?

Answer 10

argues that we can study language to understand the unconscious foundations of humanity.

Question 11

What does Jacques Lacan say about language?

Answer 11

argues that our own unconscious is itself structured like a language.

Question 12

Three psychoanalytic levels of reality

Answer 12

1. ) the real
2. ) the imaginary
3. ) the symbolic

Question 13

the real

Answer 13

primal, external experience from which we are forever removed once we enter The Symbolic.

Question 14

the imaginary

Answer 14

tied to the formation of identification with the ideal image of ourselves created in the mirror stage.

Question 15

the symbolic

Answer 15

a universal and semiotic structure of meaning we enter into through language that forever separates us from The Real.

Question 16

Post-structuralism

Answer 16

states that semiotic systems are arbitrary, unstable and formed around unresolvable contradiction.

Question 17

Postmodern

Answer 17

• began after 1960’s

- associated with late capitalism and neoliberalism.

Question 18

Postmodernism

Answer 18

an outlook that rejects meta-narratives and universal truth claims.

Question 19

New historicism

Answer 19

approach that requires;

• cultural texts be examined in relation to their social, cultural, historical and discursive contexts.
• historical texts be examined in relation to their literary and discursive context.

Question 20

Discourse

Answer 20

social communication that operates as part of larger social structures of institutional knowledge and power.

Question 21

Whereas Saussure focused on ______ and
_______ , Pierce’s system useful for
________.

Answer 21

spoken and written language; visual media

Question 22

denotation

Answer 22

dictionary definition of a term.