Structuralism Flashcards
Saussure’s 3 main principles
- the meanings we give to words are purely arbitrary
- meanings of words are relational
- language constitutes our world, it doesn’t just record or label it
Structuralism
The belief that things cannot be understood in isolation
Structures
Are conceptual frameworks that we use to organize and understand physical entities
Three properties of a structure
Wholeness (it’s a unit)
Transformation (capable of change)
Self-regulation (transformations never go beyond level)
Visible world
Consists of surface phenomena; all the countless objects, activities, and behaviors we observe, participate in, and interact with every day
Invisible world
The structures that underlie and organize all these phenomena so that we can make sense of them
Semiotics
Applies structuralist insights to the study of sign systems
Sign system
Linguistic or non linguistic object or behavior … That can be analyzed as if it were a specialized language
Semiotics …
Studies how objects and behaviors in texts function to tell us something; focuses specifically on literary devices and conventions and other formal elements of structure
Sign =
Signifier + signified
Signifiers
Can be anything perceived by the senses - an action, sound, gesture, etc.; this is in effort to uncover their semiotic codes
Semiotic codes
Underlying structural components that carry a nonverbal cultural message
Mytheme
Like a sentence because it represents a one-to-one relationship that links concepts in a subject-verb-object arrangement; even though there are many myths that come from many cultures, there is a small number of mythemes that underlie all of them; many myths feature the “hero kills monster” mytheme
Langue
Language as a system or structure
Parole
Any given utterance in that language
