Signification Indexicality Iconicity Symbolicity English 306 A Harris
Signification Indexicality Iconicity Symbolicity English 306 A; Harris
Modes of signification Indexical • A mode defined by necessity (especially cause and effect), or association. Prototypically, think fever. Iconic • A mode defined by relationship of resemblance. Prototypically, think picture. Symbolic • A mode defined by relationship of “arbitrariness, ” convention, and learning. Prototypically, think word. English 306 A; Harris
Bow-wow-pooh-yo-he-ho theories Index-to-icon-to-symbol migration theories English 306 A; Harris
Semiotic triangle ind ex ico ica sy ni lit mb cit y oli y cit y concept form entity English 306 A; Harris
Semiotic triangle (symbol) yappy, hairy quaduped “dog” English 306 A; Harris
Semiotic triangle (symbol) yappy, hairy quaduped Signified The (evoked) world Signifier “dog” English 306 A; Harris
Semiotic triangle (index) yappy, hairy quaduped Signified The (evoked) world Signifier English 306 A; Harris
Semiotic triangle (icon) yappy, hairy quaduped Signified The (evoked) world Signifier English 306 A; Harris
Semiotic triangle (word) yappy, hairy quaduped Sign (narrow sense) Sense, Intension Reference, Extension “dog” English 306 A; Harris
Semiotic triangle (word) yappy, hairy quaduped Onomasiology The (evoked) world Semasiology “dog” English 306 A; Harris
Metaphor and metonymy Indirect representation Something (called the vehicle) carries the primary signification for something else (tenor) that ordinarily holds that signification. Metaphor is iconic The vehicle/tenor relationship is an asserted resemblance: the tenor is said to be like the vehicle in some way. Metonymy is indexical The vehicle/tenor relationship is (not exactly necessary but) drawn from the same habitat: the tenor is related to the vehicle in some way. English 306 A; Harris
Homer is a pig Vehicle Tenor Simpsons pater familias Porcine farm animal “Pig” “Homer” English 306 A; Harris
Metaphor and metonymy Indirect representation Something (called the vehicle) carries the primary signification for something else (tenor) that ordinarily holds that signification. Metaphor is iconic The vehicle/tenor relationship is an asserted resemblance: the tenor is said to be like the vehicle in some way. Metonymy is indexical The vehicle/tenor relationship is (not exactly necessary but) drawn from the same habitat: the tenor is related to the vehicle in some way. English 306 A; Harris
Metonymy, metaphor to go tyson to go ballistic Metonymy Metaphor English 306 A; Harris
Metonymy— The principle of set membership One element of a set or a relationship (the vehicle) singled out to represent other element(s) (the tenor) • • Buffalo wins in OT! Hollywood loves westerns. All hands on deck. Thirty head of cattle. English 306 A; Harris
Metaphor— The principle of comparison One element (the vehicle) represents another element (the tenor), to which it is unrelated. • • • Homer is a pig. My love is red, red rose. Toronto is toast. The table leg is broken. The orthopedic wing is closed. English 306 A; Harris
Metonym Attributes are picked out (treated indexically) to represent something associated with those attributes. Like a mascot. Dancin’ Homer English 306 A; Harris
Metaphor Attributes are invoked, by way (iconically) of resemblance. Homer is a pig. • Eats a lot • Noisy • Not very clean. • English 306 A; Harris
English 306 A; Harris
“Pussy” English 306 A; Harris
“Pussy” English 306 A; Harris
“Pussy” English 306 A; Harris
“Pussy” English 306 A; Harris
“Pussy” Metaphor • Tenor = vagina • Vehicle = felus domesticus • Attributes • Warm • Furry • English 306 A; Harris
! “Pussy!” Stage 1 Metonymy • Tenor = woman • Vehicle = vagina/pussy The ultimate devaluing of a (category of a) person: to a small anatomical component. English 306 A; Harris
“Pussy!” Stage 2 Metaphor • Tenor = the insult target • Vehicle = woman (not vagina) • Attributes = • Weak • Soft • Quitter • Means ‘Opposite of a man’, but in a wholly evaluative way. English 306 A; Harris
“Pussy” Metaphor Metonymy Metaphor Indexicality, Iconicity • a relatively mundane example of ordinary language • not a fancy literary or rhetorical device • these processes, and figuration generally, are pervasive English 306 A; Harris
“Pussy” English 306 A; Harris
“Pussy” Metaphor = • Tenor = the insult target • Vehicle = a particular type of woman (still not vagina) • Attributes • Weak • Soft • Quitter • Means ‘the sort of woman that gives all of us a bad name for being weak, soft, quitters’ (? ); in a wholly evaluative way. • Embeds “male” values English 306 A; Harris
“Dick!” Metonymy Metaphor Anatomical label Insult Tenor: penis Tenor: object of insult Vehicle: Famously endowed man named Dick (? ) Vehicle: penis Cf. kleenex, sandwich, goldfarb, … Cf, willy, peter, johnson, … English 306 A; Harris Critical attributes: • Unthinking • Self-serving • Insensitive
We now return you to regular programming F English 306 A; Harris
Indexicality Defined by association There is a connection of some sort (necessary or conventional) between the vehicle and the tenor. English 306 A; Harris
Indexicality Egocentricity Speaker-oriented • Deixis (pointing words) Anthropocentrism Human-oriented • Inherent orientation (human -body orientation projected to objects) English 306 A; Harris
Indexicality Deixis Gk. deiktos ≈ “to show” • Pointing words Work by ‘gesturing outward’ from speaker, from the EGO, to other objects English 306 A; Harris
Indexicality Deixis Proximals (“deictics” • Speaking location of EGO (this, that; here, there; …) • Speaking time of EGO (now, then; today, tomorrow; …) Pronouns • Pick out attributes relative to EGO (speaker, hearer, not-speaker-or-hearer; speaker+others, hearer+others, …) English 306 A; Harris
Indexical orientation — Deictic centre Lexical egocentricity Proximals (“deictics”) • Speaking location • Where-EGO-is: here, near, … • Where-EGO-is-not: there, far, … • Speaking time • When-EGO-is: now, today, … • When-EGO-is-not: then, tomorrow, … • Relative location to speaker • Close-to-EGO: this, these, … • Not-close-to-EGO: that, those, . . English 306 A; Harris
Indexical orientation — Deictic centre Lexical egocentricity Pronouns • EGO = 1 st person (I, me, …) • EGO+others = 1 st person plural (we, us, …) • Hearer-of-EGO = 2 nd person (you, your, …) • Hearer-of-EGO+others = 2 nd person plural (you, your, …) • Not-EGO-and-not-hearer-of. EGO = 3 rd person (he, she, it, …) • Not-EGO-and-not-hearer-of. EGO+others = 3 rd person plural (they, them, …) English 306 A; Harris
Indexical orientation — Deictic centre Expressive egocentricity The speaker (or, in a rhetorical extention, the hearer) as the (default) reference point for everything else. The squirrel is behind the tree. English 306 A; Harris
Indexical orientation — Deictic centre Expressive egocentricity The speaker (or, in a rhetorical extention, the hearer) as the (default) reference point for everything else. The squirrel is in front of the tree. English 306 A; Harris
Indexicality Anthropocentricity Gk. anthropos ≈ “man” (hu)man-centred Inherent orientation: human orientation projected onto artefacts and entities) • front, back • left, right • before, behind English 306 A; Harris
Deictic (egocentric) vs. Inherent (anthropocentric) Orientation English 306 A; Harris
Iconicity Defined by resemblance Sequential order “Don’t drink and drive” Distance Immediacy of action Quantity Reduplication English 306 A; Harris
Iconicity Principle of sequential order Unless marked, the order of words (by default) mirrors the order of events. • He kicked sand in my face and I got mad. • I got mad and he kicked sand in my face. English 306 A; Harris
Iconicity Principle of distance Linguistic distance tends to mirror conceptual distance. • She squeezed me. • She gave me a squeeze. • She gave a squeeze to me. English 306 A; Harris
Iconicity Principle of quantity Length of utterance correlates with (speaker’s perception of) quantity of concept. • Dinosaurs lived a l o o o n g time ago. • Dinosaurs lived a long, … time ago. • Lawyerese. • Political speeches. English 306 A; Harris
Iconicity — Principle of quantity Reduplication Japanese hito 'person' hitobito ’group of people' kami 'god' kamigami ’group of gods' Mandarin xiao 'small' xiao 'very small' gaoxing 'happy' gaogaoxing 'very happy' English 306 A; Harris
Iconicity — Principle of quantity Reduplication /ora¯/ = man / ora¯/ = all sorts of men /anak/ = child /anak/ = all sorts of children /ma¯a/ = mango / ma¯a / = all sorts of mangoes English 306 A; Harris
Iconicity — Principle of quantity Conceptual Reduplication Trinidad and Tobago [j. Eswij] • emphatic confirmation, agreement; interjective intensifier Children at Play, Romeo Downer http: //caribbeanartist. com/ English 306 A; Harris
Iconicity — Principle of quantity Conceptual Reduplication Trinidad and Tobago [j. Eswij] • emphatic confirmation, agreement; interjective intensifier • yes-we? Children at Play, Romeo Downer http: //caribbeanartist. com/ English 306 A; Harris
Iconicity — Principle of quantity Conceptual Reduplication Trinidad and Tobago [j. Eswij] • emphatic confirmation, agreement; interjective intensifier • yes-we? • yes-whee? Children at Play, Romeo Downer http: //caribbeanartist. com/ English 306 A; Harris
Iconicity — Principle of quantity Conceptual Reduplication Trinidad and Tobago [j. Eswij] • emphatic confirmation, agreement; interjective intensifier • yes-we? • yes-whee? • yes-oui! Children at Play, Romeo Downer http: //caribbeanartist. com/ English 306 A; Harris
Any questions? Modes of signification Semiotic triangle Symbolicity (arbitrariness, convention, learning) Indexicality (relation of necessity) • Egocentricity (deixis) • Anthropocentricity (inherent orientation) Iconicity (relation of resemblance) • Sequential order • Distance • Quantity English 306 A; Harris
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