Language can mean through what it says (semantics) and what it does (pragmatics), both linked to culture. The ability to create signs that mediate between humans and their environment distinguishes humans from animals. Every meaning-making practice uses a signifier and signified - for example, the word "rose" signifies the concept of a flower. A sign is the relation between signifier and signified, not the word or object alone. The relation is arbitrary and asymmetrical, with no perfect fit, since different languages can use different signifiers for the same signified.
Language can mean through what it says (semantics) and what it does (pragmatics), both linked to culture. The ability to create signs that mediate between humans and their environment distinguishes humans from animals. Every meaning-making practice uses a signifier and signified - for example, the word "rose" signifies the concept of a flower. A sign is the relation between signifier and signified, not the word or object alone. The relation is arbitrary and asymmetrical, with no perfect fit, since different languages can use different signifiers for the same signified.
Language can mean through what it says (semantics) and what it does (pragmatics), both linked to culture. The ability to create signs that mediate between humans and their environment distinguishes humans from animals. Every meaning-making practice uses a signifier and signified - for example, the word "rose" signifies the concept of a flower. A sign is the relation between signifier and signified, not the word or object alone. The relation is arbitrary and asymmetrical, with no perfect fit, since different languages can use different signifiers for the same signified.
Language can mean through what it says (semantics) and what it does (pragmatics), both linked to culture. The ability to create signs that mediate between humans and their environment distinguishes humans from animals. Every meaning-making practice uses a signifier and signified - for example, the word "rose" signifies the concept of a flower. A sign is the relation between signifier and signified, not the word or object alone. The relation is arbitrary and asymmetrical, with no perfect fit, since different languages can use different signifiers for the same signified.
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Universidad nacional de
Chimborazo LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
MEANING AS SIGN AND THE
LINGUISTIC SIGN Group Members: Tania Jarrin Luis Abel Basantes
Meaning as sign Language can mean in two fundamental ways, both of which are intimately linked to culture: through what it says or what it refers to as an encoded sign (semantics), and through what it does as an action in context (pragmatics). We consider in this chapter how language means as an encoded sign.
The linguistic sign
The crucial feature that distinguishes humans from animals ishumans capacity to create signs that mediate between them and their environment. Every meaning-making practice makes use of two elements: a signifier and a signified. Thus, for example, the sound/rouz/or the four letters of the word `rose} are signifiers for a concept related to an object in the real world with a thorny stem and stem and many petals. The signifier ( soumd or word) in itself is not a sign unless someone recognizes it as such and relates it to a signified ( concept); for example, for someone who doesn`t know English, the sound/rouz/ signifies nothing because it is not a sing, but only a meaningless sound. A sign is therefore neither the word itself nor the object it refers to but the relation between a given word as linguistic signifier and a signified object. The word`rose`can be related to
flowers of various shapes, consistencies, colors, and smells, it can also refer to a color, or to smell, conversely, the object rose can be give meaning by a variety of signifiers: Morning Glory, Madame Meillon, flower, die Rose, une rose. Because there is nothing inherent in the nature of a rose that makes the four letters of its English signifier more plausible than,say, the five letters of the Greek word poou, the linguistic sign has been called arbitrary. Furthermore, because there is no one-to-one correspondence, no perfect fit between signifier and signified, the dualism of the linguistic sign has been called asymmetrical.(Claire kramsch 1998 pg. .I 5, I 6 oxford introductions to language study series Editor H.G. Widdowson)
1. - complete the following statements.
a) Language can mean in two fundamental waysboth of which are intimately linked to culture. b) The crucial feature that distinguishes humans from animals is humans capacity to create signs that mediate between them and their environment.
2. - TRUE OR FALSE The crucial feature that distinguishes humans from animals is humans capacity to create signs (TRUE) The signifier ( sound or word ) in itself is a sign unless someone recognizes it as such and relates it to a signified ( FALSE )
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