The quote I am going to look at is " in language there is only differences without positive terms". I feel that Saussure was saying language and different words mean different things to everyone. Also I feel that all those three statements are interconnected meaning that they related to one another. I feel with language, people can get confused when talking about the same thing. For example, both people are talking about soda, but one person calls it tonic and the other person calls it pop. There could be a miscommunication with language because people grew up with different terms for the same things. From Saussure's writing, you can tell he is a smart man. I see the point he is trying to make with his writing. Another point I would like to make is that people can still come up with different images for abstract ideas. My image of what love is could vary very much from what another person's image of love. This is all I can come up with for now, I hope everyone likes it!
"the bond between the signifier and the signified is radically arbitrary" (35)
ReplyDeleteThe words we entitle to things do not solely make up what the thing actually is. Every language uses words to convey ideas or objects but the existence of that object is no less without the word for it. A spoon is a material object that we have given that name to, and without that name a spoon could be what we see as a truck in our mind's eye.
Based on societal context, we have given meanings to things that are not necessarily what they are in our minds.
The word spoon in English for instance represents an eating utensil, but in French the word spoon is “cuillère”. Separated the signifier and signified, are the sound and the idea associated with the word. When the signifier and signified are joined, they are the actual object we know in the english language as a spoon.
At the end of the day, its just a lot of “spooning”.
In Saussure's theory of linguistics, the signifier is the sound and the signified is the thought. The linguistic sign is neither conceptual nor phonic, neither thought nor sound. Rather, it is the whole of the link that unites sound and idea, signifier and signified.
In the quote we chose by Saussure, it means that the signifier and signified separately have very strong meanings. It is when they are joined and made the sign, their meanings are confused. In the joining of the two, much is lost, and the sign takes on a different meaning than the two individual parts. It is similar to when words are translated into different languages and meanings are lost and changed.
"A linguistic system is a series of differences of sounds combined with a series of differences of ideas." –Saussere [http://www.criticism.com/md/the_sign.html]
We found this video and we feel it really makes you feel about what exactly is the sign signifier and signified… Enjoy! We did…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61Z7ynLZBlY&feature=related
“You can't use a bulldozer to study orchids”
ReplyDeleteYou cannot study an orchid with a bulldozer because of the signifier we give these material objects. We associate a big clunky machine with the word bulldozer and a delicate pure flower with the word orchid. This is another example of how the relationship between the signifier and signified are arbitrary. Through language we are associating the signifier and signified and we cannot see the sign as a different object. If we gave the sign of bulldozer to a signifier used to study orchids then we could allow ourselves to imagine studying an orchid with a bulldozer. The song is explaining how language defines the way we see material objects in the world due to signifiers and the signified.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vykJ7-UgNQ
-Inquisitive Literatos