Language can be used as a powerful tool. It can also be turned against you if used in the wrong manner. We, as Americans, may see something (a sign, a word, a billboard, etc.) that can be inferred by many different people across the globe. even as Americans we see things differently. The point I am getting at is there is no such thing as a universal language. just because I see a tiger on a Billboard doesn't necessarily mean that it is the "frosted Flakes" brand.
In class we talked a lot about language, signifier,signified, and signs. I am not sure if this is correct but I believe that the word "mug" is signifier, the "mug" is the signified, and the two of them together is the actual mug. I am not sure if that is 100% correct but that is what I got out of class on Tuesday.
We got a lot of quotes from De Saussure, but the one that stuck out the most was, "In Language there are only differences." This is true because like I said earlier there is no universal language and in class we said that there are only two words known globally, "okay" and the other seems to escape me right now, but in the nineties the globe knew another word, "Michael Jordan".
Overall, I feel that language is not something that we should all try to understand. I feel that if there were a universal language then everything would be the same. Language is simple and language is complex, language is everything we see around us and we can not escape it.
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1 comment:
You posted some good things here. You were right when stating that the word mug is the signifier, and the mug itself is the signified but remember that together these two components create a sign. I also like your idea of language being simple and complex at the same time.
-Starfish
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