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Semiotics, media, and communications are The basis of each entry is a simple def-
three closely linked fields. Briefly stated, inition, which often includes the term's
semiotics, the science of signs, looks at how origin and important cross-references. Illus-
humans search for and construct meaning; trations are provided where necessary, along
communication studies is concerned with with historical sketches of movements or
how meaning is conveyed; and media schools of thought. The commentary on
studies considers the ways in which mes- personages consists of brief statements
sages are transmitted and received. This about their contribution and relevance.
dictionary is designed to help students and Thus, the dictionary not only defines what a
general readers unlock the significance of term means, but often delves into its history,
the terms commonly used in these fields. applications, and broad implications.
Being interdisciplinary in nature, semi- This is a compact, practical guide that
otics, media studies, and communication will be invaluable to students in semiotics,
studies draw from ideas and terminology media, and communication studies. Because
derived from other disciplines. Hence, of its interdisciplinary approach, it will also
this dictionary also encompasses basic provide a wide range of scholars with a
concepts from the fields of anthropology, handy reference to disciplines other than
archeology, psychology, psychoanalysis, but related to their own.
linguistics, philosophy, artificial intelli-
gence, computer science, and biology. (Toronto Studies in Semiotics)
Collected here are definitions and descrip-
tions of terms, concepts, personages, schools M A R C E L D A N E s i i s Professor and Director
of thought, and historical movements that of the Program in Semiotics and Communi-
appear frequently in the literature. cation Theory at the University of Toronto.
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MARCEL DANESI
Encyclopedic Dictionary of
Semiotics, Media, and
Communications
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of
the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities of
the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development
Program (BPIDP).
CONTENTS
Preface
vii
Dictionary
3
Bibliography
245
Index
259
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PREFACE
Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach, and even
this negative recompense has been yet granted to very few.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
The human race is a species consumed by a historical movements that come up recur-
quest for meaning. This search has led it to rently in semiotics, media analysis, and com-
create myths, art, science, language, and all munication science. The dictionary has been
the other meaningful activities that define its envisaged with students taking beginning
evolution. The study of how humans search courses in such fields as semiotics, psychol-
for and make meaning comes under the ogy, linguistics, mythology, education,
rubric of semiotics, defined as the science of literary studies, cultural anthropology,
signs. The study of how meaning is con- communication studies, and media analysis
veyed to others comes, instead, under the in mind, so that they can have a practical
rubric of communication science. And the reference manual at their disposal to help
study of how the transmission of messages them make sense of the technical writing
is carried out, and how it affects its receiv- they are expected to comprehend and inter-
ers, comes under the category of media pret. For this reason, the entries included
analysis. These three fields are thus con- here are laid out with an easy-to-follow
cerned with what is perhaps the most fun- style and are often illustrated with practical
damental condition of human life - the examples.
capacity for making and using words, ges-
tures, drawings, and so forth for thinking Content
and communicating.
As fascinating and as relevant to under- Semiotics, media analysis, and communica-
standing the contemporary world as the tion science are interdisciplinary fields, and
work in these fields is, the writing in their are thus cluttered with notions that are used
respective scholarly literatures is often too in other disciplines. Hence, the choice of
technical, laden with jargon, and highly items for this dictionary was expanded to
abstruse. To unlock the relevance and sig- include not only the basic ideas coined
nificance of the work within these fields, a within these fields, but also those that theo-
terminological key is required, especially by rists and practitioners have taken from
those who are new to them. The purpose of other fields - from anthropology, archeol-
this dictionary is to provide such a key. It ogy, psychology, psychoanalysis, linguistics,
constitutes a collection of basic terms, con- philosophy, artificial intelligence, computer
cepts, personages, schools of thought, and science, and biology.
viii Preface
Marcel Danesi
University of Toronto, 1999
ENCYCLOPEDIC DICTIONARY OF
SEMIOTICS, MEDIA, AND COMMUNICATIONS
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DICTIONARY
At painful times, when composition is impossible and reading is not enough, grammars and dictionar-
ies are excellent for distraction.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61)
ority complex), rather than sexual drives, as hired them. After the invention of the mov-
the motivating force in human life. Adler's able-type printing press in Europe around
works include The Theory and Practice of 1440, merchants started hanging printed
Individual Psychology (1918) and The Pattern posters outside their shops and inserting
of Life (1930). announcements in books, pamphlets, and
newspapers. In the 17th century, the London
Adorno, Theodor Gazette became the first newspaper to re-
[1903-1969] serve a section exclusively for advertising.
German philosopher, sociologist, and musi- So successful was this venture that shortly
cologist who applied Marxist concepts (see thereafter new agencies came into being for
Karl *Marx) to the study of human nature the specific purpose of creating newspaper
and modern society. His books include ads for merchants and artisans. Advertising
Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life spread rapidly in the 18th century, prolifer-
(1951), Jargon of Authenticity (1964), a cri- ating to the point that the British writer and
tique of philosopher Martin Heidegger and lexicographer Samuel Johnson (1709-84) felt
others who denied the possibility of objec- impelled to make the following statement in
tive truth, and Negative Dialectics (1973), in The Idler. 'Advertisements are now so nu-
which Adorno examined the crucial role merous that they are very negligently pe-
played by art in human life. rused, and it is therefore become necessary
to gain attention by magnificence of prom-
adverb ise and by eloquence sometimes sublime
[< Latin AD 'in relation to' + VERBUM 'word'] and sometimes pathetic.'
Part of speech used in association with a The first advertising agency was founded
verb, an adjective, or another adverb, speci- by Philadelphia entrepreneur Volney B.
fying or modifying its meaning. Palmer in 1841. By 1849 Palmer had opened
Illustrations: 1. He runs rapidly. 2. They are offices in New York, Boston, and Baltimore
very happy with their children. in addition to his Philadelphia office. With
improved transcontinental transportation,
advertising distribution, and communications systems,
[< Latin ADVERTERE 'to direct one's attention mail-order houses appeared on the scene in
to'] the United States in the 1870s. Book publish-
The making of public announcements de- ers, seed companies, railroads, and steam-
signed to promote the sale of specific com- ship lines were among the early users of
modities or services. nation-wide advertising.
In the last two decades of the 19th cen-
Note: A poster found in Thebes dated back tury many American firms began to market
to 1000 BC is considered to be the world's packaged goods under *brand names. Previ-
first advertisement. In large letters it offered ously, such everyday household products as
a whole gold coin for the capture of a runa- sugar, soap, rice, and molasses had been
way slave. Throughout history poster ad- sold in neighborhood stores from large bulk
vertising in marketplaces and temples has containers. The first brand names of soap
constituted a common means of promoting products date from about 1880, and include
and disseminating information about the Ivory, Pears', Sapolio, Colgate, Kirk's American
barter and sale of goods and services. family, and Packer's. Along with Bon Ami,
In the Middle Ages, advertising was Wrigley, and Coca-Cola, such products
entrusted largely to town criers - citizens quickly became household names. Encour-
who read public notices aloud, shouting the aged by the effectiveness of brand naming
praises of the wares of the merchants who in enhancing a product's familiarity, be-
advertising, use of formulas in 7
truthful or authoritative by virtue of the fact of potential consumers: Buy one package and
that they are self-evident. get a second one free; Send for free sample; Trial
Illustrations: I . Triumph has a bra for the way offer at half-price; Finish this sentence and win
you are! 2. A Volkswagen is a Volkswagen! $1,000,000,000 in cash, an automobile, or a trip
3. Coke is it! to Florida for two; No money down; etc. 4. Hu-
morously contrived ads and commercials
advertising, use of the imperative convey friendliness and, thus, help to por-
form in tray a product as agreeable. 5. Endorse-
[< Latin ADVERTERE 'to direct one's attention ments of products by celebrities make them
appear reliable. 6. Appeals to parents induce
to']
Common advertising technique consisting them to believe that giving their children
in the use of the imperative form of verbs to certain products will secure them a better
create the effect that an unseen authoritative life and future. 7. Appeals to children to 'ask
source is giving advice. mummy or daddy' to buy certain products
increase the likelihood that parents will
Illustrations: 1. Trust your senses! 2. Join the 'give in' to their children's requests. 7. Scare
Pepsi Generation! 3. Have a great day, at copy techniques are designed to promote
McDonald's! such goods and services as insurance, fire
alarms, cosmetics, and vitamin capsules by
advertising, use of jingles in evoking the fear of poverty, sickness, loss of
[< Latin ADVERTERE 'to direct one's attention social standing, and/or impending disaster.
to']
Common advertising technique, based on a advertising, use of repetition in
simple musical tune, intended to enhance [< Latin ADVERTERE 'to direct one's attention
recognition of a product. The easy rhythm to']
and flowing melody contribute to memory [see also ^advertising, use of persuasion
of the product by association. techniques in]
Illustrations: 1. Snap, crackle, and pop! 2. Break- Common advertising technique consisting
fast of champions! in the recycling of sales pitches on radio and
television commercials in print media such
advertising, use of persuasion as newspapers, magazines, posters, outdoor
techniques in displays, etc. in order to grab the attention
[< Latin ADVERTERE 'to direct one's attention of a large market segment for the product.
to'] Illustrations: I. The Pepsi Generation pitch (for
Advertising techniques designed to per- Pepsi Cola) of a few years back was pre-
suade consumers to buy or endorse a sented through radio and TV commercials,
product. and reiterated through print advertising.
Illustrations: I . Repetition is the technique 2. The This Bud's for you pitch (for Budweiser
whereby the content of radio and television beer) was similarly presented through radio
commercials is reiterated in the print media and TV commercials, and reiterated through
(newspapers, magazines, posters, displays, print advertising.
etc.) in order to capture the attention of a
large segment of potential customers. 2. advertising, use of secretive
Brand naming is designed to gain the con- statements in
sumers' allegiance to, and confidence in, a [< Latin ADVERTERE 'to direct one's attention
product. 3. The something-for-nothing lure is to']
a technique designed to grab the attention Common advertising technique consisting
aesthetics 9
in the use of statements designed to create than to strive for the representation of
the effect that something secretive is being beauty in their art.
communicated, thus capturing people's Note: One of the best-known aestheticists of
attention by stimulating curiosity. modern times was the Irish-born writer
Illustrations: \. Don't tell your friends about... Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), who turned the
... 2. Do you know what she's wearing? 3. Who's 'art-for-art's-sake' philosophy of aestheti-
that behind the wheel? cism into a lifestyle that many have since
emulated. As an aesthete, the eccentric
advertising, use of the something-for- Wilde wore long hair, filled his room with
nothing lure various art objects, and lived a 'devil-may-
[< Latin ADVERTERE 'to direct one's attention care' life. Wilde's aestheticism was ridiculed
to'] in the comic periodical Punch and satirized
[see also "'advertising, use of persuasion in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera
techniques in] Patience (1881). Nonetheless, his wit and
Advertising technique consisting in offering flair won him many devotees.
a potential buyer a 'something-for-nothing'
deal so as to entice him/her to purchase the aesthetics
product (even if on a trial basis). [< Greek AISTHESIS 'perception, sense-impres-
Illustrations: I. Bui/ one and get the second one sion'; this term was introduced into philoso-
free! 2. Send for your free sample! 3. Trial offer phy in 1753 by the German philosopher
at half-price! 4. Finish this sentence and win Alexander Gottlieb *Baumgarten]
$100,000 in cash, an automobile, or a trip to the The study of beauty and meaning in art and
Caribbean for two! 5. No money down! of the psychological responses to it; aesthet-
ics deals in particular with the question of
advertising agency whether beauty and ugliness are objectively
[see ""advertising] present in art works, or whether they exist
only in the mind of the individual.
aesthesia Note: The Greek philosopher *Plato laid out
[< Greek AISTHESIS 'perception, sense-impres- one of the first substantive theories of aes-
sion'] thetics, claiming that the experience of art
1. total sensory and emotional reaction to a was guided by 'ideal forms' of beauty pre-
physical stimulus, an idea, or a work of art; existing in the mind. In his Republic, Plato
2. heightened sensitivity to beauty. wanted to banish some types of artists from
his ideal republic because he thought their
aesthetic theories work was so emotionally powerful that it
[see *aesthetics] encouraged immorality. He especially dis-
liked certain kinds of musical compositions,
aestheticism believing that they engendered laziness or
[< Greek *aisthesis 'perception, sense-im- incited people to behave immoderately.
pression'] *Aristotle saw art as the imaginative
1. devotion to, or pursuit of, the expression attempt to separate intrinsic pattern from
of beauty in art; 2. belief that beauty is the the matter of objects, such as the human
basic objective of life from which all others, body, so as to impose it on some other sub-
especially moral ones, are derived; 3. view stance, such as marble (in sculpture). Aristo-
that artists have no social obligation other tle held that the major function of art was to
provide a means of attaining happiness. In
10 aesthetics
his Poetics, he argued that tragic drama, for Friedrich *Nietzsche (1844-1900) asserted
instance, so stimulates the emotions of pity that art allowed humans to cope with their
and fear, which he considered morbid and sorrowful plight, transforming their point-
unhealthy, that by the end of the play the less experiences into consequential events.
spectator is purged of them. This catharsis Political theorist Karl *Marx (1818-83) main-
makes the audience psychologically health- tained that art was great only when it sup-
ier and thus more capable of achieving ported the causes of its society. The French
happiness. impressionist painters rejected the idea of
The 3rd-century Roman philosopher art as imitation of Nature. As a result they
Tlotinus believed that artistic representa- became more concerned with how to con-
tion revealed the essence of an object more vey feelings on canvas than with how to
intrinsically than the direct experience of the represent objects with a high degree of fidel-
object did. He argued that true art raised the ity. The French philosopher Victor Cousin
soul to a religious contemplation of univer- (1792-1867), subsequently, derived the prin-
sal forms of beauty present in all objects. ciple of 'art for art's sake' from Kant's view
Throughout the Middle Ages the role of art that art has its own esoteric reason for be-
was, in fact, interpreted in purely religious ing. This idea has undergirded most West-
terms, but by the Renaissance art was reap- ern theories of art ever since.
praised as having both religious and secular In the 20th century, French philosopher
functions. Henri *Bergson saw the aesthetic experience
The first modern theory of aesthetics was as an intuitive apprehension of reality
formulated in the 18th century by the Ger- unmediated by rational thought. The Italian
man philosopher Alexander Gottlieb *Baum- philosopher and critic Benedetto *Croce
garten, who defined the experience of art viewed it as the innate sense of truth with-
as the sensory recognition of perfection. In out reflection. The American poet George
the same century, playwright and critic *Santayana argued that the pleasure derived
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-81), ar- from experiencing a work of art was moti-
chaeologist and antiquary Johann Joachim vated by an intrinsic quality in the art work
Winckelmann (1717-68), and philosophers itself, rather than being a purely subjective
Immanuel *Kant and Johann Gottlieb Fichte response to the work. American educator
(1762-1814) explored such issues as art's John *Dewey viewed aesthetic experiences
limitations, the nature of artistic expression, as being separate from, and more meaning-
the moral dimension of art, and the relation ful than, normal fragmentary human experi-
of art to the structure of the mind. The Ger- ences. Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund
man poet, dramatist, philosopher, and histo- *Freud (1856-1939) believed that art re-
rian Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller vealed hidden psychic conflicts and was,
(1759-1805) saw art as the means through thus, a powerful means for discharging
which the individual's sense of personal tensions. French philosopher Jean-Paul
liberty and morality gained expressive Sartre (1905-80) saw art as an expression of
form. the individual artist's need to seek answers
In the 19th century aesthetic theories to the question of existence. British critic LA.
proliferated. G.W.F. Hegel believed that art, ^Richards saw art as giving order and coher-
religion, and philosophy were the vehicles ence to experience. American philosopher
through which the human spirit manifested Susanne *Langer developed the distinction
itself. Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) between the symbols used in conventional
claimed that art provided a means of escap- language and the more 'holistic' ones used
ing the painful world of daily experience. in nonverbal art forms as a basis for under-
Alcuin 11
standing why art is so emotionally power- stage and win equality; but in the process
ful. Others have commented on the condi- society begins to disintegrate as people
tioning effects of tradition, fashion, and become more deceitful. Vico claimed that
other social pressures on aesthetic tastes, this state of deceitfulness is not a final hope-
noting, for example, that in the early 18th less event, for it invariably leads to cultural
century the plays of William Shakespeare regeneration and to the rediscovery of
were once viewed as barbarous and ob- the basic ethical, moral nature of human
scene. existence.
tices of 8th-century Europe. Alcuin's hand- work of the Italian poet *Dante Alighieri,
writing style led to the development of the especially in his Divine Comedy (1321), and a
Carolingian, a script that influenced the little later in the work of the English poet
handwriting of the early Italian Renaissance Geoffrey Chaucer, especially in his Canter-
typesetters, from which modern type is bury Tales (1387-1400).
derived.
alliteration
algorithm [< Latin AD 'to' + LITTERA 'letter']
[< Middle Latin ALGORISMUS, after Arabic Repetition of the initial sound (usually a
mathematician al-Khwarazmi, 9th-century consonant or consonant cluster) in two or
AD] more words of a phrase, expression, line of
Systematic, step-by-step method of solving poetry, etc.
a certain kind of problem or of representing Illustrations: 1. scrolls of silver snowy sentences
a procedure. (Hart Crane, 1899-1932); 2. Their tale of terror
Illustration: A three-step algorithm for multi- their turbulence tells! 3. sing-song; 4. no-no.
plying two general algebraic expressions,
(x + a) (x + b), where a and b represent two alliteration in advertising
given numbers and x a variable, is the fol- [see ^advertising, use of alliteration in]
lowing: 1. multiply the two x's in each ex-
pression: = x2; 2. to this, add the sum of the allomorph
product of the 'middle' and 'outside' factors [< Greek ALLOS 'other' + MORPHE 'form']
(ax + bx) = x2 + (a+b)x; 3. finally, add the Actual form that a ^morpheme (minimal
product of the last two factors (ab) = x2 + unit in a language) takes in a phrase or
(a+b)x + ab. sentence.
Illustration:
aliquid statpro aliquo 1. 2.
[Latin for 'something that stands for some- a boy an apple
thing else'] a picture an egg
St *Augustine's definition of the sign as a girl an olive
something that, over and above the impres-
sions it makes on the senses, causes some- From a comparison of the forms in 1 and 2,
thing else (what it stands for) to come to it can easily be seen that the indefinite arti-
mind as an image or concept. cle morpheme in English has two forms: 1. a
before a word beginning with a consonant;
allegory 2. an before a word beginning with a vowel.
[< Greek ALLOS 'other' + AGOREUEIN 'to speak
in assembly'] allophone
Narrative or poem in which the plot, the [< Greek ALLOS 'other' + PHONE 'sound']
characters, and the settings have a purely Actual pronunciation that a phoneme (basic
symbolic meaning. sound unit) takes in a word.
Illustrations: I . Le roman de la rose, written in Illustration: In English the phoneme /!/,
the 13th century by French poets Guillaume represented by the alphabet letter 1, is ar-
de Lorris and Jean de Meung, is a widely ticulated in two different ways. When the
known allegory of human love. 2. In the /!/ occurs at the end of a syllable or word -
West, the art of allegorical writing reached as in kill, bill, pull, doll, etc. - it is articulated
its apotheosis during the Middle Ages in the by raising the back part of the tongue to-
wards the soft palate (back part of the pal-
alterity 13
ate); when it occurs in all other positions - The last stage occurred around 1700-1000
as in life, last, filter, pluck, etc. - it is articu- BC, when the Phoenicians created such an
lated with the tip of the tongue touching the abbreviation system for recording conso-
top portion of the upper teeth. These two nant sounds. The first letter of the Phoe-
articulations are called allophones. (Note that nician alphabet represented the glottal
English orthography does not distinguish consonant at the beginning of the word
between the two allophones.) aleph. The Greeks later adopted the
Phoenician system, but since they had no
allusion glottal consonant in their language, they
[< Latin ALLUSIO 'a playing with'] reassigned the Phoenician character to rep-
Indirect reference to a theme, plot, character, resenting the vowel alpha. They then called
idea, etc. in a conversation, play, narrative, each symbol by words - alpha, beta, gamma,
discourse, etc. etc. - which were imitations of Phoenician
Illustrations: 1. 'Without naming names, the words: aleph 'ox,' beth 'house,' gimel 'camel,'
chairperson criticized the troublemakers.' etc.
2. 'In this poem there is an allusion to classi- The Greek alphabet spread throughout
cal mythology.' the Mediterranean world, giving rise to the
Roman one, which became the basic alpha-
alphabet bet of all the languages of Western Europe
[< Greek ALPHA + BETA, the first two letters of following the Roman conquests. About AD
the Greek alphabet] 860 Greek missionaries converted the Slavic
System of characters (marks, figures, letters, tribes to Christianity and devised for them
symbols, etc.) for representing speech an alphabetic system of writing known as
sounds. Cyrillic. The Cyrillic alphabet is used cur-
rently in Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, and
Note: Alphabets are distinguished from Bulgarian writing. The Arabic alphabet,
syllabaries and from pictographic and another offshoot of the early Semitic one,
ideographic systems of representation. A probably originated around the 4th century
syllabary provides characters for represent- AD and is generally used by the Islamic
ing separate syllables; a pictographic sys- world.
tem provides characters for representing Although alphabets were born as systems
picturable things; an ideographic system for representing sounds, alphabetically
provides characters for representing non- recorded languages are, paradoxically, often
picturable (abstract) ideas. highly unphonetic, largely because alpha-
Early systems of writing were of the betic systems tend not to change in tandem
pictographic and/or ideographic type. As with the spoken language. This leads to the
common picture signs were written down in presence of anomalous written forms such
abbreviated form (for the sake of expedi- as the English words knife, knot, knight,
ency), the stage was set for the transition knock, etc., the spelling of which reflects the
from pictographic to alphabetic representa- pronunciation of an earlier period, when the
tion. Instead of drawing, say, the full head k before n was pronounced.
of an ox, pictograph users started drawing
only its bare outline. This abbreviated picto- alterity
graph eventually became a new symbol [< Latin ALTER 'other']
standing for the word ox (aleph in Hebrew), [also called otherness]
and a little later just for the initial sound in Movement emphasizing ethnic, racial, and
the spoken word itself (the a in aleph). sexual diversity in philosophy, the arts, and
14 ambiguity
one of six ways - Puer amat puellam; Puer Philosopher John *Austin subsequently
puellam amat; Amat puer puellam; Amat maintained that, in fact, the starting point
puellam puer; Puellam puer amat; Puellam for philosophical inquiry should be an
amat puer - because the ending on each analysis of the extremely fine distinctions
word would have indicated what relation drawn in the *speech acts that are per-
the word had to the others: PUER is in the formed during ordinary conversation.
nominative case and is thus the subject of Willard Quine (1908-) also argued that
the sentence, no matter where it occurs in it; speaking one way rather than another is a
PUELLAM is in the accusative case (nomina- thoroughly pragmatic decision, not an onto-
tive = PUELLA) and is thus the object of the logical one. Contemporary analytic philoso-
sentence, no matter what its position is in phers now maintain that attention to the
the sentence. logical structure of language and to how
language is used in everyday discourse
analytic philosophy should be the starting point for resolving
[< Greek ANA 'throughout' + LYSIS 'a loosing'; philosophical problems.
PHILOSOPHOS 'lover of wisdom']
20th-century philosophical movement, dom- analytical engine
inant in Great Britain and the United States [< Greek ANA 'throughout' + LYSIS 'a loosing']
since the Second World War, dealing prima- Calculating machine invented by British
rily with how language encodes concepts. mathematician Charles *Babbage in 1833, of
Note: The founders of this movement were which only a part was ever built. Babbage's
the British philosophers G.E. Moore (1873- engine was, in effect, the first general-pur-
1958) and Bertrand *Russell. Moore and pose digital ^computer, although it was
Russell claimed that the primary task of conceived long before electronics technol-
philosophy was to determine how language ogy appeared. It had the capacity to per-
encoded truth or falsity on the basis of its form various mathematical operations,
logical structure. Such ideas attracted to using punched cards as a form of perma-
Cambridge the Austrian philosopher nent memory.
Ludwig ^Wittgenstein, who subsequently
became a central figure in the movement. anaphora
The world, Wittgenstein argued, is ulti- [< Greek ANA 'back' + PHEREIN 'to bear']
mately composed of simple facts, which it is [see also *cataphora]
the purpose of language to encode. Meta- Reference to a word or phrase in a statement
physical, theological, and ethical statements, or conversation occurring earlier in it.
therefore, were factually meaningless. Para- Illustrations: 1. Alexander saw Sarah just before
doxically, Wittgenstein repudiated his own bumping into her (her = anaphoric pronoun
views in his posthumously published Philo- referring back to Sarah). 2. Mark saw himself
sophical Investigations (1953), arguing in that in the mirror (himself - reflexive anaphoric
work that once attention is directed to the pronoun referring back to Mark). 3. / bought
way language is actually used in ordinary a toy yesterday; it was for my grandson (it =
discourse, the rich fluidity of linguistic anaphoric pronoun referring back to toy).
meanings makes it obvious that proposi-
tions do much more than encode simple anchorage
facts. Philosophy, concluded Wittgenstein, Term coined by Roland *Barthes referring to
should thus focus its efforts on resolving the effect captions play in constraining the
problems that arise as the result of the in- meaning of a photograph, a figure, etc. in
built "'ambiguity in language. print media.
16 animal communication
Illustration: The drawing of a cat on a stool mainly been associated with anthropology
in an ad, when viewed without a caption, and the British anthropologist Sir Edward
has a myriad interpretive possibilities: Burnett Tylor, who described the origin of
religion and primitive beliefs in terms of
animism. Tylor asserted that many tribes
without written traditions believe that spir-
its are the cause of life in both living beings
and objects. Such peoples picture spirits as
phantoms, resembling vapors or shadows,
that move from person to person, from the
dead to the living, and among plants, ani-
mals, and lifeless objects.
divided into two major areas: 1. physical evolution of human life and in the develop-
^anthropology, which deals with the bio- ment of societies.
logical evolution and the physiological Note: Biological anthropologists hold that
adaptations of humans; 2. cultural *anthro- notions of 'pure' races are misleading and
pology, which deals with the ways in which mistaken. All humans living today are de-
people live in groups. scendants of *Homo sapiens, and are thus cut
Anthropology emerged as a distinct field from the same genetic fabric. Differences
of study in the mid-19th century. In North among peoples have arisen as a result of the
America the founder of the discipline was complex interplay of genetic ^adaptations
Lewis Henry *Morgan, who conducted with physiological and cultural (non-
ground-breaking research on the Iroquois genetic) adaptations.
peoples. In Europe the founding figure was Fossil remains unearthed in the late 1970s
British scholar Edward B. Tylor, who elabo- and early 1980s have provided evidence
rated a theory of human culture based on that in the period from 1 million to 3 million
*animism. Also in the mid-19th century, years ago the genus Homo coexisted in East
Danish archeologists at the Museum of Africa with other advanced ape species
Northern Antiquities in Copenhagen gave known as australopithecines. Both of these
physical anthropology a firm empirical appear to be descendants of an Ethiopian
foundation by establishing the sequential fossil, Australopithecus afarensis, 3 million to
development of tools from the Stone Age to 3.7 million years old. This ancient ancestor
the Bronze and Iron Ages. of humans had the legs and body for walk-
ing bipedally, an event that freed the hands
anthropology, cultural of Homo, allowing it to manipulate objects
[< Greek ANTHROPOS 'man' + LOGOS 'word, and, subsequently, to make tools.
reckoning']
Branch of ^anthropology studying cultures anthropomorphism
comparatively. [< Greek ANTHROPOS 'man' + MORPHE 'form']
Note: The goal of cultural anthropology is to Attribution of human characteristics to a
develop broad generalizations about cul- god, an animal, or an inanimate thing.
tural systems and social behavior. Research Note: In the history of religions, anthropo-
describing food production, social organiza- morphism refers to the depiction of the
tion, religion, clothing, material culture, divinities in terms of human bodily forms
language, and other aspects of communal and emotions. Anthropomorphic concepts
life is referred to as ethnographic. In the make it easier for human beings to under-
1970s, cultural anthropologists started stand and to think about metaphysical no-
adopting a comprehensive approach, called tions. In literature, anthropomorphism
ecological theory, which requires a holistic, refers to the depiction of objects, animals,
multivariable research strategy for explain- or plants as talking, reasoning, sentient,
ing the patterns discovered in different humanlike beings.
cultures.
anthroposemiosis
anthropology, physical [< Latin ANTHROPOS 'man' + SEMEION 'mark,
[< Greek ANTHROPOS 'man' + LOGOS 'word, sign']
reckoning'] [see also *biosemiosis; *zoosemiosis]
Branch of ^anthropology studying the inter- Human *semiosis (the production and com-
play of biological and cultural factors in the prehension of *signs) as both linked to, and
18 anthroposemiotics
different from, animal semiosis (known as Illustrations: I . In this case, what is good is
zoosemiosis). really bad! 2. Whoever comes first in that race
will end up last in how he or she is perceived!
anthroposemiotics
[< Latin ANTHROPOS 'man' + SEMEION 'mark, antinovel
sign'] [also called ^antinarrative]
[see also *biosemiotics; *zoosemiotics] Fictional ""narrative characterized by the
Branch of semiotics dealing with human absence of the traditional elements of the
*semiosis (the capacity for producing and *novel, such as a coherent plot structure, a
comprehending signs) as similar to, or dif- consistent point of view, realistic portrayals
ferent from, semiosis in other species. of character, etc.
Illustrations: 1. The Voyeur (1955) by Alain
anticlimax Robbe-Grillet (1922-); 2. Molloy (1951) by
[< Greek ANTI 'against' + KLIMAX 'ladder'] Samuel Beckett (1906-89).
Sequencing of ideas in a phrase or sentence
in abruptly diminishing importance, often antithesis
for rhetorical or satirical effect. [< Greek ANTI 'against' + TITHENAI 'to place']
Illustrations: 1. First there is food for survival; Two words, phrases, clauses, or sentences
then a beverage for satisfaction! 2. He is charm- opposed to each other in meaning so that
ing, delicate, nice, short. 3. A thousand people contrasting ideas can be emphasized.
died when the Titanic sank; a great deal of Illustrations: 1. You are going; I am staying.
jewelry was also lost. 2. My life is on the upswing; yours is in a
downslide.
antihero
[< Greek ANTI 'against' + HERDS 'hero'] antonomasia
Main character in a dramatic or narrative [< Greek ANTI 'against' + ONOMA 'name']
work who lacks the traditional heroic quali- 1. use of an epithet or title in place of a
ties, such as idealism or courage. name; 2. use of a well-known personage to
Illustrations: 1. The character Holden Caul- describe someone.
field in J.D. Salinger's (1919-) novel The Illustrations: 1. referring to a philanderer as a
Catcher in the Rye (1951) is a well-known Don Juan; 2. calling a sovereign Your Majesty;
antihero of 20th-century fiction. 2. The char- 3. referring to a traitor as a Benedict Arnold;
acter Yossarian in Joseph Heller's (1923-99) 4. calling a judge Your Honor.
popular novel Catch-22 (1961) is another
example of a fictional antihero. antonym
[< Greek ANTI 'against' + ONOMA 'name']
antinarrative [see also ""synonym]
[see *antinovel] Word that is perceived to have an opposite
meaning with respect to another word.
antinomy
[< Greek ANTI 'against' + NOMOS 'law'] Illustrations: 1. Night is perceived as refer-
[see also *paradox] ring to the opposite of day. 2. Good is per-
Contradiction or inconsistency between two ceived as referring to the opposite of evil.
apparently reasonable principles, or be- 3. Clean is perceived as referring to the op-
tween conclusions drawn from them. posite of dirty. 4. Rich is perceived as refer-
ring to the opposite of poor.
application software 19
radiocarbon (carbon-14) dating method made meaning. In medieval Europe the tallest
it possible to make more accurate archaeo- building was built by the clergy. The
logical inferences. Archeologists now churches were, literally and symbolically,
analyze layered deposits of artifacts, which places of power and wealth. But as the
allow them to establish a chronology of Church lost its clout and wealth after the
cultural activities during the period when Renaissance, cities were gradually rede-
humans occupied a site. signed architecturally to reflect the new
cultural order. Today, the tallest buildings in
archetype sprawling urban centers are built by large
[< Greek ARCHE 'chief + TYPOS 'model, corporations and banks. Wealth and power
stamp'] now reside in these institutions. Inside these
1. original pattern or model from which all monolithic structures hierarchical symbol-
other patterns of the same kind are made; 2. ism also follows an up-down architectural
in psychology, any of several innate ideas or schema: the jobs and positions with the
mental images that manifest themselves lowest value are at the bottom of the build-
typically in conversations, dreams, myths, ing; the ones with the most prestige are at
art forms, and performances across cultures. the top. The company's executives reside,
Illustration: Term used by psychologist Carl like the gods on Mount Olympus, on the top
*Jung to highlight the notion that there exist floor. This why we use such expression as to
primordial figures in the evolution of the work one's way up, to make it to the top, to climb
human species that are expressed by the the ladder of success, to set one's goals high, etc.
different symbols made by cultures. The The oldest designed environments stable
trickster, for instance, is an archetypal figure enough to have left architectural traces date
that shows up throughout the world: e.g. in from the first development of cities. The
Native American mythology tricksters are Assyrian city of Khorsabad, built during the
often depicted as solitary coyotes, hares, or reign of Sargon II (722-705 BC) and exca-
ravens; in Western literature, the trickster vated in 1842, became the basis for the
has shown up as Rumplestilskin, as the jester study of the Mesopotamian world. The
in Shakespearean drama, and as the persona Egyptian pyramids - used for royal tombs -
adopted by many modern-day comedians. are examples of the power of buildings to
convey a sense of majesty and power.
architecteme Many of the architectural trends in the
[< Greek ARCHE 'chief + TEKTON 'carpenter'] West are modern-day versions of the build-
Minimal unit of an architectural style or ing styles of ancient Greece and Rome. The
code. best-known trends of Ancient Greece were
(1) the Doric form exemplified by the Par-
Illustrations: I . a type of column; 2. a rood thenon (448^132 BC), which crowns the
shape; 3. a type of portal; 4. a window de- Athenian Acropolis, (2) the Ionic form,
sign. which featured capitals with spiral volutes,
slender shafts, and elaborate bases, and
architectural code (3) the Corinthian form, a later develop-
[< Greek ARCHE 'chief + TEKTON 'carpenter'] ment, which introduced Ionic capitals
*code that underlies the design and con- detailed with acanthus leaves. Roman
struction of buildings. architecture was noteworthy for its grandi-
Note: Buildings are 'read' as texts with vari- ose urban design, of which the most re-
ous meanings. The height of a building in a markable example is Hadrian's Villa (AD
city, for instance, conveys a specific kind of 125-32) near Tivoli. From the 4th century
22 architecture
until the early Renaissance, Christianity The Bauhaus School envisioned a proletar-
came to dominate social systems, including ian architectural landscape with no orna-
architectural trends, prompting the building mental excesses (cornices, pillars, gables,
of many new churches. The Renaissance etc.). Buildings were to be fashioned as box-
brought a revival of the principles and like forms, so as to eliminate all the symbols
styles of ancient Greek and Roman architec- of power. Office towers, housing projects,
ture. In the 16th century the classical Roman hotels, and other public buildings were built
elements were adopted in a way that came with the same basic cubic blueprint.
to be known as mannerist style, character- Between 1965 and 1980, architects started
ized by arches, columns, and entablatures to reject modernism, which they found to be
that introduced perspective and depth into too monolithic and formulaic, and estab-
architecture. In the 18th century a new style lished a new style that came to be known as
arose, called rococo, reflecting a new afflu- postmodern (see *architecture, postmodern).
ence and elegance in society at large. Then, The postmodern architects valued individu-
in the 19th century, with the advent of the ality, intimacy, complexity, humor, and irony
Industrial Revolution, English architect Sir all mish-mashed into the design. By the
Joseph Paxton created the Crystal Palace early 1980s, postmodernism had become the
(1850-1) in London, a vast exhibition hall dominant trend in American architecture
that foreshadowed industrialized building and an important phenomenon in Europe as
and the widespread use of cast iron and well. Its success in the United States owed
steel. much to the influence of Philip C. Johnson
At the beginning of the 20th century, (1906-), whose AT&T Building (1984) in
some designers started a search for new New York City became instantly a paragon
organic architectural forms. The American of postmodern design. Today's new office
architect Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) gave buildings emphasize high-tech and glamor-
new expressive form to urban commercial ous professions. The diversity of Western
buildings, inventing, in effect, the sky- society is reflected in the diversity of archi-
scraper. An apprentice of Sullivan's, Frank tectural styles.
Lloyd Wright (1869-1959), became Ameri-
ca's greatest architect. Wright is known architecture
above all else for breaking away from the [< Greek ARCHE 'chief + TEKTON 'carpenter']
'box' style of modern architecture, introduc- Art and science of designing and erecting
ing other geometrical forms (circular, ellip- buildings.
tic, etc.) into building design. In Germany, Note: The architectural forms of ancient
the 'art of the modern skyscraper' came to Greece and Rome have directly determined
be perfected by the so-called Bauhaus School the course of Western architecture to this
(Weimar, 1919-25), which brought together day. In Greece, the *Doric style predomi-
architects, painters, and designers from nated on the mainland and in the western
several countries to formulate the goals for colonies. The acknowledged Doric master-
the visual arts in the modern age. Its first piece is the Parthenon (448-432 BC), which
director was Walter Gropius (1883-1969). crowns the Athenian Acropolis. The other
The Bauhaus style prevailed throughout the was the *Ionic style, which originated in the
1940s, 1950s, and most of the 1960s. Often cities on the islands and coasts of Asia Mi-
referred to with the term modernism, its nor. It featured capitals with spiral volutes,
architectural approach can be seen in the slender shafts, and elaborate bases. Roman
chaste elegance and subtle proportions of architectural style was guided by great
the Seagram Building (1958) in New York. engineering feats - as can still be seen today
argot 23
in the complex system of roads, canals, for the advent of industrialized building
bridges, and aqueducts the Romans left to design and the widespread use of cast iron
posterity. Two Roman inventions intro- and steel. At the beginning of the 20th cen-
duced greater flexibility in architectural tury, the American architect Louis Sullivan
style: the dome and the groin vault, formed (1856-1924) invented the modern sky-
by the intersection of two identical barrel scraper, developed by the Bauhaus school.
vaults over a square plan. The Romans also The Bauhaus style, also known as modernist
introduced the commemorative or trium- (see *modernism), prevailed throughout the
phal arch and the coliseum or stadium 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. By the early 1980s
From the 4th century until the early Ren- postmodern style (see below), emphasizing
aissance, Christianity came to influence and eclecticism and irony, had become the domi-
control architectural trends, prompting nant trend in American architecture and an
the building of many churches. Domed important phenomenon in Europe as well.
churches decorated with mosaics prolifer- Its success in the United States owed much
ated throughout the Byzantine era. By the to the influence of Philip C. Johnson (1906-),
12th century, the Romanesque basilica be- architect of the AT&T Building (1984) in
came the basis for the development of New York City.
Gothic architecture.
The Renaissance brought with it a revival architecture, postmodern
of the principles and styles of ancient Greek [< Greek ARCHE 'chief + TEKTON 'carpenter']
and Roman architecture. The Italian archi- 20th-century movement in architectural
tect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), with style based on classical and other forms put
his dome design for the Florentine Cathe- together in a mish-mash, eclectic fashion.
dral (1420-36), stood at the threshold be- Note: Postmodern architects call for indi-
tween Gothic and Renaissance styles. In the viduality, complexity, and eccentricity in
16th century, Rome became the center for design, while also demanding acknowledg-
new architectural trends. Saint Peter's Ba- ment of historical precedent - through an
silica in Vatican City was the most impor- adaptation of traditional ornamental sym-
tant of many architectural projects in the bols and patterns. Shortly after its adoption
century. Towards mid-century leading Ital- in architecture in the 1970s, the notion of
ian architects began to use the classical *postmodernism started to catch on more
Roman elements in ways that became broadly, becoming a general movement in
known as mannerist. In the 17th century philosophy and the arts.
mannerist style was characterized by arches,
columns, and entablatures that introduced Illustration: Perhaps the best-known exam-
perspective and depth into building de- ple of a North American postmodern build-
signs. The best-known architect of the pe- ing is Philip C. Johnson's AT&T Building
riod was the sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini (1984) in New York City.
(1598-1680), the designer of the great oval
plaza (begun 1656) in front of St Peter's argot
Basilica. [< French ARGOTER 'to beg']
In the 18th century a style arose, called 1. type of secret language; 2. variety of a
*rococo, that reflected a new affluence and language typical of thieves, tramps, or spe-
elegance in society at large. In the 19th cen- cial kinds of groups.
tury, English architect Sir Joseph Paxton Illustrations: I. pig for 'police officer';
created the Crystal Palace (1850-1) in Lon- 2. stool pigeon for 'a person acting as a
don, a vast exhibition hall that set the tone police spy.'
24 argument
and movement in a visually authentic way. great number of portraits of female nudes.
The development of the principles of linear And Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) brought out
^perspective various architects and sculp- the recurrent features of nature through
tors early in the 15th-century enabled suffused color images. Francisco Goya
painters to achieve the illusion of three- (1746-1828), Spain's foremost painter, went
dimensional shapes. Innovations were also somewhat against the impressionist grain,
made in the depiction of human anatomy producing works of great psychological
and in the use of new media, with oil paint- acumen emphasizing the triteness of his
ing competing with the general use of the subjects. The break from ^impressionism,
fresco technique. The masters of the High however, came in the work of the Dutch-
Renaissance were Leonardo da Vinci (1452- born Vincent van Gogh (1853-90) and the
1519), Raphael (1483-1520), Michelangelo French artists Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)
(1475-1564), and Titian (14887-1576). One of and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901).
the most important 15th-century painters Van Gogh used pure color applied thickly in
outside Italy was the Flemish Jan van Eyck flickering strokes, conveying intense emo-
(13907-1441). tional expression; Gauguin used distortions
The late 16th and 17th centuries saw the of line and color to make symbolic allu-
emergence of *chiaroscuro techniques (con- sions; Toulouse-Lautrec painted common
trasts of light and shadow). For instance, folk - cabaret singers, dance-hall perform-
Peter Paul Rubens (! ^77-1640), the Flemish ers, and prostitutes - symbolizing the social
*baroque master, used chiaroscuro to decay of Paris.
dramatize his subjects. The greatest ac- The 20th century witnessed many artistic
claimed painter of the era was the Dutch- movements and styles. Early in the century,
man Rembrandt (1606-69), whose works some visual artists became interested in
are, arguably, unmatched in how they por- aboriginal art. Henri Matisse (1869-1954), a
tray subtle human emotions. In the 18th leader of this movement, known as *fau-
century, so-called *rococo style was, in vism, produced alluring images of indig-
many respects, a continuation of the ba- enous dancers. Other painters, known as
roque *chiaroscuro, particularly in its use of expressionists (see "expressionism), wanted
light and shadow. But rococo art was much art to record human emotions on canvas
more graceful in its subtle portraitures. In through the act of painting itself, rather than
the latter part of the century, a classical through the faithful representation of reality.
revival in the arts, known as neoclassicism, Well-known expressionists include Wassily
emerged that stressed form and a clean Kandinsky (1866-1944) and Paul Klee
classical approach to representation. (1879-1940). A third movement, the cubist
The 19th century saw romanticism imbue (see *cubism) style, developed by Pablo
all forms of artistic expression. In painting Picasso (1881-1973) and Georges Braque
Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) introduced a (1882-1963) between 1907 and 1914, rejected
divided-color technique (color applied in traditional perspective and representational
small strokes of pure pigment) that influ- fidelity even more than did expressionism.
enced the impressionists later in the century. The cubists reduced natural forms to geo-
Edouard Manet (1832-83), for instance, metric structures, usually rendered as a set
flattened his figures, thus neutralizing their of cubes. During the First World War a
emotional expressions. Edgar Degas (1834- group of war resisters in Zurich, disgusted
1917) painted subjects in graceful move- with bourgeois values, chose a nonsense
ment, as though caught by a camera. Pierre word, *dada (French for 'hobbyhorse'), to
Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) produced a describe the art they created in defiance of
26 art, postmodern
traditional aesthetic forms and techniques. ing complexes, buildings being demolished,
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), for instance, etc. To emphasize the insanity and absurd-
reproduced Leonardo da Vinci's famous ity of this world Reggio blends the mesmer-
portrait, La gioconda (Mona Lisa), adding a izing music of Philip Glass (1937-) into his
mustache and goatee to the female subject's imagery. Indeed, the music acts as a guide
face. Dada methods were adopted by their to understanding the images, interpreting
successors, the surrealists (see ^surrealism), them totally. The senselessness of human
who emphasized the role of dreams in artis- actions in such a world is thus captured not
tic creation. The most important surrealists only in jarring images but also in the con-
were Salvador Dali (1904-89) and Rene trasting melodies and rhythms of Glass's
Magritte (1898-1967). music, which assaults the senses.
After the Second World War, the *pop art
and ^minimalist movements came to the art deco
forefront. Pop artists drew their subjects [< Latin ARS 'joining, fitting together' + DECUS
from advertising billboards, movies, comic 'ornament']
strips, and ordinary, everyday objects. The Design style popular in the 1920s and 1930s
major figure in this movement was Andy (used primarily in furniture, jewelry, tex-
Warhol (19287-87). Minimalists reduced tiles, and interior design) whose stream-
painting to the use of simple geometric lined forms conveyed a sense of elegance
forms, patterns, and single colors. In the and sophistication.
1980s and 1990s a number of young Euro- Note: Although the art deco movement be-
pean and American artists rebelled against gan about 1910, the term was not used until
such movements, returning to a more repre- 1925, when it was coined from the title of a
sentational, realistic form of painting called Paris design exhibition, Exposition Inter-
neo-expressionism. nationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels
Modernes. Primary examples of art deco in
art, postmodern the United States are the interior of Radio
[see also *architecture, postmodern] City Music Hall (1931) and the Chrysler
Art movement that crystallized in the latter Building (1930), with its sleek aluminum
part of the 20th century, utilizing mainly facades and pointed spire, both in New York
parody to unmask the hidden assumptions City.
and ideologies in traditional verbal and art
forms. art film
Illustration: Godfrey Reggio's film Koyaan- [< Latin ARS 'joining, fitting together']
isqatsi is considered both a classic example Film designed as a serious experimental
of postmodern technique in cinema art and artistic work, not for mass appeal.
a scathing parody of industrialized, com-
mercialized society. It is a film without article
words that unfolds through a series of dis- [< Latin ARTICULUS 'part']
continuous, narrativeless images, parodying Part of speech used in association with a
documentary-style films and TV programs. *noun, indicating that it refers either to
Through a constantly changing camera something in general (indefinite article) or to
angle, the industrialized world is captured something specific (definite article).
in terms of contrasting images of cars on Illustrations: I . a boy (= any boy in general);
freeways, atomic bomb blasts, litter on ur- 2. the boy (- a specific boy).
ban streets, people shopping in malls, hous-
artificial intelligence 27
established by the ancient Greeks, most foreground, relegating the eater, Alexander,
probably during the 5th century BC. The to the background. The action of eating is
axioms of any science must be consistent now seen to take place on the object, the
with one another and few in number. 'receiver' of the action. In effect, passive
sentences provide a different conceptual
angle from which to view the same action.
B
Bacon, Francis
[1561-1626]
Babbage, Charles English philosopher who criticized classical
[1792-1871] ^syllogistic reasoning as the basis for dis-
British mathematician who designed the covering physical laws. Bacon called for a
^analytical engine, a machine capable of scientific method based instead on observa-
elementary logical operations, and whose tion, experimentation, and induction.
principles of construction foreshadowed
those of the modern computer. Babbage's badge
book Economy of Machines and Manufactures *Emblem worn as an indication of rank,
(1832) initiated the field of study known office, or membership in an organization.
today as operational research.
Bakhtin, Mikhail
back formation [1895-1975]
Word created by the removal of an *affix or Russian philosopher and literary theorist
some other part from an already existing who claimed that communication was not
word. merely an exchange of information, but
Illustrations: I . vacuum clean from vacuum rather, an ongoing negotiation between
cleaner; 2. pea from the earlier English plural interlocutors.
pease.
ballad
background [< French BALLADE 'dancing song']
[see also *foreground] 1. narrative poem, often of folk origin, con-
1. part of a scene or picture that appears, to sisting of simple *stanzas and usually hav-
the eye, towards the back of the scene; 2. in ing a recurrent *refrain; 2. popular song,
grammatical theory, the mental image that especially of a romantic or sentimental na-
appears, to the mental eye, towards the back ture.
of the scene.
ballet
Illustration: In the active sentence Alexander [< Italian BALLETTO 'a little dance']
ate the apple, the subject (Alexander) is in the 1. artistic dance form based on elaborate
conceptual foreground, while the object (ap- standardized techniques; 2. theatrical pres-
ple) is in the conceptual background. The entation of dancing based on a story, idea,
action implied by the verb (eating) is imag- or mood, usually with costumes, scenery,
ined as an activity that occurs from the sub- and musical accompaniment.
ject towards the apple. However, a change
from active to passive, The apple was eaten by Note: The basis of ballet is a turned-out
Alexander, changes the position of the fore- position of the legs and feet with certain
ground and the background to the mind's juxtapositions of the arms, head, and torso
eye. The passive form brings the apple to the producing a visually harmonious effect. A
Barthes, Roland 31
ballet may be choreographed either to music of the character speaking; the figure is
especially composed for it, or to already called a balloon because it resembles one.
existing music. The plot of the ballet is
called its libretto or scenario. Plotless ballets baroque
also exist. These are intended to create a [< Portuguese BARROCO 'imperfect pearl']
mood, interpret a musical composition Art style that began in Europe around 1550
through bodily movement, or celebrate and lasted until around 1750, emphasizing
dancing for its own sake. refined ornamentation and an overall bal-
Early precursors of ballet were the lavish ance of disparate parts.
court dances of Renaissance Italy. The first Note: Manifestations of baroque art appear
ballet for which a complete score has sur- in virtually every country in Europe, with
vived was performed in Paris in 1581. Court other important centers in the Spanish and
ballet reached its peak during the reign of Portuguese settlements in the Americas.
Louis XIV (1643-1715), whose nickname Perhaps the best-known baroque artist of all
'the Sun King' was derived from a role he time is the German composer Johann Sebas-
danced in a ballet. Many ballets presented tian Bach (1685-1750), one of the greatest
at his court were created by Italian-French and most productive geniuses in the history
composer Jean Baptiste Lully (1632-87) and of Western music. Bach was the supreme
French choreographer Pierre Beauchamp, master of counterpoint, setting, moreover,
who is said to have defined the basic posi- the stage for the development of classical
tions of the feet in classical ballet. In 1661 harmony in Western music.
Louis established the Academic Royale de
Danse, a professional organization for danc- Barthes, Roland
ing masters. [1915-80]
The ballet La Sylphide, to music by French semiotician who claimed that sys-
Frederic Chopin (1810-49), and first per- tems of representation are largely based on
formed in Paris in 1832, marked the begin- concepts (see *myth) that manifest them-
ning of romantic ballet, inspiring many selves in the content of everyday discourses,
changes in choreography, style, technique, spectacles, performances, and common-
and costume, which are in place to this day. sensical notions. Barthes studied popular
In the 1920s and 1930s popular dance forms, culture extensively, demonstrating how
such as jazz and folk, enriched ballet art. common conversations, performances, and
Two great American companies were spectacles recall the ancient myths through
founded in New York City in the 1940s, the *connotation. Recreational wrestling, for
American Ballet Theater and the New York instance, is far from being just a sport,
City Ballet. Since the mid-20th century, Barthes emphasized. Rather, it is a complex
ballet companies have been founded in spectacle grafted from the mythic connota-
many cities throughout North America. tions associated with the bodily shapes,
Beginning in 1956, famous Russian ballet facial expressions, excessive gestures, and
companies, such as the Bolshoi Ballet and speech of the wrestlers. Taking his cue from
the Petersburg Kirov Ballet, began perform- *Hjelmslev, Barthes argued that connotation
ing in the West. is the operative principle in all forms of
cultural meaning-making.
balloon Barthes is also associated with the so-
[< French BALLON Targe ball'] called New Criticism, a literary movement
In the art of *comics, the figure containing in Europe and the United States, prominent
words which issue from the mouth or head after the Second World War, which empha-
32 BASIC
ings and jazz performances, particularly in bell while presenting the meat stimulus a
coffee shops. number of times, he found that the dog
would eventually salivate only to the ring-
beat gesture ing bell, without the meat stimulus. Clearly,
[< Latin GERERE 'to bear, carry'] the ringing, which would not have triggered
Hand gesture accompanying discourse, the salivation initially, had brought about a
resembling the 'beating' of musical tempo. 'conditioned response' in the dog. Shortly
Note: The execution of this type of gesture thereafter, John B. Watson proposed that
consists in the speaker's hand moving along human conditioning could be studied with
with the rhythmic pulsation of speech, in virtually the same type of laboratory proce-
the form of a simple flick of the hand or of dure. In Watson's view, all complex forms of
the speaker's fingers moving up and down, behavior - such as emotions and habits -
or back and forth. Beat gestures are *index- were ultimately decomposable into simple
es, marking the introduction of new themes, muscular and glandular processes and
characters, etc., or summarizing the action could thus be observed and measured di-
during discourse. rectly. In the mid-20th century American
behaviorist B.F. *Skinner maintained that
beaux arts inner processes, such as feelings, should
[French for 'fine arts'] also be studied by the usual laboratory
[see *fine arts] methods, with particular emphasis on con-
trolled experimentation.
behaviorism Starting in the late 1960s, behaviorism fell
[term coined in 1913 by John B. *Watson] into disfavor among most psychologists. At
School of psychology based on the view that best, today it is seen as explaining only
observable and quantifiable behavior pro- certain types of behaviors and is thus
vides the only valid data for psychologists viewed as part of a more comprehensive
to study. theory of human mentality.
Note: Behaviorism became the main school Benedict, Ruth
of psychology from 1913, when psycholo- [1887-1948]
gists started investigating complex forms of American anthropologist, student of Franz
behavior by measuring and analyzing the ""Boas, who pioneered research on Native
responses of human subjects to various American tribes during the 1920s and 1930s.
stimuli. While the behaviorists did not deny On the basis of her research, Benedict main-
the existence of inner experiences, such as tained that every culture developed its own
feelings, they maintained that these could particular moral and lifestyle systems that
not be studied meaningfully, because they largely determined the choices individuals
were not directly observable. reared in a specific culture made throughout
The key notion of behaviorism is that of their lives.
the 'conditioned response,' which was de-
veloped initially by the Russian psycholo- Benveniste, Emile
gist Ivan *Pavlov in 1904. When Pavlov [1902-76]
presented a meat stimulus to a hungry dog, French linguist who claimed that language
the animal would salivate spontaneously, as cannot be studied apart from how it is put
expected. This was the dog's 'uncondi- to use in daily life. Benveniste thus empha-
tioned response.' Then, after Pavlov rang a sized the study of *parole (language as it is
34 Bergson, Henri
used) in order to understand how the sys- Note: The British Library's General Catalogue
tem of *langue (the grammar) is constructed of Printed Books and the catalogs of the
in the native speaker's mind. Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and the
Library of Congress in Washington, DC, are
Bergson, Henri widely used bibliographical sources. Infor-
[1859-1941] mation on the books put out by publishers
French philosopher who was largely inter- is provided by trade bibliographies, which
ested in the role of intuition as a means of appear at regular intervals. In the United
attaining knowledge. Bergson rejected logi- States these include Publishers Weekly, which
cal reasoning in favor of intuitive artistic first appeared in 1872, and Books in Print,
expression - which he saw as the apprehen- which was first published in 1948. Stand-
sion of reality unmediated by rational ardization of bibliographical methods is
thought - as the primary means for coming promoted by such organizations as the
to grips with the mysteries of life. Laughter International Federation for Documentation
(1900), an essay on the nature of comedy, is and the American Documentation Institute.
probably his most quoted work.
Bildungsroman
Berkeley, George [< German BILDUNG 'formation' + French
[1685-1753] ROMAN 'a story in the vernacular']
Irish prelate and philosopher who argued Novel whose principal plot is the moral,
against the materialism of Thomas *Hobbes, psychological, and intellectual development
casting doubts on Hobbes's claim the world of a youthful main character.
could be known objectively through logical Illustrations: 1. The Sorrows of Young Werther
reasoning. Berkeley held that matter cannot (1774) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
exist independently of the mind and that (1749-1832); 2. Siddhartha (1922) by
sensory perception can be explained only by Hermann Hesse (1877-1962).
supposing a deity who continually evokes
understanding in the human mind. binarism
[< Latin BINARIUS 'two by two']
Bettelheim, Bruno View that two forms or *signs are kept rec-
[1903-90] ognizably distinct by the presence of a mini-
Austrian-born American psychologist noted mal difference between them.
for his studies of children and education.
Bettelheim contributed significantly to the Illustration: The forms pin and bin are recog-
study of the nature of autism in children. He nizably distinct signs because of the differ-
also analyzed the human passion for fairy ence between initial /p/ and /b/: the
tales, arguing that this form of narrative former is a voiceless consonant (produced
was universal and, thus, that its categories without vibration of the vocal cords); the
(characters, plots, etc.) were archetypal in latter a corresponding voiced consonant
nature. (produced with the vibration of the vocal
cords). This minimal, or binary, difference is
bibliography what keeps the two words perceptibly dis-
[< Greek BIBLION 'book' + GRAPHEIN 'to write'] tinct from one another.
1. list of writings pertinent to a given sub-
ject; 2. description and identification of the binary feature
editions, dates of issue, and authorship of [< Latin BINARIUS 'two by two']
books or other written texts. Feature that is marked as being present [+]
biosemiosis 35
or absent [-] in the constitution of a sound, Donne. Over the next 25 years, it was re-
a word, etc. vised and developed by its author, becom-
Illustrations: 1. The difference between boy ing a prototype for modern biographical
and boys is signaled by the binary feature writing.
[singular]: boy is marked as [+singular] The first modern biography is considered
and boys as [-singular]. 2. The difference to be The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) by
between sip and zip is signaled by the binary James Bos well (1740-95). Since then, many
feature [voice] (which refers to the vibra- significant biographies have appeared,
tion of the vocal cords in the articulation of becoming staples of literary tradition, such
a sound): s is marked as [-voice] and z as as the Life of Sir Walter Scott (7 volumes,
[+voice]. 1837-8) by John Gibson Lockhart (1794-
1854). In the 20th century biography re-
binit tained its broad appeal as various literary
[see *bit] fashions came and went. People's fascina-
tion with the lives of media personalities
biography and historical figures alike was satisfied in
[< Greek BIOS Tife' + GRAPHEIN 'to write'] the late 20th century by the television me-
1. written historical account of an individu- dium, as programs such as Biography on the
al's life, considered as a literary genre; 2. Arts and Entertainment channel became a
account of a person's life, as told by another. staple of television programming in the
1990s.
Note: The penchant for writing biographies Among famous 20th-century biographical
of famous historical personages is as old as writers, the Frenchman Andre Maurois
recorded history. Rulers of the ancient (1885-1967) and the Austrian Stefan Zweig
world had their deeds recorded by biogra- (1881-1942) are perhaps the best known.
phers, so as to perpetuate their memory Maurois's Life of Shelley (1923) made popu-
beyond the grave. Perhaps the best known lar the romanticized biography, a form writ-
ancient biographical work is the Parallel ten in an engaging popular style, relying
Lives by Plutarch (AD 467-120?) - a collection more on imaginative interpretation than on
of biographical sketches of legendary per- scholarly originality. Zweig's Three Masters
sonages. Shakespeare drew from the Lives (1920), a collection of biographical sketches
for his plays based on Roman history of Honore de Balzac, Charles Dickens, and
(Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleo- Fyodor Dostoyevsky started the trend in
patra). literary criticism of evaluating the artist's
Until the middle of the 17th century, writ- work against the background of his/her life
ten biography was generally commemora- experiences.
tive in Western society, condemning
malefactors and tyrants, exalting heroes and biological anthropology
heroines. In 1560 the Italian artist Giorgio [see ^anthropology, biological]
Vasari (1511-74) published his Lives of the
Artists, which reflected a new spirit of hu- biosemiosis
manism and the idea that each individual [< Greek BIOS Tife' + SEMEION 'mark, sign']
life, not just the lives of heroes or public [see also *anthroposemiosis; *zoosemiosis]
figures, had intrinsic worth. In 1640, Izaak Term referring to *semiosis (the production
Walton (1593-1683) published his Life of and comprehension of *signs) in all living
Donne, a biography of English poet John things.
36 biosemiotics
guage as the code for teaching them human has become adapted. Large-scale divisions
language. One of the first subjects was a of the biosphere into regions of different
female chimpanzee named Washoe, whose growth patterns are called biomes.
training by the Gardner husband and wife
team began in 1966 when she was almost bipedalism
one year old. Remarkably, Washoe learned [< Latin BI 'two' + PES 'foot']
to use 132 signs in just over four years. Adaptation to a completely erect posture
What appeared to be even more remarkable and a two-footed striding walk.
was that Washoe began to put signs to- Note: Bipedalism is one of the earliest of
gether to express a small set of relations. the major hominid traits to have evolved,
Inspired by the results obtained by the distinguishing the species *Homo from its
Gardners, others embarked upon an inten- nearest primate relatives - gorillas, chim-
sive research program that is still ongoing. panzees, and orangutans. Almost all other
However, there really has emerged no solid mammals stand, walk, and/or run on four
evidence to suggest that chimpanzees and limbs. Those standing on two have quite
gorillas are capable of verbal behavior in the different postures and gaits from humans -
same way that humans are, nor of passing on kangaroos hop on their two feet; some mon-
to their offspring what they have learned keys may only on occasion walk bipedally,
from their human mentors. Like the com- especially when carrying food; chimpanzees
parative psychologists of a previous era, are capable of brief bipedal walks, but their
these experimenters have failed to accept usual means of locomotion is knuckle-walk-
the probable fact that human verbal ing, standing on their hind legs but stooping
semiosis is species-specific. forward and resting their hands on the
Biosemiotics takes its impetus from the knuckles rather than on the palms or fin-
work of the biologist Jakob von *Uexkiill, gers. The uniquely S-shaped spinal column
who provided empirical evidence at the of humans places the center of gravity of the
start of the 20th century to show that an body directly over the area of support pro-
organism does not perceive an object in vided by the feet, thus giving stability and
itself, but according to its own particular balance in the upright position.
kind of innate *modeling system. While the
study of primate communication in itself birth and rebirth myth
remains a fascinating biosemiotic area of [see *mythology]
investigation, the question biosemioticians
ask is not whether primates can speak like bit
humans, but rather what modeling systems [abbreviation of binit = abbrev. of binary
they share (if any) with humans. It is more digit]
likely that certain properties or features of Unit of information content defined as the
semiosis cut across species, while others are value n in the probability quotient l/2 n
specific to one or several species. Determin- specifying any outcome: an outcome with a
ing the universality or specificity of particu- probability of 1/2 (= 1/21) carries one bit of
lar semiosic and modeling properties is a information (because n = 1); an outcome
much more realizable goal. with a probability of 1/4 (= 1/22) carries two
bits of information (because n = 2); an out-
biosphere come with a probability of 1/8 (= 1/23)
[< Greek BIOS 'life' + SPHAIRA 'sphere'] carries three bits of information (because
[see also *semiosphere] n - 3); and so on.
Environment or habitat to which a species
38 BITNET
Illustration: If one were to toss a coin three field was thus a key figure in providing a
times the possible eight outcomes would be standard repertory of notions and proce-
(T = tail, H - head) 1. TTT, 2. THT, 3. THH, dures for carrying out detailed investiga-
4. TTH, 5. HHH, 6. HTH, 7. HIT, 8. HHT. tions and descriptive characterizations of
The probability of one outcome, say TTT or specific languages.
HHH, is 1/8 (= 1/23, n = 3), and thus carries
three bits of information. Boas, Franz
Note: A bit is the smallest unit of informa- [1858-1942]
tion handled by a computer and is realized American anthropologist who claimed that
physically by a single pulse sent through a culture largely determined the ways in
circuit or a small spot on a magnetic disk which individuals developed their person-
capable of storing either a 1 or a 0. Consid- alities and their worldviews. Boas rejected
ered singly, bits convey little information a the widely held 19th-century claim that
human would consider meaningful. In cultures resulted from a natural evolution-
groups, however, bits become the familiar ary process, akin to ""natural selection, argu-
patterns used to represent all types of infor- ing that the many differences found among
mation. peoples living in diverse cultures constitute
solid evidence against a universal biological
BITNET paradigm for culture. If anything, he re-
[acronym for 'Because It's Time Network'] torted, the reverse was true - the emergence
Network connecting computers at universi- of culture as the distinguishing trait of the
ties, colleges, research institutions, second- human species has become the primary
ary schools, and other institutions. BITNET 'reshaper' of human life.
was created in 1981 and is operated by the
Corporation for Research and Educational body image
Networking. It is used mainly as a news Subjective concept of one's physical appear-
source of developments in academic re- ance based on self-observation and the
search. perceived reactions of others.
Note: Psychologists see body image as a key
blazonry factor in imprinting one's personality. Hav-
[< French BLASON 'shield'] ing a 'poor body image' has been shown to
Heraldic practice, developed in tourna- lead to negative and injurious conse-
ments during the Middle Ages, of blazoning quences. Anorexics, for instance, are
('blowing') a trumpet and then describing thought to suffer distortions of body image,
the "insignia of an unknown knight. From believing erroneously that their emaciated
this practice the term blazonry came to bodies are obese.
designate the specific description of a coat
of arms. body language
[see also *kinesic code]
Bloomfield, Leonard Bodily gestures, postures, and facial expres-
[1887-1949] sions by which a person communicates
American linguist whose 1933 textbook, nonverbally with others.
Language, bestowed systematicity and unity
upon the study and practice of linguistics book
through its coherent synthesis of linguistic Sheets bound together, containing verbal
concepts and analytical techniques. Bloom- text, sometimes with illustrations.
bound morpheme 39
Note: The forerunners of books were the clay was capable of explaining human thought -
tablets of ancient Mesopotamia and the a claim that has remained unsubstantiated.
scrolls of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
Scrolls were strips of papyrus that were borrowing
unrolled as they were read. Professional Process of taking a word or grammatical
scribes reproduced works either by copying structure from another language for com-
a work or by setting it down from dictation. municative purposes.
Papyrus was brittle, and in damp climates it Illustrations: In English, abstract ideas ex-
disintegrated in less than 100 years. By the pressed by nouns ending in -tion (attention,
4th century AD, the rectangular codex, a education, nation, etc.) have their roots in the
ringed notebook consisting of two or more Latin lexicon, as do most of the nouns end-
wooden tablets covered with wax, had re- ing in -ty (morality, sobriety, triviality, etc.).
placed the scroll. In the early Middle Ages These were borrowed by speakers of Eng-
scribes in monasteries used quill pens to lish after the invasion and conquest of Eng-
write out books. Books were thus few and land by the Normans from northwestern
costly, commissioned primarily by the liter- France in 1066. Their French origin is no
ate aristocratic minority of the population. longer consciously recognized because they
The Chinese had invented printing from have become completely Anglicized in pro-
carved wood blocks in the 6th century AD. nunciation and spelling. Among the words
By the llth century they had invented print- that English has borrowed from Italian in
ing from movable type. In the 15th century more recent times are alarm, bandit, bankrupt,
Europeans learned about paper from the carnival, gazette, piano, sonnet, stucco, studio,
Islamic world, which had acquired it from umbrella, volcano, gusto and bravo.
China, inventing movable metal type inde- Borrowing is not limited to vocabulary.
pendently - an invention usually credited to The English suffix -er, which is added to
the German printer Johann Gutenberg verbs to form nouns, as in the formation of
(14007-68?). The first major book printed baker from bake, is a borrowing of the Latin
was the Bible in 1456. Printing simplified suffix -arius.
book production, making it economically
feasible. As a consequence, literacy among bound morpheme
the general public increased greatly, espe- [< Greek MORPHE 'form']
cially since it was believed that every be- [see also *free morpheme]
liever should read the Bible. From the *Morpheme (minimal meaningful unit in a
Industrial Revolution onwards, book pro- language) that is attached to another mor-
duction has become highly mechanized and pheme.
efficient.
Note: There are two main types of bound
Boole, George morphemes. 1. an inflectional bound mor-
[1815-64] pheme, such as the verb form learned, which
British mathematician and logician who consists of the root learn plus the bound
developed an algebraic system, later known morpheme -ed, providing further informa-
as Boolean algebra, after his name, that be- tion about the verb (namely that the action
came central to the 20th-century study of of learning has occurred in the past); 2. a
pure mathematics and formal logic, and that derivational bound morpheme, such as the
contributed greatly to the design of modern -ly in cautiously (- cautious + -ly), which
computers. Boole believed that his system changes the grammatical function of cau-
tious from adjectival to adverbial.
40 bowdlerize
structing theories of knowledge. Carnap's comic strip. In England, this led to the art of
work on the structure of scientific language, satirical caricaturing. Later in the 19th cen-
and his analyses of the verifiability of em- tury, as periodicals began including illustra-
pirical statements, testify to his belief that tions, the editorial cartoon became a staple
the problems of science and philosophy are of journalism. In the United States, too,
equivalent to problems of language. cartoonists like Thomas Nast (1840-1902),
began using cartoons to lobby for specific
Cartesian project causes. Nast's best-known works include
Term referring to the idea propounded by cartoons about the American Civil War in
French philosopher and mathematician which he inveighed against slavery.
Rene *Descartes that a universal method can Editorial cartoons grew in popularity in
be devised whereby all human problems, the 20th century. The gag cartoon was popu-
whether of science, law, or politics, can, in larized by the New Yorker magazine, which
theory, be worked out rationally and sys- began publishing witty cartoons in 1925.
tematically by applying principles of math- The first daily comic strip appeared in the
ematical logic to them. United States in 1904, and daily strips soon
became a regular feature of most major
cartography newspapers, eventually filling a whole page
[see *map] each day. In 1933 advertisers began to pro-
duce books containing reprints of comic
cartoon strips to give away with certain merchan-
[< Italian CARTONE 'paper'] dise. Comic books with original stories were
Drawing, often with a caption, caricaturing produced a little later. Superman, which was
or symbolizing, often satirically, some event, first published in 1938, is the most famous
situation, or person of topical interest. early comic book. Beginning in the 1960s,
Note: There are three main types of cartoons: poster cartoons began to appear, usually as
1. editorial cartoons, which serve as visual a vehicle for expressing political protest.
commentary, usually of a satirical nature, on The radical subculture of the period
current events, in magazines and newspa- spawned a genre known as underground
pers; 2. gag cartoons, consisting of a single comics (or comix), which explored previously
panel, which usually satirize causes, rather forbidden subjects (drugs, sexual freedom,
than lampooning individuals, in magazines and radical politics). In the 1980s and 1990s
and on greeting cards; 3. illustrative cartoons, many mainstream comic strips began ad-
which are used in conjunction with adver- dressing controversial issues on a regular
tising or learning materials, serving to illu- basis.
minate important points or highlight special In the 20th century also, the comic strip
aspects of a new product or educational genre was used as the basis for the animated
topic. film (or animated cartoon). Many of the first
In the 16th century the German broad- animated films used existing comic-strip
sheets (single cartoons printed on large stories and characters for their plot lines,
pieces of paper) were used for the first time but Walt Disney, William Hanna, Chuck
to sway people's opinions. During the 18th Jones, and other American animators soon
century, the English painter and engraver after created original characters of their
William Hogarth (1697-1764) launched the own, such as Mickey Mouse and Bugs
idea of pictorial storytelling - similar to a Bunny, which have since become integral
figures of popular culture.
catharsis hypothesis 45
greatly influenced the development of mo- pictures was strong throughout the 1930s. A
tion pictures because of its intercutting of cycle of classic horror films, including
scenes shot at different times and in differ- Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), and The
ent places to form a unified narrative, cul- Mummy (1932) spawned a series of sequels
minating in a suspenseful chase. With the and spin-offs that lasted throughout the
production of D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a decade. One of the most enduring films of
Nation (1915), small theaters sprang up the decade was the musical fantasy The
throughout the United States, and cinema Wizard ofOz (1939), based on a book by L.
emerged as a de facto art form. Most films Frank Baum - a children's movie with a
of the time were short comedies, adventure frightful theme that reflected the emerging
stories, or filmed records of performances cynicism of society at large, namely, that all
by leading actors of the day. human aspirations are ultimately make-
The film industry moved gradually to believe, that the 'Wizard' at the end of the
Hollywood. Hundreds of films a year 'road of life' is really a fraud, a charlatan.
poured from the Hollywood studios to One American filmmaker who came to
satisfy an ever-increasing craving from a Hollywood from radio in 1940 was the
fanatic movie-going public. The vast major- writer-director-actor Orson Welles (1915-
ity of them were Westerns, slapstick com- 85). His Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnifi-
edies, and elegant romantic melodramas cent Ambersons (1942) influenced the
such as Cecil B. DeMille's Male and Female subsequent work of virtually every major'
(1919). In the 1920s, movies starring the filmmaker in the world. From the late 1940s
comedian Charlie Chaplin ushered in the to the mid-1970s, Italian cinema achieved an
golden age of silent film. After the First intimacy and depth of emotion that radi-
World War, motion-picture production be- cally transformed cinematic art. Classic
came a major American industry, generating Italian films of the period included Roberto
millions of dollars in profit for successful Rossellini's Open City (1945), Vittorio De
studios. American films became interna- Sica's The Bicycle Thief (1949), Pier Paolo
tional in character and dominated the world Pasolini's The Gospel According to Saint Mat-
market. Artists responsible for the most thew (1966), Federico Fellini's La Strada
successful European films were imported by (1954), La Dolce Vita (1960), 8l/2 (1963), and
American studios, and their techniques Juliet of the Spirits (1965), Michelangelo
were adapted and assimilated by Holly- Antonioni's L'Avventura (1959), and Red
wood. Desert (1964), Bernardo Bertolucci's The
The transition from silent to sound films Conformist (1970), and 1900 (1977), and Lina
was so rapid that many films released in Wertmuller's Swept Away (1975) and Seven
1928 and 1929 had begun production as Beauties (1976).
silent films but were hastily turned into One of the most distinctive and original
'talkies,' as they were called, to meet the directors to emerge in the post-Second
growing demand. Gangster films and musi- World War international cinema stage was
cals dominated the new 'talking screen' of Sweden's Ingmar Bergman (1918-), who
the early 1930s. Filming popular novels brought an intense philosophical and intel-
became the vogue in the late 1930s, with lectual depth to cinematic art. In The Seventh
expensively mounted productions of classic Seal (1956) he probed the mystery of life and
novels, including one that became one of the spirituality through the trials of a medieval
most popular films in motion-picture his- knight playing a game of chess with Death.
tory, Gone with the Wind (1939). The trend In Wild Strawberries (1957) he created a se-
towards escapism and fantasy in motion ries of poetic flashbacks reviewing the life
50 cinema-verite
of an elderly professor. He dissected the This development, combined with the ad-
human condition starkly in a series of sub- vent of cable television, which features
sequent films - Persona (1966), Cries and relatively current films on special channels,
Whispers (1972), Scenes from a Marriage seemed at first to threaten the long-term
(1973), and Autumn Sonata (1978) - in which survival of movie theaters, creating a cli-
he excoriated the absurd penchant in the mate of apprehension similar to that of the
human species to search for meaning in early 1950s, when television began to chal-
existence. lenge the popularity of motion pictures.
In the 1950s and 1960s color films virtu- As a result, film companies increasingly
ally eclipsed black-and-white. But some favored large spectacles with fantastic spe-
filmmakers still preferred black and white, cial effects in order to lure the public away
striving for quiet realism. Among these from home videos and back to the big
films Psycho (1960) by Alfred Hitchcock, screen. But despite the challenge from
The Last Picture Show (1971) by Peter Bog- video, the traditional movie theater has
danovich, Raging Bull (1980) by Martin remained as popular as ever - a testament
Scorsese, Zelig (1983) and Shadows and Fog to the power of cinema as an art form for
(1992) by Woody Allen, and Schindler's List the modern imagination.
(1994) by Steven Spielberg have become
classics. cinema-verite
Of the many directors working in the last [French 'cinema truth']
part of the 20th century, perhaps no one has Style of filmmaking that stresses stark psy-
been as successful at exploiting the film chological realism in the portrayal of char-
medium as a versatile art form as has acter.
Steven Spielberg (1947-). His Jaws (1975), Illustrations: 1. Carl-Theodor Dreyer's
about a killer shark that terrorizes a small (1889-1968) La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928);
beach community, became the model for a 2. Luis Bunuel's (1900-83) and Salvador
number of subsequent films in which fear- Dali's (1904-89) Un chien andalou (1929).
inspiring creatures threatened helpless vic-
tims. His Close Encounters of the Third Kind cipher
(1977) and E.T. (1982) capitalized on a wide- [< Arabic SIFR 'nothing']
spread fascination with the possibility of Cryptographic message in which units of
extraterrestrial life. His other multimillion- plain text of regular length, usually letters,
dollar blockbusters have included Raiders of are transposed or substituted according to a
the Lost Ark (1981), Indiana Jones and the predetermined code.
Temple of Doom (1984), and Indiana Jones and
the Last Crusade (1989), all imitative of the Note: There are four main types of ciphers:
serial cliffhangers of the 1930s. Most of 1. In transposition ciphers the message is
Spielberg's films rely heavily on high-tech usually written, without word divisions, in
special effects, especially his Jurassic Park rows of letters arranged in a rectangular
(1993), which features frighteningly realistic block. The letters are then transposed in a
computer-generated dinosaurs. Within the prearranged order such as by vertical col-
first four weeks of its release, Jurassic Park umns, diagonals, or spirals, or by more
became the highest-grossing film up to that complicated patterns. 2. In simple substitu-
time, only to be surpassed by Titanic (1998). tion ciphers, a specific letter or symbol is
The 1980s and 1990s saw a revolution in substituted for each letter. The letters are left
the home-video market, with major releases in their normal order, usually with normal
being made available for home viewing. word divisions. 3. In multiple substitution
Clever Hans phenomenon 51
ciphers, a keyword is employed. The first which originated in Crete about 2000 BC; the
message letter might be enciphered by add- Byzantine, which arose in the 4th century
ing to it the numerical value of the first AD; the Islamic, arising in the 8th century AD;
letter of the keyword; the second message and the Western, which arose in Western
letter is enciphered similarly, using the Europe in the early Middle Ages.
second letter of the keyword, and so on.
4. In more complicated poll/alphabetic ciphers, C-language
the letters of the keyword may indicate Computer programming language devel-
which of a series of mixed substitution al- oped in 1972. Although C is considered by
phabets is to be used to encipher each letter many to be more a machine-independent
of the message. assembly language than a high-level lan-
guage, it is used by many in the microcom-
circumfix puter world.
[< Latin CIRCUM 'around' + AFFIXUS 'fastened]
Two *affixes added simultaneously to a classical conditioning
*morpheme (minimal unit of meaning). [see *behaviorsm; ^psychology]
Illustration: In Chickasaw, a Native language
spoken in Oklahoma, the negative is formed classicism
by attaching both the prefix ik- and the suf- [< Latin CLASSICUS 'relating to the highest
fix -o to the root of a word: e.g. lakn 'it is classes']
yellow/ iklakno 'it isn't yellow'; palli 'it is Term describing the art and literature cre-
hot,' ikpallo 'it isn't hot.' ated by the ancient Greeks and Romans, as
well as any style or period of creative work
civilization distinguished by qualities that suggest or
[< Latin civis 'citizen'] are derived from classical aesthetics. The
Complex society, or group of societies, term has been applied especially to the
whose institutions are grounded in a main- Western art and music of the period that
stream culture, but which can encompass starts around 1750 and ends around 1820.
more than one culture.
Clement of Alexandria
Note: The term civilization implies essen- [AD 1507-215?]
tially a society, or group of societies, with a Greek theologian and early Father of the
distinctive recorded history and with com- Church who put the study and interpreta-
mon institutions (religious, political, legal, tion of ancient texts, especially religious or
economic, educational, etc.). The first civili- mythical ones, on a systematic grounding.
zations in the current-day Middle East came Clement established the method of ascer-
onto the scene between 5000 and 3000 BC. taining, as far as possible, the meaning that
Sumer, Babylon, and Egypt were among the a biblical writer intended on the basis of
first large social groupings to encompass linguistic considerations, relevant sources,
not only a mainstream form of culture, but and historical background.
also a complex diversity of peoples and
languages, and to distinguish between civil Clever Hans phenomenon
and religious institutions. Other civiliza- Term referring to the illusive belief that
tions that history has recorded are the An- animals can understand human speech.
dean one, which originated about 800 BC
in South America; the Far Eastern, which Note: Clever Hans was heralded the world
started in China about 2200 BC; the Minoan, over in 1904 as a German 'talking horse'
52 cliche
who appeared to understand human lan- he did. 2. Sarah starts by giggling, then she goes
guage and communicate answers to ques- on to chuckle loudly, and ends up laughing
tions by tapping the alphabet with his front raucously.
hoof - one tap for A, two taps for B, three
taps for C, and so on. A panel of scientists closed work
ruled out deception and unintentional com- [see also *open work]
munication by the horse's owner. The horse, Term coined by Umberto *Eco in reference
it was claimed, could talk. Clever Hans was to a type of text with a singular or fairly
awarded honors and proclaimed an impor- limited range of meanings.
tant scientific discovery. Illustration: Most 'Whodunit?' mystery sto-
Eventually, however, an astute member of ries are closed works because only one solu-
the scientific committee that had examined tion to a crime eventually surfaces. An open
the horse's purported abilities, the psy- work, by contrast, allows readers to make
chologist Oskar Pfungst, discovered that up their own minds as to what it means.
Clever Hans would not tap his hoof without
observing his questioner. The horse had clothing
obviously figured out - as most horses can - [see also *dress]
what the signals that his owner was unwit- Any form of material body covering, devel-
tingly transmitting meant. The horse tapped oped by humans primarily as a protection
his hoof only in response to inadvertent against climate.
cues from his human handler, who would
visibly relax when the horse had tapped the Note: Clothing is often contrasted with dress
proper number of times. To show this, in semiotics. Clothes have a denotative
Pfungst simply blindfolded Clever Hans meaning - they enhance human surviv-
who, as a consequence, ceased to be so ability considerably. They are human-made
clever. The Clever Hans phenomenon, as it has extensions of the body's protective re-
come to be known in the annals of psychol- sources; i.e. they are additions to protective
ogy, has been demonstrated over and over bodily hair and skin. This is why clothing
with other animals as well (e.g. a dog will fabrics vary in relation to different climatic
bark in response to certain signals unwit- zones. But in social settings separate items
tingly emitted by people). of clothing cohere symbolically into the
various dress codes that inform people how
cliche to present themselves in public.
[< French CLICHER 'to stereotype']
Trite or overused expression or idea. clowning
[see ^buffoonery]
Illustrations: I . All's well that ends well. 2. They
lived happily ever after. coda
[< Latin CAUDA 'tail']
climax 1. in linguistics, sound(s) that follow(s) the
[< Greek KLIMAX 'ladder'] vowel in a syllable; 2. in music, passage at
1. series of ideas, images, etc. arranged pro- the end of a movement or composition that
gressively so that the most forceful is last; 2. brings it to a formal close.
decisive turning point of the action in a
drama, performance, or narrative. Note: A syllable is composed of an onset (the
sound or sounds that precede the vowel
Illustrations: I . First we criticize him, then we nucleus) and a rhyme, made up of the nucleus
attack him, and finally we destroy him for what and a coda. It is called rhyme because in
cognitive grammar 53
rhyming words, the nucleus + coda of the to both shorter attention spans and a need
final syllables must match: e.g. sprint -flint. for constant variety in information content.
People habituated to large doses of com-
code pressed information - i.e. information cut up
[< Latin CODEX 'wooden tablet for writing'] and packaged beforehand - tend to become
1. system of *signs given certain meanings; psychologically dependent on information
2. system of signs and structural patterns for and visual stimulation for their own sake.
constructing and deciphering messages.
Note: A code can be compared to a computer cognitive dissonance
program. The latter consists of a set of in- [< Latin COGNITIO 'knowledge'; DIS 'apart';
structions that the computer can recognize SONUS 'sound']
and execute in converting information from Condition of conflict or anxiety resulting
one form into another. So too language, for from an inconsistency between one's beliefs
instance, constitutes a set of phonetic, gram- and one's actions, such as opposing the
matical, and lexical instructions that the slaughter of animals while eating meat.
makers and interpreters of words and ver- People will seek out information that con-
bal texts can recognize and convert into firms their own attitudes and views of the
messages. Language, dress, music, and world, or else reinforces aspects of condi-
gesture are examples of codes. These are tioned behavior, avoiding information
systems of signs that are held together by that is likely to be in conflict with their
specific relations. worldview and, thus, tending to cause
cognitive dissonance.
coevolution
[see *sociobiology] cognitive grammar
[< Latin COGNITIO 'knowledge'; Greek
cognition GRAMMATIKE 'grammar, learning']
[< Latin COGNITIO 'knowledge'] School of *linguistics based on the premise
Process of knowing in the broadest sense, that language categories embody conven-
including perceiving, remembering, and tional imagery, which constitutes an es-
judging. The study of cognition began in sential aspect of their grammatical and
earnest in the 1950s when psychologists semantic value.
started making parallels between the func- Illustrations: 1. When we say that our feelings
tions of the human brain and computer are inside us, we are construing the body as
operations such as the coding, storing, retriev- a container. 2. When we say that our feelings
ing, and buffering of information. are up, we are construing our feelings in
terms of an upward-looking sensation.
cognitive compression effect Note: Cognitive grammar is based on the
[< Latin COGNITIO 'knowledge'] idea that, in choosing a particular expres-
Compression effect of electronic media sion or construction, a speaker does so by
(especially TV) on the way information and construing the situation in a certain experi-
ideas are perceived. By compacting ideas ential way; i.e. the speaker selects one par-
and information for time-constrained trans- ticular form or structure in forming a
mission, such media leave little opportunity sentence in order to convey feeling, emo-
for reflection on the content of messages. tion, point of view, etc. These choices are
Note: According to some psychologists this called cognitive routines, and defined as
effect has led, in populations exposed to TV, mentally prepackaged assemblages that
54 cognitive science
speakers can employ in essentially auto- slashes). So long as one could specify the
matic fashion. steps involved in carrying out a task and
translating them into the binary code, the
cognitive science ^Turing machine - now called a computer
[< Latin COGNITIO 'knowledge'; SCIENTIA program - would be able to scan the tape
'knowing'] containing the code and carry out the in-
Interdisciplinary field that emerged in the structions.
1970s for studying human ^cognition. Cog- Although Turing himself was well aware
nitive science extracts its notions from of the limitations of his notion, openly ad-
"artificial intelligence, ""linguistics, *anthro- mitting that it could never come close to
pology, *psychology, and other human emulating the more spiritual aspects of
sciences in order to formulate its own par- human consciousness, to many psycholo-
ticular kind of theories about the mind. gists his clever insight suggested not only
Note: When Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) that humans were, in effect, special kinds of
founded the first 'laboratory' of experimen- protoplasmic machines, whose cognitive
tal psychology in 1879 in Leipzig, he laid states, emotions, and social behaviors were
the groundwork for establishing a new therefore representable in the form of com-
scientific discipline of the mind, separate puter-like programs, but also that mechani-
from philosophy, which he claimed would cal machines themselves could eventually
have the capacity to discover the 'laws of be built to think, feel, and socialize like
mind' through a method of experimentation human beings.
with human subjects. This became the basis The greatest criticism levelled against this
for most of the experimental psychology of view is that it is beyond the capacities of a
the first half of the 20th century. By the late machine to feel, imagine, invent, dream,
1960s, however, a new cadre of psycholo- construct rituals, art works, and the like.
gists abandoned the experimental approach, These are derivatives of bodily and psychic
finding it too anecdotal, and sought instead experiences. Computer-based theories and
parallels between the functions of the hu- models of consciousness can perhaps give
man brain and those of computer programs. us precise information about the nature of
This led to the foundation of the cognitive the formal properties of mental states; but
science movement, based on the notion that they tell us nothing about how these states
there exists a level of mind wholly separate are brought about in the first place.
from the biological or neurological, on the
one hand, and the sociological or cultural, cognitive style
on the other, that works like an electronic [< Latin COCNITIO 'knowledge']
computer. [see also *sense ratio]
The basis for this view is the concept of Particular style by which information is
machine, which is a mathematical abstrac- processed: e.g. auditory cognitive style
tion tracing its roots to the work of the (= processing information by listening to it);
mathematician Alan *Turing (1912-54). visual cognitive style (= processing informa-
Turing showed that four simple operations tion by looking at it); etc.
represented on a tape - move to the right,
move to the left, erase the slash, print the slash - cognitivism
allowed a computer to execute any kind of [< Latin COCNITIO 'knowledge']
program that could be expressed in a binary [see ^cognition]
code (as for example a code of blanks and School of psychology originating in the
1950s based on the idea that mental func-
color 55
when studying the new color system: i.e. the found to occur in any combination in lan-
student learns how to reclassify the content guages that had the previous focal points.
of the spectrum in terms of the new terms. Berlin and Kay found that languages with,
Moreover, in all languages there exist lexical say, a four-term system consisting of black,
resources for referring to more specific gra- white, red, and brown did not exist.
dations on the spectrum if the situation
should require it. In English the words crim- color field painting
son, scarlet, and vermilion, for instance, make [< Latin COLOR 'covering']
it possible to refer to gradations of red. But Abstract expressionist painting technique in
these are still felt by speakers to be subcate- which color and shape are used for their
gories of red, not distinct color categories on own sake, without depicting anything in
their own. particular.
Note: Color field painting originated in the
color, focal late 1940s, gaining popularity in the 1950s
[< Latin COLOR 'covering'; FOCUS 'hearth'] and 1960s. Like all forms of abstract *ex-
Color category that is purported by some pressionism, it rejected the direct represen-
psychologists and linguists to be universal. tation of recognizable forms, emphasizing
Note: The term was introduced by instead the experience of pure color. Among
psycholinguists Brent Berlin and Paul Kay the first examples of color field painting
in their classic 1969 study, Basic Color Terms. were Clyfford Still's (1904-80) large can-
Berlin and Kay argued that differences in vases splashed with thick color fields
color terms are only superficial matters that bounded by jagged contours. One of the
conceal general underlying principles of best-known color field artists is Helen
color perception. Using the judgments of the Frankenthaler (1928-), whose technique
native speakers of twenty widely divergent consists in pouring paint freely onto raw
languages, Berlin and Kay came to the con- canvas, causing the paint to 'bleed' into the
clusion that there were 'focal points' in basic fabric in the form of pools.
(single-term) color systems that clustered in
certain predictable ways. They identified comedy
eleven focal colors, which correspond to the [< Greek KOMOIDIA 'revel, carousal']
English words red, pink, orange, yellow, [see *drama]
brown, green, blue, purple, black, white, and
gray. comedy of manners novel
Not all the languages they investigated [see *novel]
had separate words for each of these colors,
but there emerged a pattern that suggested comic relief
to them the existence of a fixed way of per- [< Greek KOMOS 'a reveling']
ceiving color across cultures. If a language Humorous or farcical interlude in a serious
had two colors, then the focal points were literary work, designed to provide relief
equivalents of English black and white. If it from dramatic tension.
had three color terms, then the third one
corresponded to red. A four-term system comics
had either yellow or green, while a five-term [< Greek KOMOS 'a reveling']
system had both of these. A six-term system Visual narrative put together with "cartoon
included blue, a seven-term system brown. drawings arranged in horizontal lines,
Finally, purple, pink, orange, and gray were strips, or rectangles called panels, and read
commedia dell'arte 57
from left to right; dialogue is represented by The most famous comic strip ever is,
words encircled by "balloons, which issue arguably, Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz
from the mouth or head of characters. (1922-2000), appearing in more than 2000
Note: Most pop-culture historians trace the newspapers and translated into more than
origin of the modern comic strip to Richard 20 languages. It ended a 50-year run at the
Felton Outcault's series Hogan's Alley, first end of 1999. Schulz has received many
published in 1895. Two other early cartoons awards and honors, including the prestig-
were The Katzenjammer Kids (1897) by ious Reuben award given by the National
Rudolph Dirks and Little Bears (1892) by Cartoonists Society. His clean drawing style
James Guilford Swinnerton. Shortly thereaf- and humor are dignified and intelligent. His
ter, comics became a staple feature of news- characters, which include Charlie Brown,
papers. The first successful daily comic his sister Sally, his dog Snoopy, his friends
strip, by Bud Fisher, began in 1907 under Lucy, Linus, Schroeder, Peppermint Patty,
the title Mr. A. Mutt, later retitled Mutt and Marcie, and the bird Woodstock have be-
Jeff. Newspaper syndicates, which em- come cultural icons to whom people refer
ployed comic-strip artists, began the mass for insight and understanding in the same
circulation of comics by selling strips to way they might refer to biblical figures,
small-town newspapers. mythical personages, or Shakespearean
One of the first comic books was a collec- characters.
tion of the Mutt and Jeffsirips reprinted
from the Chicago American in 1911. The first commedia dell'arte
comic book to sell on newsstands was Fa- [< Italian COMMEDIA 'comedy' + DELL'ARTE 'of
mous Funnies, which first appeared in 1934. the guild']
The 1938 publication of the comic book [see also *drama]
Action Comics - of which the principal fea- Type of comedy developed in Italy in the
ture was the Superman comic strip - in- 16th and 17th centuries, characterized by
spired hundreds of imitations. The improvisation from standard plot outlines
adventure genre began with the publication and stock characters, often in traditional
in 1929 of Tarzan and Buck Rogers. Flash masks and costumes. Although the govern-
Gordon (1934) by Alex Raymond proved to ments of Spain and France attempted to
be one of the most successful examples of censor and regulate commedia performances,
comic-book fantasy. In the same year Al the ribald humor and realistic character
Capp began Li'l Abner, using it as a vehicle types of the commedia were eventually
for satirizing American society. adopted by conventional theater.
In 1986 Jules Feiffer received a Pulitzer Note: The commedia dell'arte originated in
Prize for his literary cartoon critiques of northern Italy in the 1550s and flourished
radical politics. Gary Trudeau's Doonesbury, for 200 years. In their improvised comedies,
with its political satire and ironic sketches of commedia troupes relied on stereotypical
counterculture lifestyles, had won a Pulitzer characters, masks, broad physical gestures,
Prize in 1975, only five years after its incep- and clowning to entertain large, diverse
tion. A satirical strip in a similar vein, Bloom crowds. Lecherous Arlecchino wore a black,
County by Berkeley Breathed, won the snub-nosed mask, was extremely acrobatic,
Pulitzer in 1987. Gary Larson's single-panel and possessed the slyness of an artful ado-
daily feature, The Far Side, delighted many lescent. Pantalone, a cheap and gullible mer-
newspaper readers from the 1980s to the chant, attempted to disguise his old age and
mid-1990s with its offbeat and sometimes attract women by wearing tight-fitting Turk-
macabre humor. ish clothes. The Doctor used meaningless
58 commercial (radio and television)
Latin phrases and prescribed dangerous of a bell after he repeatedly sounded the bell
remedies. Endlessly boasting of his victories just before feeding them. This 'nurtured
in war and love, the Captain always proved behavior' was ascribed to conditioning. Later
to be a coward and an inane lover. Pulcinella work showed that conditioning procedures
was a pot-bellied rascal, who concocted that reward or punish behaviors, called
outrageous schemes to satisfy his desires. operant conditioning, are highly effective. In
Columbine, the wife of one of the Old Men, contrast, nature theory holds that much of
demonstrated intelligence and charm in a what animals know is instinctive, pro-
world of stupidity and misunderstanding. grammed into their genes at birth. Most
animal communication systems are based
commercial (radio and television) on signaling behavior. Some species are
[see ^advertising] known to have several signal repertoires,
such as distinct signals for different varie-
commisurotomy experiments ties of predators, all producing diverse
[see "'split-brain experiments] responses in the community. Certain pri-
mate groups, for example, use different
communication signals for airborne and land predators; if
[< Latin COMMUNIS 'common'] the community hears the land predator call,
1. production and exchange of messages by they take cover in the tops of trees.
means of signals, facial expressions, talk,
gestures, or writing; 2. art of expressing communication, verbal
ideas, especially in speech and writing. [< Latin COMMUNIS 'common']
Note: In the human species, communication Communication by means of "language.
includes the following modes of delivery: Note: Among the various models of verbal
1. gesture, i.e. the use of the hands; 2. vocal, communication, the one by the Moscow-
i.e. the use of the vocal organs; 3. writing, born linguist and semiotician who carried
i.e. the use of pictures or graphic symbols; out most of his work in the United States,
4. visual, i.e. painting, sculpting, etc.; 5. me- Roman Jakobson (1896-1982), is one of the
chanical, i.e. radio, computers, television, most widely used ones today. Jakobson
etc.; 6. signaling, i.e. body signal emission posited six 'constituents' that characterize
(natural or intentional). all instances of verbal communication: 1. an
addresser who initiates a communication; 2. a
communication, animal message that she/he recognizes must refer to
[< Latin COMMUNIS 'common'] something other than itself; 3. an addressee
Scientific study of communication in animal who is the intended receiver of the message;
species. 3. a context that permits the addressee to
Note: Two theories guide the study of ani- recognize that the message is referring to
mal communication: 1. nurture theory, which something other than itself; 4. a mode of
postulates that animals learn everything contact by which a message is delivered (the
they do from other animals; 2. nature theory, physical channel) and the primary social
which asserts that they know what to do and psychological connections that exist or
instinctively. are established between the addresser and
Nurture theory was given prominence addressee; 5. a code providing the signs and
after the Russian physiologist Ivan *Pavlov structural patterns for constructing and
was able, at the threshold of the 20th cen- deciphering messages.
tury, to cause dogs to salivate at the sound Jakobson then pointed out that each of
these constituents determines a different
communicative competence 59
communicative function: 1. emotive = the writing, etc. A verbal message, for instance,
influence of the addresser's emotions, atti- can involve a natural medium, if it is articu-
tudes, social status, etc. in the making of the lated with the vocal organs; or else it can be
message; 2. conative = the effect - physical, transmitted by means of markings on a
psychological, social, etc. - that the message piece of paper through the artifactual medium
has or is expected to have on the addressee; of writing; and it can also be converted into
3. referential = a message constructed to radio or television signals for mechanical
convey information unambiguously; 4. (electromagnetic) transmission.
poetic - a message constructed to deliver ^Semiotics is often confused with commu-
meanings effectively, like poetry; 5. phatic = nication science. Although the two domains
a message designed to establish social con- share much of the same theoretical and
tact; 6. metalingual = a message designed to methodological territory, communication
refer to the code being used. science focuses on the technical study of
Jakobson's analysis of verbal communica- how messages are transmitted (vocally,
tion suggests that discourse goes well be- electronically, etc.), and on the mathematical
yond a situation of simple information and/or psychological laws governing the
transfer. It involves determining who says transmission, reception, and processing of
what to whom; where and when it is said; and information, whereas semiotics pays more
how and why it is said: i.e. human discourse attention to what messages mean, and how
is motivated and shaped by the setting, the they create meaning.
message contents, and the participants,
making an emotional claim on everyone in communication theory
the communicative situation. [< Latin COMMUNIS 'common'; Greek THEORIA
'a looking at']
communication science Theoretical study of how ^communication
[< Latin COMMUNIS 'common'; SCIENTIA unfolds, and of why it unfolds in that way.
'knowing'] Note: The areas that communication theo-
Science studying all the technical aspects of rists investigate include verbal and nonver-
^communication. bal forms (gesture, body language, facial
Note: Among the first to study the technical expression) of human communication, ani-
features of communication systems was the mal communication, symbolism, alphabets,
American electrical engineer Claude E. and the effect of technological media on
Shannon (1916-). In 1948, Shannon devel- perception and cognition.
oped the mathematical laws governing the
transmission, reception, and processing of communicative competence
information. In his model of communica- [< Latin COMMUNIS 'common']
tion, message transmission occurs between Ability to use a language appropriately in
a sender (such as a person speaking) who social contexts for various functions.
encodes a message - i.e. uses a code such as Illustration: When a male adolescent high
language to construct it - and a receiver who school student says good-bye to one of his
has the capacity to decode the message - i.e. teachers, to his mother, or to a peer, he will
to use the same code to understand what convey the same message typically in three
the message means. To get the message different ways: 1. Good-bye to Teacher. 'Good-
across to the receiver, the sender must use bye, sir/ma'am!' 2. Good-bye to Mother: 'See
some means or device to convert it into a ya' later, ma!' 3. Good-bi/e to a Peer. T gotta'
physical signal in some medium - the voice, split, man!'
60 communicology
These are not interchangeable - i.e. the the linguist to identify and describe the
adolescent would not say 'I gotta' split, general properties of this innate knowledge,
man!' to a teacher, nor would he say, 'Good- sifting them out from those that apply only
bye, sir!' to a peer. The choice of forms and to particular languages. The former, called
structural patterns that are utilized in spe- universal principles, are purported to be part
cific situations, such as these, will vary of a species-specific language faculty that
predictably. This kind of systematic knowl- has genetic information built into it about
edge is called communicative competence. what languages in general must be like; the
latter, known as parameters, are said to con-
communicology strain the universal principles to produce
[< Latin COMMUNIS 'common'] the specific language grammar to which the
[synonym of "communication theory] child is exposed. Although Chomsky as-
signs some role to cultural and experiential
commutation test factors, he has always maintained that the
[< Latin COMMUTARE 'to change'] primary role of linguistics must be to under-
Technique for analyzing how meaningful stand the universal principles that make up
differences in *signs unfold and are main- the speech faculty.
tained, consisting of commuting structurally
corresponding elements in a pair or set of compiler
forms in order to ascertain if such a commu- [< Latin COMPILARE 'to snatch together']
tation is meaning-bearing. Computer program that translates another
Illustrations: I . In the word pair pin and bin program written in a high-level language
one element of sound, namely the initial into a machine language so that it can be
consonant, is commuted in order to see if it executed.
produces a difference in meaning between
the two forms. 2. In the study of advertising, complementary distribution
the commutation test consists in changing [< Latin COMPLEMENTUM 'that which fills']
an image or word in an ad, removing it and Process whereby one form does not occur in
replacing it with another one, in order to see the same position or context that another
what kind of reaction it generates. form related to it does.
Illustration: The *phoneme represented by
comparative grammar the letter n in English (/n/) has three vari-
[see ^grammar] ants. Each occurs in a different predictable
phonetic position. The three sounds are said
competence, linguistic to complement each other in how they are
[< Latin COMPETENTIA 'meeting, agreement'] distributed among the other sounds in the
Abstract knowledge of language. pronunciation of words. The /n/ is pro-
Note: This term was coined by the American duced: 1. by letting the tongue touch the
linguist Noam *Chomsky, who defined it as palate in a word such as bench; 2. by arching
the innate knowledge that people employ the tongue towards the back of the mouth in
unconsciously to produce and understand a word such as bank; 3. by letting the tongue
grammatically well-formed sentences, most touch the upper teeth in a word such as
of which they have never heard before. bent. The /n/ in (1) is conditioned by the
Chomsky proposed a system of analysis, following palatal consonant; the /n/ in (2)
which he called transformational-generative is conditioned by the following back (velar)
*grammar, that would purportedly allow consonant. In all other positions, (3), the
computer 61
/n/ is realized as a dental. These articula- were early precursors of modern-day com-
tions of /n/ are in complementary distribution puting machines.
- i.e. where one occurs, the other does not. In the early 19th century French inventor
Joseph-Marie Jacquard (1752-1834) devised
componential analysis a loom that used punched cards to program
[< Latin COMPONERE 'to put together'] patterns of woven fabrics. In the 1820s Brit-
Study of the meaning of words or other ish mathematician and scientist Charles
meaningful forms on the basis of *binary *Babbage incorporated the loom's design
features or components that keep them dis- into his Difference Engine, for solving math-
tinct. ematical problems. Babbage also made
Illustrations: 1. The difference in meaning plans for the Analytical Engine, considered to
between man and woman is encoded in part be the direct forerunner of the modern com-
by the features [+male, -female] vs. [+fe- puter. At the end of the century, Herman
male, -male]. 2. The difference between a Hollerith (1860-1929), an American inven-
book and a cat is encoded in part by the tor, combined the use of punched cards with
features [-animate] vs. [+animate]. devices that electronically read the cards.
The company Hollerith founded eventually
computer merged with other companies in 1924 to
[< Latin COMPUTARE 'to reckon'] become International Business Machines
Machine that performs algorithmic tasks, (IBM) Corporation.
such as mathematical calculations, under In the 1930s American mathematician
the control of instructions called a *pro- Howard Aiken (1900-73), developed the
gram. There are four main types of comput- Mark I electronic calculating machine, built
ers: 1. digital computers, which manipulate by IBM, probably inspired by the British
numbers that represent switches turned mathematician Alan Turing's idea of a
on or off by electrical current; 2. analog com- machine that could process equations with-
puters, which use numerical values with out human direction. Shortly thereafter, in
a continuous range, including fractions; 1945, the Hungarian-American mathemati-
3. mainframe computers, which have more cian John von Neumann (1903-57) devel-
memory, speed, and capabilities than oped the first electronic computer to use a
workstations and are usually shared by program stored entirely within its memory.
multiple users; 4. supercomputers, which are John Mauchley (1908-80) and J. Presper
powerful mainframe computers having the Eckert (1919-95), built the first successful,
capacity to process complex calculations. general digital computer in the same year.
In 1948, a group of American physicists
Note: In 1623, the German scientist Wilhelm developed the transistor. In the late 1960s
Schikard invented a machine that could integrated circuits, electrical components
add, multiply, and divide. Shortly thereafter, arranged on a single chip of silicon, re-
in 1642, French philosopher and mathemati- placed individual transistors.
cian Blaise Pascal (1623-62) invented a ma- In the 1970s the microprocessor was devel-
chine that could perform addition and oped. The number of transistors and the
subtraction, automatically carrying and computational speed of microprocessors
borrowing digits from column to column. started doubling approximately every 18
The German mathematician Gottfried months. Today the development of sophisti-
*Leibniz subsequently designed a special cated operating systems such as Windows
gearing system to enable multiplication on and Unix enables computer users to run
Pascal's machine. These three machines programs and manipulate data in ways that
62 computer art
were unthinkable 50 years ago. Communi- 1950s focused on automating the process of
cations between computer users and net- making calculations for use in science and
works will benefit from new technologies engineering. Scientists and engineers devel-
that can carry significantly more data and oped theoretical models of computation
carry it faster, to and from the vast intercon- that enabled them to analyze how efficient
nected databases that continue to grow in different approaches were in performing
number and type. various calculations. Computer science
overlapped considerably during that era
computer art with numerical analysis. As the use of com-
[< Latin COMPUTARE 'to reckon'; Latin ARS puters expanded, the focus of computer
'art'] science broadened to include the creation of
Broad term that can refer either to art cre- artificial languages used to program com-
ated on a computer or to art generated by a puters, operating systems, and networks,
computer, the difference being that the 'art- exploring relationships between computa-
ist' is human in the former case and elec- tion and human thought.
tronic in the latter. The major branches of computer science
today include software development, com-
computer graphics puter architecture (hardware), human-
[< Latin COMPUTARE 'to reckon'; Greek computer interfacing (the design of the
GRAPHEIN 'to write'] most efficient ways for humans to use com-
Display of 'pictures' (charts, drawings, etc.), puters), and artificial intelligence (the at-
as opposed to only alphabetic and numeri- tempt to make computers behave
cal characters, on a computer screen. intelligently).
contexts) through *association, "^induction, Illustration: The shades of blue - dark blue,
*deduction, and/or *abduction. navy blue, sky blue, celeste, etc. - all encode
subordinate color concepts that are needed
concept, abstract for specialized purposes.
[< Latin CONCIPERE 'to take in, receive';
ABSTRAHERE 'to draw from'] concept, superordinate
[see also ^concept, concrete] [< Latin CONCIPERE 'to take in, receive'; SUPER
^Concept that cannot be demonstrated, 'above' + ORDINARE 'to arrange']
understood, or observed directly. ^Concept that has a highly general classi-
Illustration: The word love refers to an ab- ficatory function.
stract concept because, although love exists Illustration: The concept encoded by the
as an emotional phenomenon, it cannot be word color is a superordinate concept, be-
demonstrated or observed directly (i.e. the cause it refers to the general phenomenon of
emotion itself cannot be demonstrated or chromaticism and encompasses all the
observed apart from the behaviors, states of colors (red, blue, etc.).
mind, etc. that it produces). In order to dem-
onstrate what it is, something explanatory concept-formation
or descriptive is needed - a love poem, a [< Latin CONCIPERE 'to take in, receive']
courtship ritual, etc. Process of acquiring a *concept.
Note: The formation of a specific concept can
concept, basic be characterized generally as a 'pattern-
[< Latin CONCIPERE 'to take in, receive'] extracting' or 'pattern-inferencing' process
[also called a prototypical concept] that appears to serve some useful cognitive
^Concept that has a typological (classi- function. The main types of concept-forma-
ficatory) function. tion processes are ^induction, Meduction,
Illustrations: I . The word blue entails a basic *abduction, ""association, *analogy, *meta-
concept because it refers to a type of color. phor, and *metonymy.
2. The word rfime encodes a basic concept
because it refers a type of coin. conceptual metaphor
[see ""metaphor, conceptual]
concept, concrete
[< Latin CONCIPERE 'to take in, receive'; CUM conceptual metonym
'together' + CRESCERE 'to grow'] [see "metonym, conceptual]
[see also *concept, abstract]
^Concept that is demonstrable and observ- concrete concept
able in a direct way. [see ""concept, concrete]
Illustration: The word cat refers to a concrete
concept because one can always demon- concrete image
strate or observe the existence of a cat in the [see *image, mental]
physical world and can represent it in con-
crete ways (e.g. a drawing of a cat). concrete operational stage
[see *Jean Piaget]
concept, subordinate
[< Latin CONCIPERE 'to take in, receive'; SUB Condillac, Etienne Bonnot de
'under' + ORDINARE 'to arrange'] [1715-1780]
^Concept that has a detailing function. 18th-century French philosopher, whose
theory, known as sensationalism, is re-
64 conjecture
garded as a key contribution to the founda- Illustration: The word house denotes 'any
tion of the science of ^psychology. Condillac (free-standing) structure intended for hu-
argued that human knowledge and con- man habitation.' This meaning can be seen
scious experiences are derived from sense in utterances such as / bought a new house
perception alone. yesterday; House prices are continually going up
in this city; We repainted our house the other
conjecture day; and so on. Now, the same word can be
[< Latin CUM 'together' + JACERE 'to throw'] extended as follows: The house is in session
Inference or judgment based on inconclu- now (= legislative assembly); The house roared
sive or incomplete evidence. with laughter (= theater audience); He sleeps
in one of the houses at Harvard (= dormitory).
conjunction In such connotative extensions, the *distinc-
[< Latin CUM 'together' + JUNGERE 'to join'] tive features of the word - [-i-structure],
Part of speech serving to connect words, [+human], [-i-habitation] - remain implicitly;
phrases, clauses, or sentences. i.e. a legislative assembly, a theater audi-
Illustrations: 1.1 read and write English fairly ence, and a dormitory do indeed imply
well. 2. He understands English, but does not structures of special kinds that humans can
speak it well. be said to inhabit (occupy) in some specific
way. Any connotative extension of the word
connectionism house is thus constrained by its distinctive
[< Latin CUM 'together' + NECTERE 'to fasten'] features: i.e. house can be applied to refer to
[also called parallel processing theory] anything that involves or implicates hu-
Computer technique in which multiple mans (or beings) coming together for some
operations are carried out simultaneously. specific reason.
At a higher level, connotation is the op-
Note: In 1996 International Business Ma- erative mode in the production and deci-
chine Corporation (IBM) challenged Garry pherment of creative texts such as poems,
Kasparov, the reigning world chess cham- novels, musical compositions, art works - in
pion, to a chess match with a supercom- effect, of most of the non-mathematical and
puter called 'Deep Blue.' The computer non-scientific texts that a culture produces.
utilized 256 microprocessors in a parallel Mathematical and scientific texts, by con-
architecture to compute more than 100 mil- trast, are interpreted primarily in denotative
lion chess positions per second. Kasparov ways. But this does not mean that meaning
won the match with three wins, two draws, in science is encoded necessarily denotat-
and one loss. Deep Blue was the first com- ively. On the contrary, many of the theories
puter to win a game against a world cham- and models of science are born of connota-
pion with regulation time controls. Deep tive thinking, even though they end up
Blue now serves as a prototype for develop- being interpreted denotatively over time.
ing computers with the capacity to solve
complex problems. connotation, emotive
[< Latin CUM 'together' + NOTARE 'to mark';
connotation Latin EX 'from' + MOVERE 'to move']
[< Latin CUM 'together' + NOTARE 'to mark'] [sometimes called "'annotation]
[see also ^denotation] ^Connotation that conveys personal per-
Extended, secondary, or implied meaning of spective or emotion.
a *sign (word, symbol, etc.) or *text (conver-
sation, story, etc.). Illustration: The word yes can have various
emotive connotations, depending on the
consciousness 65
tone of voice with which it is uttered. If one Illustration: The use of dark colors in an
says it with a normal tone of voice, it will be advertising text can activate the following
understood as a sign of affirmation. If, how- connotative sequence: dark = night - mys-
ever, one says it with a raised tone, as in a tery =fear = evil = forbidden desires = etc.
question, yes?, then it would imply doubt or
incredulity. Such 'added meanings' to the connotatum
word yes are examples of emotive connota- [Latin 'noted together']
tion. Connotative referent of a sign.
Note: The word lion has a denotative (in-
connotation, mythic tended) meaning when it refers to the ani-
[< Latin CUM 'together' + NOTARE 'to mark'] mal Tion.' However, when it is used to refer
[see also *myth] to qualities of 'fierceness/ 'pride/ etc., as in
"Connotation that alludes to, or evokes, a He's a real lion, then these referents are called
mythic theme. its connotata (plural of connotatum).
Note: Mythic themes and personages are
found frequently in advertising. For exam- consciousness
ple, the myth of Persephone, daughter of [< Latin CUM 'with' + SCIRE 'to know']
Zeus, father of the gods, and of Demeter, Awareness of one's environment and one's
goddess of the earth and of agriculture, is own existence, sensations, and thoughts.
often implied in the advertisements of fe- Note: Throughout history there have been
male lifestyle products, such as perfume, many attempts to study and understand
high heel shoes, etc. Hades, god of the un- this truly unique phenomenon. The semiotic
derworld, fell in love with Persephone and approach has traditionally viewed con-
wished to marry her. Although Zeus gave sciousness as a product of the body, mind,
his consent, Demeter was unwilling. Hades, and culture nexus. Human consciousness
therefore, seized the maiden as she was starts out as a bodily-sensory phenomenon.
gathering flowers and carried her off to his Children come to know objects by experi-
realm. As Demeter wandered in search of encing them directly, through the senses (by
her lost daughter, the earth grew desolate. tasting them, touching them, etc.). This form
Finally Zeus sent Hermes, the messenger of of 'sensory consciousness' is subsequently
the gods, to bring Persephone back to her mediated and structured by the *signs
mother. Before Hades would let her go, he learned in social context. These induce a
asked her to eat a pomegranate seed, the reflective state of consciousness that is
food of the dead. She was thus compelled to based on referentiality (i.e. on what signs
return to the underworld for one-third of call attention to). Finally, human conscious-
the year. As both the goddess of the dead ness entails access to a culture-specific way of
and the goddess of the earth's fertility, knowing, i.e. a highly abstract state of con-
Persephone is a personification of the re- sciousness that is based on a "signifying
vival of nature in spring. Her 'story' is thus order.
often used to convey connotations of 'fertil- In recent years, the phenomenon of con-
ity/ 'sexuality/ 'coming of age/ etc. sciousness has become the source of much
interest among sociobiologists and cognitive
connotative sequence (or chain) scientists, who have tried to demystify it
[< Latin CUM 'together' + NOTARE 'to mark'] by explaining it as an outcome of genetic
Sequence or chain of "connotations sug- processes (see "sociobiology). To the socio-
gested by a *sign or *text. biologist the emergence and function of
66 consciousness
consciousness in the human species is, ipso strikingly, through dreams, works of art,
facto, as explainable as is the evolution and neuroses, and language forms. Like physi-
function of taste, sight, or of any other or- calists, however, Freud suggested that the
ganic system. unconscious had a biological origin and that
Although it seems like a radical proposal, culture was essentially a collective system
the sociobiological perspective turns out, that emerged to regulate and constrain
upon closer scrutiny, to be a contemporary sexual urges.
descendant of a philosophical legacy that The Swiss psychologist Carl *Jung (1875-
goes under the rubric of *physicalism. Al- 1961) saw Freud's interpretation of the un-
though it has ancient roots, this doctrine conscious as too narrow, preferring instead
gained widespread momentum in Western to explain consciousness in terms of a larger
society after the establishment of Darwinian creative energy. He also made a distinction
evolutionary biology in the 19th century. between the personal unconscious, or the
Sociobiologists view human consciousness specific feelings and thoughts developed by
and human cultural behaviors as products an individual during his/her life, and the
of evolution. So, human rituals such as collective unconscious, the universal feelings
kissing and flirting, for instance, are ex- and thoughts of the species. Jung saw the
plained as modern-day reflexes of animal latter as a kind of 'receptacle' of inherited
mechanisms. primordial memories and images shared by
The idea that there is a biological basis to all humanity that are too weak to become
conscious social behaviors is, of course, conscious. So, they gain expression in the
partially true; but it is not totally true. There symbols and forms that make their way into
is no evidence of a capacity for language, the myths, tales, fantasies, artistic expres-
art, music, science, or any of the other char- sions, and rituals that are found in cultures
acteristic attributes of humanity in other across the world. He called these universal
species. While culture may have certainly symbols and forms ^archetypes. For in-
enhanced human survivability and repro- stance, the genital symbols and themes that
ductive success in some ways, in many cultures incorporate typically into their rites
others it has, curiously and incomprehensi- of passage, that surface commonly in their
bly, put the human being's inbuilt instinc- works of art, and that find their way into
tual survival systems at risk - humans the stories that are communicated regularly
undergo a long period of development in all kinds of cultural contexts are under-
before sexual maturity, they cannot run as standable in approximately the same ways
fast on average as other primates, they com- by all humans because they evoke sexual
mit suicide, and they do many other things images buried in the collective unconscious
that would seem indeed to put in jeopardy of the species. Archetypes are traces to these
their very survival. images that continue to influence patterns
The psychoanalyst Sigmund *Freud of perception and meaning-making in
(1856-1939) pointed out that consciousness modern-day humans.
was only the 'tip of the iceberg,' psychologi- In effect, the study of consciousness is a
cally speaking. Below the 'tip' was the un- study of the basic metaphysical questions
conscious, the region of the human mind that that haunt humans everywhere: Why are we
he claimed contained wishes, memories, here? Who or what put us here? What, if
fears, feelings, and ideas that are prevented anything, can be done about it? Who am I?
from expression in conscious awareness. and so on. The languages, myths, narra-
They manifest themselves instead by their tives, rituals, art works, etc. that human
influence on conscious processes and, most beings learn to employ early in life guide
context 67
their search to discover answers to such and unexplainably out-of-stock dolls for
questions. hundreds of dollars through classified ads.
Grown adults fought each other in line-ups
consonant to get one of the few remaining dolls left in
[< Latin CUM 'together' + SONUS 'sound'] stock at certain mall toy outlets. Such mass
[see also *vowel] hysteria was an extreme manifestation of
Vocal sound produced with some obstruc- the contagion effect, created by an effective
tion to the airstream emanating from the media marketing campaign.
lungs.
Illustrations: I. In coo the c represents a con- contagious magic
sonant. 2. In up the p represents a consonant. [see *magic]
constructivism content
[< Latin CUM 'together' + STRUERE 'to pile up'] [< Latin CUM 'together' + TENERE 'to hold']
1. movement in modern art originating in [see *form]
Moscow around 1920, characterized by the Essential meaning of something.
use of industrial materials to create abstract, Note: In a work of art the content is said to be
geometric images, and art objects; 2. view in what the work means, and the/orm how it
philosophy and semiotics that 'common has been put together. In semiotic theories,
sense' theories of the world are made by it is typically stressed that form and content
humans to suit their particular whims and are interconnected and not separable in the
needs and, thus, that communal sense is often creation of a meaning.
mistaken for common sense.
content analysis
consumer advertising [< Latin CUM 'together' + TENERE 'to hold';
[see *advertising, consumer] Greek ANA 'throughout' + LYSIS 'a loosing']
Research into *mass media that aims to
contact identify, categorize, and analyze the content
[< Latin CONTINGERE 'to touch, seize'] of messages.
In Roman *Jakobson's model of communi- Note: Content analysis involves counting the
cation, the physical conditions (channel, number of times a word or theme appears
situation, etc.) in which a message is deliv- in a particular text. It has revealed, among
ered and the primary social and psychologi- other things, that people tend to find in a
cal connections that exist or are established text the meanings that they are seeking at
between the participants. the time of decoding the text.
contagion effect context
[< Latin CONTAGIO 'a touching'] [< Latin CONTEXTUS 'a joining together']
Term referring to the psychological power 1. parts of a sentence, paragraph, or dis-
of the media to create a craze. course that impose a constraint on the com-
Note: A classic example of this effect can be position of a form and/or on what a form
seen in the 'Cabbage Patch doll craze' of means; 2. whole situation, background, or
1983. Hordes of parents were prepared to environment (physical, social, psychologi-
pay almost anything to get one of these cal) that determines the meaning of some-
dolls for their daughters during that Christ- thing.
mas season. Scalpers offered the suddenly Illustration: A discarded and damaged soup
68 contrast
can would be interpreted as rubbish if one decorated and carved in the shape of an
were to come across this item on the inverted bell.
sidewalk of a city street. But if the same
person saw the same object on a pedestal, corollary
displayed in an art gallery, 'signed' by some [< Latin COROLLARIUM 'a deduction']
artist, and given a title such as 'Waste,' then Proposition that follows with little or no
she/he would be inclined to interpret its proof required from one already proved.
meaning in a vastly different way. Clearly, Illustration: If it is proved that in an isosceles
the can's physical context of occurrence triangle (a triangle with two equal sides) the
and social frame of reference - its location angles opposite the two equal sides are equal,
on a sidewalk vs. its display in an art gal- then, as a corollary, it follows that a triangle
lery - will determine how one will interpret with two equal angles is isosceles.
it.
cosmetics
contrast [see *make-up]
[< Latin CONTRA 'against' + STARE 'to stand']
Minimal difference between two elements cosmogonic myth
(two words, two symbols, etc.). [see "mythology]
Illustration: The words pat and pot contrast
with each other because of a minimal differ- counterpoint
ence between their vowels. This contrast is [< Italian CONTRAPPUNTO 'pointed against';
said to be 'minimal' because it is sufficient from the Latin PUNCTUS CONTRA PUNCTUS,
to signal a difference in meaning. 'point (or note) against point']
In music, style of composition whereby
conundrum melodic material is added to an existing
*Riddle whose answer relies on a *pun. melody in such a way that the melodic
Illustrations: 1. What's the difference between a strains establish a harmonic relationship
jeweler and a jailer? One sells watches and the while retaining their individuality.
other watches cells. 2. What is black and white Illustration: The song Row, row, row your
and red all over? A newspaper. boat, with its 'slightly off progressive addi-
tion of voices, is in counterpoint style.
conventional sign
[see *sign, conventional] Creole
[< Portuguese CRIOULO 'native to the region']
conversation [see also *pidgin]
[< Latin CONVERSARI 'to live with, keep com- Language that arises through contact with
pany with'] another language, becoming the native
[see also ^discourse] language of its community.
Act of talking with someone to exchange Illustrations: In Guyanese Creole, the French
ideas, opinions, etc. (1) j'ai mange T have eaten' is rendered as mo
manje, and (2) // est plus grand que vous 'He is
Corinthian form bigger than you' as Li gros pas u.
[see also *Doric form, *Ionic form]
Architectural column developed by the crest
ancient Greeks, characterized by a slender Heraldic *insignia representing both a mark
shaft and a capital (top part) that is ornately of rank and a conspicuous emblem in battle.
cryptography 69
Note: The crest is attached to the top of the branched out in several directions. Psycho-
helmet; its base is surrounded by a wreath analytic critics focused on the mythic images
of twisted ribbons in the principal metal and themes in a literary work, as filtered
and color of the shield. through the collective unconscious of the
human race; semiotic (or structuralist) critics
critical period hypothesis investigated the literary work as a *code;
[< Greek KRITIKOS 'a critic'; HYPO 'under' + hermeneutic critics examined the work in
TITHENAI 'to place'] terms of its sources and linguistic character-
Linguist Eric Lenneberg's hypothesis, for- istics; Marxist critics looked at a piece of
mulated in his 1967 book The Biological writing as indicative of historical and ideo-
Foundations of Language, that the critical logical processes; feminist critics re-exam-
period for language acquisition was from ined literary works in terms of women's
birth to about puberty, a period during roles and in reference to patriarchal systems
which the brain organizes the distribution of control; deconstructivists examined how
of the mental functions, especially the locali- texts referred more to other texts than to
zation of language to the left hemisphere. some central, fixed reality.
the world, and because representation is a used to record agricultural transactions and
selectional process - i.e. a sign, text, or code astronomical observations. Most of the
pre-selects what is to be known and memo- Sumerian pictographs represented nouns
rized from the infinite variety of things that for stars and animals, with a few for such
are in the world - it shapes worldview. qualifying adjectives as small, big, and bright.
As an illustration of how culture medi- A few centuries later, this pictographic sys-
ates worldview, consider the concept of tem was expanded to include verbs: fo sleep,
health. What is considered to be healthy in for example, was represented by a person in
one culture may not coincide with views of a supine position. To facilitate the speed of
health in another. Health cannot be defined writing, the Sumerians eventually stream-
ahistorically, aculturally, or in purely abso- lined their pictographs and transformed
lutist terms. This does not deny the exist- them into symbols for the actual sounds of
ence of events and states in the body that speech. These were written down on clay
will lead to disease or illness. All organisms tablets with a stylus in a form of writing
have a species-specific bodily warning sys- called cuneiform ('wedge-shaped').
tem that alerts them to dangerous changes
in bodily states. But in the human species cursor
such states are also representable and thus [see *input hardware]
interpretable in culture-specific ways. This
is why in some cultures a 'healthy body' is cybernetics
considered to be one that is lean and muscu- [< Greek KYBERNETES 'helmsman']
lar. Conversely, in others it is one that is Interdisciplinary science dealing with com-
more plump and rotund. A 'healthy life- munication and control systems in living
style' might be seen by some cultures to organisms, machines, and organizations.
inhere in rigorous physical activity, while in Note: The term was coined in 1948 by
others it might be envisaged as inhering in a American mathematician Norbert Wiener
more leisurely and sedentary form of (1894-1964). According to Wiener, control
behavior. mechanisms for self-correction in machines
serve the same purpose that the nervous
culture hero myth system serves in coordinating information
[see "mythology] to determine which actions will be per-
formed. This principle, known as feedback, is
cultureme the fundamental concept of cybernetics.
[< Latin COLERE 'to till'] Another basic tenet is that information can
Unit of culturally based and culturally be statistically measured in accordance with
meaningful behavior (e.g. a taste in food, a the laws of probability.
type of pose on certain occasions, etc.).
cyberspace
cuneiform [< Greek KYBERNETES 'helmsman']
[< Latin CUNEUS 'wedge'] 'Space' created by the 'computer culture'
Wedge-shaped writing system, partly that has developed among users of com-
pictographic and partly symbolic, used in puters.
ancient Akkadian, Assyrian, Babylonian,
and Persian inscriptions. Note: The term was coined by American
writer William Gibson in his 1984 science
Note: In the ancient civilization of Sumer fiction novel Neuromancer, in which he de-
around 3500 BC pictographic writing was scribed cyberspace as a place of 'unthink-
72 cylindrical projection
able complexity/ The term has given rise to Art form based on bodily movements and
a vocabulary of 'cyberterms/ such as gestures connected to each other through
cybercafes (cafes that sell coffee and compu- musical tempo and rhythm. The functions
ter time), cybermalls (online shopping serv- of dance include 1. aesthetic representation;
ices), and cyberjunkies (people addicted to 2. narration through bodily movement;
being online). 3. recreation; 4. ritual.
Note: Prehistoric cave paintings depicting
cylindrical projection figures in animal costumes that seem to be
[see *map] dancing, possibly in hunting or fertility
rituals, or perhaps for education or enter-
tainment, suggest that dancing is ancient. In
D Egypt, dancing was an intrinsic part of
agricultural and religious festivals. Pyrrhic
or warrior dances were part of military
dactylology
training in ancient Greece, and dancing
[< Greek DAKTULOS 'finger']
during religious rites is believed to be the
Use of the fingers and hands to communi-
source of the inclusion of dance in Greek
cate and convey ideas, as in the manual
drama.
alphabets used by hearing- and speech-
Variations of peasant dances originating
impaired people.
in the Middle Ages continue today as folk
dances. Ballet originated in the courts of
dada
Italy and France during the Renaissance,
[see *dadaism]
developing into a professional artistic disci-
pline. In the late 19th and early 20th centu-
dadaism
ries, reaction against ballet's traditional
[< DADA, French baby-talk for 'hobbyhorse']
forms led several influential American cho-
[also called dada]
reographers to develop other forms of art
Movement in painting, sculpture, and litera-
dancing. Popular and social dances, which
ture, lasting from about 1916 to 1922, char-
are recreational dance forms, resemble folk
acterized by highly imaginative, abstract, or
dances in that they entail participation, are
incongruous creations, and especially by the
relatively easy to learn, and generally origi-
rejection of all accepted conventions of
nate from the people rather than from a
Western art.
choreographer: for example, the swinging
Note: The term dada was selected randomly movements of African-American dance
as the name of the movement by Romanian- evolved into jazz dancing in the 1920s,
born writer Tristan Tzara (1896-1963). In 1930s, and 1940s, and rock-and-roll dances
wanting to revoke all contemporary aes- in the 1950s.
thetic and social values, dadaists frequently
used artistic and literary methods that were Dante Alighieri
deliberately incomprehensible, shocking, or [1265-1321]
bewildering, in order to provoke a reconsid- Medieval Italian poet, and one of the great-
eration of accepted values. est figures of world literature.
Note: Dante's epic masterpiece, La divina
dance
commedia (The Divine Comedy'), was prob-
[< French DANSER 'to move back and forth']
ably begun around 1307 and was completed
[see also *ballet]
deep structure 73
demonstrative denouement
[< Latin DE 'from' + MONSTRARE 'to show'] [< Latin DE 'from, out' + NODUS 'knot']
Word specifying or singling out something Outcome, solution, or clarification of a plot
relative to something else. in a drama or narrative.
Illustrations: 1. this book; 2. that book; 3. these
phones; 4. those phones; 5. This one is mine; that dependency theory
one is yours. [< Latin DE 'down' + PENDERE 'to hang';
Greek THEORIA 'a looking at']
demotic View expressed commonly by media ana-
[< Greek DEMOTES 'one of the people'] lysts that people can easily become 'de-
Type of simplified script that replaced pendent' upon mass media.
^hieroglyphic writing in ancient Egypt Note: It is claimed that people habituated to
around 2755 BC. large doses of information and visual stimu-
lation, especially by watching TV, tend to
denotation become psychologically dependent on the
[< Latin DE 'from' + NOTARE 'to mark'] medium in ways that parallel substance
[see also ""connotation] dependency.
Initial meaning that a *sign is designed to
capture. depth psychology
Note: The denotative meaning of a word like [infrequent synonym for *psychoanalysis]
cat is not something specific, but more pre-
cisely the quality of 'catness/ which is derivational morpheme
marked by specific Distinctive features such [< Latin DERIVARE 'to divert'; Greek MORPHE
as [mammal], [retractile claws], [long tail], 'form']
etc. This composite mental image allows us [see also Abound morpheme]
to determine if a specific real or imaginary Bound morpheme that creates a word with
animal under consideration will fall within a different grammatical function from the
the category of 'catness.' Similarly, the word word to which it is bound.
square does not denote a specific 'square/ Illustration: The word cautiously is an adverb
but rather a figure consisting of four equal consisting of the adjective root cautious plus
straight lines that meet at right angles. It is the bound morpheme -ly (= cautious + -ly).
irrelevant if the lines are thick, dotted, 2 The suffix -ly is known as a derivational
meters long, 80 feet long, or whatever. So morpheme because it creates a word with a
long as the figure can be seen to have the different grammatical function than the
distinctive features [four equal straight word to which it is bound.
lines] and [meeting at right angles], it is
identifiable denotatively as a square. Derrida, Jacques
[1930-]
denotatum French philosopher whose work originated
[< Latin DE 'from' + NOTARE 'to mark'] a method of analysis - known as *decon-
Denotative referent of a *sign. struction - that has been applied to litera-
Illustration: The denotatum of the word square ture, linguistics, philosophy, law, and archi-
does not imply a specific 'square,' but rather tecture. Central to Derrida's view is the
76 Descartes, Rene
notion that in a text (a poem, a novel, etc.) who appeared in an 1841 story. Stories
there are layers of meaning that are con- about detectives became very popular with
stantly shifting and, therefore, that it is the creation of Sherlock Holmes by British
impossible to determine what a text means. writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)
shortly thereafter. In the 20th century, Brit-
Descartes, Rene ish writer G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) in-
[1596-1650] troduced the character of Father Brown, a
French mathematician and philosopher, priest-detective, and British writer Agatha
considered the founder of analytic geom- Christie (1890-1976) made Hercule Poirot
etry. Descartes refused to accept any belief, famous. During the 1920s in the United
even the belief in his own existence, unless States an action genre of detective story,
he could 'prove' it to be necessarily true. featuring a tough private-eye or investiga-
Descartes gave the Platonic mind-body tor, was developed. Authors of this genre
problem its modern formulation, known as include Erie Stanley Gardner (1889-1970),
dualism. This is the notion that the mind's creator of lawyer-detective Perry Mason,
activities are independent of bodily states Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961), creator of
and processes. Descartes was, however, Sam Spade, and Raymond Chandler (1888-
unable to explain the fact that two different 1959), creator of Philip Marlowe. In the
entities, the mind and the body, can so affect early 1950s, stories about how real police
each other. detectives solve actual crimes became
highly popular. Since then the detective
descriptive grammar story has become one of the most popular
[see *grammar] forms of narrative in novels, in cinema, and
on TV.
desensitization
[< Latin DE 'down' + SENTIRE 'to feel'] determiner
Process by which audiences are considered [< Latin DE 'from' + TERMINARE 'to set
to be made immune, or less sensitive, to bounds']
human suffering or degradation as a result Word specifying a noun in some way.
of relentless exposure to such suffering or Illustrations: 1. the boy; 2. that girl: 3. which
degradation in media portrayals. book; 4. both parents.
detective story determinism
[< Latin DE 'from' + TEGERE 'to cover'] [< Latin DE 'from' + TERMINARE 'to set
Narrative that features a private detective or bounds']
a police officer as the hero, whose task it is Philosophical doctrine holding that every
to solve a crime. event, mental as well as physical, has a
Note: The detective story is told either as a cause, and that, the cause being given, the
first-person narration of the detective charac- event follows invariably. This theory denies
ter or in the third person by the author. Typi- the element of chance and the concept of
cally, the detective interrogates suspects, 'free will.'
ferrets out clues, and eventually tracks down
the criminal. The detective shares all the Dewey, John
clues with the reader but usually withholds [1859-1952]
their significance until the end. American educator and leader of the prag-
The first fictional detective was Edgar matic movement in philosophy who rejected
Allan Poe's (1809^9) C. Auguste Dupin, traditional methods of teaching by rote in
dialogue 77
and the third by blocking the vocal cords (in distinctive feature
the larynx) from vibrating. [< Latin DIS 'apart' + STINGUERE 'to prick']
Minimal trait that serves to keep forms
discursive form perceptibly distinct.
[< Latin DIS 'from, apart' + CURRERE 'to run'] Illustration: The distinctive features that
Notion developed by philosopher Susanne make up /p/ in English words such as
*Langer, whereby the composition of an art pin, pop, etc. are [+bilabial], [+occlusive],
work is governed by the linear, syntactic [-voice], and those that make up /b/ in
properties of language. words such as bin, bop, etc. are [-(-bilabial],
Note: Discursive forms have the property of [+occlusive], [+voice]: [+bilabial] refers to
detachment: e.g. one can focus on a word in the touching of the lips, [+occlusive] to the
a sentence or a phrase without impairing expulsion of the airstream after it has been
the overall understanding of the sentence or held momentarily by the two lips, and
phrase. In contrast, ^presentational forms [voice] to the vibration or lack of vibration
cannot be broken up into their elements of the vocal cords in the larynx. The distinc-
without impairing the meaning: e.g. one tive feature that differentiates these two
cannot focus on a note or phrase in a sounds can now be pinpointed as one of
melody without destroying the sense of [-voice] vs. [+voice]. This is the feature that
the melody. allows us to differentiate between pin and
bin and between pop and bop.
disk drive
[see ^storage hardware] Doctrine of Forms
[see *Platonic forms]
displacement
[< Latin DIS 'from, apart' + Greek PLATEIA docudrama
'street'] [abbreviation of documentary drama]
Feature of *signs whereby whatever they Television or movie dramatization of events
stand for can be evoked even if not present based on real life.
for the senses to perceive.
Illustration: To someone who does not speak documentary
English the word chair is perceived as a [< Latin oocuMENTum 'lesson']
mumble of sounds with no meaning. But, Film or television program presenting po-
once that person is told what it refers to, litical, social, or historical subject matter in a
and once that person becomes familiar with factual and informative manner, including
its domain of applications to the real world, actual news film footage and/or interviews
thenceforth that word will generate an im- accompanied by commentary.
age of one of its typical applications in the
mind of that person, even when the object to Doric form
which it refers is not physically present for [see also *Corinthian form, *Ionic form]
him/her to see or touch. This displacement In ancient Greek architecture, column with
property of signs has endowed human no base and a heavy shaft; the Doric column
beings with the remarkable capacity to was basically an undecorated, square slab
think about the world beyond the stimulus- resting on a rounded disc that tapers down
response realm, i.e. to think about it within to the top of the shaft.
mind-space.
80 DOS
the culture. Up until the 18th century fash- sion of common values in industrialized
ion was the privilege of the aristocracy. The cultures, which he believed to be the cohe-
Industrial Revolution made fashion for the sive bonds that hold together a society.
masses an economic possibility. Indeed,
throughout the 20th century fashion crazes DVD
for everyone became an intrinsic feature of [digital versatile disc]
social life. Today, clothing trends and styles Video, audio, and computer data that can be
are dictated by media personalities, fashion encoded on a compact disc (CD). Advocates
moguls, and other high-profile personages. of DVD technology intend to augment cur-
Outside the Western world, however, cloth- rent digital storage formats, such as CD-
ing continues to be a code tied to religious ROM and audio CDs, with the single format
and/or tribal traditions. Where non-West- of DVD, which offers greater storage capac-
ern cultures have come into conflict with ity and speed of data retrieval, as well as
Western ideas, traditional garments have better graphics and a sharper picture.
often been displaced. Nevertheless, in Af-
rica, the Middle East, and the Far East many
aspects of traditional dress have survived. E
dualism
[< Latin DUO 'two'] Ebbinghaus, Hermann
View that the mind and body function sepa- [1850-1909]
rately, and that human beings have two German psychologist who was a pioneer in
essential natures, the physical and the spir- the field of experimental psychology. He
itual. conducted key experiments on the value of
repetition in memory, using nonsense sylla-
duality of patterning bles that he invented. He also devised the
[< Latin DUO 'two'] 'fill-in-the-blanks' tests for purportedly
Feature of language whereby vocal sounds measuring the intelligence of children.
have no intrinsic meaning in themselves but
combine in different ways to form elements echoism
(e.g. words) that do convey meanings. [< Greek ECHO 'sound']
Linguistic imitation of sounds heard in the
Illustration: The sound /p/, articulated in
environment.
isolation, has no meaning. However, when
combined with other sounds in certain pat- Illustrations: I . chirp = word that echoes bird
terned ways, it becomes an ingredient in the sounds; 2. rustle = word that echoes the
make-up of meaningful words: pin, ploy, sound made by leaves; 3. gush = word that
print, etc. echoes the sudden flow of water.
for making a complete grammatical con- Note: These are derived from the suffixes in
struction, because the construction can be linguistic terms such as phonemic vs. pho-
understood in the context in which it occurs; netic. For example, the sounds represented
2. series of dots used in writing or printing by the letter / are representative of an emic
to indicate an omission. category, namely the *phoneme /!/. Pho-
Illustrations: 1. if possible - if it is possible; netically, however, /!/ is realized in two
2. The colors are red, blue,..., and yellow. ways: 1. as a dental [1], and 2. as a back
(velar) [1] (pronounced with the tongue
e-mail arching towards the throat). The latter oc-
[abbreviation of electronic mail] curs at the end of a syllable or a word: dull,
Messages sent via telecommunication links filler, willing, bill, etc.; the former occurs
between microcomputers. elsewhere: lip, love, filter, pulp, etc. These two
realizations of /!/ are said to be its etic vari-
embedding ants.
Process of joining phrases, clauses, and/or
different sentences into one sentence. emotive connotation
[see ^connotation, emotive]
Illustration: The two sentences The boy is my
brother and The boy is eating pizza, in which emotive function
boy refers to the same person, can be joined [< Latin EX 'from' + MOVERE 'to move']
by embedding the second one into the first In Roman *Jakobson's model of communi-
one. Syntactically, this entails 1. deleting the cation, the addresser's (sender's) emotions,
second occurrence of The boy; 2. replacing it attitudes, social status, etc. as they are
with the relative pronoun who; and 3. insert- worked into and shape the message-making
ing the resulting relative clause after the process.
first occurrence of The boy. The result is the
sentence The boy, who is eating pizza, is my emotive image
brother. [see * image, mental]
emblem empiricism
[< Greek EMBLEMA 'insertion'] [< Greek EMPEIRIA 'experience']
[see *symbol] In philosophy, theory affirming that all
1. figure with a motto or verses, allegori- knowledge is based on experience and de-
cally suggesting some moral truth; 2. visible nying the possibility of *a priori thought.
symbol of a thing, idea, class of people, etc.; The philosophy opposed to empiricism is
3. object that stands symbolically for some- *rationalism, which asserts that the mind is
thing else. capable of recognizing reality by means of
Illustrations: I. The cross is an emblem of reason, a faculty that exists independently
Christianity. 2. Symbols, logos, etc. that of experience.
stand for a company, such as the golden
arches of McDonald's, are emblems. enclitic
[< Greek ENKLINEIN 'to lean on']
emic vs. etic Word or particle that has no independent
Distinction made in linguistics between status.
units that are generic or representative of a Illustrations: I. In Give 'em the works, the form
category (= emic units), and those that are 'em is an enclitic. 2. In I'm here the 'm is an
instantiations of the category (= etic units). enclitic.
86 encoding
Christian theology. Human aspirations, they ways, no matter where or how they are
believed, should not be centered on the next reared.
life, but rather on the means of improving
earthly life. Enlightenment intellectuals re- epic
examined and questioned all received ideas [< Greek EPOS 'word, song']
and values, exploring new ways of thinking Extended narrative *poem in elevated or
in many different domains of knowledge. dignified language, celebrating the feats of a
The Enlightenment marked a pivotal stage legendary or traditional hero.
in the decline of Church influence on West- Illustrations: Well-known examples of the
ern society at large and in the growth of folk epic are the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf (8th
modern secularism. century) and the Indian epics the
Mahabharata (300 BC-AD 300) and the
entailment Ramayana (3rd century BC). Well-known
Necessary consequence of some proof, literary epics, which are the creation of
event, argument, or proposition. known poets who consciously employ the
Illustration: The ability to walk upright en- epic form include the Iliad and Odyssey by
tails the freeing of the hands from locomo- Homer; the Aeneid by Virgil (70-19 BC); the
tion. Book of Kings (1010) by the Persian poet Abu
al-Qasim Firdawsi (9407-1020?); the Divine
entropy Comedy (1307-21) by the Italian poet *Dante
[< German ENTROPIE 'arbitrary use,' coined Alighieri; the Lusiads (1572) by the Portu-
by German physicist R.J.E. Clausius, 1822- guese writer Luis (Vaz) de Camoes (1524-
88] 80?); Jerusalem Delivered (1581) by Italian
Measure of the ^information content of a poet Torquato Tasso (1544-95); the Faerie
message derived as a factor of its uncer- Queene (1590-1609) by English poet
tainty or unexpectedness. Edmund Spenser (15527-99); Paradise Lost
Illustration: In a building that has an alarm (1667) by English poet John Milton (1608-
system, the state 'off has virtually no infor- 74); The Prelude (1850) by English poet
mation content, whereas the state 'on' (a William Wordsworth (1770-1850); Song of
sounding alarm) has a maximum informa- Myself by American poet Walt Whitman
tion value for that system. (1819-92); and Four Quartets (1943) by
Anglo-American poet T.S. Eliot (1888-1965).
environmentalism vs. innatism
Two radically different views of human Epicureans
mental functioning and development: the [c. 300 BC]
former emphasizes the role of upbringing, Members of a philosophical society in an-
the latter that of biology. cient Greece who emphasized the pursuit of
pleasure, good food, comfort, and ease as
Note: From the environmentalist point of the only meaningful goals of life.
view, humans are born with their minds
essentially a tabula rasa, assuming their epigram
character, personality, abilities, etc. in re- [< Greek EPI 'upon' + GRAPHEIN 'to write']
sponse to how and where they are reared. 1. short poem with a witty or satirical point;
From the innatist perspective, humans are 2. any terse, witty, pointed statement, often
not born with an empty slate; rather, they with a clever twist in thought.
are 'hard-wired' from birth to learn and
behave in certain biologically programmed Illustration: Experience is the name everyone
gives to one's mistakes.
88 epilogue
Note: In ancient Greece epigrams were which it is possible to have exact and certain
found inscribed on tombs and statues. Ro- knowledge by reasoning. *Aristotle also
man poets developed the epigram as a short regarded abstract knowledge as superior to
satire in verse, with a twist or thrust at the any other, but he maintained that almost all
end. English writers regarded as master knowledge is built from experience. The
epigrammatists are John Donne (1572- *Stoics and ^Epicureans agreed that knowl-
1631), Ben Jonson (1572-1637), John Dryden edge originates in sense perception, but they
(1631-1700), Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), maintained that abstract thinking is a practi-
Alexander Pope (1688-1744), Samuel Taylor cal guide to life, rather than an end in itself.
Coleridge (1772-1834), and Oscar Wilde In the Middle Ages, philosophers helped
(1854-1900). In France, Voltaire (1694-1778) restore confidence in reason and experience
wrote memorable epigrams, as did Gotthold by blending rational methods and faith into
Ephraim Lessing in Germany (1729-81). A a unified system of beliefs. From the 17th
literary form similar to the epigram occurs to the late 19th century, the main issue in
in Chinese and Japanese literature. epistemology was reasoning versus sense
perception in acquiring knowledge. British
epilogue philosopher David *Hume argued that
[< Greek EPILOGOS 'conclusion of a speech'] since most knowledge depends on cause
1. short poem or speech spoken directly to and effect, one cannot hope to know the
the audience following the conclusion of a future with certainty. German philosopher
play; 2. short addition at the end of a liter- Immanuel *Kant tried to solve this crisis by
ary work, often called an afterword. combining elements of rationalism with
elements of empiricism. During the 19th
episode century, German philosopher G.W.F. *Hegel
[< Greek EPI 'upon' + HODOS 'journey'] revived the rationalist claim, while the
1. portion of a narrative or play that relates American school of pragmatism at the turn
an event, forming a coherent subnarrative in of the 20th century carried empiricism fur-
itself; 2. separate part of a serialized novel ther by defining knowledge as an instru-
or play; 3. section of a classic Greek tragedy ment of action to be judged by its usefulness
that occurs between two choral songs; 4. in in predicting experiences.
music, a passage between statements of a In the early 20th century, German phi-
main subject or theme, as in a rondo or fugue. losopher Edmund *Husserl outlined an
elaborate procedure by which one is said to
episodic memory be able to distinguish the way things appear
[see *memory] to be from the way one thinks they really
are. Later in the century, the *analytic phi-
epistemology losophers insisted that valid knowledge can
[< Greek EPISTEME 'knowledge' + LOGOS be obtained by avoiding verbal confusion.
'word, reasoning, study']
Branch of philosophy studying the nature of epithet
knowledge. [< Greek EPITITHENAI 'to put on']
Note: In the 5th century BC, the Greek *Soph- Adjective, noun, or phrase used to charac-
ists questioned the possibility of reliable terize some person or thing.
and objective knowledge. *Plato rebutted Illustrations: 1. egghead for 'an intellectual';
the Sophists by proposing the existence of a 2. The Great Emancipator for 'Abraham
world of unchanging, abstract forms about Lincoln.'
evolutionism
epos ethology
[variant of *epic] [< Greek ETHOLOGIA 'character portrayal']
[see also "communication, animal]
eschatological myth Scientific study of the characteristic
[see ""mythology] behaviors and communication patterns of
animals in their natural habitats.
escutcheon
Heraldic "insignia usually in the shape of a etymology
conventional shield, with various charges, [< Greek ETYMON 'literal sense of a word']
or figures, represented in different tinctures. 1. origin and development of a word, affix,
phrase, etc.; 2. branch of linguistics tracing a
Note: The background of an escutcheon may word or other form back as far as possible in
comprise two or more tinctures (metals, its own language and to its source in con-
colors, and furs) divided by one or more temporary or earlier languages.
lines. The figures depicted on an escutcheon
are classified as honorable ordinaries, which Illustrations: 1. The word person derives from
are simple geometrical figures delineated by the Greek persona 'mask.' 2. The word idea
straight lines or forms; subordinates, which derives from the Greek verb ideein 'to see.'
include the border of the shield; the orle, a
narrower border that does not touch the euphemism
edges of the shield; and the lozenge, a dia- [< Greek EUPHEMOS 'of good sound or omen']
mond-shaped figure with four equal sides. Use of a word or phrase that is less direct,
but considered to be less distasteful, un-
esthetics pleasant, or offensive than another.
[variant spelling of "aesthetics] Illustrations: I. remains for corpse; 2. number
two for defecation.
ethnography
[< Greek ETHNOS 'people' + GRAPHEIN 'to evolutionary psychology
write'] [see also "psychology, evolutionary]
[also called participant observation]
In "cultural anthropology, type of research evolutionism
conducted by an anthropologist living in a [see "sociobiology]
community and observing what goes on. View that cultures result from evolutionary
Note: The anthropologist first becomes im- tendencies that are built into the genetic
structure of the human species.
90 exclamation
expression fable
[< Latin EX 'from' + PREMERE 'to press'] [< Latin FABULA 'story']
1. putting into words or representing in Fictitious story meant to teach a moral les-
language; 2. picturing, representing, or son. In a fable the characters are usually
symbolizing in art, music, etc.; 3. symbol or talking animals, given the attributes of hu-
set of symbols expressing some mathemati- man beings; the moral is typically summed
cal fact, such as a quantity or operation. up at the end of the improbable story.
Note: Fables are "allegorical narratives. One
expressionism of the earliest and most notable collections
[< Latin EX 'from' + PREMERE 'to press'] of animal fables is that of Aesop (6th cen-
[also known as ""abstract expressionism] tury BC). Another famous collection of beast
Art movement in the early part of the 20th fables is the Sanskrit collection Panchatantra,
century that emphasized the subjective probably written in the 3rd century AD. The
expression of the artist's inner experiences. writing of fables was revived in France
during the 12th century. Between the 12th
extensional connotation and 14th centuries a popular collection of
[see "connotation] animal fables entitled Roman de Renart ap-
peared in France. One of the greatest of all
eye contact French fabulists was Jean de La Fontaine
Length of time involved in looking, and (1621-95), whose verse fables were pub-
type of looking pattern, that people in social lished between 1668 and 1694 and were
situations exhibit, conveying what kind of extensively imitated by later writers. Other
farce 91
lar groups during annual festivals, in con- about 1898 to about 1908, rejecting the pale
trast to the morality plays produced by the coloration features of ^impressionism in
religious orders. A characteristic of many of favor of more intense colors.
the early farces was the use of dialects and Note: The leading figure in this movement
folk jargon. The French writer Moliere was Henri Matisse (1869-1954), who used
(1622-73) later refined the farce form into powerful colors to evoke strong emotional
the comedy of manners. Today, the term responses to his work.
farce is freely applied to almost any per-
formance in which comedic routines are feedback
carried out to ludicrous lengths. In ""information theory, the process of detect-
ing signals or cues issuing from the "re-
fashion ceiver of a message so that the performance
[< Latin FACTIO 'a making'] or control of the communication system can
[see also *dress] be maintained or improved.
Prevailing dress style or custom of an era,
group of people, or entire society. Note: In human communication, feedback
refers to the fact that senders have the ca-
Note: Up until the 19th century, fashion was pacity to monitor the messages they trans-
the exclusive privilege of royalty and the mit and to modify them to enhance their
rich. The Industrial Revolution made possi- decodability. This includes, for instance,
ble the manufacturing of affordable fashion- detecting physical reactions (facial expres-
able clothes for the middle class, resulting in sions, bodily movements, etc.) in the re-
more rapid changes in the attire for men ceiver that signal the effect that the message
and women. Since the middle part of the is having on him/her.
20th century, fashion has become part of
lifestyle and personal statement. feminist semiotics
Clothing fashion is also ideological state- Important movement within semiotics de-
ment. The hippies dressed to emphasize voted to showing how *sign systems and
'love' and 'freedom' in the 1960s. Motorcy- social power structures coalesce to define
cle gang members wear leather jackets, gender categories.
boots, and various paraphernalia to convey
toughness, group allegiance, and noncon- fetish
formity with mainstream society. These are [< Portuguese FEITICO 'charm' (< Latin
uniforms - literally 'unitary dress styles' - FACTITIUS 'artificial')]
which, like military dress, connote loyalty Object that is believed to have magical or
and communal values. The wearing of mili- spiritual powers, or to cause sexual arousal.
tary uniforms for fashion, on the other
hand, can often be construed as a counter- Illustrations: 1. In Western society, high heel
culture statement - a kind of dress parody shoes, worn be females, often constitute a
of nationalistic tendencies - or as a state- sexual fetish. 2. Good luck charms are, fre-
ment of 'military toughness.' As with lan- quently, perceived fetishistically.
guage, the history of clothing shows that it
can be endearing, offensive, controversial, fetishism
delightful, disgusting, foolish, charming. [< Portuguese FEITICO 'charm' (< Latin
FACTITIUS 'artificial')]
fauvism [see also *animism]
[< French FAUVE 'wild beast'] Extreme devotion to objects.
Movement in French painting, lasting from
figure of speech 93
effect of the ideas expressed (This is no small onomatopoeically, etc. - is a 'once removed'
problem); 10. metaphor: use of a word or form of knowing from direct sensory per-
phrase for one kind of referent in place of ception, or, in Peircean terms, a firstness
another for the purpose of suggesting an representational process.
association between the two (Alexander is a
fox); 11. metonymy: use of a word or phrase fixed-action pattern
for another to which it bears an important Innate animal behavioral and/or signaling
relation (Washington has done nothing to inter- pattern that is adjustable automatically to
vene); 12. oxymoron: combination of two unpredictable circumstances.
seemingly contradictory or incongruous Note: Evolution has generated a nearly end-
words (There was a deafening silence in the less list of such patterns. Some species are
room); 13. paradox: statement that appears known to have different signals for different
contradictory to common sense yet is true in varieties of predators, all producing differ-
fact (Standing is more tiring than walking); ent responses in the animal group.
14. personification: representation of inani-
mate objects or abstract ideas as living be- flow chart
ings (My cat speaks Spanish); 15. rhetorical Sequential diagram employed in many
question: question asked not to receive an fields, especially computer science, to show
answer, but to assert more emphatically the the stepwise procedures used in performing
obvious answer to what is asked (You know a task, such as solving a mathematical prob-
what I mean, don't you?); 16. simile: specific lem (see *algorithm).
comparison by means of the words like or as
between two kinds of referents (He's as focal color
strong as an ox); 17. synecdoche: use of the [see "color, focal]
part to stand for the whole or the whole for
a part (The White House issued a press release folklore
yesterday). General term for the beliefs, traditions,
narratives, sayings, and arts that are trans-
film mitted orally by the common people of a
[see *cinema] culture.
fine arts Illustrations: I . folk beliefs: cures for diseases,
Arts produced or intended primarily for superstitions, magic, divination, witchcraft,
aesthetic reasons (sculpture, painting, mu- and apparitions; 2. folk traditions: festival
sic, etc.) rather than utility (crafts). customs, games, and dances; 3. folk narra-
tives: based perhaps in part on real charac-
firstness ters or historical events; 4. folk sayings:
[see also *secondness, *thirdness] proverbs, nursery rhymes, verbal charms,
In Charles Teirce's philosophy, the attempt and riddles; 5. folk arts: any form of art,
to refer to something in a sensory way. generally created anonymously, shaped by
community life.
Note: Knowing the world directly involves
the use of the senses. This can be seen when folktale
a child touches, tastes, and looks at objects. Generic term for the various kinds of narra-
Attempts to capture the sensory properties tive prose literature found in the oral tradi-
of objects in signifying forms - e.g. referring tions of the world. Myths, legends, and
to a round object by drawing a circular fairytales are considered to be the three
figure, imitating the sound of a falling object main types of folktale.
food vs. cuisine 95
between the food and a fire. So, it is slightly has been put together. In recent theories, it is
above 'the raw' in evolutionary terms. But stressed that form and content are intercon-
boiling reveals an advanced form of techno- nected and not separable.
logical thinking, since the cooking process
in this case is mediated by both a pot and a formal operational stage
fire. [see Jean *Piaget]
foreground format
[see also "background] [< Latin FORMA 'shape, figure, image']
1. in painting, part of a scene, landscape, etc. Structure or appearance of data in a file,
represented in perspective as nearest to the database, spreadsheet, document, or other
viewer; 2. in linguistic theory, the concep- computer program or system. To format a
tual domain that has more salience. disk means to prepare it for use, so that data
Illustration: In the active sentence Sarah ate can be systematically stored on it and/or
the candy, the subject (Sarah) is in the fore- retrieved from it.
ground of the mind's eye, while the object
(candy] is in its background. The action formation
implied by the verb (eating) is spotlighted as [< Latin FORMA 'shape, figure, image']
an activity of the subject. The overall mental Process by which communication systems
view that such an active sentence conveys is are formed in the organism by exposure to
one of the subject as an agent, a 'perpetra- appropriate input in context and become
tor' or 'executor' of the action. However, a subject to change or even dissolution over
change from passive to active, The candy was time. In all species, other than the human
eaten by Sarah, changes the position of the one, communication systems are formed
foreground and the background in the primarily through the biological program of
cognitive processing of the sentence. The the species; only human beings acquire their
passive form brings the candy to the fore- ability to communicate from both biology
ground, relegating the eater Sarah to the and culture.
background. The action of eating is now
spotlighted on the object, the 'receiver' of formulas in advertising
the action. In effect, passive sentences pro- [see ^advertising, use of formulas in]
vide a different mental angle from which to
view the same action in mind-space. FORTRAN
[FOR(mula) + TRAN(slation).]
form High-level programming language for prob-
[< Latin FORMA 'shape, figure, image'] lems that can be expressed algebraically,
1. shape, outline, or configuration of any- used mainly in mathematics, science, and
thing; 2. in linguistics, any of the different engineering. FORTRAN uses a compiler
variations in which a word may appear program to convert its statements, com-
owing to changes of inflection, spelling, or mands, and subroutines into the machine
pronunciation; 3. in philosophy, the ideal code that a computer actually uses.
nature or essential character of a thing as
distinguished from its material manifesta- Foucault, Michel
tion. [1926-1984]
French semiotician and philosopher who
Note: In a work of art the content is said to be argued that the basic ideas which people
what the work means, and the form how it normally take to be permanent truths about
Frye, Northrop 97
human nature and society are instead no * Aristotelian logic, thus completing the
more than the products of historical proc- edifice of modern mathematical logic initi-
esses. Foucault studied how everyday prac- ated by George *Boole. Frege also intro-
tices impel people to define their identities duced the distinction between sense and
and systematize knowledge. In Madness and referent. The referent is the object named,
Civilization (1960), for instance, he traced the whereas the sense is a mode of representa-
shifts in Western thought on the idea of tion. In an idiomatic phrase such as Venus is
madness. the Morning Star, there are two terms with
different senses, Venus and Morning Star, but
foundation myth with the same referent (the planet). This is
[see 'mythology] an ornamental version of Venus is Venus,
involving a reference to an astronomical
frame discovery.
[< Old English FRAMIAN 'to be helpful']
1. anything made of parts fitted together Freud, Sigmund
according to a design; 2. in linguistics, a [1856-1939]
syntactic construction with a blank left in it German psychologist and founder of psy-
for testing which kinds of words are permis- choanalysis who claimed that the moral
sible there; 3. in cinema, the rectangular behavioral patterns that have ensured the
image on a movie screen. survival of the human species are built into
human genetic structure. Freud also formu-
free morpheme lated the theory of the *unconscious as a
[< Greek MORPHE 'form'] region of the mind that contains wishes,
[see also *bound morpheme] memories, fears, feelings, and ideas that are
*Morpheme that can exist on its own in a prevented from expression in conscious
phrase. awareness. These manifest themselves in-
Illustration: In the word irregular only the stead in symbolic and unusual ways, espe-
part regular can exist on its own, whereas ir- cially in dreams, neurotic syndromes, and
cannot. The former is a free morpheme, the artistic texts. Freud pointed out that con-
latter a bound morpheme. sciousness was only the 'tip of the iceberg,'
psychologically speaking. Below the 'tip'
free variation was the unconscious.
Alternation of forms in a language, without Freud also introduced terms such as ego,
changing their meaning, according to use, id, and Oedipus complex, among others, that
geographical area, etc. have become staples of psychological dis-
course in Western society. He was also the
Illustration: The pronunciation of the e in first to emphasize the formative influence
economics is both /i/ ('ee') and /e/ ('eh'). that childhood experiences have on the
Since these different pronunciations do not individual during his/her mature years.
change the meaning of the word, the two
sounds are said to be in free variation in that Frye, Northrop
word. [1912-1991]
Canadian literary critic who showed that
Frege, Gottlob literary trends and movements fell, follow-
[1848-1925] ing Giambattista *Vico, into three general
German philosopher and mathematician evolutionary stages: the metaphorical, the
who synthesized Boolean algebra with metonymic, and the ironic. This is why
98 functional grammar
genotype gesticulant
[< Greek GENOS 'race, kind'] [< Latin GESTICULARI 'to make mimic ges-
[see also *phenotype] tures']
1. fundamental constitution of an organism Movement with the hand(s) intended to add
in terms of its hereditary factors; 2. type/ nuances or force to one's oral speech.
species of a genus. Note: The research by linguist David
McNeill, reported in his 1992 book Hand and
genre Mind: What Gestures Reveal about Thought,
[< Greek GENOS 'race, kind'] has shown precisely how gesticulants rein-
Works of literature, art, etc. classified to- force and complement oral discourse.
gether according to subject, theme, or style. Speech is linear through time, gesture is
Illustrations: 1. Examples of literary genres simultaneous and global. Gesticulants ex-
are poetry, prose, drama, fiction, science fiction, hibit images that cannot be shown overtly
mystery novel, etc. 2. Examples of musical in speech, as well as images of what the
genres are symphony, concerto, opera, string speaker is thinking about. Speech and ges-
quartet, sonata, etc. ture thus constitute a single integrated refer-
ential/communication system in which
geologic map both cooperate to express the person's
[see *map] meanings.
100 gesticulation
On the basis of his findings, McNeill was most typical uses of this kind of 'finger
able to classify gesticulants into five main gesturing' can be found in the sign lan-
categories: 1. iconic gesticulants, which bear a guages for the hearing-impaired.
close resemblance to the referent or referen-
tial domain of an utterance (e.g. when de- gestural code
scribing a scene from a story in which a [< Latin GERERE 'to bear, carry']
character bends a tree back, a speaker ob- System of communication based on *ges-
served by McNeill appeared to grip some- ture.
thing and pull it back); 2. metaphoric gest- Illustrations: I . the many sign languages
iculants, which have an abstract content (e.g. used in communities of the hearing-im-
McNeill observed a speaker announcing paired; 2. the alternative sign languages
that what he had just seen was a cartoon, used by religious groups during periods of
simultaneously raising up his hands as if imposed silence or for various ritualistic
offering his listener the cartoon itself); 3. beat practices; 3. the hand signals used to control
gesticulants, which resemble the beating of traffic; 4. the hand and arm movements
musical tempo, marking the introduction of used by conductors to lead an orchestra.
new characters, summarizing the action,
introducing new themes, etc. during the gesture
utterance; 4. cohesive gesticulants, which [< Latin GERERE 'to bear, carry']
serve to show how separate parts of an Movement, or movements collectively, of
utterance are supposed to hold together, the body, especially the hands, to express or
unfolding through a repetition of the same emphasize ideas and emotions.
gesticulant form in the gesture space; 5.
deictic gesticulants, which are aimed not at an Note: Although there are cross-cultural simi-
existing physical place, but at an abstract larities, substantial differences also exist
concept that had occurred earlier in the both in the extent to which gesture is used
conversation (e.g. when someone says 'as I and in the interpretations given to particular
said earlier/ she/he typically flips the finger gestures. For example, the head gestures for
or hand in a backward motion, as if to im- yes and no used in the Balkans seem in-
ply that what she/he said had occurred in a verted to other Europeans. In 1979, anthro-
place behind the head). pologist Desmond Morris, together with
several of his associates at Oxford Univer-
gesticulation sity, examined 20 gestures in 40 different
[< Latin GESTICULARI 'to make mimic ges- areas of Europe. The research team found
tures'] that many of the gestures had several mean-
Use of hand(s) and arm(s) to accompany ings, depending on culture: e.g. a tap on the
speech. side of the head can indicate completely
opposite things - 'stupidity' or 'intelligence'
Illustrations: 1. Gesticulation is employed - according to cultural context.
commonly to represent the shape of objects: Theories connecting gesture to vocal
e.g. to refer to a round object people tend to language abound. These posit that the use
use both hands together moving in opposite of gesture to refer to objects and beings in
- clockwise (the right hand) and counter- the environment was the proto-form of
clockwise (the left hand) - directions. communication and language. The transfer
2. Gesticulation involving the fingers is of this form of representation to the subse-
used commonly to represent symbols (by quently dominant vocal channel is ex-
portraying the outline of the symbol); the plained by gestural theorists in terms of an
gloss 101
difficult or technical expression, usually an axiom that is neither provable nor un-
inserted in the margin or between lines of a provable within the same system.
text or manuscript.
Goffman, Erving
glossary [1922-1982]
[< Latin GLOSSA (< Greek GLOSSA 'tongue') Canadian-born sociologist who introduced
'foreign word requiring explanation'] the notion of presentation of self, i.e. of the
List of difficult or specialized words with self-image that people present to a social
their definitions, often placed at the back of audience, into semiotics and communica-
a work. tion theory. He also argued that individuals
took on the characteristics of their social
glossematics roles. Goffman provided both the models
Approach in semiotics and linguistics initi- and a theoretical rationale for the study of
ated by Louis *Hjelmslev (1899-1965) and how people adapt themselves to the situa-
Hans J0rgen Uldall (1907-57) that formal- tion. He insisted that everyday life was the
izes the basic binary notions of "'structural- foundation of social reality, underlying all
ism: e.g. Denotation vs. "connotation, statistical and conceptual abstractions.
*paradigm vs. *syntagm, etc. Goffman's views have spurred intensive
sociological investigations using tape re-
glottogenetics corders and video cameras in natural rather
[< Greek GLOSSA 'tongue'] than artificially contrived social situations.
Branch of linguistics studying language
origins. Gothic
Architectural and artistic style prevalent in
glyph western Europe from the 12th through the
Symbol or figure on a public sign that im- 15th century.
parts information nonverbally (i.e. through Note: Gothic style represents a union of two
"iconic representational features). of the major influences in the development
Illustrations: of European culture, the Roman Empire and
the Germanic tribes that invaded it. The
1. No Smoking! 2. This Wai/!
word Gothic was first recorded in 1611 in a
reference to the language of the Goths. It
was extended in sense in several ways,
meaning 'Germanic' and 'medieval, not
classical.'
Gothic novel
Godel, Kurt
[see *novel]
[1906-1978]
Austrian-American logician, known prima-
graffiti
rily for his paper, published in 1931, setting
[< Italian GRAFFIO 'a scratch']
forth what has become known as Godel's
Inscription or drawing scratched, incised, or
proof (or incompleteness theorem). This
drawn on a wall or other public surface.
states that the propositions on which a
Graffiti have been used by linguists to re-
mathematical system is in part based are
construct an earlier form of a language, and
unprovable, because it is possible, in any
by social scientists to penetrate the mindset
logical system using symbols, to construct
of a particular social group or subculture.
graph 103
Note: The use of graphs in mathematics and actions. Greimas's most significant
shows how practical this form of visual contribution to semiotic theory is the semi-
representation is. A graph shows relation- otic square, which is his description of the
ships, often making it possible to see the structure of meaning: e.g. the word rich
presence of patterns or trends in a compila- takes on meaning only in contrast to not
tion of random facts. rich, poor, and not poor. Thus, the meaning of
rich is extractable from a 'semiotic square' of
grapheme oppositions, whose four Vertices' are rich-
[< Greek GRAPHEIN 'to write'] not rich-poor-not poor.
Letter or set of letters of an alphabet that
represent a *phoneme. ground
Illustration: The phoneme /f / is represented 1. in *metaphor theory, the meaning of the
by three types of characters: I./in a word metaphor; 2. in *painting, the entire or con-
like fish; 2. ph in a word like graph; and 3. gh necting surface of a scene.
in a word like enough. Illustration: In the metaphor John is a gorilla
the ground is the meaning 'John is belliger-
graphic art ent, aggressive, etc.' The ground is an open-
[< Greek GRAPHEIN 'to write'] ended system that can never be fixed, as can
Pictorial art in two-dimensional form. literal meaning.
Graphic art refers to the types of illustra-
tions found in advertisements, book de- Group f/64
signs, posters, and the like. [see ^photographic art]
time and distance. Before literacy became e.g. the domination of Nature by science
widespread, humans lived primarily in and technology. Habermas's major works
oral-auditory cultures, based on the spoken include Theory and Practice (1973), Knowledge
word. The human voice cannot help but and Human Interests (1971), A Theory of Com-
convey emotion, overtly or implicitly. So, municative Action (1984), and The Philosophi-
the kind of consciousness that develops in cal Discourse of Modernity (1985).
people living in oral cultures is shaped by
the emotionality of the voice. In such cul- hagiography
tures, the knower and the thing known are [< Greek HAGIOS 'holy']
seen typically as inseparable. By contast, in [also called hagiology]
literate cultures, the kind of consciousness Literature dealing with the lives of saints.
that develops is shaped by the written page,
with its edges, margins, and sharply de- Hall, Edward T.
fined characters organized in neatly-layered [1914-]
rows or columns, inducing a linear-rational American anthropologist who studied how
way of thinking in people. In such cultures, people interact nonverbally. Hall coined the
the knowledge contained in writing is per- term *proxemics, defining it as the study of
ceived as separable from the maker of that interpersonal *zones. He was among the
knowledge primarily because the maker of first to see the relevant implications, and
the written text is not present during the thus to investigate the patterns and dimen-
reading and understanding of his/her text, sions, of the zones people establish and
as he/she is in oral communicative situa- maintain between each other when interact-
tions. The spread of literacy through the ing, noting that these could be measured
technology of print since the Renaissance very accurately, allowing for predictable
has been the determining factor in the statistical variation. In North American
objectification of knowledge in the modern culture, Hall found that a distance of under
world and thus the main factor in the proc- six inches between two people was per-
ess of globalization. ceived as an 'intimate' distance; while a
distance at from 1.5 to 4 feet was the mini-
mum one perceived to be a 'safe' distance.
H
Halliday, M.A.K.
[1925-]
Habermas, Jiirgen British linguist who is responsible for the
[1929-] movement known as social semiotics. For
German philosopher who claimed that Halliday language is generated by the social
social systems are self-corrective, because contexts in which it occurs; i.e. speech is not
the systems of meaning in a culture as ex- an application of language; rather language
pressed in art, literature, etc. are constantly categories are derived from speech situa-
undergoing change from within the culture tions.
to meet people's changing needs and aspira-
tions. Running through his work is a cri- handshaking
tique of Western industrial democracies for Common form of bodily communication
their reduction of the human world to some involving hand contact.
form of economic efficiency, which has pro- Note: Handshaking is an intrinsic compo-
moted a distorted mind-set disfigured by a nent of formal greeting rituals. Intimate
destructive impulse towards domination:
friends do not shake hands, unless they
106 haptics
haven't seen each other for a protracted referred to as tonal because it is based on a
period of time or unless they want to con- central tone, called the tonic, towards which
gratulate one another. Cross-culturally, the all other tones gravitate. Intervals, or pairs of
form that handshaking assumes varies con- notes, are the building blocks of tonal har-
siderably. People can give a handshake by mony. Some are consonant (the two notes
squeezing the other's hand, shaking the blend with each other), whereas others are
other's hand with both hands, shaking the dissonant (the two notes clash). The funda-
other's hand and then patting the other's mental unit of harmony in tonal music is a
back or hugging him/her, leaning forward three-note chord called a triad. The three
or standing straight while shaking, and so notes of a triad are called the root, third, and
on. But handshaking is not universal. South- fifth. In order for a pitch to be a tonic, it
east Asians, for instance, press their palms must be the focal point of a group of pitches
together in a praying motion, without mak- that fall into either of two scale patterns: the
ing contact. major scale or the minor scale. A key consists
of a tonic note together with its scale and the
haptics triads built on the notes of that scale. Thus, a
[< Greek HAPTEIN 'to touch'] composition in the key of C major has the
1. having to do with the sense of touch; note C as its tonic and is constructed around
2. branch of semiotics studying touching the C-major scale.
patterns during social interaction. In the Middle Ages, Western composers
Illustrations: I. handshaking to make social began to add parts to plainchant, which had
contact; 2. patting the arm, shoulder, or back developed as a single-part musical form.
to indicate agreement or to compliment; Over the centuries composers explored
3. linking arms to indicate companionship; different combinations of intervals and
4. putting arms around the shoulders to different ways of connecting them. By the
indicate friendship or intimacy; 5. holding 16th century, the movement from one triad
hands to indicate affection; 6. hugging to to another was so arranged in the parts that
convey happiness; 7. kissing on the cheeks a complete triad was sounding almost all
to exchange greetings. the time. In the second half of the 17th cen-
tury, 'the laws of harmony' were estab-
hardware lished. By the 19th century functional
[see *software] harmonic progressions had been in use for
Mechanical, magnetic, and electronic de- so long that composers considered them too
sign, structure, and devices of a computer commonplace for many of their expressive
for the realization of its three main func- needs. So, they explored new forms of har-
tions: input, output, and storage. mony, including connecting chords previ-
ously considered only distantly related to
harmony one another, adding non-harmonic tones
[< Greek HARMOS 'a fitting'] that lasted for most of the duration of a
1. in music, the simultaneous sounding of chord, and employing dissonant chords
two or more tones perceived as pleasant to more often.
the ear; 2. structure of chords and how they As a result of these trends, the laws of
relate to each other in a piece of music (dis- classical Western harmony had ceased to be
tinguished from melody and rhythm). a potent force in new music by the early
20th century. While some composers contin-
Note: Most Western music written between ued to write music based on a tonal center,
the 17th century and the 19th century is
others abandoned tonality altogether and
Heisenberg's principle 107
began writing atonal music. In this music, being submerged in the world of objects,
the earlier distinction between consonance everyday routines, and the conventional
and dissonance no longer holds. crowd. He felt that modern technological
society had deprived human life of mean-
hedonism ing. He called the psychic state that such a
[Greek HEDONE 'pleasure'] social order has induced nihilism - a term
In ancient Greek philosophy, the doctrine that has become widely used. His most
that pleasure is the sole or chief good in life influential work, Being and Time (1927), dealt
and that the pursuit of it is the ideal aim of with the philosophical question 'What is it
conduct. to be?' His work had a crucial influence on
Note: The "^Epicureans were the ones who French philosophers Michel *Foucault and
best articulated the philosophy of hedon- Jacques *Derrida.
ism, contending that true pleasure is attain-
able only by reason. They stressed the Heisenberg's principle
virtues of self-control and prudence. In the [also called the uncertainty principle or the
18th and 19th centuries such British philoso- indeterminacy principle]
phers as Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), Principle elaborated by 20th-century physi-
James Mill (1773-1836), and his son, John cist Werner Heisenberg (1901-76), debunk-
Stuart Mill (1806-73) propounded the doc- ing the notion of an objective physical
trine of universalistic hedonism, better reality independent of culture and of the
known as utilitarianism. According to this scientist's personal perspective.
doctrine, the ultimate objective of human Note: An anecdotal illustration of Heisen-
existence is the good of society, and the berg's principle is the following one. Sup-
guiding principle of individual moral con- pose that a scientist reared and trained in
duct should be devotion to that which pro- North America sees a physical event that
motes the well-being of the greatest number she has never seen before. Curious about
of people. what it is, she takes out a notebook and
writes down her observations in English. At
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich the instant that the North American scientist
[1770-1831] observes the event, another scientist, reared
German philosopher who argued that the and trained in the Philippines and speaking
individual's sense of reality was filtered only the indigenous Tagalog language, also
largely by his/her acquired systems of rep- sees the same event. He similarly takes out a
resentation, although he also believed that notebook and writes down his observations
there existed a rational logic that governed in Tagalog. Now, to what extent will the
these systems. Hegel argued that art allows contents of the observations, as written in
people to grasp religious concepts by means the two notebooks, coincide? The answer of
of images and symbols; philosophical con- course is that the two sets of observations
cepts, by contrast, are acquired through will not be identical. The reason for this
rational thinking. discrepancy is not, clearly, due to the nature
of the event, but rather to the fact that the
Heidegger, Martin observers were different, psychologically
[1889-1976] and culturally. So, as Heisenberg's principle
German philosopher widely regarded as aptly suggests, the true nature of the event
one of the most original and influential of is indeterminable, although it can be investi-
20th-century thinkers. Heidegger posited gated further, paradoxically, on the basis of
that the individual is always in danger of the notes taken by the two scientists.
108 helm
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle was surcoats, giving rise to the term coat of arms.
important in the development of quantum The use of insignia developed subsequently
mechanics and also contributed to modern into a complex system for identifying social
philosophical thinking. He was awarded the status. The design of a coat of arms includes
1932 Nobel Prize in physics. the escutcheon, or shield, the helm or helmet,
the crest, the motto, the mantle, the supporters,
helm and the torse or wreath.
Heraldic type of *insignia representing
helmets of knights/ princes, peers, and gen- Herder, Johann Gottfried von
tlemen. [1744-1803]
German philosopher who emphasized the
Helmholtz, Hermann profound differences that existed among
[1821-1894] individuals who lived in different cultures.
German scientist, whose contributions in His work laid the foundation for the com-
physiology, optics, acoustics, and electrody- parative study of civilizations. Herder de-
namics greatly advanced 19th-century sci- veloped the idea that national character is
entific thought. Helmholtz believed that expressed by a people's language and litera-
physiological forces as well as the forces of ture. He attempted to demonstrate that
Nature could be perceived by the senses, Nature and human history obey the same
mechanically measured, and thus ex- laws, and that in time contending human
plained. He also researched thoroughly forces will be reconciled.
the physiology and physics of vision and
hearing. hermeneutics
[< Greek HERMENEUEIN 'to interpret']
helper 1. in semiotics, the study and interpretation
[see *actant] of *texts; 2. in psychology, the study of the
meanings derived from social behavior and
hemisphericity experience.
[< Greek HEMI 'half + SPHAIRA 'sphere']
Neuroscientific notion referring to the fact hero
that the human brain is functionally bilat- [see also *actant]
eral, i.e. that it carries out its tasks through 1. in mythology and legend, a personage,
an inbuilt 'cooperation' of the functions often of divine ancestry, who is endowed
associated with both its left and right hemi- with great courage and strength, celebrated
spheres. for his bold exploits, and favored by the
gods; 2. principal character in a novel,
heraldry poem, or dramatic representation.
[< Germanic HARIWALD 'army chief]
System of coats of arms, genealogies, armo- Herodotus
rial bearings, ornamental figures, and/or [c. 484-425 BC]
insignia used as tribal, family, or national Greek thinker and first historian who spent
emblems. a large part of his life traveling in Asia,
Note: The practice of using insignias on Egypt, and Greece, noting and recording for
shields and banners began during feudal posterity differences in the dress, food,
times when a knight needed to be recog- etiquette, and rituals of the people he en-
nized from a distance. In the 14th century, countered. His annotations have come to
the family insignias were embroidered on constitute some of the first analyses of cul-
Hippocrates 109
tural differences, chronicling the language, ties. Hieroglyphic inscriptions were com-
dress, food, etiquette, legends, history, and posed of two basic types of signs: ideograms
rituals of the people he came across. The and phonograms. Ideograms represented
comparative observations Herodotus made visually either the specific object drawn or
in his great work History - the Greek word something closely related to it; phonograms
for 'inquiry' - constitute the first significant were used purely for their phonetic value.
accounts of the cultures of virtually the Phonograms could represent one consonant
entire ancient Middle East, including those or the combination of two or three conso-
of the Scythians, Medes, Persians, Assyr- nants in a specific order; vowels were not
ians, and Egyptians. Inspired by the History, written. A specific hieroglyphic *sign might
other ancient historians, like the Roman serve as an ideogram in one word and as a
Tacitus (c. AD 55-117), also made it a point to phonogram in another. Most words were
describe the languages, character, manners, written with a combination of these two
and geographical distribution of the peoples types of signs.
they visited. Hieroglyphic inscriptions could be writ-
ten either vertically or horizontally, usually
heuristic from right to left. The latest hieroglyphic
[< Greek HEURISKEIN 'to find'] inscription dates from AD 394. Around 2700
1. something designed for helping someone BC, the Egyptians developed a more cursive
understand or learn (e.g. an educational script that replaced hieroglyphs called *hier-
method, a *flow chart, etc.); 2. in computer atic. An even more cursive and ligatured
science, a problem-solving technique in script called *demotic was also employed a
which the most appropriate solution to a little later. After the 1799 discovery of the
problem (among several alternatives) is Rosetta Stone, a slab inscribed in Greek and
selected at successive stages of a program's in hieroglyphic and demotic Egyptian,
operation. French Egyptologist Jean Francois Champ-
ollion (1790-1832) deciphered hieroglyphic
hieratic writing.
[< Greek HIEROS 'sacred']
Type of cursive script developed by the high-level language
Egyptians around 2700 BC, which replaced Computer *programming language whose
*hieroglyphic writing for most purposes; commands resemble categories of natural
hieratic writing was executed with blunt human language; a compiler program turns
reed pens and ink on papyrus. a high-level into a machine language.
by TV images. In a phrase, TV has become dium that has been exposed by "holography
the maker of history and its documenter at the and then photographically developed.
same time.
holography
Hjelmslev, Louis [< Greek HOLD 'whole' + GRAPHEIN 'to write']
[1899-1965] Method of making three-dimensional pho-
Danish linguist who elaborated *Saussurean tographs without a camera, by splitting a
theory into a framework known as *glosse- laser beam into two beams and projecting
matics, in which he formalized the Saussur- on a photographic plate the tiny interference
ean notions in a synthetic way. Hjelmslev patterns made by one beam going from the
also emphasized that *signs encompass not laser to the plate and the other beam going
only internal denotative meaning, but a mass from the laser to the object to the plate.
of information coming from outside the sign
itself: namely, the historical meanings and holophrases
connotations associated with the sign. [< Greek HOLO 'whole' + PHRASTIKOS 'suited
for expressing']
Hobbes, Thomas Monosyllabic forms that children start utter-
[1588-1679] ing starting around 6-12 months (mu, ma,
English philosopher who saw the mind as da, di, etc.); these are imitations of what the
the sum of the internal activities of the body. child has heard in social context.
For Hobbes, sensation, reason, value, and Note: Holophrastic utterances have been
justice could be explained simply in terms shown to serve three basic functions: 1.
of matter and motion. He defined ratiocina- naming an object and event; 2. expressing
tion bluntly as arithmetical computation: i.e. an action or a desire for some action; 3.
as a process akin to the addition and sub- conveying emotional states. Holophrases
traction of numbers. Hobbes claimed that are typically monosyllabic reductions of
thinking was essentially a rule-governed adult words - da for dog, ca for cat, etc. Over
mechanical process and that, in principle, 60% will develop into nouns; and 20% will
machines capable of thought could be built. become verbs in the child's second year.
For Hobbes, causes entailed effects as rigor- During the second year children typically
ously as Euclid's propositions entailed one double their holophrases - wowo 'water,'
another. The human brain, he claimed, is a bubu 'bottle,' mama 'mother/ etc. These early
logical machine that has allowed humans efforts are, clearly, imitative *signs, as are
literally 'to follow' consequences entailed the various words and sounds children
by causes. In his best-known work, Levia- make when they play to accompany their
than (1651), Hobbes held that people are rhythmic movements, to simulate the
fearful and predatory and must submit to sounds of their toys, and to generate emo-
the absolute supremacy of the state, in both tional responses in those around them.
secular and religious matters, in order to
live sanely and rationally. homeopathic magic
[see *magic]
hologram
[see ""holograph] Homo
[Latin 'man']
holograph General term for the human species.
[< Greek HOLD 'whole' + GRAPHEIN 'to write']
Pattern produced on a photosensitive me-
112 Homo erectus
Note: The earliest hymns for which the mu- key elements, allowing the user to move
sic has been preserved are two Greek hymns through information non-sequentially.
to Apollo, discovered at Delphi, dating from Note: The term hypertext was coined in 1965
the 2nd century BC. Hymn singing within to describe computer textuality as opposed
Judaism dates from at least the time of the to the linear textuality of books, film, and
biblical Book of Psalms, which means speech. The former permits the user to
'Praise Songs/ The first collection of Chris- browse through related topics, regardless of
tian hymn texts was the Gnostic Psalter; its the presented order of the topics. These
success led Syrian monk Saint Ephrem of links are often established both by the au-
Edessa to write hymns in Syriac in order to thor of a hypertext document and by the
spread the Christian faith. user, depending on the intent of the
hypertext document. For example, 'navigat-
hyperbole ing' among the links to the word language in
[< Greek HYPER 'above, beyond' + BALEIN 'to an article might lead the user to the Interna-
throw'] tional Phonetic Alphabet, the science of lin-
Rhetorical exaggeration for effect. guistics, samples of the world's languages,
Illustrations: I . He's as strong as an ox. 2. She's etc.
smarter than Einstein. 3. 7 could sleep for a year.
4. This book weighs a ton. hypoicon
[< Greek HYPO 'under' + EIKON 'image']
HyperCard Charles *Peirce's term for an "'icon that is
[< Greek HYPER 'above, beyond'] shaped by cultural convention but that can
In computer science, software designed for nonetheless be figured out by those who are
the Apple Macintosh that provides users not members of the culture (with prompt-
with an information-management tool con- ing)-
sisting of a series of cards collected together Illustration: The V-sign made with the index
in a stack; each card can contain text, and middle fingers can stand for a series of
graphical images, and sound. meanings. It is difficult to figure out what it
means unless one is a member of the same
hypermedia culture as the sign-user. But if told that it
[< Greek HYPER 'above, beyond'] stands for victory, then it can easily be de-
Computer-based information retrieval sys- duced that it has been made to reproduce
tem that enables a user to gain or provide the shape of the initial letter of the word
access to texts, audio and video recordings, victory.
photographs, and computer graphics re-
lated to a particular subject. A hypermedia hyponym
'navigation' might include links to such [< Greek HYPO 'under' + ONOMA 'name']
topics as language, semantics, communication, Concept, expressed by a word, that is inclu-
semiotics, and media. sive of another.
hyperonomy Illustrations: I . flower is a hyponym of rose;
[see *hyponomy] 2. insect is a hyponym of ant.
hypertext hyponymy
[< Greek HYPER 'above, beyond' + Latin [< Greek HYPO 'under' + ONOMA 'name']
TEXTUS 'fabric'] [also called hyperonymy]
Electronic *text that provides links between Semantic relation whereby one concept
embraces another.
iconography 115
Illustrations: 1. Scarlet is a type of red. 2. Tulip dimension, movement, sound, taste, etc.
is a type of flower. Archeological evidence attests to the an-
cientness of iconicity. In fact, the first in-
hypothesis scriptions, cave drawings, small sculptures,
[< Greek HYPO 'under' + THESIS 'a position'] and relief carvings of animals and female
1. tentative explanation that has been fash- figures found in caves throughout Europe,
ioned to account for a set of facts so that such as those at Lascaux in France and
it can be tested by further investigation; Altamira in Spain, were created some 30,000
2. something assumed to be true for the to 40,000 years ago. But even in the ver-
purpose of argument or investigation. bal domain iconicity was probably the pri-
mordial semiosic force in word creation.
Only at a later stage, after the utilization of
I iconically forged words in daily communi-
cation, did people start to forget how their
words originated. Indeed, as Charles *Peirce
icon so often remarked, the verbal symbols and
[< Greek EIKON 'image'] abstractions that seem so remote from the
1. *sign that is made to resemble its "referent sensorial realm were nonetheless born of
through some form of replication, resem- sensory representation that has become
blance, or simulation; 2. a visual image of unconscious as a result of protracted usage
some kind; 3. picture of a sacred or sancti- in social contexts.
fied Christian personage; 4. one who is the
object of great attention and devotion (an iconic gesture
idol); 5. in computer science, picture on a [< Greek EIKON 'image'; Latin GERERE 'to bear,
screen that represents a program or a spe- carry']
cific command. Gesture used while speaking that bears a
Illustrations: 1. Onomatopoeic words such as close resemblance to what is being talked
drip, plop, bang, screech are vocal icons simu- about.
lating the sounds that certain things, ac- Illustration: When talking about bending
tions, or movements are perceived to make. something back, like a tree branch, a
2. Portraits of people are visual icons repro- speaker might execute a gripping action
ducing faces from the perspective of the with his/her hands, appearing to grab
artist. 3. Perfumes are olfactory icons simulat- something and pull it back.
ing natural scents. 4. Chemical food addi-
tives are gustatory icons simulating natural iconography
food flavors. 5. A block with a letter of the [< Greek EIKON 'image' + GRAPHEIN 'to write']
alphabet carved into it is a tactile icon repro- Study of art focusing on visual images and
ducing the letter's shape in relief. symbols.
Note: Iconography has traditionally dealt
iconicity with religious and allegorical symbols in
[< Greek EIKON 'image'] painting and sculpture. The use of icono-
Process of representing things with *iconic graphic symbols began as early as 3000 BC,
signs (onomatopoeic words, photographs, when the civilizations of the Middle East
etc.). represented their gods symbolically in art-
Note: Iconicity entails that the human repre- work. In ancient Greece and Rome, gods
sentational capacity is, at its roots, attentive were represented in terms of specific objects.
to the recurrent patterns of color, shape, The Romans also used secular allegorical
116 id
symbols. For example, a woman sur- without indicating the pronunciation of the
rounded by grapes and sheaves of wheat word or words that stand for the object or
represented earth's bounties. Christian art idea.
has utilized iconographic symbols to repre- Illustration: 1. @ (= 'at'); 2. $ (= 'dollars'); 3. &
sent people as well as ideas. (= 'and'); 4. c^ (= 'in that direction').
id ideograph
In psychoanalytic theory, the element of [see ^ideogram]
personality that undergirds instinctual
drives. idiom
Note: The id is one of the three basic ele- [< Greek IDIOS 'personal, private']
ments of personality, according to psychoa- Speech form or expression that is peculiar
nalysis, the other two being the *ego and the grammatically or cannot be understood from
*superego. It is equated with the 'Uncon- the individual meanings of its elements.
scious, which is the reservoir of the instinc- Illustrations: 1. to kick the bucket (= 'to die');
tual drives and accumulated memories of 2. to cut someone off(= 'to interrupt').
the individual.
illocution
idealism [< Latin LOCUTIO 'a speaking']
[< Greek IDEIN 'to see'] Utterance that relates to the speaker's inten-
Theory of reality and of knowledge positing tion as distinct from what is actually said or
that physical objects are mind-dependent the effect on an auditor.
and can have no existence apart from a
mind that is conscious of them. This view is Illustrations: 1.1 wish you would open the win-
in opposition to *materialism, which main- dow. 2.1 promise to come as well.
tains that consciousness itself is purely
physical, and to ""realism, the view that illocutionary act
mind-independent physical objects exist [< Latin LOCUTIO 'a speaking']
and can be known through the senses. [synonymous expression for *illocution]
Type of speech act that specifies a call to
Note: The ancient Greek philosopher *Plato action, expresses a promise or wish, etc.
postulated the existence of a realm of ideas
that is imperfectly reflected in the objects of Illustrations: 1. It is time to leave. 2. Why don't
common experience. In the 18th century Irish you come along too?
philosopher George "^Berkeley extended
Plato's concept, by claiming, essentially, that illusion
everything of which one is conscious is re- [< Latin ILLUSIO 'a mocking']
ducible to innate ideas. German philosopher Erroneous perception of reality or of some
Immanuel *Kant refined this view, maintain- referent.
ing that all that can be known of things is the Illustration:
way they manifest themselves to perception.
A B
G.W.F. *Hegel disagreed with Kant's theory,
arguing instead for the ultimate intelligibility
of all existence. C D
ideogram
[< Greek IDEIN 'to see' + GRAPHEIN 'to write'] People reared in Western cultures are typi-
[also called ideograph] cally fooled by these lines. Lines AB and CD
Graphic sign representing an object or idea are actually equal in length, but the orienta-
imagery 117
tion of the arrowheads fools the Western eye form: e.g. a square, a cat, a table. 2. An abstract
into seeing AB as longer than CD. As psy- image is one that does not evoke a specific
chologists have found, many people living type of mental form: e.g. love, hope, justice.
in non-Western cultures do not experience 3. A fictitious image is one elicited by imagi-
the same illusion, called the Muller-Lyer nary referents: e.g. a winged table. 4. A narra-
illusion. The reason why people from West- tive image is one that unfolds within
ern cultures see one line as longer than the mind-space like a story: e.g. the recollection
other is because they have become condi- of an encounter with someone from start to
tioned by their upbringing to view draw- finish.
ings in perspective. This refers to the ability The image of cat is a visual image because
to create an illusion of depth or length on a it entails a 'picturing' of something. Images
two-dimensional surface. Perspective artists can be nonvisual: e.g. 1. the sound of thun-
have learned how to manipulate and guide der, 2. the feel of wet grass, 3. the smell of
perspective by means of line, shape, color, fish, 4. the taste of toothpaste, 5. the sensa-
value, and texture so as to induce a specific tion of being uncomfortably cold, 6. the
range of interpretations to their visual texts. sensation of extreme happiness. Image
Their craft dates back to the Renaissance (1) has an auditory form, (2) a tactile one,
(from the 14th to the 16th centuries) when (3) an olfactory one, (4) a gustatory one, (5) a
the Italian artist Filippo Brunelleschi (1377- kinesic one, (6) an emotive one.
1446) popularized the technique of perspec-
tive. Since then, the Western eye has become imagery
accustomed to reading pictures in terms of [< Latin IMAGO 'imitation, copy, image']
Brunelleschi's technique. 1. ability of the mind to evoke some refer-
ent; 2. use of figurative language to repre-
image sent objects, actions, or ideas; 3. use of
[< Latin IMAGO 'imitation, copy, image'] expressive or evocative images in art, litera-
1. mental picture of something; 2. concept of ture, or music.
a person, product, institution, etc. held by Note: In modern humans, the brain is struc-
the general public, often one deliberately tured to carry out a symmetrical 'division of
created or modified by publicity, advertis- labor'. Its two hemispheres work coopera-
ing, propaganda, etc. 3. in *psychoanalysis, tively to produce the mental functions. The
a picture or likeness of a person, buried in left hemisphere is the neural substrate that
the unconscious. underlies rational analytical thinking,
speech, and self-awareness. The right one
image, mental balances out these functions. It is the locus
[< Latin IMAGO 'imitation, copy, image'] where intuitive thinking, imagery, and emo-
[also called simply *image] tional states originate. According to some
Mental imprint of something (a shape, a psychologists, the imagistic right hemi-
sound, etc.). The mental image is not a 'rep- spheric chamber once controlled most of
lica'. It is a form based on cultural norms human thinking; the left hemispheric cham-
and on personal experiences. There are four ber assumed more of the thinking load as
basic types of images, concrete, abstract, the mind became more and more capable of
fictitious, narrative; each of these can be elic- abstraction, and thus more bilateral (capable
ited mentally in visual, auditory, olfactory, of coordinating thought processes according
gustatory, kinesic, or emotive ways. to hemisphere).
Illustrations: 1. A concrete image is one that The topic of imagery has a long history in
evokes a specific kind of mental picture or psychology. Individual differences in the
118 image schema
ability to experience imagery were recorded where finally (= journey schema); Love is
already in the previous century. People can sweet (= taste schema). The container and
picture faces and voices accurately and taste schemas are types of ontological
quickly, rotate objects in their heads, locate schemas; the impediment and journey
imaginary places in their mind-space, scan schemas are types of orientational schemas.
game boards (like a checker board) in their
minds, and so on with no difficulty whatso- imagination
ever. While researchers might disagree on [< Latin IMAGO 'imitation, copy, image']
exactly what it is that their subjects 'see' or Conscious mental process involved in pro-
'experience' in their minds, there is general ducing ideas or images of objects, events,
agreement that something is 'going on' in relations, qualities, or processes either ex-
the mind. perienced or perceived in the past or not
experienced. Psychologists occasionally
image schema distinguish between 'passive imagination,'
[< Latin IMAGO 'imitation, copy, image'; by which images originally perceived by the
Greek SCHEMA 'form'] senses are produced mentally, and 'active
Term introduced by American linguist imagination,' by which the mind produces
George Lakoff and American philosopher images of events or objects that are either
Mark Johnson referring to largely uncon- little related or unrelated to past and
scious mental ""images of sensory experi- present reality.
ences that underlie the understanding and/
or genesis of most abstract concepts. imperative form in advertising
Illustrations: Image schemas reduce a large [see *advertising, use of the imperative
quantity of sensory information into general form in]
patterns. Lakoff and Johnson identified
three such patterns. The first one involves impressionism
mental orientation. This underlies concepts [see also *art]
that are derived from physical experiences Style of painting developed in France dur-
of orientation - up vs. down, back vs. front, ing the 1870s, characterized by representa-
near vs. far, etc. This image schema can be tions of the immediate visual impression
detected in such expressions as I'm feeling up produced by a scene and by the use of un-
today. The second type involves ontological mixed primary colors simulating actual
thinking. This underlies the understanding reflected light.
of emotions, ideas, etc. in terms of entities Note: Impressionism in painting arose out of
and substances: e.g. I'm full of memories. The dissatisfaction with traditional painting
third type of schema is an elaboration of the techniques. Impressionists painted land-
other two. It is called a structural schema: e.g. scapes, street scenes, and figures from eve-
My time is money, which shows that we per- ryday life, being concerned more with the
ceive time as both a resource and a quantity. effects of light on an object than with exact
Each one of these general image schemas depiction of form. Edouard Manet (1832-83)
produces specific types of image schemas, is sometimes called the first impressionist,
according to culture. These are all operative since he was the first to paint by juxtaposing
in concept-formation: e.g. Put this into your bright, contrasting colors, rather than by
head (- container schema); To get what we shading with intermediary tones. Other
wanted, we had to get around his opposition (= well-known impressionists include Camille
impediment schema); My life is going some- Pissarro (1830-1903), Edgar Degas (1834-
information 119
1917), Claude Monet (1840-1926), Berthe Reasoning and concept-formation that un-
Morisot (1841-95), and Pierre Auguste folds by the extraction of a general pattern
Renoir (1841-1919). from specific facts or instances.
Illustration: If one were to measure the three
incompleteness theorem angles of, say, 100 specific triangles (of vary-
[see Kurt *Godel] ing shapes and sizes), one would get the
same total (180) each time. This would then
indeterminacy principle lead one to induce that the sum of the three
[see *Heisenberg's principle] angles of any triangle is the same.
index inference
[< Latin INDICARE 'to point out'] [< Latin INFERRE 'to bring or carry in']
*Sign whose function is pointing out some- Reasoning that unfolds by observing some-
thing real or imaginary in temporal, spatial, thing known or assumed.
or relational terms.
Illustrations: 1. From your smile, I infer that
Illustrations: 1. The pointing index finger is you're pleased. 2.1 gather from your remark that
an index that allows people to refer to the you don't care.
spatial locations of objects, beings, and
events. 2. Demonstrative words such as this infix
or that are indexes that also allow people to [< Latin IN 'in' + FIXUS 'fastened']
refer to the relative spatial location of ob- *Affix added internally to a "morpheme or
jects. 3. Adverbs such as here or there are, word.
similarly, indexes that allow people to indi-
cate the relative location of things. 4. Ad- Illustrations: In the Bantoc language (spoken
verbs such as before, after, now, or then are in the Philippines): 1. the wordfumikas 'to
indexes allowing people to indicate the be strong' consists of the basic form/utos
relative temporal occurrences of things and 'strong' and the infix -mi- 'to be'; 2. the
events. 5. Pronouns such as I, you, he, or she word sinulat 'written' consists of the form
are indexes that allow people to refer to the sulat 'write' and the infix -in- 'passive.'
participants taking part in a situation in
relation to one another. inflection
[< Latin IN 'in' + FLECTERE 'to bend']
indexicality 1. change in the form of a word; 2. change in
[< Latin INDICARE 'to point out'] tone of voice.
Process of representing something with Illustrations: In English, inflection character-
"indexes. The presence of indexicality in izes the conjugation of verbs (plays, played),
representational systems across the world is the declension of some nouns and adjectives
evidence that human consciousness is atten- (man, men), and comparison (big, bigger,
tive to recurrent cause-and-effect patterns biggest).
and to the fact that referents occur in time,
space, and in relation to one another: this or information
that, here or there, before or after, now, or then, [< Latin INFORMATIO 'representation, outline,
the one or the other, etc. sketch']
1. in "information theory and computer
induction science, precise measure of the "information
[< Latin IN 'in' + DUCERE 'to lead'] content of a message; 2. any fact or datum
[see also "abduction, "deduction] that can be stored and retrieved by humans
or machines.
120 information content
munication systems. Although many speech into signals; 5. a modem, which con-
semioticians have been openly critical of the nects a computer to a telephone line.
view that human communication works
according to the same basic mathematical insignia
laws as mechanical information systems, the [< Latin IN 'in' + SIGNUM 'sign']
general outline and notions of the bull's-eye 1. badge of office, rank, membership, or
model have proved to be highly convenient nationality; 2. a distinguishing sign.
for relating how communication unfolds
between human beings. instrumental learning
[see "psychology]
ingegno
[Italian for 'ingenuity, creativity, express- intaglio
ivity'] [Italian for 'engraving']
[see also * fantasia, *memoria] Figure or design carved into or beneath the
Term introduced into philosophy by surface of some material or surface.
Giambattista *Vico to refer to the innate
capacity of humans to invent at will. integrated circuit
[< Latin INTEGRARE 'to make whole']
Innenwelt Tiny slice or chip of material on which is
[German for 'inside world'] etched or imprinted a complex of electronic
[see also *Umwclt] components and their interconnections.
Specific perceptual and cognitive apparatus
of a species that allows it to make sense of interface
the input it receives from the outside world. Point of interaction or communication be-
This term is often used in *biosemiotics for tween a computer and any other entity, such
referring to the fact that all organisms pos- as a printer or human operator.
sess species-specific modeling capacities Note: User interfaces consist of the graphical
that allow them to respond in kind to their design, the commands, prompts, and other
outer experiences. devices that allow a user to interact with a
program. In hardware, interfaces include
input cards, plugs, and other devices that connect
[see also "output] pieces of hardware with the computer so
Something put into a computer system or that information can be moved from place
expended in its operation so as to achieve to place.
an output, i.e. a result of some kind.
interjection
input hardware [< Latin INTER 'between' + JACERE 'to throw']
^hardware that provides information and 1. sudden, short utterance; 2. an ejaculation.
instructions to the computer.
Illustrations: I. Ugh! 2. Wow! 3. Hey! 4. Well!
Note: Types of input hardware include the
following: 1. a mouse, i.e. a one-handed International Phonetic Alphabet
pointing device (or ball) that allows the user [abbreviated to IPA]
to control an on-screen cursor; 2. a keyboard, Set of standard phonetic symbols, originally
which allows the user to type in text and devised in the late 19th century by the Inter-
commands; 3. an optical scanner, which con- national Phonetic Association.
verts images into electronic signals; 4. a
voice-recognition module, which converts Note: Each symbol in the IPA represents a
single sound or type of articulation,
122 Internet
Internet interpretation
Matrix of networks that connects computers [< Latin INTERPRES 'negotiator, explainer']
around the world, via telephone lines, opti- 1. process of deciphering what a *sign or
cal fibers, and radio links. *text means; 2. act or result of deriving the
Note: Internet features include operating a meaning of something; 3. realization of a
computer from a remote location, transfer- person's conception of a work of art, subject,
ring files between computers, and reading etc. through acting, playing, writing, criti-
and interpreting files on remote computers. cizing, etc. (e.g. a pianist's interpretation of
The Internet was initially developed in 1973 the Beethoven sonatas).
for linking computer networks at universi-
ties and laboratories in the United States. intertext
The World Wide Web was developed in 1989. [< Latin INTER 'between' + TEXTUS 'a weaving
This consists of a collection of files, called together']
web sites or web pages, identified by uniform Culture-specific "text alluded to within a
resource locators (URLs). Computer programs main text. The text can be cited, rewritten,
called browsers retrieve these files. prolonged, or transformed by the main
text.
interpersonal zone Illustrations: 1. Homer's Odyssey is an
[see *zone, interpersonal] intertext of novelist James Joyce's Ulysses;
2. The Bible is an intertext of playwright
interpretant Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.
[< Latin INTERPRES 'negotiator, explainer']
Charles *Peirce's term for the meaning that intertextuality
one gets from a *sign, whereby the sign-user [< Latin INTER 'between' + TEXTUS 'a weaving
evaluates or responds to what the sign together']
means socially, contextually, personally, etc. Allusion within a text to some other text or
Note: The interpretant is itself a sign created texts of which the reader would normally
in the mind of a person. There are three have knowledge.
phases of interpretants: 1. the immediate Illustrations: I . The Bible is cited, trans-
interpretant, which manifests itself in the formed, or alluded to in many Western
correct understanding of the sign (e.g. look- narratives. 2. Classical mythical themes and
ing at the cat pointed out by someone's stories often appear in various forms in
index finger); 2. the dynamic interpretant, fairytales, legends, and other kinds of
which is the direct result of the sign (i.e. of narratives.
looking at things generally in response to
pointing fingers); 3. the final interpretant, intimate zone
which is the result of a specific sign (e.g. [see *zone, intimate]
realizing that the finger is pointing to a
specific type of cat, say, a tabby). intonation
Peirce suggested, moreover, that there [< Latin IN 'in' + TONUS 'a sound']
were three types of interpretants (what the 1. significant levels and variations in pitch
Jung, Carl Gustav 123
sequences within an utterance; 2. type of Arabic numerals: e.g. the Roman numeral
pitch used at the end of a spoken sentence IV = the Hindu-Arabic numeral 4.
or phrase (as, for instance, in a question).
Ionic form J
[see also *Corinthian form, *Doric form]
Ancient Greek tapered column that rose
from a richly molded circular base, and was Jakobson, Roman
topped with a capital decorated by spiral [1896-1982]
forms. It functioned either as a pillar to Moscow-born linguist and semiotician who
support a building or, occasionally, as a carried out most of his work in the United
freestanding monument. States. Among his contributions to semiot-
ics, linguistics, and communication theory is
irony his widely used model that identifies the
[< Greek EIREIN 'to speak'l main functions and components of human
1. humorous or subtly sarcastic expression communication (see *communication, ver-
in which the intended meaning of the words bal). He also put forward the notion of lin-
stands in direct opposition to their usual guistic structure as constantly adaptive to
sense; 2. cool, detached attitude of mind, human needs and whims, rather than innate
characterized by recognition of the in- and hard-wired into human behavior.
congruities and complexities of experi-
ence. jargon
Version of a language with specialized vo-
Illustrations: 1.1 love being tortured (= uttered
cabulary and idioms used typically by those
through tears). 2. Beautiful day today, isn't it?
in the same profession or line of work:
(= uttered when the temperature is well
sportswriters, bureaucrats, lawyers, doctors,
below freezing and a frigid snowstorm is
bankers, educators, musicians, psycholo-
taking place).
gists, etc.
Note: Irony allows someone to make a com-
Illustrations: 1. perorbital hematoma (= 'black
ment on a situation without any personal
eye'), in medicine; 2. licorice stick (= 'clari-
stake or involvement in it. As such, it is both
net'), among jazz musicians.
a protective strategy, deflecting attention
away from the self towards others, by which
jingles in advertising
one can make value judgments of others
[see *advertising, use of jingles in]
without commitment, and a verbal weapon
that can be used to show aggression to-
Jung, Carl Gustav
wards others.
[1875-1961]
Swiss psychiatrist who argued that the
isomorphism
"unconscious mind consisted of two inter-
[< Greek iso 'equal' + MORPHE 'form']
acting dimensions: the personal unconscious,
Similarity in appearance or structure of
the repressed feelings and thoughts devel-
*signs belonging to different *codes.
oped during an individual's life, and the
Illustrations: I . Binary and decimal numerals collective unconscious, those feelings,
can be put into an isomorphic relation eas- thoughts, and memories shared by all hu-
ily: e.g. the decimal numeral 2 = the binary manity. Jung used the term archetype to refer
numeral 10. 2. Roman numerals can be put to the latter. Jung saw archetypes as primor-
into an isomorphic relation with Hindu-
124 Kant, Immanuel
dial memories that are too weak to become dissimilar personalities. His work, therefore,
conscious. So, they gain expression in the is not only a valuable guide to the history of
symbols and forms that find their way into 14th-century North African cultures, but
the myths, tales, fantasies, artistic expres- also an early blueprint for relativistic theo-
sions, and rituals displayed in cultures ries of culture, which hold that culture and
across the world. habitat mold the individual's character and
worldview. A society, he observed, was held
together by the unifying force of religion,
K and it arose and fell according to 'cultural
laws' that could be empirically discovered
by an observer, since they reflected both a
Kant, Immanuel group's pattern of adaptation to habitat and
[1724-1804] the kinds of representational systems (lan-
German idealist philosopher who argued guage, rituals, etc.) it had developed over
that reason is the means by which the phe- time.
nomena of experience are translated into
understanding. Kant was, however, wary of kilobyte
ascribing all mental representations to con- 1. one thousand *bytes; 2. unit of measure-
verted experiences, positing instead that the ment of the memory capacity of a computer,
two - reason and experience - are interde- equal to 2U) bytes.
pendent.
The cornerstone of Kant's philosophy is kinesic code
contained in his Critique of Pure Reason [< Greek KINESIS 'motion']
(1781), in which he differentiated knowl- [also spelled kinetic]
edge into analytic and synthetic propositions. *Code based on properties of the body.
In analytic thinking, the truth of something
Illustrations: Gender and grooming codes
can be discovered by analysis of the phe-
are examples of kinesic codes. These condi-
nomenon itself; in synthetic thinking, expe-
tion how people behave in courtship and
rience, not analysis, must be used to
other sexual situations. They are products of
determine its truthfulness. Kant's philoso-
cultural history and convention, being quite
phy is usually known as transcendentalism,
specific as to what facial and eye-contact
because he regarded the objects of the mate-
patterns, and which bodily postures, are
rial world as fundamentally unknowable,
appropriate in specific contexts. Their pri-
serving merely as the raw material from
mary function is to regulate physical inter-
which sensations are formed.
action and behavior. The ways in which
people present and represent the body are
keyboard
conveyors of social persona.
[see *input hardware]
kinesic image
Khaldun, Ibn
[see *image, mental]
[1332-1406]
Medieval Algerian scholar who wrote a
kinesics
fascinating treatise on the difference be-
[< Greek KINESIS 'motion']
tween nomadic and city-dwelling Bedouins,
[also spelled kinetics]
in which he suggested that the environment
1. science or study of human muscular
where the two types of Bedouins lived de-
movements, especially as applied in physi-
termined their differential behaviors and
cal education; 2. study of bodily *semiosis.
language 125
constructed with phonemes linked together lost the ability to articulate words during
in structurally predictable ways. Consider his lifetime, even though he had not suf-
the word green. It is made up with legiti- fered any paralysis of his speech organs.
mate English sounds (known as *pho- Broca concluded that the capacity to articu-
nemes), connected in an appropriate fashion late speech was traceable to that specific
(according to English ^syllable structure). cerebral site - which shortly thereafter came
The signifier fen, by contrast, would not be to bear his name (*Broca's area). This dis-
an acceptable word because it contains two covery established a direct connection be-
phonemes, represented by the alphabet tween a semiosic capacity and a specific
characters p and n, that do not exist in Eng- area of the brain. Then, in 1874 the work of
lish. Nor is gpeen a legitimate word, even the German neurologist Carl Wernicke
though each of its sounds are acceptable (1848-1905) brought to the attention of the
phonemes, because it violates svllable struc- medical community further evidence link-
ture (the sequence gp does not occur in ing the LH with language. Wernicke docu-
English to start a syllable). This is how mented cases in which damage to another
words are formed in all languages. But area of the LH - which came to bear his
language is not just a collection of words. name (*Wernicke's area) - consistently pro-
When words are used in verbal representa- duced a recognizable pattern of impairment
tion and communication they allow people to the faculty of speech comprehension.
to deliver messages in the form of *sen- Then, in 1892 Jules Dejerine showed that
tences and ^discourses. problems in reading and writing resulted
Phonemes are perceived by the hearing primarily from damage to the LH alone. So,
center of the brain and produced through its by the end of the 19th century the accumu-
motor pathways via a complex system of lating research evidence provided an em-
coordination between brain and vocal or- pirical base to the emerging consensus in
gans. There are twelve cranial nerves. Seven neuroscience that the LH was the cerebral
of these link the brain with the vocal organs. locus for language. Unfortunately, it also
Some perform a motor function, controlling contributed to the unfounded idea that the
the movement of muscles; while others RH (right hemisphere) was without special
perform a sensory function, sending signals functions and subject to the control of the
to the brain. The larynx controls the flow of 'dominant' LH.
air to and from the lungs, so as to prevent In the 1970s research in neuroscience
food, foreign objects, or other substances brought seriously into question the idea that
from entering the trachea on their way to the LH alone was responsible for language.
the stomach. The abilitv to control the vocal The brain research suggested, in fact, that
folds makes it possible to build up pressure for any new verbal input to be comprehensi-
within the lungs and to emit air not only for ble, it must occur in contexts that allow the
expiration purposes, but also for the pro- synthetic functions of the RH to do their
duction of sound. interpretive work. In effect, it showed that
The recognition of phonemes, along with the brain is structured to interpret verbal
the discrimination of phonic differences, has input primarily in terms of its contextual
its physiological locus in the left hemisphere characteristics.
(LH) of the brain. This discovery goes back At birth, the position of the larynx in
to 1861, when the French anthropologist human infants is high in the neck, like it is
and surgeon Paul Broca (1824-80) noticed a in that of other primates. Infants breathe,
destructive lesion in the left frontal lobe swallow, and vocalize in ways physiologi-
during the autopsy of a patient who had cally similar to gorillas and chimps. But,
lanvue 127
some time around the first six months of eters' during infancy. The UG is a species-
life, the infant's larynx starts to descend specific neurological generator of language
gradually into the neck, dramatically alter- structures in human beings; culture is the
ing the wavs in which the child will carry external force that determines which of
out such physiological functions from then these are relevant to the language spoken in
on. Nobody knows why this descent occurs. social context. This implies that all natural
It is an anatomical phenomenon unique to languages are built on the same basic neural
humans. This new low position means that plan and that differences are explainable as
the respiratory and digestive tracts now choices of rule types from a fairly small
cross above the larynx. This entails a few inventory of possibilities - made available
risks: food can easily lodge in the entrance to the child through environmental input.
of the larynx; and humans cannot drink and Hence the universality and rapidity of lan-
breathe simultaneously without choking. guage acquisition - when the child learns
But in compensation, it produces a pharyn- one fact about a language, she/he can easily
geal chamber above the vocal folds that can infer other facts without having to learn
modify sound. This is the key to the ability them one by one.
to articulate sounds. According to many other language re-
Interestingly, research on the casts of searchers, the problem with UG theory is
human skulls has established that the low- that it is restricted to accounting for the
ered larynx did not occur earlier than development of grammar in the child. As
100,000 years ago. This suggests that there such, it ignores a much more fundamental
may have been language without speech in creative force in early infancy - *iconicity, or
pre-Homo sapiens groups. The most prob- the ability to make imitative models of the
able mode of delivery of language was world. The application of vocal sound to
gesture. When speech became physiologi- model the world imitatively can already be
cally possible, it is likely that it was used in seen when the child reaches six months and
tandem with the previous gestural signs, starts to emit monosyllabic utterances (mu,
not replacing them completely. This is the ma, da, di, etc.), which are imitations of what
most conceivable reason why we still use the child has heard in social context. These
gesture as a default mode of communication are called holophrastic (one-word) utterances,
(when vocal speech is impossible), and why and have been shown to serve three basic
we gesticulate when we speak. functions: 1. naming an object and event;
2. expressing an action or a desire for some
language acquisition action; 3. conveying emotional states.
[< Latin LINGUA 'tongue']
Process by which languages are learned. language acquisition device
Note: In childhood, language acquisition is a [abbreviated to LAD]
complex and largely spontaneous and un- Linguist Noam ^Chomsky's term for an
conscious process. Children are equipped inbuilt neurological generator of language
by Nature with certain cognitive abilities structures in the human species that allows
and physical structures that predispose children to develop their native language
them to learn any language to which they with no effort whatsoever.
are exposed from birth to about the age of 2.
For the linguist Noam *Chomsky, this is langue
strong evidence that there exists a universal [French for 'language']
grammar (UG) present in the brain at birth [see *langue vs. parole]
that is subjected to culture-specific 'param- Term used by Ferdinand de *Saussure to
128 langne vs. parole
refer to the largely unconscious knowledge unique to humans. The new low position of
that speakers of a language share about the larynx means that the respiratory and
what forms and grammatical structures are digestive tracts cross above it. This entails a
appropriate in that language. few risks: food can easily lodge in the en-
trance of the larynx; and humans cannot
langue vs. parole drink and breathe simultaneously without
[French for 'language' and 'word'] choking. But in compensation, this new
Distinction made by Ferdinand de *Saussure position produces a pharyngeal chamber
in his Cours de linguistique generate of 1916 above the vocal folds that can modify
between language as system (langue) and sound. This is the key to the human ability
language in usage (parole). to articulate sounds.
Note: Saussure made an analogy to the game
of chess to clarify the crucial difference legal semiotics
between these two terms. The ability to play [< Latin LEGALIS 'of the law'; Greek SEMEION
chess, he observed, is dependent upon 'mark, sign']
knowledge of its langue, i.e. of the rules of Branch of ^semiotics aiming to study the
movement of the pieces - no matter how representational system underlying law-
brilliantly or poorly someone plays, what making.
the chess board or pieces are made of, what Note: Rudimentary types of legal systems
the color and size of the pieces are. Langue is existed in early tribal cultures. They were
a mental code that is independent of such built from a blend of custom, religion, and
variables. Now, the actual ways in which a magic, grounded in consensus about what
person plays a specific game - why he/she was appropriate and right for the tribe as a
made the moves that he/she did, how he/ whole. The visible authority was the power-
she used his/her past knowledge of the ful clan member and/or the religious ruler;
game to plan his/her strategies and tactics, the ultimate authorities were the gods,
etc. - are dependent instead on the person's whose will was thought to be revealed in
particular execution abilities, i.e. on his/her the forces of Nature and in the revelations of
control of parole. In an analogous fashion, the religious leader. Wrongs against the
Saussure suggested, the ability to speak and tribe, such as acts of sacrilege or breaches of
understand a language is dependent upon custom, were met with group sanctions,
knowing the rules of the language game ridicule, and hostility. The wrath of the
(langue); whereas the actual use of the rules gods, on the other hand, was appeased
in certain situations is dependent instead typically through ritualistic ceremonies
upon execution (psychological, social, and ending in sacrifice or in the expulsion of the
communicative) factors (parole). wrongdoer. Wrongs against individuals,
such as murder, theft, adultery, or failure to
larynx, lowering of the repay a debt, were avenged by the family of
Phenomenon that starts virtually right after the victim, often in the form of actions
birth whereby the larynx, which is high in against the family of the wrongdoer.
the human neck at birth, begins to descend In early civilizations, legal practices grew
in the neck, so that by the age of 18 months in tandem with political systems. The es-
to 2 years it alters the ways in which the tablishment of 'courts' and 'written laws'
child will thenceforth carry out certain came about to replace religious principles
physiological functions. or rules and the advice-giving practices of
Note: Nobody knows why this descent oc- tribal chieftains, elders, or shamans. One
curs. It is an anatomical phenomenon of the first set of written laws dates from
legisign 129
Hammurabi, king of Babylon, who united tional role of the Church in his Summa
the diverse tribes in Mesopotamia by strate- Theologiae (1265-73), while the great Italian
gically conquering territories in the region poet *Dante Alighieri argued, in his De
from approximately 1792 to 1750 BC. The Monarchia (c. 1313), for a united Christen-
first significant example of a written legal dom under one emperor and pope, each
code is the ancient Roman one, which has supreme in his appropriate sphere.
influenced most of the legal systems of the By the time of the Renaissance, intellectu-
modern world. In the 8th century BC Rome's als such as Niccolo Machiavelli (1459-1527)
legal system was characterized largely by a transcended the traditional church-state
blend of custom and the control of magis- debate by evaluating the problems and
trates, who were thought to interpret the possibilities of governments seeking to
will of the gods. But the magistrates eventu- maintain power in non-religious, non-mor-
ally lost their legitimacy as the plebeian alistic ways. Some years later, the English
classes threatened to revolt against their philosopher Thomas *Hobbes argued that
discriminatory practices. This crisis led to the power of the political sphere in regu-
one of the most consequential developments lating the affairs of a culture should be
in the history of law - the Twelve Tables of unlimited, since he believed culture to be
Rome, which consisted of laws engraved on primarily a 'social contract' that individuals
bronze tablets in the 5th century BC. Con- living in a society agreed to accept so that
cerned with matters of property, payment of they could protect themselves from their
debts, and appropriate compensation for own brutish instincts and make possible the
damage to persons, these tables are the satisfaction of desires. As the philosopher
source for the widespread modern belief John *Locke observed, political and legal
that fairness in human affairs demands that systems, unlike religious ones, can legiti-
laws regulating human conduct be ex- mately be overthrown if they fail to dis-
pressed in writing. charge their functions to the people, since
Awareness of the role of civil law in hu- these systems are perceived as being totally
man affairs can already be seen in Tlato, the brainchildren of human minds.
who attempted to reconcile the religious
and political spheres of society by propos- legend
ing a model of a community that would be [< Latin LEGERE 'to read']
governed by an aristocracy of 'philosopher- 1. story handed down for generations and
kings.' But it was *Aristotle who recognized popularly believed to have a historical ba-
the ever-increasing power of the political, sis, although not verifiable; 2. story of the
legal, and economic spheres in city-state exploits of a heroic figure (e.g. the legend of
societies. In his Politics, he suggested that King Arthur and the Knights of the Round
these were often in conflict with the reli- Table); 3. title, brief description, or key ac-
gious sphere because of the tension created companying an illustration or map story.
by their overlapping moral jurisdictions.
This tension extended well into the legisign
Middle Ages, an era in Western history [< Latin LEGALIS 'of the law']
characterized by a protracted struggle for Term coined by Charles *Peirce referring to
supremacy between the Roman Catholic a *sign that designates something by con-
church and the Holy Roman Empire. This vention (and instituted 'by law'). Peirce
conflict was reflected in the scholarly writ- viewed all legisigns as provisional.
ing of the era. The philosopher St Thomas Illustrations: 1. The sound of the referee's
* Aquinas, for instance, defended the tradi- whistle indicating stoppage of play is a
130 Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm
ways? These are the kinds of intriguing atically and what parts of words carry
questions that this hypothesis raises. meaning. He wrote his grammatical analy-
sis to help in the interpretation of Hindu
linguistics religious literature written in Sanskrit.
[< Latin LINGUA 'tongue'] The Greek grammarian Dionysius Thrax,
Science studying ^language, including its who lived between 170 and 90 BC, wrote
uses in ^cultures. what became one of the first influential
Note: The modern science of linguistics is models for writing grammars in Europe -
the twin sister of *semiotics, since both trace the Art of Grammar. Indeed, many later
their modern parentage to Ferdinand de Greek, Latin, and other European grammars
*Saussure's Cours de lingnistique generate of were based on his model. With the spread of
1916. Linguistics proper focuses on study- Christianity and the translation of the Scrip-
ing the forms and functions of sounds, tures into the languages of the new Chris-
words, and grammatical categories of spe- tians, written literatures began to develop
cific languages, as well as the formal rela- among previously nonliterate peoples. This
tionships that exist among different led to an interest in ^grammar as a formal
languages. approach to the study of languages. The
Linguists divide language into various Arabs are believed to have initiated the
levels. Phonetics is concerned with the physi- grammatical study of their language before
cal properties of sounds; how sounds are medieval times. In the 10th century the Jews
produced, the characteristics of sound completed a Hebrew lexicon and grammar.
waves, and how sounds are perceived. Mor- By the late Middle Ages, European scholars
phology is the study of ""morphemes (gram- generally knew, in addition to their own
matical elements smaller than words) and vernaculars and Latin, the languages of
the ways in which they combine into words. their nearest neighbors. The access to sev-
For example, the word cats has two mor- eral languages set scholars to thinking about
phemes, cat, meaning 'feline animal,' and -s how languages might be compared. The
meaning 'more than one.' The former mor- revival of classical learning in the Renais-
pheme is often referred to as a "lexeme, sance laid the foundation, however, for a
because it has lexical rather than pure gram- misguided attempt by grammarians to de-
matical meaning. Syntax is the study of how scribe all language grammars as derivatives
words are organized to make sentences. A of Greek and Latin grammar.
general characteristic of language is that It was in 16th and 17th centuries that
words are not directly combined into sen- scholars took it upon themselves to conduct
tences but rather into intermediate units, in-depth surveys of all the then-known
called phrases, which then are joined into languages in an attempt to determine which
sentences. Semantics is the study of the language might be the oldest. In the 18th
meaning of words, phrases, syntactic con- century the comparisons were becoming
structions, etc. Pragmatics deals with how increasingly precise, culminating in the
language is used in discourse, and how it assumption by the German philosopher
varies in socially determined ways. Gottfried Wilhelm *Leibniz that most lan-
The first attempts to study a language guages of Europe, Asia, and Egypt came
scientifically can be traced as far back as the from the same original one - a language
5th century BC, when the Indian scholar referred to as Indo-European.
Panini compiled a grammar of the Sanskrit In the 19th century scholars developed
language of India. His sophisticated analy- systematic analyses of the parts of speech,
sis showed how words are formed system- mostly built on the earlier analyses of San-
linguistics 133
skrit by Panini. This allowed them to com- dent Edward *Sapir, who worked primarily
pare and relate the forms of speech in nu- with Native American languages, and also
merous languages methodically. Sir William by Leonard *Bloomfield, whose book Lan-
Jones (1746-94), an English scholar, ob- guage (1933) established the basic notions
served that Sanskrit bore similarities to and procedures for carrying out a system-
Greek and Latin, and proposed that the atic structural analysis of any language.
three languages might have developed from Boas was especially influential in estab-
a common source. Inspired by Jones, lan- lishing linguistics as a science. He saw
guage scholars in the 19th century started in grammar as a description of how human
earnest to compare languages systemati- speech in a language is organized. A de-
cally. The German philologist Jacob Grimm scriptive grammar, he claimed, should de-
(1785-1863) and the Danish philologist scribe the relationships of speech elements
Rasmus Christian Rask (1787-1832) studied in words and sentences. At about the same
how the sounds of one language corre- time, the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen
sponded in a regular way to similar sounds (1860-1943) stressed that grammar should
in related words in another language. For be studied by examining living speech
example, the initial sounds of Latin pater rather than by analyzing written docu-
(father) and pcd- (foot) correspond to the ments. Jespersen also wanted to ascertain
English father and foot. what properties were common to the gram-
By the late 19th century much research mars of all languages.
had been conducted on sound correspond- In 1957, the American linguist Noam
ences. A group of European language schol- *Chomsky published a book entitled Syntac-
ars known as the neogramnmrians put tic Structures, in which he attempted to
forward the view that not only were sound analyze the syntax of English from a differ-
correspondences between related languages ent perspective than the structuralist one.
regular, but any exceptions to these could This effort led him to see grammar as a
develop only from borrowings from another theory of language rather than as a descrip-
language (or from additional sound tion of actual sentences. Since the early
changes). For example, Latin /d/ should 1970s various schools of linguistics have
correspond to English /t/ as in dentalis = come forward to challenge the Chomskyan
tooth. The English word dental, however, has perspective. As a consequence, modern-day
a / d / sound. The neogrammarian conclu- linguistic methodology is more eclectic and
sion was that English borrowed dental from less partisan to one school of thought or
Latin, whereas tooth (which has the expected the other than it ever was in the early 20th
/ t / ) was a native English word. century.
It was the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Today, languages are being described and
*Saussure who founded modern linguistic analyzed from several points of view.
analysis in the same century when he made Moreover, the field of linguistics has be-
the first distinction between *diachronic and come a vast one. Currently, linguistic stud-
*synchronic aspects of language study. ies are divided into theoretical and applied.
Saussure also advanced the view of lan- Theoretical linguistics is concerned with
guage as a system or as structures serving devising models or theories to describe
as links between thought and vocal expres- languages or to explain their patterns.
sion. His view came to be known as struc- Applied linguistics, by contrast, applies the
turalism. In America, the structuralist findings of theoretical linguistics to lan-
approach was expanded through the efforts guage teaching, dictionary preparation,
of anthropologist Franz *Boas and his stu- speech therapy, computerized machine
134 linguistics, cognitive
Speech act that entails reference to some- Illustrations: In advertising logos are often
thing specific. designed to evoke *mythic themes or sym-
Illustrations: 1. The washroom is over there. bols. For instance, the logo of the apple
2. / live four blocks from here. suggests the story of Adam and Eve in the
Western Bible. Its biblical symbolism as
logic 'forbidden knowledge' resonates latently,
[< Greek LOGOS 'word, reckoning, thought'] for example, in the 'Apple' computer com-
1. science of reasoning; 2. system of princi- pany's logo. The 'golden arches' of McDon-
ples underlying any art or science; 3. neces- ald's also resonate with biblical paradisiacal
sary connection or outcome; 4. in compu- symbolism.
ters, systematized interconnection of
switching functions, circuits, or devices. long-term memory
[see *memory]
logo
[see *logotype] Lorenz, Konrad
[1903-1989]
logocentrism Austrian zoologist who was instrumental in
[< Greek LOGOS 'word, reckoning, thought'] the founding of *ethology, the scientific
[literally 'word-centered'] study of animals in their natural habitats.
Notion that language shapes worldview Lorenz is perhaps best known for his dis-
and personal attitudes; logocentric cultures covery that auditory and visual stimuli from
are those that depend on the written word an animal's parents are needed to induce the
for gaining knowledge. young to follow the parents, but that any
object or human being could elicit the same
logogram response by presenting the same stimuli. He
[< Greek LOGOS 'word'] called this phenomenon imprinting.
[also called logograph]
Symbol representing an entire spoken word Lotman, Jurij M.
without expressing its pronunciation. [1922-1993]
Estonian semiotician whose writings have
Illustration: 1. 4 -jour in English, quattro in become instrumental for the study of the
Italian; 2. + = plus in English, piu in Italian. semiotic basis of culture. His central contri-
bution to semiotics is the idea that culture is
logograph a derivative of *semiosis, and is thus subject
[see *logogram] to the same kind of dynamism that charac-
terizes physical and psychological systems.
logos
[< Greek LOGOS 'word, reckoning, thought'] lovemap
1. in philosophy, synonym for reason as Term used by some psychologists to desig-
manifested by the speech faculty; 2. in nate a mental image developed by an indi-
Christian theology, the eternal thought or vidual around puberty of what his/her
word of God, made incarnate in Jesus Christ ideal mate's physical features are like.
puberty is the presence of 'lovemaps' in the Some 20th-century poets who have writ-
mind. These are fixed mental images that ten lyrics are American poet Robert Frost
determine the specific kinds of features of (1874-1963), Irish poet William Butler Yeats
the face that will evoke sexual arousal and (1865-1939), Anglo-American poet W.H.
love moods (such as infatuation) in an indi- Auden (1907-73), Welsh poet Dylan Thomas
vidual. Lovemaps are developed during (1914-53), German poet Rainer Maria Rilke
childhood in response to various psychoso- (1875-1926), Austrian poet Hugo von
cial experiences and influences. At adoles- Hofmannsthal (1874-1929), French poet
cence, they unconsciously generate an Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918), Spanish
image of what the ideal 'sweetheart' should poet Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936), and
be like, becoming quite specific as to details Greek poet Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933).
of the physiognomy, build, race, and color
of the ideal lover, as well as to his/her gen-
eral demeanor.
M
lyric poetry magic
[< Greek LYRA 'lyre'] [< Greek MAGIKE 'magic (art), sorcery']
*Poetry that conveys subjective thoughts Use of charms, spells, and rituals in the
and feelings, often in a song-like style or hope that they will cause or control events,
form. or else influence certain natural or super-
Note: In ancient Greece, lyrics were sung or natural forces.
recited to the accompaniment of the lyre. In Note: Anthropologists distinguish among
medieval times French lyricists were trouba- three types of magic: 1. homeopathic magic,
dours and trouveres, and in Germany they which consists in the use of small portions
were the minnesingers. Most medieval lyrics of a thing in order to affect the whole;
were written anonymously. In the 16th cen- 2. sympathetic magic, by which a symbolic
tury, sung lyrics are found in songs of Eng- action is purported to affect an object;
lish musicians Thomas Campion (1567- 3. contagious magic, which attempts to influ-
1620) and John Dowland (1562-1626), as ence one thing through contact with another
well as in songs in plays by English play- that is believed to be magically charged.
wright William Shakespeare (1564-1616). By Magical practices are based on a belief in
the Renaissance the term lyric also applied hidden relationships among entities within
to verse that was not sung. Italian poets the universe. Magic is widely practiced in
such as Petrarch (1304-74) developed the tribal and traditional societies. In such cul-
sonnet, a lyric form that became popular in tures, it is often associated with religion.
the late Renaissance and in early 17th-cen- Western traditions of magic can be traced
tury Europe. Well-known lyric poets of the back to ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia,
18th and 19th centuries include Johann Greece, and Rome. During the Middle Ages,
Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) and science, religion, and magic often were not
Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) of Germany, clearly distinguished. From the 15th century
Thomas Gray (1716-71), Elizabeth Barrett to the 18th century, i.e. during the periods of
Browning (1806-61), and A.E. Housman the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the
(1859-1936) of England, Robert Burns Age of Enlightenment, the relationship
(1759-96) of Scotland, Charles Baudelaire between science and magic underwent a
(1821-67) of France, and Walt Whitman fundamental readjustment as Western soci-
(1819-92) and Emily Dickinson (1830-86) of ety entered the scientific era. The Roman
the United States. Catholic church and Protestantism, as well
manualism 137
gle. Although the shapes of areas on the preference. After the one or two best-liked
cylindrical projection are increasingly dis- advertisements are identified, the manufac-
torted towards the poles, the size relation- turer produces a limited quantity of the new
ship of areas on the map is equivalent to ad and introduces it in a test market. On the
their size relationship on the globe. The basis of this market test the advertiser-manu-
Mercator projection is related to the cylindri- facturer can make a decision as to whether a
cal projection, with certain modifications. It national campaign should be launched. In
portrays equatorial regions accurately but effect, marketing science envisions consum-
greatly distorts areas in the high latitudes. ers as 'recurrent units' that can be classified
Directions are represented faithfully, and into 'taste groups,' 'lifestyle groups/ 'mar-
this is valuable in navigation. ket segments/ etc. and who can, therefore,
be understood, managed, and manipulated
marked category in specific ways.
[see *markedness]
Marx, Karl
markedness [1818-1883]
Relation whereby some members in a cat- German social theorist who claimed that
egory or system, referred to as marked, are new forms of a society emerged as a conse-
specific and thus not representative of the quence of individuals struggling to gain
entire category, while others, referred to as control over the production, use, and own-
unmarked, are typical and thus representa- ership of material goods. In every historical
tive of the category or system. epoch, the prevailing economic system
Illustration: In the indefinite article system of determines the form of social and political
English, the form a is said to be unmarked organization, as well as the intellectual
because it is the general, or typical, form (a history of the epoch. Thus, the history of
boy, a girl, a man, a woman, etc.); whereas an society is a history of the struggles between
is the marked form because it is constrained ruling and oppressed social classes. In
to occurring before vowels (an egg, an apple, Marx's conception of Utopia, there is no
etc.). capitalism and no state, just a working soci-
ety in which all citizens give according to
market test their means and take according to their
[< Latin MERCATUS 'marketplace'] needs.
Technique designed to study the reactions
of human individuals and/or groups to mask
promotional and persuasion techniques [< Italian MASCHERA 'a mask']
used to sell a product, including advertis- [see also *persona]
ing, packaging, brand naming, etc. 1. material covering for the face or part of
the face, to conceal the identity of the
Note: Marketing agencies conduct surveys wearer; 2. figure of a head worn on the stage
to determine the potential acceptance of by an ancient Greek or Roman actor to iden-
products or services before they are adver- tify a character and amplify the voice.
tised. If the survey (or market test) con-
vinces the manufacturer that one of the Note: In tribal societies, a performer who
versions of, say, an ad will attract enough wears a mask in a ceremony is frequently
purchasers, a research crew then pretests believed to be transformed into, or pos-
various provisional draft advertisements to sessed by, the spirit represented by the
consumers, asking them to indicate their mask. Ritual masks generally depict deities,
140 mass media
cultural anthropology. Mead spent many but only in relation to other signs: e.g. cat vs.
years studying how culture influences indi- dog, cat vs. bird, etc. From such oppositions
vidual personality, maintaining that the we can see what differentiates a cat from a
specific child-rearing practices of a culture dog, from a bird, and so on. Such oppositions
shape the behavior and temperament of the cumulatively allow us to pinpoint what cat
maturing individual. She also analyzed means by virtue of how it is different from
many problems in contemporary American other signs.
society, particularly those related to young This extraction of the sign's meaning
people. through oppositions is called signification.
Signification is not an open-ended or loop-
meaning ing process; it is constrained by a series of
What is referred to or understood by a *sign, factors, including conventional agreements
^concept, *text, etc. as to what oppositions entail in specific
Note: Determining the absolute meaning of contexts, the nature of the code to which the
something is an impossible task. The dic- signs belong, and so on. Without such in-
tionary definition of cat, for instance, as 'a built constraints, determining what a sign
small carnivorous mammal domesticated means would be virtually impossible.
since early times as a catcher of rats and
mice' is said to be the meaning of the word. meaning, figurative
The problem that emerges with this defini- [< Latin FIGURARE 'to form']
tion, however, is the use of mammal to define Extended meaning of a word or expression.
cat. Indeed, the definition makes the unwar- Illustrations: 1. screaming headlines (= scream-
ranted assumption that mammal somehow ing is used figuratively, since scream refers to
explains what a cat is. Looking up this term a kind of vocal cry); 2. cool ideas (= cool is
in a dictionary is also of little use because used figuratively, since cool refers to a tem-
mammal is defined as 'any of various warm- perature condition); 3. hot book (= hot is used
blooded vertebrate animals of the class figuratively, since hot also refers to a tem-
Mammalia' - a definition which begs yet perature condition).
another question: What is an animal? The
dictionary defines an animal as an organism, meaning, literal
which it defines in another listing as 'an [< Latin LITTERA 'letter']
individual form of life,' which it defines [see also "meaning, figurative]
further as 'the property that distinguishes Primary meaning of a word or phrase.
living organisms.' Illustrations: I . She screamed when she saw that
At that point the dictionary has gone into horror film (= literal meaning); vs. She read
a loop, since we have come across an al- the screaming headlines (= figurative mean-
ready used word, organism, in our effort to ing). 2. She felt the cool breeze against her
derive a meaning for the word cat. Moreo- cheeks (= literal meaning); vs. Her friend has
ver, it would seem that there is no way out many cool ideas (= figurative meaning).
of this loop. Given such problems associ-
ated with determining the absolute meaning mechanical medium
of something, semioticians prefer the tech- [see *medium, mechanical]
nique of binary opposition (see *binary
feature) to flesh out what a sign means in medium
relation to other signs. This approach as- [< Latin MEDIUS 'middle']
sumes that the meaning of sign is something 1. any means, agency, or instrument of com-
that cannot be determined in the absolute, munication; 2. the physical means by which
142 medium, artifactual
a *sign or *text is ^encoded (put together) utterance of the word cat on TV (as in chil-
and through which it is transmitted (deliv- dren's learning programs) would activate
ered, actualized). the auditory and visual sense ratios in
Note: Before the advent of alphabets the tandem.
primary media for communicating were the Now, each medium implicates knowl-
oral-auditory and the pictographic ones. edge of specific kinds of "codes - if the sign
With the advent of the *alphabet, there oc- or text is transmitted through an auditory
curred a 'paradigm shift/ as the philosopher medium, then the ^phonemic code of a lan-
Thomas Kuhn (1922-96) called a radical guage must be known, otherwise interpreta-
change in social cognitive style, whereby the tion is impossible; if it is written on a piece
alphabetic medium became the primary of paper, then the *alphabetic code of the
form of encoding and disseminating knowl- language must be known; and so on. In
edge. Marshall *McLuhan appropriately effect, the medium determines which code
called the social world in which the use is to be deployed. It can even be said that
of printed texts became widespread the the physical characteristics of the medium
Gutenberg Galaxy, after the German printer will determine how one interprets the sign
Johan Gutenberg (1400?-68?), who is tradi- or text. This is probably what McLuhan
tionally considered the inventor of movable meant when he said 'the ^medium is the
type in the West. message.'
McLuhan pointed out that human beings
are endowed by Nature to process informa- medium, artifactual
tion with all the senses. Our sense ratios, as [< Latin MEDIUS 'middle']
he called them, are equally calibrated at Artifactual means or mode of encoding and
birth to receive meaningful information. decoding a message.
However, in social settings, it is unlikely Illustrations: 1. books; 2. paintings; 3. sculp-
that all senses will operate at the same ratio. tures; 4. letters.
One sense or the other increases according
to the representational modes and media medium, mechanical
employed. In an oral culture, the auditory [< Latin MEDIUS 'middle']
sense ratio dominates information processing Mechanical means or mode of transmitting
and message interpretation; in an alphabetic a message.
one, the visual sense ratio dominates. This Illustrations: I . telephones; 2. radios; 3. tel-
raising or lowering of a sense ratio is not evision sets; 4. computers; 5. videos.
preclusive. Indeed, in our own culture, we
can have various sense ratios activated in medium, natural
tandem. The ebb of ratios, up and down, in [< Latin MEDIUS 'middle']
tandem, in opposition, is what defines one's Natural means or mode of encoding and
cognitive style of information processing. For decoding a message.
example, if one were to hear the word cat
uttered by someone, the auditory sense ratio Illustrations: I . the voice (speech); 2. the face
would be the more operational one in (expressions); 3. the body (gesture, posture,
processing the meaning of the word. If, etc.).
however, one were to see the word written
on a sheet of paper, then the person's visual medium is the message
sense ratio would be the operational one. A [< Latin MEDIUS 'middle']
visual depiction of the cat together with the Marshall *McLuhan's famous statement
memoirs 143
referring to the fact that each *medium 2. in music, work in which a spoken text is
implicates knowledge of specific kinds of integrated with music.
*codes. Note: The melodrama traces its origins to the
Illustration: If the word cat is to be transmit- ancient Greek theater, but became popular
ted vocally, then the *phonemic code of a in the West only in the 18th century. By
language must be known; if it is transmitted extension, the term melodrama has come to
on a piece of paper, then the language's be applied to any play with a romantic plot
^alphabetic code must be known. In effect, in which the author manipulates events to
the medium determines which code is to be act on the emotions of the audience without
deployed, and thus the medium's physical regard for character development or logic.
characteristics will determine how one en- Also known as 'tearjerkers,' melodramas
codes and decodes a sign or text. today include television soap operas and
Note: A conversation, narrative, play, etc. can some made-for-TV movies.
be encoded in more than one medium - in an
auditory medium (e.g. an oral story), in an melody
alphabetic medium (e.g. a written novel), in [< Greek MELOIDIA 'singing choral song']
a multisensory medium (e.g. a movie), etc. In music, pleasing sounds that in combina-
It will thus be decoded according to the char- tion make a continuous phrase.
acteristics of the medium (or media) de- Note: Melodies are distinguished from one
ployed. So, for instance, the story of Romeo another by such traits as melodic contour,
and Juliet can be transmitted to someone range, and scale. For example, the opening
orally, activating the auditory sense ratio; it of the song Twinkle, twinkle, little star rises
can be encoded as a novel, activating the and falls in pitch (melodic contour), spans
visual sense ratio; it can be portrayed the interval of a major sixth (range), and
through cinema, activating several sensory consists of three tones based on a scale.
ratios in tandem; and so on. In this model, Melodies can be built by combining and
encoding can be defined simply as the use of varying motives (short recognizable groups
a code or codes to select or create a sign or of notes). Several motives can be combined
text according to the medium through in a melodic fragment, used as part of a
which the sign or text will be transmitted; larger composition. In European music since
decoding is the process of deciphering the the 1600s, *harmony created through chord
sign or text on the basis of the code or codes successions has provided the main scaffold-
used. ing for melody making.
megabyte meme
1. unit of computer storage capacity equal to [see also *sociobiology]
220 *bytes; 2. one million bytes. Term coined by sociobiologist Richard
Dawkins (1941-) in imitation of gene to refer
meiosis to the units of information and conceptual-
[see "litotes] ization (fashions, tunes, ideas, etc.) that are
acquired and transmitted in cultural set-
melodrama tings.
[< Greek MELOS 'song' + DRAN 'to do']
1. play, film, or television program, charac- memoirs
terized by exaggerated emotions, stereotypi- [see ^autobiography, "'biography]
cal characters, and interpersonal conflicts;
144 memoria
phorical idea - people are animals. Such for- phors, which fuse into a system of abstract
mulas are what George Lakoff and Mark thinking that holds together the entire net-
Johnson call conceptual metaphors in their work of associated meanings in the culture.
1980 book Metaphors We Live By. This is accomplished by a kind of 'higher-
Each of the two parts of the conceptual order' metaphorizing - that is, as target
metaphor is called a domain: people is called domains are associated with many kinds of
the target domain because it is the abstract source domains, they become increasingly
topic itself (the 'target' of the conceptual complex, leading to what Lakoff and
metaphor); and animals is called the source Johnson call cultural or cognitive models. For
domain because it is the class of vehicles that example, the target domain of ideas is con-
deliver the metaphor (the 'source' of the ceptualized as food (It is hard to digest
metaphorical concept). This suggests that those ideas all at once), geometrical figures
many abstract concepts are formed system- (That is a central idea in philosophy), and fash-
atically as conceptual metaphors and that ion (That idea went out of style a while ago).
specific metaphors (as they occur in conver- There are, of course, many other ways of
sations) are traces to the target and source conceptualizing ideas. Now, the relevant
domains. For example, in sentences such as point to be made here is that the constant
Those ideas are circular, I don't see the point of juxtaposition of such conceptual metaphors
your idea, Her ideas are central to the discus- in common discourse produces, cumula-
sion, Their ideas are diametrically opposite, etc., tively, a cultural model of ideas: ideas =food,
the target domain can be seen to be ideas geometrical figures, fashion,...
and the source domain geometrical figures.
The conceptual metaphor in this case is ideas metaphoric gesture
are geometrical figures. [< Greek META 'over' + THEREIN 'to bear']
Lakoff and Johnson showed meticulously Gesture accompanying discourse that de-
and persuasively how conceptual meta- picts the vehicle (concrete part) of a meta-
phors coalesce to form the backbone of phor being utilized in the discourse.
everyday thought and discourse. They trace Illustration: This type of gesture typically
the psychological source of conceptual accompanies expressions such as presenting
metaphors to *image schemas (mental im- an idea, putting forth an idea, offering advice,
pressions of sensory experiences of loca- whereby the speaker tends to raise up his/
tions, movements, shapes, etc.). These her hands as if offering his/her listener a
schemas permit us not only to recognize kind of object.
patterns within certain bodily sensations,
but also to anticipate certain consequences metaphorology
and to make inferences and deductions. [< Greek META 'over' + THEREIN 'to bear' +
Image-schema theory thus suggests that the LOGOS 'word, reckoning']
source domains enlisted in delivering an Branch of ^semiotics studying *metaphor
abstract topic were not chosen originally in and figurative language generally.
an arbitrary fashion, but derived from the
experience of events related to the concept. metaphysics
The formation of a conceptual metaphor, [< Greek META 'over' + PHUSIS 'nature']
therefore, is the result of an experiential Branch of philosophy dealing with the na-
*abduction. ture of reality, including the relationship
Work on conceptual metaphors since the between mind and matter. Metaphysics is
early 1980s has shown that cultural group- customarily divided into ontology, which
think is built on layers of conceptual meta- examines the question of how many entities
Metz, Christian 147
compose the universe, and metaphysics Theory or statement about ^theories, whose
proper, which is concerned with describing purpose it is to examine the nature of theo-
the most general traits of reality. ries and theorizing.
Note: The subjects treated by Greek philoso-
pher *Aristotle fixed the content of meta- meter
physical speculation for centuries. In the [< Greek METRON 'measure']
13th century, the scholastic philosopher St Measured arrangement of words in poetry,
Thomas *Aquinas declared that knowledge by accentual rhythm, syllabic quantity, or
of God was the aim of metaphysics. The the number of syllables in a line.
central figure in metaphysics, however,
was 18th-century German philosopher metonym, conceptual
Immanuel *Kant. Before Kant, metaphysics [< Greek META 'over' + ONOMA 'name]
was characterized by a rationalistic method Generalized metonymic formula that under-
of inquiry. The most famous rationalist was lies a specific type of abstraction.
French philosopher Rene ""Descartes, who Note: Sentences such as He's just another
maintained that the body and the mind pretty face. There are an awful lot of faces in the
were fundamentally different entities. Kant audience, and We need some new faces around
combined several metaphysical viewpoints, here are, clearly, not isolated examples of
developing a distinctive philosophy called *metonymy. Each one is really a particular
transcendentalism. He denied the possibility manifestation of the same metonymic idea -
of an accurate knowledge of ultimate reality, the face is the person.
because he saw all knowledge as limited by Such general formulas are conceptual
individual experiences. He maintained that metonyms that, like conceptual metaphors,
God, freedom, and human immortality are are interconnected to other domains of sig-
understood through moral faith rather than nification in a culture. The formula the face is
scientific knowledge. Some of Kant's most the person is the reason why portraits, in
distinguished followers included German painting and photography, focus on the
philosopher G.W.F. *Hegel and American face. The face is, in effect, a metonym for
philosopher John *Dewey. personality.
In the 20th century the validity of meta-
physical thinking has been disputed by metonymy
*analytic philosophers, who asserted that [< Greek META 'over' + ONOMA 'name]
expressions that cannot be tested empiri- [see also ^synecdoche]
cally have no factual meaning, and by Use of an entity to refer to another that is
^Marxist dialectical materialists, who as- related to it.
serted that the mind is conditioned by and Illustrations: 1. the White House for the Ameri-
reflects material reality. Existentialist phi- can presidency; 2. the brand Scotch tape for all
losophers, in contrast, contended that the adhesive tape; 3. strong bodies for strong people;
questions raised by metaphysics are too 4. set of wheels for automobile.
important to ignore, whether or not the
responses to them can be verified objec- Metz, Christian
tively. [1931-1993]
French cinema semiotician who applied the
metatheory notions of ""structuralism to the study of
[< Greek META 'over'; Greek THEORIA 'a look- cinema. Metz's meticulous work showed
ing at'] that a movie is really no more than a set of
148 mime
distinct units that, like the ^phonemes of a Similarly, in music a major and minor triad
language, combine to create meaning not in in the same key constitute a minimal pair
an absolute way, but through the relations because they are constructed with the same
they have to each other. tones except in the middle position.
mime minimalism
[< Greek MIMOS 'imitator, actor'] [< Latin MINIMUS 'least']
[see also ^pantomime] Movement in art, dance, music, etc., begin-
1. ancient Greek or Roman farce, in which ning in the 1960s, in which only the simplest
people and events were mimicked and design, structure, and forms are used, often
burlesqued; 2. representation of an action, repetitiously.
character, mood, etc. by means of gestures Illustration: Perhaps no other artist best
and actions rather than words. exemplifies minimalism than American
composer Philip Glass (1937-). Glass's mu-
mimesis sical works emphasize continual repetition
[< Greek MIMESIS 'imitation'] of rhythm with slight alterations in melodic
[also called mimicry] and harmonic pattern. His operas include
1. imitation in art, literature, or representa- Einstein on the Beach (1976), Sati/agraha
tion; 2. in biology, physical or behavioral (1980), Akhnaten (1984), The Voyage (1992),
resemblance of one species to another that and La Belle et la Bete (1994).
benefits the mimicking species or some-
times both. modality
Note: The species being mimicked is usually [< Latin MODUS 'measure, manner, mode']
one with traits that discourage predators. In *logic the qualification in a proposition
Mimicry was explained in 1862 by British which indicates that what is affirmed or
naturalist Henry Walter Bates, who found denied is possible, impossible, necessary, or
two similarly marked but unrelated families contingent.
of Brazilian butterflies, one of which was
poisonous to birds. Bates explained that the mode
non-poisonous butterflies had survived by [< Latin MODUS 'measure, manner, mode']
evolving similar warning markings. This is 1. manner or way of acting, doing, or being;
known as 'Batesian mimicry.' 2. customary usage, or current fashion or
style, as in manners or dress; 3. in philoso-
minimal pair phy the form, or way of being, of some-
[< Latin MINIMUS 'least'] thing, as distinct from its substance.
Two items that are the same except for one
element in the same position. model
Illustrations: In linguistics, the minimal pair [< Latin MODUS 'measure, manner, mode']
is used to determine if a sound is *phone- 1. small copy or imitation of an existing
mic, i.e. capable of distinguishing meaning object; 2. preliminary *representation of
in a language. For example, the two words something; 3. archetype.
pin and bin constitute a minimal pair be-
cause they are constructed with the same modeling system
sounds except in initial position. The differ- [< Latin MODUS 'measure, manner, mode';
ence in meaning that these two initial Greek SYSTEMA 'a placing together']
sounds generate is said to be phonemic. Species-specific system that allows a species
to make models of things in the world.
Morgan, Lewis Henry 149
contained art objects dedicated to the gods. nova developed. Composers used rhythmic
Before the year AD 1000 royal collections of patterns of a dozen or more notes, which
art objects were preserved in palaces and they repeated over and over in one or more
temples in China and Japan. voice parts of a composition. The technique
During the Middle Ages, European was known as ^counterpoint.
churches and monasteries became repositor- In the 15th century composers preferred a
ies for art works and other valuable objects. simple style of music with smoothly flow-
In the 16th century it became customary to ing melodies, smooth-sounding harmonies,
display sculpture and paintings in the long and less emphasis on contrapuntal composi-
halls, or galleries, of palaces and the resi- tion. Late in the 16th century developments
dences of the wealthy. Thus originated the in Italy changed the sound and structure of
use of the term gallery for a place where music. Many Italian musicians favored less-
works of art are hung or arranged for view- intricate compositions marked by frequent
ing. Museums as they are known today emotional contrasts, a readily understand-
were first established in Europe in the 18th able text, and an interplay of various voices
century. During the French Revolution, the and instruments. Such elements became
Louvre became the first great public art especially prominent in *opera. Instrumen-
museum. Since then, museums have been tal music became increasingly prominent
built to collect, preserve, study, and inter- during the 17th century, often in the form of
pret various objects a continuous contrapuntal composition. An
important 17th-century innovation, called
music, classical the concerto, changed the style of much late
[< Greek MOUSIKE 'musical (art)'] Renaissance music into one marked by
Western art form based on vocal or instru- numerous contrasting elements. By the 17th
mental tones put together on the basis of a and early 18th centuries composers started
system of melody, harmony, rhythm, and integrating counterpoint with harmonic
timbre. relationships into a new system called tonal-
Note: The earliest European music known is ity. This system was used masterfully by the
that of the ancient Greeks and Romans, great baroque composers, Henry Purcell
dating from about 500 BC to AD 300. The (16597-95), Antonio Vivaldi (16757-1741),
rhythm of Greek music was closely associ- Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), and
ated with language. In a song, the music George Frideric Handel (1685-1759). Begin-
duplicated the rhythms of the text. In an ning around 1720, some musicians found
instrumental piece, it followed the rhythmic baroque counterpoint too rigid and intellec-
patterns of the verse. The Romans carried tual. They developed a more homophonic
on the Greek musical traditions. In the Mid- style based on a dominant melody with
dle Ages, the Christian church did not en- accompaniment. The height of 18th-century
courage performances of secular music, homophonic composition came in the works
developing its own religious chant, known of the Viennese classical school, which was
as Gregorian chant, after Pope Gregory I. By dominated by Joseph Haydn (1732-1809),
the 9th century, musicians added an extra Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91), and
voice part to be sung simultaneously with Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827).
sections of the chant. This was the first step At the beginning of the romantic 19th
toward the development of 'polyphony century musicians, inspired by the innova-
(multipart music). During the early 14th tions of Beethoven, began to explore new
century a new polyphonic style called ars ways of composing. The romantic compos-
ers made increasing use of 'chromaticism, a
152 myth
harmonic style with a high proportion of sequencing of events to explain such phe-
tones outside the prevailing key. Prominent nomena in metaphysical terms. For exam-
romantic composers include Hector Berlioz ple, to explain climatological events, the
(1803-69) Franz Liszt (1811-86), Franz ancient Romans invented Neptune, the god
Schubert (1797-1828), Robert Schumann of the sea, and brother of Jupiter, the su-
(1810-56), Johannes Brahms (1833-97), preme god of the skies. Originally a god
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), Peter Ilich of springs and streams, Neptune became
Tchaikovsky (1840-93), and Frederic Chopin identified with the Greek god of the sea,
(1810-49). Poseidon. The myth of Neptune is a story
Individuality and personal expression in created to explain the interconnectedness of
music grew more pronounced in the 20th natural phenomena, thus giving a meta-
century. Chromaticism continued to be a physical coherence to the world.
prominent feature of harmony, and in the The study of myth has attracted great
first decade of the century, atonality, or the interest over the centuries. Italian philoso-
complete absence of tonality, was intro- pher Giambattista *Vico, for instance,
duced into the music by a few composers, claimed that myths are the founding stories
notably Austria's Arnold Schoenberg (1874- of a society. The gradual increase of control
1951). The other innovative harmonic styles humans had over their environment and the
in 20th-century music include polytonality, or increasing complexity of human institutions
the simultaneous use of more than one was reflected by the functions that new
tonality, and minimalism, the reduction of gods assumed. For Vico, myth was con-
melody to its basic harmonic elements. structed not on the basis of a rational logic
Prominent 20th-century classical composers but of what he called a poetic logic, a form of
include Richard Strauss (1864-1949), Sergei thinking based upon, and guided by, con-
Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), Sergei Prokofiev scious bodily experiences that were trans-
(1891-1953), Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-75), formed into generalized ideas. The course
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), and Phillip that humanity runs, according to Vico, goes
Glass (1937-). from an early mythical age, through a heroic
one, to a rationalistic one. Each age has its
myth own kind of culture, art, language, and
[< Greek MYTHOS 'word/ 'speech,' 'tale of the social institutions. The poetic mentality, for
gods'] instance, generated myths; the heroic one,
1. ancient story dealing with supernatural legends; and the rational one, narrative
beings, ancestors, or heroes; 2. any story or history.
narrative that aims to explain the origin of Because myth is a narrative, many at-
something in metaphysical ways. tempts to understand it have focused on
Note: The original myths were metaphorical its linguistic structure. German scholar
narratives in which the characters were Friedrich Max Miiller (1823-1900) viewed
gods, heroes, and mystical beings, the plot myth as an example of the historical devel-
was about the origin of things or about opment of language. He believed that in the
dramatic human events, and the setting was texts of ancient India the gods did not repre-
a metaphysical world juxtaposed against sent beings but, rather, were figurative
the real world. The divine characters in embodiments of natural phenomena. French
myths do not represent beings as such, but anthropologist Claude *Levi-Strauss saw
are attempts to seek a reason for the occur- myth as a special case of linguistic usage. In
rence of natural phenomena (thunder, light- myth, he claimed, there are certain clusters
ning, etc.). The plot of myths involves a of relationships that, although expressed in
mythologie 153
the narrative and dramatic content, obey the and awe of the world of Nature itself. Dur-
systematic order of the language's structure. ing the primitive stages of cultural life myth
British anthropologist Edward Burnett stands out as the primary mode by which
*Tylor believed that myth in archaic cultures communal sense making is established. Not
was based on a confusion of the real with possessing the knowledge to understand or
the ideal. French philosopher Lucien Levy- explain environmental events in scientific
Bruhl (1857-1939) held that people in ar- terms, the first humans ascribed them to
chaic cultures experience the world without awesome and frightful 'gods' or 'divine'
benefit of logical categories, gaining their creatures, thus producing humanity's first
knowledge of the world through mystical archetypes (literally, an original model of
participation in reality, and that this knowl- something). Out of these emerged the first
edge is expressed through myths. Roma- 'human dramas' with the first 'heroes.'
nian-born philosopher Mircea *Eliade
argued that myths are primitive linguistic mytheme
explanations of the nature of being. [< Greek MYTHOS 'word,' 'speech,' 'tale of the
Myth has also been explained as the ex- gods']
pression of psychic and moral tendencies in Anthropologist Claude *Levi-Strauss's term
humanity. French sociologist Emile *Durk- referring to a basic event, role, or theme that
heim claimed that myths constitute a moral goes into the make-up of a mythical story.
system and a cosmology as well as a history. Illustration: Cadmos kills the dragon and Oedi-
This conception of myth was shared by pus kills the sphinx are instantiations of the
British anthropologist Bronislaw *Malinow- same mytheme [X kills Y].
ski, who argued that myths can express and
codify belief while enforcing morality. Ger- mythologie
man philosopher Ernst *Cassirer argued [French for 'mythology']
that myth arises from the emotions but is Term used by semiotician Roland *Barthes
not identical with them. Instead, it is the referring to the fact that the original mythic
expression of the emotions. Austrian psy- themes continue to reverberate residually in
choanalyst Sigmund *Freud used themes modern-day societies, especially in dis-
from older mythological structures to exem- course, rituals, and performances.
plify the conflicts and dynamics of the un-
conscious psychic life. For example, Freud Note: To distinguish between the original
resorted to the myth of Oedipus to explain a myths and their modern-day versions, the
subconscious sexual desire in a child for the semiotician Roland Barthes (1915-80) desig-
parent of the opposite sex, usually accompa- nated the latter as mythologies. In early Hol-
nied by hostility to the parent of the same lywood westerns, for instance, the mythic
sex. In Greek mythology, Oedipus the king, theme of good vs. evil manifested itself in
abandoned at birth, unwittingly killed his various symbolic and expressive ways: e.g.
father and then married his mother. Swiss heroes wore white hats and villains black
psychiatrist Carl *Jung saw, in the mythic ones. Sports events, too, are mythological
themes, evidence for the existence of a col- dramas juxtaposing the good (the home
lective unconscious shared by all humanity. team, who often wear white uniforms) vs.
In a comprehensive study of myths, Ameri- the bad (the visiting team). The fanfare
can writer Joseph *Campbell formulated a associated with preparing for the 'big event'
general theory of the origin, development, has a ritualistic quality to it similar to the
and unity of all human cultures. Campbell pomp and circumstance that ancient armies
pointed out that many myths encode fear engaged in before going out to battle. In-
154 mythologizing effect
after the Greek god of beauty, etc. The resi- Zappa (1940-93), for instance, named his
dues of mythic thinking can also be seen in daughter Moon Unit and his son Dweezil.
the fact that we continue to read horoscopes A name has both *indexical and ^symbolic
or Fortune magazine, implore the gods to properties because, like a pronoun, it identi-
help us, and so on. fies the person and, usually, his/her ethnic
origin, and because, like any word, it is a
product of historical forces and thus tied to
N conventional systems of signification. Less
often, names are coined iconically (see
*icon): trivial but instructive examples of
name this can be seen in the names given to
[< Greek ONOMA 'name'] household animals - Ruff, Puny, etc.
Word that identifies a person, object, or Until the late Middle Ages, one personal
place. name was generally sufficient as an identi-
Note: Name-giving is a product of historical fier. Duplications, however, began to occur
traditions. Across cultures, a neonate is not so often that additional differentiations
considered a full-fledged member of the became a necessity. Hence, *surnames were
culture until she/he is given a name. The act given to individuals (literally 'names on top
of naming a newborn infant marks his/her of names'). These were at first either indexi-
first rite of passage in society, becoming cal, in that they identified the individual in
identified as a separate individual with a terms of place or parentage (descendancy),
unique personality. If a person is not given a or descriptive, in that they referred to some
name by his/her family, then society will personal or social feature (e.g. occupation)
step in to do so. A person taken into a fam- of the individual. [See surname article for
ily, by marriage, adoption, or for some other illustrations.]
reason, is also typically assigned the fami- Name giving is extended across cultures
ly's name. In Inuit cultures an individual is to inanimate referents. When this is done,
perceived to have a body, a soul, and a the objects somehow take on, as if by 'word
name; a person is not seen as complete magic/ an animate quality of their own. So,
without all three. The use of numerical when a name is given to a brand product or
identification for prisoners and slaves is, in a tropical storm, for instance, these seem to
effect, a negation of their humanity. take on an identity, a personality.
In some countries, like Brazil, a child
must be given an appropriate Christian narrative
name before she/he can be issued a birth [< Latin NARRARE 'to tell']
certificate. By and large, however, in West- [see also *novel]
ern culture, name giving is an unregulated Something told or written, such as an ac-
process. But even in the West, it is shaped count, story, tale.
by several customs and trends - e.g. modern Note: A narrative is a *text that is constructed
names often are derived from sources such to reflect a perceived causal and intercon-
as the names of the months (May), precious nected sequence of events involving charac-
stones (Ruby), popular contemporary per- ters. Actually, by their very nature, narra-
sonalities (Elvis, Marilyn), flowers (Blossom), tives may be said to establish a causality
places (Georgia), or figures in classical myth between people and their actions. The nar-
(Diana, Jason). New names are frequently rative sequence may be purely fact-based,
coined from variant spellings (JoEtta, as in a newspaper report, a psychoanalytic
Beverleigh), or even completely invented. session, etc., or fictional, as in a novel, a
The late rock musician and composer Frank comic strip, a film, etc. Needless to say, it is
156 narrative grammar
often difficult, if not impossible, to deter- example of fiction in the modern sense of
mine the boundary line between narrative the word - the telling of stories just for the
fact and fiction. sake of the telling. To escape an outbreak of
Narrative texts are characterized by four the plague, ten friends decide to take refuge
basic elements: plot, character, setting, and a in a country villa outside Florence. There
narrator. The plot is basically what the narra- they entertain one another over a period of
tive is all about, encompassing the sequence ten days with a series of stories told by each
of events to which the narrative draws at- member of the party in turn. Each day's
tention. Character is an account of the people storytelling ends with a canzone, a short
who are the perpetrators and/or partici- lyric poem. The Decameron is thus crafted
pants in the plot. The setting is the location from fictional stories, unfolding as a pen-
where, and the time when, the plot unfolds. etrating analysis of human character.
The teller of the story is called the narrator. Boccaccio gathered material from many
The narrator can be a character of the narra- sources for his book, including the French
tive, the author of the narrative, or some fables of his time, the Greek and Latin clas-
other person or medium. Each type of nar- sics, folklore, and contemporary Italian life.
rator provides a different perspective of the Narrative is textual representation, in-
story for the reader. The reader can thus feel volving a main text, subtexts, and intertexts.
a part of the narrative, looking at the action The term subtext designates any implicit
as if she/he were in it (looking from within); narrative within the text that is not immedi-
or aloof from it, looking at the action as if ately accessible to interpretation. A subtext
from the outside (lookingfrom without). is, in other words, a text within the main text.
There is evidence that fictional narrativity An intertext is a narrative to which a text
has ancient roots. In papyri from the 4th alludes by implication. It is a text from
Egyptian Dynasty, we read about how King without the main text. Subtextuality and
Cheops (2590-2567 BC) delighted in hearing intertextuality render narratives intercon-
fictional stories that his sons told him. The nected with other codes of the signifying
Greek statesman and general Aristides order and with the entire system of culture
(5307-468? BC), moreover, wrote a collection Understanding of the narrative, therefore, is
of what we would now call short stories dependent upon the reader's knowledge of
about his hometown, Miletus, to celebrate the culture's textual repository and net-
the victory over the Persians at Salamis. The work.
Golden Ass of Apuleius (AD 1257-200?) in
Latin, too, constituted a fictional narration narrative grammar
aimed at providing social and moral com- [< Latin NARRARE 'to tell'; GRAMMA 'letter']
mentary. But, by and large, the ancient [also called narrative structure]
world told tales of the gods, or of the foibles Theory that the categories of ^narrative
of human personages. These were hardly correspond to the categories of linguistic
perceived as fictional. Fiction became a *grammar.
standard narrative craft only after the Note: The serious study of narrative gram-
medieval ages, after the Italian Giovanni mar was initiated in semiotics after the
Boccaccio (1313-75) wrote the Decameron Russian scholar Vladimir Propp argued
(1351-3), a collection of 100 fictional tales persuasively in 1928 that ordinary discourse
set against the gloomy background of the was built upon this structure. According
Black Death - as the bubonic plague that to Propp, there exists a relatively small
swept through Europe in the 14th century number of 'narrative units/ or plot themes,
was called. The Decameron is the first real which go into the make-up of all conversa-
natural selection 157
thinker Roscelin. The most effective defense Fiction can be said to start in the West
of nominalism was undertaken by 14th- with the long verse tale, the prose romance,
century English scholastic philosopher and the Old French *fabliau in the medieval
William of Ockham (12857-1349?). This period, culminating with Giovanni Boccac-
prepared the way for various modern cio's (1313-75) Decameron. Advances were
nominalistic theories, such as 'pragmatism made in Spain during the 16th century with
and ^analytic philosophy. the so-called picaresque novel, in which the
protagonist is typically a vagabond who
nonverbal semiotics goes through a series of exciting adventures.
[see *semiotics, nonverbal] The classic example is the novel by Spanish
writer Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-
normative grammar 1616), Don Quixote de la Mancha (part 1,1605;
[see ^grammar] part II, 1615), which is considered the first
truly great novel of the Western world. The
Nostratic novel became the dominant and most popu-
[< Latin NOSTER 'ours'] lar form of narrative art in the 18th and 19th
Term used by linguists referring to the origi- centuries, as more and more writers were
nal language spoken by humans. devoting their lives to it. Novels became
more psychologically real, depicting and
noun often satirizing contemporary life and
[< Greek ONOMA 'name'] morals. During this same era, the novel
Word referring to a person, place, thing, spawned its own genres, including the di-
quality, or action that can function as the dactic novel, in which theories of education
subject or object of a verb, the object of a and politics were expressed, and the Gothic
preposition, or as an appositive. novel, in which the element of horror is
Illustrations: I . The cat purred profusely. 2. He created by making supernatural phenomena
called the professor yesterday. the main elements of plot, character, and
setting. The first Gothic novel was The Castle
novel ofOtranto (1764) by Horace Walpole (1717-
[< Italian NOVELLA 'new thing'] 97), but perhaps the most well-known
[see also *fiction] example is Frankenstein (1818) by Mary
Fictional prose ^narrative of considerable Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851). One
length, typically having a *plot that unfolds of the most enduring genres of the period
through the actions, speech, and thoughts of is the comedy of manners, which is concerned
^characters. with the clash between characters from
different social backgrounds. The novels of
Note: The British writer and literary critic Jane Austen (1775-1817) are considered by
Edmund Gosse (1849-1928) traced the novel many to be the unchallenged epidome of
as far back as Aristides (5307-468? BC), who the genre. French novelists Stendhal (1783-
wrote a story about his hometown, Miletus, 1842) and Honore de Balzac (1799-1850)
called the Milesiaka. Fictional narratives in used the novel form to attack hypocrisy. In
prose were composed throughout the an- America, Herman Melville (1819-91) wrote
cient world, but the novel as such is a medi- Moby Dick (1851), a great poetic narrative of
eval invention, even though in Japan the pursuit and obsession in the guise of a
Baroness Murasaki Shikibu (9787-1031?) whaling story. And in his comic masterpiece
wrote what many scholars regard as the The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884),
first real novel, The Tale ofGenji, in the llth Mark Twain (1835-1910) showed how ex-
century.
nursery rhyme 161
onomatopoeia opera
[< Greek ONOMA 'name' + POIEIN 'to make'] [< Latin OPUS 'a work, labor']
Coining of a word in imitation of the natu- Theatrical play having all or most of its *text
ral sound associated with the object or ac- set to *music and usually characterized by
tion to which it refers. elaborate costuming, scenery, and choreog-
Illustrations: 1. tinkle; 2. buzz; 3. bang; 4. boom; raphy.
5. swoosh; 6. flop. Note: Opera was developed in Italy in the
late 16th and early 17th centuries by a group
ontogenesis of musicians and scholars who called them-
[also called *ontogeny] selves the Camerata (Italian for 'salon'). The
Camerata had two chief goals: to revive the
ontogeny musical style used in ancient Greek drama
[< Greek ONT- 'being' + -GENY 'generation, and to develop an alternative to the highly
development'] contrapuntal music of the late Renaissance.
[see *phylogeny] Specifically, the Camerata musicians wanted
1. life cycle of a single organism; 2. biologi- composers to pay close attention to the texts
cal development of the individual during on which their music was based, and to
childhood. make the music reflect, phrase by phrase,
the meaning of the text. The Camerata de-
ontological schema veloped a style of vocal music called monody
[see *image schema] (Greek for 'solo song'), consisting of simple
melodic lines with contours and rhythms
ontology that followed the spoken inflections and
[< Greek ONTOS 'of being' + LOGOS 'word, rhythms of the language. Two members of
study'] the Camerata, Giulio Caccini and Jacopo
[see also *metaphysics] Peri, realized that monody could be used
Branch of metaphysics dealing with the for soliloquies and dialogues in a staged
nature of being, reality, or ultimate sub- drama. In 1597, Peri made use of this insight
stance. by writing the first true opera, Dafne.
The first composer of genius to apply
op art himself to opera was the Italian Claudio
school of abstract art characterized by the Monteverdi (1567-1643). His operas made
use of geometric shapes and brilliant colors use not only of the word-centered monodic
to create optical illusions. style but also of songs, duets, choruses, and
instrumental sections. Monteverdi thus
open work demonstrated that a wide variety of musical
Semiotician Umberto *Eco's notion of a *text procedures and styles could be used in
with (in theory) an unlimited range of opera to enhance the drama.
meanings. Shortly thereafter, opera spread quickly
Note: The open work, Eco claimed, requires throughout Italy. The principal Italian opera
a particular kind of reader, as distinct from center up to and including the 17th century
the *closed work, which often presupposes was Venice. The next most important were
an average reader. For instance, reading Rome and Naples. In this period a clear
James Joyce's (1882-1941) Finnegans Wake, differentiation was made between the aria
which is an open work, requires the type of (used for emotional reflection) and the
reader who can make up his/her own mind recitativo (used for plot information and
as to its meaning. dialogue). Baroque opera was characterized,
164 opera
above all else, by spectacle. The Venetian overture - the opening orchestral piece that
and Roman audiences loved lavish stage announces the principal melodic themes of
productions and spectacular visual effects, the opera, setting the mood for the entire
such as storms and descents of the gods performance.
from the heavens. Ballet was introduced Italian opera was, however, extremely
into the spectacle, not as an intrinsic compo- popular in England. But various English
nent of the opera but, typically, as simple composers of the era became well known
diversion between acts or parts. for their own brand of opera, the most fa-
Perhaps the most important Italian com- mous example being Dido and Aeneas by
poser of the baroque period was the Sicilian Henry Purcell (1659-95). By and large, the
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725), who made operas of English composers were an out-
virtuosic solo singing a key ingredient of the growth of the English courtly stage specta-
'whole show.' The recitativo-aria form be- cles, incorporating French and Italian
come standard throughout Italy. In order to elements, particularly the instrumental
advance the story line baroque composers writing of Lully and the emotional arias of
differentiated between two kinds of recita- the Italian composers.
tive: recitativo secco ('dry recitative'), which By the 18th century, opera had become a
was accompanied only by basso continue - a major art form throughout the world. But,
bass line played on chordal instruments as a consequence, the bulk of operas became
(harpsichord, organ, or lute), and sometimes rigidly formalized, consisting of little more
supported by a bass string instrument (cello than a series of spectacular arias based on a
or viola da gamba) - and recitativo da capo ('from the beginning') form. Singers
accompagnato ('accompanied recitative'), were valued more for their beautiful voices
which was used for tense situations and and virtuoso singing abilities than for their
accompanied by the entire orchestra. Ba- acting and musicality. Several composers in
roque composers also introduced the arioso, the 18th century tried to change matters, the
a form that combined aria-like melodic most notable being George Frideric Handel
snippets with the conversational rhythms of (1685-1759), a German-born, Italian-trained
a recitative. musician who did his major work in Eng-
Throughout the 17th century, the Italian land. He gave the da capo aria form greater
style, with its emphasis on tuneful, enter- flexibility and expressiveness, allowing for
taining music, had been established in most sharper delineation of character and more
parts of Europe. The only country where cogent dramatic development. In addition,
this did not happen was France. There, an his orchestral skills enhanced the instru-
Italian-born composer, Jean-Baptiste Lully mental texture of this ever-changing musi-
(1632-87), founded a French school of op- cal genre.
era. His patron was Louis XIV. Lully de- Other composers of the time helped de-
signed his operas to convey the pomp and velop different forms of the aria, making
splendor of the French court. He accom- greater use of choral and instrumental mu-
plished this primarily through massive, sic, and introducing a new type of opera,
slow-moving choral and instrumental epi- which came to be known under various
sodes. Lully also used ballet more promi- names - in England it was called ballad
nently than did Italian composers. His texts, opera, in France opera comique, in Germany
known as libretti - literally 'little books' - Singspiel, and in Italy opera buffa. This was
were based on classical French tragedies. lighter in style than the traditional opera
But perhaps Lully's greatest contribution seria ('serious opera'). Some of the dialogue
was the establishment of a standardized was spoken rather than sung, and the plots
opera 165
concerned ordinary people and places called music drama, in which the text (writ-
rather than mythological characters and ten by himself), score, and staging were all
settings. Comic operas emphasized natural- blended together. Wagner also perfected the
ness and acting skills, leading to a new technique of the leitmotif (he used the term
realism in opera generally. 'motif of memory'), a musical theme that
In Italy it was Giovanni Battista Pergolesi identifies a particular personage or idea and
(1710-36), born near Ancona, who excelled that recurs throughout the opera in the
at opera buffa style. His Serva padrona (1733), orchestra, often illuminating the action
now considered his masterpiece, gained psychologically. Both this technique and the
him universal fame and became a model for music-drama form are epitomized in his
comic operas generally. But the composer four-part Ring cycle of operas. With his
who transformed Italian opera buffa into a innovations, both in composition and stag-
'serious' art form Wolfgang Amadeus ing, Wagner exerted enormous influence on
Mozart (1756-91), who wrote his first opera, musicians of all countries for many years.
Lafinta semplice (1768), at the age of twelve. In Italy, romantic composers continued to
His three Italian-language masterpieces - Le place primary emphasis on the voice. Gio-
nozze di Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), acchino Rossini (1792-1868), who composed
and Cosifan tutte (1790) - display a genius mainly comic operas such as // Barbiere di
for musical characterization, and in Don Siviglia (1816) and La Cenerentola (1817),
Giovanni he created one of the first great entrenched the bel canto ('beautiful singing')
romantic roles - the Don himself. Mozart's style - characterized by smooth, expressive,
German-language Singspiels range from the and often spectacular singing - into opera.
purely comical, in The Abduction from the This style also flowered in the works of
Seraglio (1782), to the highly spiritual, in The Vincenzo Bellini (1801-35), especially in
Magic Flute (1791). Norma (1831), La Sonnambula (1831), and /
France, Germany, and Italy developed Puritani (1835), and in Gaetano Donizetti's
characteristic operatic styles during the 19th (1797-1848) works, especially Lucia di
century. In that century, Paris became the Lammermoor (1835), L'Elisir d'amore (1832),
center of grand opera - a lavish combination and Don Pasquale (1843). However, the com-
of stage spectacle, action, ballet, and music, poser who embodied romantic Italian opera
much of which was written by foreign com- more than anyone else was Giuseppe Verdi
posers who settled in France. The style (1813-1901), born near Parma. Verdi infused
reached its climax in the works of such Italian opera with dramatic emotionalism.
composers as Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791- His early masterpieces - Nabucco (1842),
1864), Hector Berlioz (1803-69), and Charles Ernani (1844), Rigoletto (1851), II Trovatore
Gounod (1818-93). German opera's first (1853), La Traviata (1853), Un Ballo in
great 19th-century work was Fidelia (1805) maschera (1859), and La Forza del destino
by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), a (1862) - have become staples of the reper-
dramatic Singspiel whose theme was the toire. His Aida (1871), with its visual
rescue of an unjustly held captive, a plot splendor and musical grandiosity, epito-
that became popular during the French mizes what opera is in the mind of most
Revolution. This was followed by Carl Ma- people today. In his last two operas, Otello
ria von Weber's (1786-1826) Der Freischiitz (1887) and Falstaff(l893), Verdi adapted the
(1821), with its famous supernatural 'Wolf's two Shakespearean plays to the operatic
Glen' scene. The summit of German roman- stage, emphasizing human passions in a
tic opera was reached, however, by Richard way that has rarely been surpassed.
Wagner (1813-83), who devised a new form With the staging of Carmen (1875), by the
166 operating system
French composer Georges Bizet (1838-75), Wozzeck (1925). In the United States, the in-
opera took on an even stronger realistic fluence of jazz and popular American music
thrust towards the late 19th century. Real- also asserted itself in masterpieces like
ism in Italian opera became known by the Porgy and Bess (1935) by George Gershwin
name verismo, from the Italian word for (1898-1937), Four Saints in Three Acts (1934)
'truth.' The two foremost examples of oper- and The Mother of Us All (1947) by Virgil
atic verismo were Cavalleria rusticana (1890) Thompson (1896-1989), and Regina (1949)
by Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) and by Marc Blitzstein (1905-64). The most
Pagliacci (1892) by Ruggero Leoncavallo popular American operas in the 20th cen-
(1858-1919). These are short, searing melo- tury, however, were penned by the Italian-
dramas about passion and murder in sun- born Gian-Carlo Menotti (1911-), who in
baked southern Italian villages; hence they 1958 founded the Festival of Two Worlds in
are often put together on the same operatic Spoleto, Italy; and in 1977 inaugurated an
bill. But the most important verista, the true American counterpart of the festival in
successor to Verdi, was Giacomo Puccini Charleston, South Carolina, which, begin-
(1858-1924), who composed such widely ning in 1994, became a separate festival.
known and eminently singable operas as Menotti's main operatic works, for which he
Manon Lescaut (1893), La Boheme (1896), Tosca also wrote the libretti were Amelia Goes to the
(1900), Madama Butterfly (1904), and the Ball (1936), The Telephone (1947), Amahl and
unfinished Turandot (produced posthu- the Night Visitors (1951) - the first opera
mously, 1926). The works of the German written specifically to be performed on
Richard Strauss (1864-1949), which grew television - and La Loca (1979).
out of the lush expressiveness of late roman- Today, opera continues to thrive, attract-
ticism, display rich tonalities, melodious ing large audiences. While there are cer-
vocal textures, and brilliant orchestral scor- tainly not as many opera composers as in
ing. Salome (1905) and Der Rosenkavalier previous eras, the operatic genre still pro-
(1911) are among his most celebrated vides an outlet for those who seek to ex-
works. press their musical creativity through the
Throughout the 20th century, operatic poetry of the human voice.
styles reflected national approaches. The
Russian Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) wrote operating system
the piquant Love for Three Oranges (1921) [< Latin OPUS 'a work, labor'; Greek SISTEMA
while traveling through the American West. 'a placing together']
Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-75), who fre- *Software program designed to control the
quently fell out of favor with the Soviet hardware of a computer in order to allow
government of the day for his musical inno- users to employ it easily.
vations, composed the well-known Lady
Macbeth ofMtsensk (1934), which was later opponent
revised with the title Katerina Ismailova [see *actant]
(1963).
Most 20th-century Italian opera remained opposition
relatively conservative, although some com- [< Latin OB 'toward' + PONERE 'to place']
posers followed radical 'atonal' approaches Process by which signs are differentiated
- as did, for example, Luigi Dallapiccola through a minimal change in their form.
(1904-75) in // prigionero (1950) and Luigi No- Illustrations: 1. The two words sip and rip
no (1924-90) in Intolleranza (1960). But atonal show a minimal opposition in their first
opera reached its peak in German composer sound, which is enough to differentiate
Alban Berg's (1885-1935) stark masterpiece, them. 2. The visual signs and < show a
painting, perspective 167
minimal opposition in their orientation, Note: Paintings have been traced back some
which is enough to differentiate them. 30,000 years: e.g. the vivid carvings of ani-
mals that covered the roofs and walls of
orientation caves like those at Lascaux in France and
[< Latin ORIENS 'rising'] Altamira in Spain. The human knack for
Body posture or position that conveys per- visual representation is innate. Research on
sonal and social meanings. children's drawings has shown that at about
Illustrations: 1. Standing up at the front of an the same time that children utter their first
audience is an orientation that is perceived words they also start scribbling and doo-
as more important than sitting down - dling. The act of drawing in childhood ap-
speeches, lectures, classes, musical perform- pears to be pleasurable in itself; usually
ances, etc. are oriented in this way. 2. Sitting identification of the drawn figures is pro-
behind a desk is an orientation that conveys vided, if at all, only after the child finishes
importance and superiority. drawing. Of course, shapes eventually sug-
gest 'things' to the child as his/her ability to
orientation schema use language develops, but in the begin-
[see "image schema] ning, pleasure and satisfaction occur with-
out larger or more explicit associations of
orthography meaning. This form of representational
[< Greek ORTHO 'straight' + GRAPHEIN 'to activity in childhood is truly an example of
write'] 'art for art's sake.'
1. spelling of words in accordance with
accepted usage; 2. study of writing systems. painting, perspective
[< Latin PER 'through' + SPECERE 'to look']
otherness Technique of representing three-dimen-
[see *alterity] sional objects and depth relationships on a
two-dimensional surface.
output hardware Illustration: The following figure has been
Hardware that transfers information to the drawn with straight lines drawn on a two-
user, such as video displays and printers. dimensional surface (the page). Yet, our
eyes have been conditioned to see it as a
oxymoron three-dimensional box. This is because our
[< Greek OXYMOROS 'acutely silly'] eyes have become accustomed to perspective
Figure of speech in which opposite or con- representation, the technique by which
tradictory ideas or terms are combined. three-dimensional space can be simulated
Illustrations: I. thunderous silence; 2. sweet on a two-dimensional surface:
sorrow; 3. jumbo shrimp.
p
painting
[see also *art]
1. art of applying paints to canvases, paper,
etc. in order to produce visual representa-
tions (scenes, portraits, etc.); 2. picture or
composition so produced.
168 Paleolithic art
evolutionary biology in the 19th century. ing an idea; 2. diagram of an object convey-
Physicalists view human consciousness as a ing an idea, information, etc.
product of evolutionary processes. Even s: 1. **.^ 1 footprints;
human rituals and peculiar behaviors such
as kissing and flirting, for instance, are ex- 2 2. |jj^ = w
plained as modern-day reflexes of animal
mechanisms. pictoreme
[< Latin PICTURA 'drawing']
phytosemiosis Minimal unit of visual representation (a line
[< Greek PHYTON 'plant' + SEMEION 'sign'] or shape). Pictoremes can be straight, round,
*Semiosis (sign processes) in plants. curved, etc. and used in various combina-
Illustrations: I . pollination; 2. budding. tions to make up all kinds of recognizable
forms.
phytosemiotics Illustrations: The circle and line are two
[< Greek PHYTON 'plant' + SEMEION 'sign'] kinds of pictoremes that can be conjoined in
Branch of *semiotics studying *semiosis in several ways to create figures of different
plants. kinds.
1. dumbbells 2. eyeglasses
Piaget, Jean
[1896-1980]
Swiss psychologist, best known for his work
on the development of mental skills in chil-
dren. Piaget divided human development
picture plane
into four stages: 1. the sensorimotor stage,
[see ^painting, perspective]
which lasts up to age 2, is marked by the
gaining of motor control and learning about
pidgin
physical objects; 2. the preoperational stage,
[see also *creole]
from ages 2 to 7, is characterized by the
Language that results from contact with a
development of verbal skills; 3. the concrete
dominant language, adapting and simplify-
operational stage, from 7 to 12, is distin-
ing its forms.
guished by the emergence of highly abstract
concepts; 4. the/orma/ operational stage, from Note: Pidgins have a much smaller vocabu-
12 to 15, is marked by the advent of the lary (often 700 to 2000 words) and fewer
ability to reason logically and systemati- grammar categories than the dominant
cally. language. Pidgins develop when people
who speak different languages are brought
picaresque novel together and required to develop a common
[see *novel] means of communication without having
sufficient time to learn each other's native
pictogram languages.
[see *pictograph]
Plato
pictograph [c. 428-347 BC]
[< Latin PICTURA 'drawing' + GRAPHE 'draw- One of the most famous philosophers of all
ing'] time, Plato was the first to use the term
1. picture or picture-like symbol represent- philosophy, meaning 'love of wisdom.' Chief
among his ideas was the Doctrine of Forms
176 Platonic forms
(see *Platonic Forms), by which he proposed shadows on the wall for reality. Only the
that objects in the physical world merely person with the opportunity to escape from
resemble perfect forms innate in the mind. the cave - the true philosopher - had the
Plato soundly rejected the claim that knowl- perspicacity to see the real world outside.
edge is derived from sense experience. True The shadowy environment of the cave sym-
knowledge, he claimed, is attained through bolizes the realm of physical appearances.
the use of reason. This contrasts with the perfect world of
Plato wrote his books in dialogue form, ideas outside.
with *Socrates as a central participant, so
that ideas could be discussed and criticized play
through imaginary conversation or debate. [see *drama]
His writings include the Republic, the Apol-
ogy (Socrates' defense of himself at his trial plot
against the charges of atheism and corrupt- [Old English for 'piece of land']
ing Athenian youth), Phaedo (the death 1. unfolding of events in a "narrative;
scene of Socrates, in which he discusses the 2. main story of a piece of writing (novel,
Doctrine of Forms), and the Symposium. play, etc.)
Plato's ideas have had a crucial role in the Note: The plot of a novel is what happens to
development of modern ideas and science. whom, how it happens, when it happens,
etc.
Platonic forms
*Plato's view that patterns of thought ex- Plotinus
isted on two levels: one inhabited by invis- [AD 205-270]
ible ideas or forms, and another by concrete Egyptian-born Roman philosopher who
familiar objects. The latter are imperfect believed that art reveals the form of an ob-
copies of the ideas because they are always ject more precisely than ordinary experience
in a state of flux. does, thus raising the mind to a mystic con-
Note: Plato rejected any philosophy that templation of the universal forms of exist-
claimed to explain knowledge on the basis ence. Plotinus's works include 54 treatises in
of sensory experience. For Plato true knowl- Greek, called the Enneads.
edge was attained by reasoning about Ideal
Forms. A circle, for instance, is an Ideal Form poem
that no one has ever seen in Nature. What [< Greek POIEIN 'to make']
people actually see are approximations of Arrangement of words written or spoken in
the ideal circle. When geometers define a Verse form, expressing experiences, ideas,
circle as a series of points equidistant from a or emotions in a style more concentrated,
given point, they are referring, in effect, to imaginative, and powerful than that of
logical ideas, not actual points. 'Circularity' ordinary speech or *prose.
is an innate mental Form that has greater
reality than do circular objects. An object poetic function
existing in the physical world may be called [< Greek POIEIN 'to make']
a 'circle' insofar as it resembles the Form In Roman *Jakobson's model of communi-
'circularity.' cation, tailoring a message to deliver mean-
ings effectively.
Plato's Cave Illustrations: 1. Roses are red, violets are blue,
In his Republic, *Plato portrayed humanity and how's it going with you? 2. He likes bikes.
as imprisoned in a cave where it mistook
pointillism 177
Illustration: The best examples of pointillist Illustration: The word play is polysemous
style can be seen in the works of the post- because it has distinct meanings: e.g. 1. to
impressionist Georges Seurat (1859-91) and occupy oneself in amusement, sport, or
his followers in late 19th-century France. other recreation (playing with toys); 2. to take
part in a game (No minors are eligible to play);
political map 3. to act in jest or sport (They're not serious
[see *map] about it, they're just playing); 4. a dramatic
production (That was a great play we saw the
Polo, Marco other night); 5. to perform on an instrument
[c. 1254-1324] (Can you play Beethoven's piano sonatas?); 6. to
Italian adventurer who became fascinated be received or accepted (That was a speech
by the customs of the peoples he met on his that played poorly with the voters); 7. to unfold
travels through China and other parts of (Let's see how it plays out).
Asia. His chronicles of his voyages provided
medieval Europeans with a wide range of polytonality
information about the cultures of the Far [<Greek POLY 'many' + TONOS 'a stretching']
East. To this day, his diary remains perhaps Simultaneous use of two or more *tonalities
the most famous and influential travel book in a musical composition.
in history. With a wealth of vivid detail,
Marco Polo gave medieval Europe its first pop art
glimpse into the culture of the Eastern [abbreviation of popular art]
world. His work also became the source for Visual-art movement that began in the
some of the first maps of Asia made in Eu- 1950s, principally in the United States and
rope. And it helped to arouse in Christopher Great Britain, whereby scenes and objects
Columbus (1451-1506) an interest in the from mass culture were represented in
Orient that culminated in 1492 with his painting or sculpture, sometimes with ac-
exploration of America, while attempting to tual objects incorporated into the artwork.
reach the Far East by sailing due west from Note: This movement began as a reaction
Europe, as Polo had suggested. The all-sea against the abstract art style of the 1940s
route from Europe to the Far East around and 1950s. Pop artists sought to depict eve-
Africa outlined in Polo's book was verified ryday life and to provide an impersonal and
by the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama immediate perception of reality. Pop-art
(14607-1524) in 1497-8. practice was expanded in the 1960s to in-
clude brand-name commercial products,
polychrome fast-food items, and comic-strip frames in
[< Greek POLY 'many' + CHROMA 'color'] art displays and forms. Several pop artists
Made or decorated in various colors. produced happenings, or theatrical events
staged as art objects. Perhaps the best-
polyphony known exponent of pop art was the Ameri-
[< Greek POLY 'many' + PHONE 'voice, sound'] can artist Andy Warhol (1928-87).
Music with two or more independent *me-
lodic parts sounded together. pop culture
[abbreviation of popular culture]
polysemy Form of culture, characteristic of 20th-cen-
[< Greek POLY 'many' + SEMA 'signs'] tury technological societies, that emphasizes
Process by which a *sign bears multiple the trivial and the routine in its artistic and
meanings.
pose 179
various other forms of representation. Pop monks, were first produced in the Nara
culture includes television programs, adver- period (AD 710-84). Portraiture has also
tising, comic books, popular music (rock n' played a significant role in African and
roll, hip hop, etc.), fashion, and the like. Native American cultures. The stone heads
by the Maya, for example, display powerful
Popper's Worlds 1,2,3 images of individuality. Throughout the
Interconnectionist model of the relation region of Oceania, representation of the
between the brain (World 1), thought human form plays a large role in art. In that
(World 2), and culture (World 3) put for- society, skulls are remolded with the origi-
ward by the philosopher Karl Popper nal facial features of an ancestor and are
(1902-94). used for commemoration and consultation.
Note: Popper classified human experience Early Christian art, from the 3rd to the 7th
into three 'worlds.' 'World 1' is the experi- century AD, included mosaic and sculpted
ence of physical objects and states as proc- portraits of the deceased. Medieval gospel
essed by neuronal synapses - electrical books often contained flat, sometimes for-
impulses between brain cells - transmitting mulaic, portraits of the gospel authors.
messages along nerve paths that cause mus- During the Renaissance, artists made por-
cles to contract or limbs to move, and sen- trait busts of those who commissioned
sory systems to respond to perceptual input. them. The first self-portraits in Western art
'World 2' is the domain of subjective experi- developed during this period, when artists
ences related to these messages. This is the started depicting their own faces. During
level at which the concept of self emerges, the 17th and 18th centuries, portrait art
and where perception, planning, remember- became even more important. Many of
ing, dreaming, and imagining shape the those who had their portraits made did so
individual's experience. 'World 3' is the to put on display their power and wealth,
domain of culture-specific knowledge that and to assert authority. In the 19th century,
mediates the individual's worldview. romantic artists painted portraits of moody
subjects. Early in the 20th century, many
portrait painters made psychological studies of
[< Latin PROTRAHERE 'to draw forth'] subjects through portraiture. But portrait
Artistic or photographic depiction of a per- production declined in the middle of the
son, focusing on the face. 20th century, a result of the increasing inter-
est in abstraction and non-representational
Note: The first portraits, dating from about art. Early photographic portraits at the turn
3100 BC in Egypt, were stone carvings of of the 20th century were stilted and formal,
pharaohs seated in rigid poses, conveying requiring long, laborious sittings, but as
eternal authority. Later portraits were more technology advanced, photographers
naturalistic. The earliest Greek portrait started to experiment creatively with photo-
busts, dating from the 5th century BC, are graphic portraiture to explore personality
vivid and lifelike, although they were fre- through the many expressions and moods
quently idealized. Roman sculptors cap- of the human face.
tured the individuality of their subjects with
great skill. In China portraits are found as pose
early as the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220). [< Latin PAUSARE 'to place, put']
The Chinese artists used clothing and pose Bodily position that conveys something
to convey the subject's character. Japanese about the person's mood, attitude, social
portraits, mainly commemorating Buddhist class, etc.
180 positioning
Illustrations: 1. the ir- in irregular; 2. the un- phrase in a melody without destroying the
in unhappy; 3. the re- in replay; 4. the pre- in sense of the melody.
preview.
presupposition
premise [< Latin PRAE 'before' + SUB 'under' + POSITUS
[< Latin PRAE 'before' + MITTERE 'to send'] 'placed']
[see also ^syllogism] Process whereby a proposition or something
Proposition upon which an argument is uttered is based on certain presumed pre-
based or from which a conclusion is drawn. mises or assumptions.
Premises are classified as major (general)
and minor (specific). primary modeling system
Illustration: All living things are mortal (major [see ^modeling system]
premise); my cat is a living thing (minor
premise); therefore, my cat is mortal (conclu- primate studies
sion). [< Latin PRIMUS 'first']
1. studies of primate behavior and commu-
preoperational stage nication; 2. studies aiming to determine if
[see Jean *Piaget] primates are capable of human language.
Note: Many of the primate experiments have
preposition been motivated by the proposition that
[< Latin PRAE 'before' + POSITUS 'placed'] interspecies communication is a realizable
Word placed before a noun, noun phrase, or goal. Although there have been reports of
substantive, indicating its relation to a verb, some symbolic activity, of some comprehen-
an adjective, or another noun. sion of humor, and of some control of sen-
Illustrations: I. I'm going with you. 2. She's tence structure, the primate experiments
coming in the morning. have not established the capacity for lan-
guage and for advanced symbolism in
prescriptive grammar primates.
[see ^grammar] Since gorillas and chimpanzees are inca-
pable of speech because they lack the requi-
presentational form site vocal organs, the first experimenters
[< Latin PRAE 'before' + ESSE 'to be'] chose American Sign Language (ASL) as the
Term used by philosopher Susanne *Langer code for teaching them human language.
referring to the form of an artwork that One of the first subjects was a female chim-
conveys meaning through feeling. panzee named Washoe whose training
by a husband-and-wife team named the
Note: Langer distinguished between the Gardners began in 1966 when she was al-
^discursive symbols used in conventional most one year old. Remarkably, Washoe
language and the presentational ones used learned to use 132 ASL signs in just over
in various art forms. Discursive forms have four years. What appeared to be even more
the property of detachment: e.g. one can remarkable was that she began to put signs
focus on a word in a sentence or a phrase together to express a small set of relations.
without impairing the overall understand- Inspired by the results obtained by the
ing of the sentence or phrase. In contrast, Gardners, others embarked upon an inten-
presentational forms cannot be broken up sive research program throughout the 1970s
into their elements without impairing the and most of the 1980s aimed at expand-
meaning: e.g. one cannot focus on a note or ing upon their teaching procedures. The
184 private space
Proto-Indo-European prototype
[abbreviated to PIE] [see *concept, basic]
Language reconstructed by linguists, con-
sidered to be the original language from proverb
which the modern Indo-European lan- [< Latin PRO '(put) forth' + VERBUM 'word']
guages sprang. Short, traditional saying that expresses
Note: The work on PIE has remained the some obvious truth or familiar experience.
most useful for theories of language origins, Illustrations: Proverbs are used cross-cultur-
for the simple reason that knowledge about ally to provide practical advice when it is
this protolanguage is detailed and exten- required in certain situations: e.g. You've got
sive. Already in the 19th century, linguists too many fires burning (= advice to not do so
had a pretty good idea both of what PIE many things at once); Rome wasn't built in a
sounded like and of what kind of vocabu- day (= advice to have patience); Don't count
lary it had. PIE had words for animals, your chickens before they're hatched (= advice
plants, parts of the body, tools, weapons, to be cautious); An eye for an eye and a tooth
and various abstract notions. It is this stock for a tooth (= equal treatment is required in
of reconstructed lexical items that has revenge of a wrong). Every culture has such
helped contemporary linguists paint a fairly proverbs. They constitute a code of ethics
good picture of the semantic range of one of and of practical knowledge that anthropolo-
the first vocabularies utilized by human gists call 'folk wisdom.' Most proverbs are
beings. rooted in folklore and preserved by oral and
The reconstruction is carried out by written traditions.
comparing the forms of the modern-day
descendants and then deducing the proto- proxeme
forms from which they evolved. For exam- [< Latin PROXIMUS 'nearest']
ple, the words for 'father' in classical Greek, [see also *proxemic code]
Sanskrit, and Latin show a /p/ in initial Minimal unit of socially determined space
position - pater, piter, and pater respectively maintained by people when interacting.
-but /f/ in Old Gothic (fadar). Linguists Illustrations; I. A distance of under 18 inches
thus hypothesized that the original form between two people is perceived to be an
must have had a /p/ and was pronounced 'intimate proxeme.' 2. A distance of 12 ft.
more or less like the ancient Greek word. and beyond between two people is per-
The reconstructed forms are, in effect, best- ceived instead to be a 'public proxeme.'
guess abstract formulas, summarizing the
sets of correspondences that are noted proxemic code
among related languages. [< Latin PROXIMUS 'nearest']
Social *code regulating how people main-
protolanguage tain spaces between each other when inter-
[< Greek PROTOS 'first'; Latin LINGUA 'tongue'] acting, and how they orient their bodies in
Language reconstructed by linguists, con- social situations.
sidered to be the progenitor of a group or
family of languages. Protolanguages are Illustrations: Anthropologist Edward T. *Hall
186 proxemics
was among the first to investigate the pat- non-involving and non-threatening by most
terns and dimensions of the zones people individuals. Its close phase (4-7 ft.) is typi-
establish and maintain between each other cal of impersonal transactions and casual
when interacting in social situations. He social gatherings. Formal social discourse
noted that these could be measured very and transactions are characteristic of the far
accurately, allowing for predictable statisti- phase (7-12 ft.). This is the minimum dis-
cal variation, and that the boundary dimen- tance at which one could go about one's
sions varied from culture to culture. In business without seeming rude to others.
North American culture, Hall found that a Finally, the public zone (12 ft. and be-
distance of under 6 inches between two yond) is the distance that permits one to
people was perceived as an 'intimate' dis- take either evasive or defensive action if
tance, while one of 1.5 to 4 feet was the physically threatened. Hall notes that
minimum perceived 'safe' distance. A people tend to keep at this distance from
stranger intruding upon the limits set by important public figures or from anyone
this boundary causes considerable discom- participating at a public function. Discourse
fort. If the 'safe' distance is breached by at this distance will be highly structured
some acquaintance, on the other hand, it and formalized (lectures, speeches, etc.).
would be interpreted as a sexual or aggres-
sive advance. proxemics
More specifically, Hall identified four [< Latin PROXIMUS 'nearest']
types of culturally elaborated zones, called Term coined by anthropologist Edward T.
*proxemes: intimate, personal, social, and *Hall in reference to the systematic study of
public. He further subdivided these into 'far' the cultural, behavioral, and sociological
and 'close' phases. At intimate distance aspects of spatial distances between indi-
(0-18 in.), all the senses are activated and viduals.
the presence of the other person or persons
is unmistakable. The close phase (0-6 in.) is pseudonym
an emotionally-charged zone reserved for [< Greek PSEUDES 'false' + ONOMA 'name']
lovemaking, comforting, and protecting; the [also called pen name]
far phase (6-18 in.) is the distance where Fictitious name assumed by an author.
family members and close friends interact. Illustrations: 1. Mark Twain (= pseudonym of
Touch is frequent at both phases of intimate Samuel Clemens). 2. Lewis Carroll ( = pseudo-
distance. nym of Charles Dodgson).
The personal zone (1.5^1 ft.) is the mini-
mum comfortable distance between non- psychoanalysis
touching individuals. In the close phase [< Greek PSYCHE 'breath, spirit, soul' + ANA
(1.5-2.5 ft.), one can grasp the other by ex- 'throughout' + LYSIS 'a loosing']
tending the arms. The far phase (2.5-4 ft.) is 1. field studying so-called ^unconscious
set as anywhere from one arm's length to mental processes; 2. method, developed by
the distance required for both individuals to Sigmund *Freud, of treating neuroses, based
touch hands. Beyond this distance the two on the assumption that mental disorders are
must move to make contact (e.g. to shake the result of the rejection by the conscious
hands). In essence, this zone is reserved for mind of factors that persist in the uncon-
informal contact between friends. It consti- scious.
tutes a small protective space that separates
the Self from the Other. Note: Freud believed behavior to be deter-
The social distance (4-12 ft.) is considered mined by sexual drives (the *libido). Carl
*Jung rejected Freud's view as too narrow,
psychology 187
feeling that the libido is a composite of all crucial in organizing people's experience of
creative instincts and impulses. According the world. Hobbes and Locke, by contrast,
to Jung, the unconscious is composed of two stressed the role of experience as the source
parts: the personal unconscious, the repository of human knowledge.
of the individual's entire life experiences; The field that contributed most to the
and the collective unconscious, the repository development of scientific psychology was
of the experiences of the human race. In the physiology - the study of the functions of the
collective unconscious exist a number of various organ systems of the body. The first
primordial ^archetypes common to all indi- true experimental psychologists were Ger-
viduals of a given culture or period. These man physicist Gustav Theodor Fechner
primitive images and modes of though tend (1801-87) and German physiologist
to personify natural processes and human Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), inspired by
traits in symbolic and mythic terms. the ideas of Hermann *Helmholtz (1821-94).
Crucial to modern psychoanalytic theory Wundt founded in 1879 the first laboratory
and practice is the concept of anxiety, which of experimental psychology in Leipzig,
actuates the defense mechanisms against training students in this new science. Physi-
certain danger situations. Freud described cians who became concerned with mental
these situations as the fear of abandonment illness also contributed to the development
by, or the loss of, the loved one (the object), of modern psychological theories. The Aus-
the risk of losing the object's love, the dan- trian Sigmund *Freud, who devised the
ger of retaliation and punishment, and the system of investigation and treatment
hazard of reproach by one's own con- known as ^psychoanalysis, subsequently
science. called attention to instinctual drives and
unconscious motivational processes that
psycholinguistics determine people's behavior.
[< Greek PSYCHE 'spirit, mind' + Latin LINGUA In the United States, psychology was
'tongue'] influenced greatly by a strong practical
Branch of linguistics concerned with such orientation. American psychologists from
topics as language acquisition by children, about 1920 to 1960 showed little concern
speech perception, aphasia, and others that with mental processes, focusing their atten-
involve psychological aspects of language. tion instead on behavior itself, in a move-
ment known as ^behaviorism, which
psychology distinguished between two major kinds of
[< Greek PSYCHE 'spirit, mind' + LOGOS 'word, learning: classical conditioning and instrumen-
reasoning'] tal learning. Classical conditioning was dis-
Field studying human thinking, behavior, covered by Russian physiologist Ivan
experience, development, and learning. *Pavlov, who showed that animals could be
Note: The science of psychology developed trained, or conditioned, to respond to a
from many diverse sources, but its origins particular stimulus by associating that
as a science can be traced to ancient Greek stimulus with something already familiar to
philosophers such as *Plato and *Aristotle. them. For example, a dog was conditioned
The roots of modern psychological theory to salivate at the sound of a bell after repeat-
are found in the 17th-century ideas of edly being fed just after hearing the bell
French philosopher Rene *Descartes and ring. In instrumental learning, emphasis is
British philosophers Thomas *Hobbes and placed on what the animal does and what
John *Locke. Descartes maintained that outcomes follow its actions. In general, if
minds have certain inborn ideas that are some action is followed by a reward, the
188 psychology, evolutionary
action will be repeated the next time the public broadcasting service
animal is in the same situation. Since the [< Latin PUBLICUS, from POPLICUS 'of the
1970s, psychological research has tended to people']
focus on the role of cognition in human In the United States the Public Broadcasting
learning, and especially on the role of atten- Act of 1967 created a source of funding for
tion, perception, pattern recognition, and noncommercial television stations and re-
language in learning processes. sulted in the formation of the Public Broad-
casting Service (PBS). Stations affiliated
psychology, evolutionary with PBS need not adhere to any network
[< Greek PSYCHE 'spirit, mind' + LOGOS 'word, time frame and may schedule programs as
reasoning'; Latin EVOLUTIO 'an unfolding'] they wish. Public stations operate on con-
Contemporary school of psychology that is tributions from viewers, corporate gifts,
concerned with studying human behaviors foundation grants, and support from the
and symbolic phenomena in terms of evolu- Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Simi-
tionary theories. lar services exist in other countries.
Note: Taking their impetus from *socio-
biology, evolutionary psychologists attempt publicity
to explain human behaviors in terms of [< Latin PUBLICUS, from POPLICUS 'of the
evolutionary patterns by comparison with people']
primate behaviors. According to this per- Craft of disseminating any information that
spective, human rituals such as kissing and concerns a person, group, event, or product
flirting, for instance, are explained as mod- through public media.
ern-day reflexes of primate and early homi-
nid behaviors. Aggression in males is public relations
viewed as a residue of animal territoriality, [< Latin PUBLICUS, from POPLICUS 'of the
one of several mechanisms by which ani- people']
mals control access to critical resources. Activities and techniques used by organiza-
Males are described as competing for terri- tions and individuals to establish favorable
tories, either fighting actual battles or per- attitudes and responses in their behalf on
forming ritual combats as tests of their the part of the general public or of special
strength. Weaker males are portrayed as groups.
incapable of holding a territory or as being
forced to occupy less-desirable locations. public space
Accordingly, aggression in modern human [see *space, public]
males is seen as a reflex of this mechanism.
This kind of reasoning is extended to public zone
explaining all feelings, thoughts, urges, [see *zone, public]
artistic creations, etc., which are said to
result from the evolutionary processes pun
started by our hunter-gatherer ancestors. [< Italian PUNTIGLIO 'fine point']
Using population statistics, and making Word or words that sound alike, juxtapos-
correlations between selected sets of facts, ing, connecting, or bringing out two or more
evolutionary psychologists aim to show that of the possible applications of the word or
human traits of all kinds are inherited words. The word pun was first recorded in a
through the genetic code, not formed by work of 1662 written by English poet John
individual experiences in cultural contexts. Dryden (1631-1700).
radio 189
back into sounds or signals; 2. broadcasting its network stations. Radio broadcasting
by radiotelegraphy. reached the height of its influence and pres-
tige during the Second World War. carrying
radio broadcasting war news directly from the battlefront into
Broadcasting of radio programs, as an enter- the homes of millions of listeners through-
tainment and information industry. out the world.
Note: In 1837, the telegraph was patented,
establishing the first system of international radio-carbon technique
communications. However, telegraphic Technique used by archeologists to establish
communication was soon found to be ineffi- the age of objects, human remains, or the
cient because it depended on the building time sequence of activities found at a site.
and maintenance of a complex system of Note: The scientific basis of this technique is
receiving stations wired to each other along that plants, animals, and certain substances
a fixed route. In the latter half of the 1800s, contain fixed ratios of a radioactive form of
communications engineers in many coun- carbon, known as carbon-14. This deterio-
tries devised a system that could overcome rates at a constant rate, leaving ordinary
these limitations. In 1895, Guglielmo Mar- carbon. Measuring the traces of carbon in
coni (1874-1937) transmitted a message in pieces of charcoal, the remains of plants,
Morse code that was picked up about 3 km cotton fibers, wood, and so forth permits the
away by a receiving device that had no dating of substances to within approxi-
wired connection to his transmitting device, mately 50,000 years, although the method is
thus demonstrating that an electronic signal sometimes extended to 70,000 years. Uncer-
could be transmitted through space so that tainty in measurement increases with the
devices at random points could receive it. age of the sample.
The invention was called a radiotelegraph
(later shortened to radio}, because its signal RAM
moved outward in all directions, or radially, [acronym for random-access memory]
from the point of transmission. After the [see also "computer memory, *ROM]
First World War, the Westinghouse Electric Computer memory based on chips within
Corporation established what many histori- the computer containing information that
ans consider the first commercially owned can change as the computer functions. The
radio station to offer programming to the contents are held temporarily, not perma-
general public, known by the call letters nently, and can be read or inputted in any
KDKA. order.
Another early radio broadcaster was the
American Telephone and Telegraph Com- rapid fading
pany (AT&T) which, as early as 1922, began In communication theory, term referring to
exploring the possibilities of charging fees the fact that auditory signals are transitory
in return for airing commercial advertise- and do not await the hearer's convenience.
ments on its stations. In contrast, in Great
Britain, radio owners paid yearly license ratings
fees, collected by the government, which System for determining the popularity of a
were turned over directly to an independent radio or TV program, which arose from
state enterprise, the British Broadcasting sponsors' desire to know how many people
Corporation (BBC). The BBC produced they were reaching with their advertising.
news and entertainment programming for
rebus 191
rationalism reader
[< Latin RATIO 'reasoning'] [see also *author]
System of thought emphasizing the pivotal Person decoding or interpreting a text, espe-
role of reason in obtaining knowledge. It cially a literary text such as a novel, a play,
contrasts with ^empiricism, which empha- or a poem.
sizes instead the role of experience, espe- Note: Traditional literary analysis has fo-
cially sense perception. cused on how a reader can figure out what
Note: Rationalism is primarily identified the author of a work intended. In recent
with 17th-century French philosopher and critical approaches, however, the meaning
scientist Rene *Descartes, who believed that of a work is portrayed instead as a system
geometry represented the ideal for all sci- of connotations to which a reader responds
ences and philosophy. He suggested that in kind, according to his/er personal experi-
universal truths could be discovered by ences and the particular context (social,
reason alone, and that all knowledge could historical, psychological) in which the read-
be derived from these truths. ing occurs.
tional, and intellectual structures that under- refer to the sounds made by a rooster is cock-
gird both the production and interpretation a-doodle-do in English, but chicchirichi (pro-
of signs. In his Cours, Saussure used the nounced 'keekkeereekee') in Italian; the
term semiology to designate the field he word employed to refer to the barking of a
proposed for studying these structures. But dog is bow-wow in English, but ouaoua (pro-
while his term is still used somewhat today, nounced wawa) in French; etc. Saussure
the term semiotics is the preferred one. suggested that such onomatopoeic creations
Saussure emphasized that the study of signs were only approximate and more or less
should be divided into two branches - the conventional imitations of perceived
synchronic and the diachronic. The former sounds.
refers to the study of signs at a given point Many semioticians have begged to differ
in time, normally the present, and the latter with this specific part of Saussurean theory.
to the investigation of how signs change in What Saussure seems to have ignored is that
form and meaning over time. even those who do not speak English, Ital-
ian, or French will notice an attempt in all
Saussurean theory of the sign the above signifiers to imitate rooster or
Ferdinand de *Saussure's theory of the *sign canine sounds - an attempt constrained by
as consisting of a physical part, the signifier, the respective sound systems of the two
a conceptual part, the signified, and the rela- languages that are, in part, responsible for
tion that holds between the two, significa- the different phonic outcomes. Such at-
tion. Saussure considered signification to be tempts, in fact, probably went into the mak-
an arbitrary process that human beings ing of most words in a language, even
and/or societies establish at will. To make though people no longer consciously experi-
his point, he reasoned that there was no ence them as physical simulations of their
evident reason for using, say, tree or arbre referents - because time and constant usage
(French) to designate 'an arboreal plant.' have made people forget the connection
Indeed, any well-formed signifier could between signifier and signified.
have been used in either language - a well-
formed signifier is one that is consistent scenario
with the orthographic, phonological, or [Italian 'stage, scene']
other type of structure characteristic of the Outline or synopsis of the plot of a dramatic
code to which it appertains (tree is well or literary work.
formed in English; tbky is not). Saussure did
admit, however, that there were some in- schema
stances whereby the signifier was fashioned [< Greek SCHEMA 'form']
in imitation of the signified. Onomatopoeic [see also *image schema]
words (drip, plop, whack, etc.), he granted, 1. diagrammatic representation; 2. pattern
did indeed attempt to reflect the sound used to assist in explaining or mediating
properties that their referents are perceived perception.
to have. But Saussure maintained that this
was a relatively isolated and infrequent scholasticism
phenomenon. Moreover, the highly variable System of logic, philosophy, and theology of
nature of onomatopoeia across languages certain scholars from the 10th to the 15th
demonstrated to him that even this phe- century, based upon Aristotelian logic, the
nomenon was subject to arbitrary cultural writings of the early Christian fathers, and
perceptions. For instance, the word used to the authority of tradition and dogma.
science fiction 199
Note: The scholastics wanted to demon- The first writer to specialize in this new
strate the truth of existing religious beliefs genre was French author Jules Verne (1828-
through dialectical reasoning (asking hypo- 1905). His hugely popular novels include
thetical questions and providing plausible Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864) and
responses; see *dialectic). Their methods of Around the World in Eighty Days (1873). The
teaching helped to entrench the use of ra- first major English writer of science fiction
tional logic in the West as the only reliable was H.G. Wells (1866-1946), whose Time
way to discover truth. However, within this Machine (1895), The Island of Dr. Moreau
movement there were some - the so-called (1896), and The War of the Worlds (1898)
^nominalists - who maintained that truth became instant classics when they were
was a matter of subjective opinion. published. The mass-distribution magazines
The outstanding scholastics of the llth established in the 1890s also published
and 12th centuries included French philoso- many science-fiction stories, such as those
pher and theologian St Anselm (1033-1109), by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950).
and French philosopher and clergyman In the 20th century the popularity of
Roscelin, the founder of nominalism. The science fiction grew with the publication of
scholastics of the 13th century included Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley
Italian theologian and philosopher St Tho- (1894-1963) and Nineteen Eighty-four (1949)
mas * Aquinas, German philosopher St by George Orwell (1903-50). Beginning in
Albertus Magnus (12067-80), English monk the 1950s science fiction became enormously
and philosopher Roger Bacon (12147-92), popular in the United States. Widely known
Italian prelate and theologian St Bona- American writers in the genre are Robert
venture (12177-74), and Scottish theologian Heinlein (1907-88), Isaac Asimov (1920-92),
and philosopher John Duns *Scotus. Ray Bradbury (1920-), Philip K. Dick (1928-
82), and Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-). Begin-
science fiction ning in the mid-1960s a new concern for
Fiction genre of a highly imaginative or humanistic values emerged. Dubbed the
fantastic kind, typically dealing with the New Wave, the writings often focused on the
effects of science or future events on human near future. In the 1980s a style of science-
beings. fiction writing called cyberpunk arose to alert
Note: Although this genre has ancient roots - people to the dangers of incessant techno-
e.g. in his True History (AD 160) Lucian of logical and scientific innovation.
Samosata dealt with a trip to the moon, the In 1902 French filmmaker and magician
17th-century British prelate and historian Georges Melies made the first science-fic-
Francis Godwin also wrote of travel to the tion film, A Trip to the Moon. Early German
moon, and the English statesman Sir Tho- films such as Metropolis (1926) by Fritz Lang
mas More (1478-1535) wrote about a futur- (1890-1976), also dealt with science-fiction
istic world in Utopia (1516) - science fiction themes. Until the 1980s, unnatural creatures
as we now know it traces its origins to the became the primary theme of science-fiction
Industrial Revolution when, in her novel cinema in the United States, giving rise to a
Frankenstein (1818), the British novelist Mary subgenre commonly referred to as horror or
Shelley (1797-1851) explored the potential monster movies. Common themes of such
of science for good and evil. Right after motion pictures included the fallibility of
publication of the novel, the science-fiction scientists, the urgency of worldwide coop-
genre emerged as a new form of popular eration against invaders from outer space,
fiction. and the evil aspects of technology. Notable
200 Scotus, John Duns
personality of the baroque age. During the working in cognate disciplines, aptly com-
18th century, sculptors turned to the an- paring semiotics to a spider's web because
cients for inspiration, reviving classical it rarely fails to entrap scientists, educators,
techniques. In the 19th century, by contrast, and humanists into its intricate loom of
sculptors freed themselves from past mod- insights into human cognition and culture.
els, creating works designed to appeal to
the emotions. The towering figure of 19th- secondary modeling system
century sculpture - and the most important neural system that allows human beings to
sculptor since Bernini - was the French engage in verbal and indexical forms of
artist Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). His sculp- semiosis (speaking and pointing out things
tures reveal the inner life of the human in time and space).
being through the body's pose.
Much of the sculpture produced in the secondness
20th century differed radically in form and [see also *firstness; *thirdness]
content from that made in the past. In some Charles *Peirce's term referring to a second
instances, it explored the same radical tech- level of meaning derived from verbal proc-
niques as did painting. This is why move- esses. Secondness shows an ability to sepa-
ments in both media share the same names: rate sensory knowledge of an object from
e.g. *cubism, *dadaism, *minimalism, *sur- recognition of the object. It is the awareness
realism. Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), for of cause and effect.
instance, expressed his aesthetic nihilism by
selecting mass-produced objects, designat- secretive statements in advertising
ing them as sculpture, and calling them [see ^advertising, use of secretive statements
'ready-mades'; Man Ray (1890-1976) in]
sculpted a metronome with an oscillating
stem displaying a photograph of an eye; segmentation
Aristide Maillol (1861-1944) sculpted a [< Latin SEGMENTUM 'a piece']
female torso. The most eminent of all 20th- Decomposition of a verbal form or a phrase
century sculptors was, however, Henry into its minimal elements.
Moore (1898-1986), the British artist whose Illustration: The form illogical is one word,
works are characterized by smooth, organic but it is 'segmentable' into smaller bits that
forms. Many of his elegant, monumental also have meaning: namely, the basic form,
works are found outdoors, enhancing their logic, which has a dictionary meaning, the
modern urban architectural settings. Start- negative prefix H-, which has a recurring
ing in the 1980s, sculptors began moving functional meaning ('opposite of), and the
away from radical techniques, returning to a suffix -al, which also has a functional mean-
more realistic style of representation. ing ('the act or process of being something').
Sebeok, Thomas A. semantic differential
[1920-] [< Greek SEMA 'signs']
Leading American semiotician and linguist Experimental technique developed by three
famous for his work on animal communica- psychologists, C.E. Osgood, G.J. Suci, and
tion, sign theory, and the establishment of P.H. Tannenbaum, in their 1957 book The
the fields of *zoosemiotics and *biosemi- Measurement of Meaning, to assess the emo-
otics. Sebeok has been instrumental in tional connotations evoked by words or
showing the relevance of semiotics to those
202 semantic field
modern traditional
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
young old
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
attractive bland-looking
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
practical idealistic
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
friendly stern
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
semeiotics 203
between speakers and forms; and 3. the night-day, hot-cold, etc. But antonymy, like
syntactic relations that hold among words synonymy, is a matter of degree, rather than
and phrases. of categorical difference.
The pragmatic aspect of a word's mean- Another semantic relation is that of ho-
ing was studied formally by the British monymy. Homonyms are words or phrases
philosopher J.L. *Austin, who described with the same pronunciation and/or spell-
speaking in terms of acting, because it ap- ing, but with different meanings. If the ho-
peared to him that when a person states monymy is purely phonetic then the items
something she/he is, in effect, performing are known as homophones (e.g. aunt vs. ant
an act. The American philosopher John R. and bore vs. boar}. If the homonymy is
Searle extended Austin's ideas in the 1970s, graphic as well, then the words are known
emphasizing the need to relate the functions as homographs (play as in Shakespeare's play
of words or expressions to their social vs. play as in He likes to play). A fourth se-
context. Searle asserted that speech en- mantic relation is known as hyponymy. This
compasses at least three kinds of acts: is the relation by which the meaning of one
1. locutionary acts, in which things are said word or phrase is included in that of an-
with a certain sense or reference (as in The other: e.g. the meaning of scarlet is included
moon is a sphere); 2. illocutionary acts, in in the meaning of red.
which such acts as promising or command-
ing are performed by means of speaking semaphore
(Come here!); and 3. perlocutionary acts, in [< Greek SEMA 'mark, sign' + THEREIN 'to
which the speaker, by speaking, does some- carry']
thing to someone else, i.e. angers, consoles, Apparatus for signaling, such as traffic
persuades someone (/ understand you com- lights, flags, and mechanical arms on
pletely}. The speaker's intentions are con- railroads.
veyed by the locutionary force that is given
to the words - i.e. by the actions implicit in semasiology
what is said. To be successfully interpreted, [< Greek SEMA 'mark, sign' + LOGOS 'word,
however, the words must also be appropri- study']
ate, sincere, consistent with the speaker's Study of relationships between *signs and
general beliefs and conduct, and recogniz- *symbols and what they represent.
able as meaningful by the hearer.
There are several semantic relations that semeiotics
occur among words, phrases, and sentences. [< Greek SEMEION 'mark, sign']
First, there is that of synonymy. Synonyms Older spelling of ^semiotics.
are words, phrases, or sentences having the Note: This term was coined by 'Hippocrates
same or nearly the same meaning in one (460-377 BC), the founder of Western medi-
or more senses: e.g. near-close, far-distant, cal science, who established semeiotics as a
etc. Synonymy results from the fact that branch of medicine for the study of symp-
their complete set of semantic features toms - a symptom being, in effect, a semeion
(*sememes) are the same. However, there 'mark, sign' that stands for something other
virtually never is a case of pure synonymy by than itself. The same term was used also by
which the specifications of the two words, the physician *Galen of Pergamum. It was
as they occur in isolation or in a phrase, are introduced into philosophy by John *Locke
exactly the same. The opposite of synonymy in his Essay Concerning Human Understand-
is antonymy. Antonyms are words, phrases, ing (1690), and much later revived by
or sentences that are opposite in meaning: American philosopher Charles S. *Peirce as
204 sememe
the basis for circumscribing an autonomous sented in normal decimal notation by differ-
field of inquiry that he, like Locke, defined ent patterns among ten digits.
as the 'doctrine of signs.' The word doctrine The problem with this type of analysis,
was not used by Peirce in its religious sense, however, lies in determining what universal
but rather in its basic meaning of 'system of set of sememes, if such exists, can be estab-
principles.' lished. The difficulty has been to find a
small core of sememes that would suffice to
sememe keep most words in a language distinct. It
[< Greek SEMEION 'mark, sign'] would seem that human meaning is charac-
Minimal unit of meaning that goes into the terized by such a high degree of creativity
composition of the overall meaning of a and expansiveness that any attempt to pin it
word. down to a core set of features is a virtually
Illustration: This term is used equivalently impossible task.
for semantic feature. The words man, woman,
child, bull, cow, and calf, for instance, are kept semiology
distinct by specific sememes such as [hu- [< Greek SEMEION 'mark, sign' + LOGOS 'word,
man], [bovine], [adult], [nonadult], [male], study']
and [female]. These are the 'semantic ingre- [synonym for ^semiotics]
dients' that make up the meanings of these Ferdinand de Saussure's term for the sci-
words: ence of signs. Although the term is still used
by some (especially in Europe), the term
semiotics is now the preferred one.
man woman child bull cow calf
[human] semiosis
[bovine] [< Greek SEMEION 'mark, sign']
[adult]
Innate capacity that underlies the compre-
[nonadult]
[male] hension and production of *signs. Semiosis
[female] is an activity of the brain that controls the
production and comprehension of signs,
From the chart, which shows the presence from simple physiological signals to highly
(+), absence (-), or applicability () of a complex symbols.
sememe, we can see that it is possible to say
with precision what differentiates, say, man semiosphere
from woman or bull. Such charts pinpoint [< Greek SEMEION 'mark, sign' + SPHAIRA
exactly what feature or features trigger an 'sphere']
opposition in meaning between two forms. [see also *biosphere]
It is claimed that these features, \ikefactors Term used to refer to the level of life gov-
in arithmetical and algebraic expressions, erned by *semiosis rather than just by biol-
allow the human mind to keep certain signs ogy-
distinct by virtue of the fact that they enter Note: In the human world the semiosphere
with certain other signs into proportional consists not only of natural signs (like sig-
relations. By virtue of these relations a man- nals and symptoms), but also of the systems
ageable set of signs allows members of a of signs, texts, codes, etc. that humans have
society to represent economically an illimit- themselves made throughout their history
able array of meanings, in the same way in order to understand the world.
that an infinite set of numbers can be repre-
semiotics 205
governing the transmission, reception, and 250,000 are facial expressions. These are not
processing of information, whereas semiot- random actions or mere 'trimmings' to
ics pays more attention to what messages verbal discourse. They are bodily signs that
mean, and to how they create meaning. communicate meanings both in conjunction
A large part of the increase in the popu- with, and independently of, verbal mean-
larity of this field in the late 20th century ings, conforming to the structural properties
was brought about by the publication in of the nonverbal codes to which they apper-
1983 of a best-selling medieval detective tain. Nonverbal communication imbues
novel, The Name of the Rose, written by one social interaction with congruity and con-
of the most distinguished practitioners of sistency, so that it can be carried out rou-
semiotics, Umberto Eco. The American tinely and non-threateningly.
semiotician and linguist Thomas A. *Sebeok
has been instrumental in showing the rel- semiotics, verbal
evance of semiotics to those working in [< Greek SEMEION 'mark, sign']
cognate disciplines. Today, semiotics is a Semiotic study of ^language and *speech.
flourishing enterprise, with several well-
known organizational structures including semiotics, visual
the International Association of Semiotic [< Greek SEMEION 'mark, sign']
Study and various associations based in [see also ^semiotics]
specific countries (e.g. the Semiotic Society Study of visual *signs, visual *codes, and
of America, the Canadian Semiotic Associa- visual *representation generally.
tion, etc.). Note: Representing the world visually in-
volves transferring 'the seen' onto some
semiotics, applied surface. Virtually everything we see can be
[< Greek SEMEION 'mark, sign'] represented by a combination of lines and
[see also *semiotics] shapes: e.g. a cloud is a shape, a horizon is a
Use of semiotic theory to study and under- line. Other visual signifiers include value,
stand signifying human phenomena and/or color, and texture. Value refers to the dark-
human behavior. ness or lightness of a line or shape. It plays
an important role in portraying dark and
semiotics, cultural light contrasts. Color conveys mood, feel-
[< Greek SEMEION 'mark, sign'] ings, atmosphere. This is why we speak of
Branch of *semiotics studying culture and 'warm,' 'soft/ 'cold/ 'harsh' colors. Conno-
cultural behavior. tatively, color often has culture-specific
symbolic value: e.g. in our culture yellow
semiotics, nonverbal connotes cowardice, whereas in China it
[< Greek SEMEION 'mark, sign'] connotes royalty. Texture refers to the sensa-
Branch of ^semiotics studying *signs and tion of touch evoked imagistically when we
*codes based on the body: e.g. ^gesture, look at some surface.
*facial expression, *eye contact, etc.
Note: The study of nonverbal semiosis and Semiotic Solutions
representation has become a major branch [< Greek SEMEION 'mark, sign']
of semiotics because of its productivity in Research-based consultancy agency found-
human social life. It is estimated that hu- ed in London by Virginia Valentine that
mans can produce up to 700,000 nonverbal assists image-makers, corporate planners,
signs, of which 1000 are different bodily and product makers in the creation of their
postures, 5000 are hand gestures, and strategies.
sense ratio 207
sense ratio
[< Latin SENTIRE 'to feel, perceive'; RATIO 'a
reckoning']
nondeath (-s2) nonlife (-s^ Term coined by Canadian communication
theorist Marshall *McLuhan designating the
2. Semiotic square of the concept appearing:
degree to which a physical sense is used in
appearing (s^ being (s2) processing information.
Note: McLuhan emphasized that the sense
ratios are equally calibrated at birth to proc-
ess meaningful information. However, in
social settings, it is unlikely that all senses
will operate at the same ratio. One sense or
the other increases according to the repre-
sentational modes and media employed. In
an oral culture, the auditory sense ratio domi-
not being (-s2) not appearing (-ST) nates information processing and message
interpretation; in an alphabetic one, the
sender visual sense ratio dominates. This raising or
[< Latin SENTIRE 'to feel, perceive'] lowering of a sense ratio is not preclusive.
Entity or system, organic or mechanical, Indeed, in contemporary technological
who/which originates and transmits a cultures, one can have various sense ratios
message. activated in tandem. The ebb of ratios, up
and down, in tandem, in opposition, is what
defines the cognitive style of information
processing.
208 sensorimotor stage
Geoffrey Chaucer (13407-1400), in his Can- to refer to something in the world (a thing,
terbury Tales, and Italian writer Giovanni an object, an idea, etc. The word cat, for
Boccaccio (1313-75), in his Decameron, retold instance, is a sign because it does not stand
and refined many "fables, beast *epics, "ro- for the sounds c-a-t that constitute it, but
mances, "fabliaux, and "legends. After rather for 'a carnivorous mammal (Felis
Boccaccio, the short, realistic narrative in cattus) domesticated since early times as a
prose came to be known as the "novella. The catcher of rats and mice.' Similarly, an open
short story, as it is known today, is a devel- hand directed at a person is a sign because it
opment of the 19th century, when writers does not stand for itself, the hand, but rather
such as Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49) and for a warning motion alerting the individual
Henry James (1843-1916) in the United to stop. This physical dimension is called
States, E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) in the "signifier or "representamen:
Germany, Ivan Turgenev (1818-83), Nikolai
Gogol (1809-52), Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910),
cat stands for
and Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) in Russia,
and Alphonse Daudet (1840-97) and Guy de
Maupassant (1850-93) in France perfected
stands for 'Stop'
the economy and balance necessary to craft
short stories successfully.
In the 20th century enormous numbers of The second dimension of the sign is the
short stories were published annually, in 'something other than itself for which it
almost every language. The short stories of stands (a feline mammal, the action to stop,
Americans Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) etc.). This is known as its "referent, "signi-
and William Faulkner (1897-1962) are fied, or "object. The third dimension, known
among the best known in the genre. Other as "signification or the "interpretant, is what
notable 20th-century short-story writers the sign means in specific uses.
include Irish writer James Joyce (1882-
1941), Czechoslovakian-born Franz Kafka sign, conventional
(1883-1924), Katherine Mansfield (1888- [< Latin SIGNUM 'mark']
1923) of New Zealand, Mishima Yukio "Sign that has no apparent connection to
(1925-70), of Japan, Rabindranath Tagore any perceivable feature of its referent.
(1861-1941) of India, Gabriel Garcia Illustrations: 1. the word tree for 'arboreal
Marquez (1928-) of Colombia, Jorge Luis plant'; 2. the letter x for 'any number' in
Borges (1899-1986) of Argentina, and Italo algebra.
Calvino of Italy (1923-85).
sign, natural
short-term memory [< Latin SIGNUM 'mark']
[see "memory] 1. sign produced by Nature (e.g. a "symp-
tom, an unwitting "signal); 2. sign that has
sign been constructed to simulate some property
[< Latin SIGNUM 'mark'] of its referent.
Something that stands for something else in
some capacity. Illustrations: 1. The word chirp was coined to
imitate the sound made by a bird. 2. The
Note: A sign consists of three dimensions. visual sign has been made to resemble the
First, it involves something physical - facial features of a boy. 3. A symptom is a
sounds, letters, gestures, etc. - that is made natural sign produced by the body.
210 sign, visual
immune from it. If the slang-using group Illustrations: I. McDonald's does it all for you!
has enough contact with the mainstream 2. All State - You're in good hands!
culture, some of its words and idioms might
become forms known to the whole society, soap opera
usually because they may provide a name Daily serial drama on radio or television,
needed for an object or action (walkie-talkie), developed originally as a daytime genre
Sometimes, slang terms become accepted as aimed specifically at a female audience. It is
standard speech with an altered, tamed called soap opera because the original spon-
meaning (jazz originally had sexual conno- sors were detergent companies.
tations). Slang also finds its way into the Note: Soap operas typically revolve around
cultural mainstream through the work of a romantic plot in which the emotions of the
writers who use slang to convey character audience are of paramount importance,
and ambiance. Shakespeare, for instance, without regard for character development
brought into acceptable usage such slang or logic. Sexual mischief, betrayal, infidelity,
terms as hubbub, to bump, and to dwindle. In and the like are the primary ingredients in
the 20th century, the mass media have been soap-opera plots and characterizations.
instrumental in spreading slang usage. For
instance, the words pot and marijuana, which social zone
were part of a secret criminal jargon in the [see *zone, social]
1940s, became, through media diffusion,
common words in the 1960s. society
Slang expressions may take form as meta- [< Latin socius 'companion']
phors, similes, and other figures of speech Collectivity of individuals who, although
(dead as a doornail). Words may acquire new they may not all have the same ancestral or
meanings or they may be abbreviated (mike tribal origins, nevertheless participate, by
for microphone). Slang acronyms may gain and large, in the signifying order of the
currency (VIP, AWOL). A change in meaning founding or conquering tribe (or tribes).
may make a vulgar word acceptable or an
acceptable word vulgar. Note: The establishment of a dominant sig-
nifying order (culture) makes it possible for
slapstick individuals to interact practically and ha-
Boisterous form of comedy characterized by bitually with each other. Unlike tribes, how-
chases, collisions, and crude practical jokes. ever, societies can enfold more than one
signifying order. As a consequence, indi-
Note: The word comes from the device for viduals may, and typically do, choose to live
slapping people on-stage that was used in apart - totally or partially - from the main
many late-19th- to early-20th-century com- signifying order. For instance, the modern
edies. The device, called a slapstick, was society known as the United States is called
made of two flat pieces of wood fastened at loosely, 'American culture.' This culture
one end. Through its association with *com- traces its origins primarily to the signifying
edy, the term developed the sense in the order of the British people who settled in
mid-1920s that encompassed the whole the United States a few centuries ago. Since
genre of comedy in which a literal slapstick then, American society has also accommo-
did not necessarily play a role. dated and sanctioned aboriginal and other
parallel cultural systems, each one entailing
slogan a different way of life, a different language,
Phrase expressing the aims or nature of an a different system of rituals, etc. Moreover,
enterprise, an organization, or a candidate. within the dominant signifying order, diver-
sociobiology 213
sification has come about as a consequence (erectus and sapiens) became more complex,
of the tendency of splinter groups - known so did the human mind, because humans
as subcultures - to emerge within large and were forced to make choices that conferred
impersonal societies. Thus, it is possible for upon them greater survival and reproduc-
an individual living in the United States to tive abilities. Gene evolution gradually gave
remain apart from the dominant signifying way to cultural evolution. The body's sur-
order by espousing a parallel one or becom- vival mechanisms were eventually replaced
ing a participant in a subcultural one. But by the survival formats provided by culture.
very much like a tribal person, a city-dwell- The sociobiological perspective has
ing individual living in America today who gained widespread popularity beyond
chooses to live apart from the dominant academia in part as a result of the publica-
signifying order will typically face social tion of accessibly written books such as
risks, such as exposure to various forms of those by the contemporary British biologist
ridicule or censure and perhaps even exclu- Richard Dawkins (1941-). With great rhe-
sion from participation in various institu- torical deftness and aplomb, Dawkins por-
tional systems or communal activities. trays cultures as collective adaptive systems
that emerged in the human species to en-
sociobiology hance its survivability and future progress
[< Latin socius 'companion' + Greek BIOS by replacing the functions of genes with
'life' + LOGOS 'word, study'] those of mental units that he calls memes - a
Science studying the co-dependency of word he coined in direct imitation of the
biological factors with social ones in the word genes. Dawkins defines memes as
evolution of all species. The main claim of replicating patterns of information (ideas,
sociobiology is that there is a high degree of laws, clothing fashions, artworks, etc.) and
innate control in all social behaviors. of behavior (marriage rites, love rituals,
Note: Sociobiologists attempt to describe religious ceremonies, etc.) that people in-
what caused the change from largely geneti- herit directly from their cultural environ-
cally programmed behavior to reflective ments. Like genes, memes involve no
thought in the human species in terms of a intentionality on the part of the receiving
gene-culture coevolution process. This proc- human organism. As part of culture, the
ess was purportedly triggered in *Homo human being absorbs memes unreflectively
habilis after this species had learned how to from birth, and then becomes part of a col-
use the hands to make tools between 1.5 lective system that passes them on just as
and 2 million years ago. Homo habilis beings unreflectively to subsequent generations,
were small creatures with a human body allowing the memes to improve adaptively
and a brain similar to that of an ape. They over preceding generations. The memetic
lived in groups as hunter-gatherers on the code is thus responsible for cultural
savanna plains of Africa. Threatened by progress, advancement, and betterment,
larger mammals, but desperately needing to having become the primary agent in the
catch game in order to survive, they had to human species's evolutionary thrust for-
learn how to act cooperatively, to think ward.
logically, and to communicate among them- Many arguments have been put forward
selves in some fashion. So, they developed against meme theory. Genes can be identi-
social rules for hunting, food sharing, divi- fied and separated from organisms, and
sion of labor, mating, etc. Theirs was the then studied, altered, and even cloned
earliest human culture. physically. That is a scientific fact. The
As cultures in subsequent *Homo species theory of memes, by contrast, is no more
214 sociolinguistics
than an idea of how cultural systems work. argument and the quest for general abstract
There is no empirical way to verify the real- ideas, and believed in a purely objective
ity of memes, as defined by Dawkins; they understanding of justice, love, and virtue.
can only be talked about as if they existed. He thought that wickedness was the result
The key figure behind sociobiological of ignorance and that people are not will-
theory and research is the American biolo- ingly bad.
gist E.O. ""Wilson, known for his work trac-
ing the effects of natural selection on Socratic irony
biological communities, especially on [after Socrates in Plato's Dialogues]
populations of insects, and for extending Feigning of ignorance in argument, in order
the idea of natural selection to human cul- to make a point more forcefully.
tures. Wilson claims that the psychological
capacities and social behaviors that humans software
manifest are genetically based and that [see also "hardware ]
evolutionary processes favor those that Programs that cause computers to do spe-
enhance reproductive success and survival. cific kinds of things.
Thus, characteristics such as heroism, altru- Note: Software as a whole can be divided
ism, aggressiveness, and male dominance, into a number of categories based on the
for instance, can be understood as evolu- types of work done by programs: 1. operat-
tionary outcomes, not in terms of historical, ing system software, which controls the work-
social, or psychic processes. Moreover, ings of the computer; 2. application software,
Wilson sees the creative capacities under- which addresses the multitude of tasks for
girding language, art, scientific thinking, which people use computers; 3. network
etc. as originating in the same pool of ge- software, which enables groups of computers
netic responses that help the human organ- to communicate; 4. language software, which
ism to solve physical problems of survival. provides programmers with the tools they
need to write programs.
sociolinguistics
[< Latin socius 'companion' + LINGUA soliloquy
'tongue'] [see ^monologue]
Branch of linguistics studying how lan-
guage functions in society. Sociolinguists solipsism
study how linguistic forms and uses vary [< Latin SOLUS 'alone' + IPSE 'oneself']
according to age, class, gender, situation, View that the self is the only thing that can
and other social variables. be known and verified, and thus the only
reality.
Socrates
[4707-399? BC] something-for-nothing lure in
Greek philosopher, who profoundly af- advertising
fected Western philosophy through his [see ^advertising, use of the something-for-
influence on *Plato, in whose works his nothing lure in]
character and ideas are portrayed. Socrates
believed in the superiority of argument over sonnet
any other form of disclosure, and spent [< Italian SONETTO 'little sound']
hours in the public places of Athens, engag- A 14-line "verse form usually having a con-
ing in dialogue and argument with anyone ventional *rhyme scheme.
who would listen. He emphasized rational
space, public 215
public spaces appear to the eye - as neat, one in a foyer, atrium, or lobby, but one does
dirty, organized, disorganized, etc. This is why not normally wait for someone in a public
when someone defaces public places, s/he washroom; one can walk on a public side-
is felt, literally, to have violated the entire walk, but one cannot walk on someone's
community. Conflicts between tribes or porch without permission; and the list could
nations are, in actual fact, often triggered by go on and on. When one enters a sacred
such acts against the communal body. space like a church or chapel, one feels and
behaves differently than when one enters a
space, sacred bank, a stadium, etc. - in such a space one
[< Latin SPATIUM 'space'] tends to speak with a lower voice, to be
Site that is believed to put humans in con- more careful with the walking noises made,
tact or proximity with the divinities. and so on.
Note: Churches, synagogues, mosques, tem-
ples, etc. are buildings that generate a sense spatial deixis
of sacredness within them. In tribal socie- [see *deixis]
ties, one building was enough to host the
congregation; but in large urban societies, specialization
many such buildings are needed. These all [< Latin SPECIES 'kind']
have the same goal of making the individu- In communication theory, term referring to
als of a culture feel that they have entered a the fact that the sound waves of speech have
special place. no function other than to signal meaning.
The salient characteristic of all sacred
spaces is the feeling that they do not belong speech
to the real world, that they are places where Vocalized, articulated, or written language.
the divinities can be reached and where Note: Although in colloquial parlance peo-
miracles and supernatural events are oc- ple rarely distinguish between language and
casionally expected to take place. After speech, in actual fact the two are different.
the Madonna appeared to Bernadette at Vocal speech is a physiological phenomenon.
Lourdes, the grotto where she carried out It involves the use of the organs of the vocal
her dialogue with the peasant girl has ever apparatus - the tongue, the teeth, the epi-
since become sacred and thought to be able glottis, etc. - to deliver language, which is a
to cure disease and bring spiritual healing. mental code. Language can also be ex-
Similar places exist throughout the world. pressed through pictorial, alphabetic, and
gestural (e.g. sign language) modes. One
spatial code can have language without speech (as do
[< Latin SPATIUM 'space'] individuals with impaired vocal organs),
Set of meanings and rules of conduct as- because it exists in the mind. But one cannot
cribed systematically to spaces in buildings have speech without language, because
and in other physical spaces of a society. speech depends on the language code for its
Note: Each building or place is a *text with a physical transmission.
broad range of meanings. The rules that
govern private and public spaces are thus speech act
socially coded: e.g. one must knock on the View that an utterance can replace an actual
door of a house to announce one's presence, physical act or desire for some action.
but one does not knock on the door of a Illustrations: 1. The utterance Be careful! has
retail store; one may sit and wait for some- the same effect as the act of putting a hand
storage hardware 217
seen when considering the meaning of a Relation by which the meanings of different
word such as duomo in Italian. Synchronic- signs overlap.
ally, the word is characterizable as a noun 1. hide-conceal; 2. big-large.
meaning 'dome.' This meaning can be seen
in such expressions as il Duomo di Milano syntagm
'the Dome of Milan/ il duomo della cattedrale [< Greek SYN 'together' + TASSEIN 'to ar-
'the dome of the cathedral/ etc. A dia- range']
chronic analysis of this term reveals, how- [see also *paradigm]
ever, that it derives from Latin DOMUS Structural pattern by which *signs or *texts
'house.' This implies that its original mean- are composed.
ing narrowed in Italian to become, more Note: Signs beget their forms and meanings
specifically, a type of house (a religious in structured ways. In pairs such as pin-bin,
house). fun-run, and duck-luck, the initial consonant
is sufficient to keep these words distinct.
synecdoche This differentiation feature of signs is
[< Greek SYN 'together' + EKDECHESTHAI 'to known as paradigmatic structure - i.e. the
receive'] relation whereby some minimal feature in a
Type of *metonymy whereby a part is used sign is sufficient to keep it differentiated
to represent the conceptual whole to which from all other signs of the same kind. Now,
it belongs, or vice versa. these words are legitimate signs, not only
Illustrations: I. bread for food; 2. the White because they are differentiable in a specific
House for the presidency; 3. Kleenex for tissue way, but also because the combination of
paper; 4. wheels for automobile. sounds with which they are constructed is
consistent with English syllable structure.
synesthesia By contrast, tpin, thin, tfun, tpun, tduck, tluck
[< Greek SYN 'together' + AISTHESIS 'percep- would not be legitimate signs in English
tion, sense-impression'] because they would violate its syllable
1. sensation felt in one part of the body structure. Syllable structure is an example
when another part is stimulated; 2. fusion of of syntagmatic structure - i.e. the relation
two sensory forms of representation (sight whereby signs are constructed in some
and hearing, touch and sight, etc.). definable sequence or combination. Syntag-
Illustrations: 1. loud red (= hearing + sight); matic structure is found in all human repre-
2. smooth melody (= touch + hearing). sentational systems. In music, for instance, a
melody is recognizable as such only if the
synonym notes follow each other in a certain way
[< Greek SYN 'together' + ONOMA 'name'] (e.g. according to the rules of classical
[see also *antonym] harmony).
Word having the same or nearly the same
meaning as another in the same language. syntax
[< Greek SYN 'together' + TASSEIN 'to ar-
Illustrations: I. near-close; 2. far-distant. range']
1. arrangement of words, phrases, and
synonymy clauses in language-specific ways to form
[< Greek SYN 'together' + ONOMA 'name'] sentences; 2. study of how words are com-
[see also *antonymy] bined in a language to make sentences.
Note: Sentences are characterized by the
224 synthetic language
1. made objects, what they imply and how Note: In 1884 the German engineer Paul
they contribute to social development; 2. Nipkow designed a scanning disk that cre-
processes by which human beings fashion ated crude television images. Nipkow's
objects and machines to increase their un- scanner was used from 1923 to 1925 in ex-
derstanding of, and control over, the mate- perimental television systems. Then, in
rial environment. 1926, the Scottish scientist John Logic Baird
Note: Many historians of science argue not (1888-1946) perfected the scanning method,
only that technology has become an essen- and in 1931 the Russian-born engineer
tial condition of advanced, industrial civili- Vladimir Zworykin (1889-1982) built the
zation, but also that the rate of technological electronic scanning system that became the
change has developed its own momentum prototype of the modern TV camera.
in recent centuries. Innovations now seem The first home television receiver was
to appear at a rate that increases geometri- exhibited in Schenectady, New York, in 1928
cally, without respect to geographical limits by American inventor Ernst F. W. Alexander-
or social systems. These innovations tend to son. The images were small, poor, and un-
transform traditional cultural systems, fre- steady, but the set was instantly recognized
quently with unexpected social conse- as having commercial potential. By the late
quences. For this reason, social critics see 1930s, television service was in place in
technology as both a creative and a destruc- several Western countries. The British BBC,
tive process. for example, started a regular service in
1936. The Radio Corporation of America
telecast (RCA) unveiled television to the American
[< Greek TELE 'far off] public at the 1939 New York World's Fair,
Abbreviation of television broadcast. with live coverage of opening ceremonies.
Immediately following the Second World
telegraphic speech War four companies stood ready to initiate
[< Greek TELE 'far off 4- GRAPHEIN 'to write'] network television broadcasting in the
Pattern of speech that emerges at around United States - network broadcasting takes
18 months of age, when children start con- place when local stations covering different
structing sentences using only key words regions agree to simultaneously transmit
(as in telegraphic communication). the same signal. Two of the companies, the
National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and
Illustrations: 1. Sarah hungry (= I, Sarah, am the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS),
hungry); 2. Alex eat (= I, Alex, want to eat). had made vast fortunes in radio broadcast-
ing. The remaining two were the American
teleology Broadcasting Company (ABC) and the
[< Greek TELOS 'end' + LOGIA 'study'] DuMont Television Network (DuMont went
1. philosophical study of final causes; out of business in 1955). By the mid-1950s
2. belief that natural phenomena are deter- NBC, CBS, and ABC - collectively known as
mined not only by mechanical causes but by the Big Three - had successfully secured
an overall metaphysical design or purpose. American network television as their exclu-
sive domain. It was not until the mid-1980s
television that a fourth company, News Corporation,
[< Greek TELE 'far off; Latin VIDERE 'to see'] owned by Australian-born executive Rupert
Broadcasting by means of electronically Murdoch, broke their monopoly with the
transmitted visual signals received by a establishment of the Fox television network.
television set.
Today, there are many private channels, pay
television, effects of 227
channels, and various other viewing op- 'containing' them in electronic space, where
tions. they are seen as suspended in time and
Socially, television has become a power- space, in a mythic world of their own. This
ful medium. Today, 98% of North American is why meeting actors, musical stars, etc.
households own a television set, and a large causes great enthusiasm and excitement in
portion of these have more than one. People many people.
glean much of their information, intellectual Another effect can be seen in the fact that
stimulation, and recreation from television. TV literally fabricates history by inducing
Television personages are household names, the impression in viewers that some ordi-
looming larger than life. TV actors and nary event - an election campaign, an ac-
announcers are lifestyle trend-setters. Many tor's love affair, a fashion trend, etc. - is a
people even plan their daily lives around momentous happening. People make up
television programs. their minds about the guilt or innocence of
others by watching news and interview
television, effects of programs; they see certain behaviors as
[< Greek TELE 'far off; Latin VIDERE 'to see'] laudable or damnable by tuning into talk
View that television produces effects on shows or real-life docudramas; and the list
behavior, lifestyle, and cognition. could go on and on. In effect, the events that
Note: Marshall McLuhan (1911-80) was receive air time are felt as being more sig-
among the first to descry that electronic nificant and historically meaningful to soci-
media have an impact far greater than that ety than those that do not. Sports events like
of the material they communicate. He ar- the World Series, the Super Bowl, or the
gued that in each cultural era the medium Stanley Cup Playoffs are transformed on
in which information is recorded and trans- television into Herculean struggles of
mitted is decisive in determining the charac- mythic heroes. Events such as the John
ter of that culture. An oral culture is vastly Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald assassi-
different in organization and outlook than nations, the Vietnam War, the Watergate
an alphabetic one. McLuhan also believed hearings, the Rodney King beating, the O.J.
that the worldwide linking of electronic Simpson trial, and the Bill Clinton sex scan-
information media would create an inter- dal are transformed into portentous and
connected 'global village.' And indeed, just prophetic historical occurrences. They are
as he predicted, through advances in satel- imbued with the same emotional power that
lite communications, television now allows comes from watching the great classical
viewers even to see themselves as 'partici- dramas. TV is both the maker of history and
pants' in wars and conflicts going on in its documenter at the same time. People now
some other part of the world. The world has experience history through TV, not just read
become a TV village. about it in a newspaper or a chronicle. And,
There are three main psychological effects as a result, television shapes history. The
that TV has had on society at large. These horrific scenes coming out of the Vietnam
have been called various things by different War that were transmitted into people's
social scientists. One effect can be seen in homes daily in the late 1960s and early
the fact that television personages are per- 1970s brought about an end to the war,
ceived as mythic figures, larger than life. mobilizing social protest. Significantly, an
Like any type of privileged space - a plat- MTV flag was hoisted by East German
form, a pulpit, etc. that is designed to im- youths over the Berlin Wall as they tore it
part focus and significance to someone - down in 1989. More people watched the
television creates mythic heroes by simply wedding of England's Prince Charles and
228 television, as social text
Princess Diana, and later Diana's funeral, times. Without it, there probably would
than had ever before in human history ob- have been no civil-rights legislation, no
served such events at the same time. Vietnam War protests, no cynical reaction to
A third effect results from the fact that the politics after Watergate. Moreover, many TV
TV medium presents its stories, informa- programs were pivotal in bringing about a
tion, and events by compacting them for change in social mindset vis-a-vis certain
time-constrained transmission. This leaves issues. For example, in 1977 the miniseries
little time for reflection on the topics, impli- Roots was among the first to deal forcefully
cations, words, etc. contained in a segment, with the enduring problem of racism; in
and effect that has fostered a psychological 1968 Star Trek featured the first interracial
dependency on information and visual kiss in an episode titled Plato's Stepchildren;
stimulation for their own sake. The amount in 1970 the first divorced couple appeared
of information presented in a news pro- on the Odd Couple; in 1971 All in the family
gram, for instance, is edited and stylized for cast the first homosexual characters in
effortless mass consumption. The camera prime time; in 1973 the same program dealt
moves in to select aspects of a situation, to with the topic of rape; in 1991 the first scene
show a face that cares, that is suffering, that of women kissing was aired on an episode
is happy, that is angry, and then shifts to the of L.A. Law, in 1992 an episode of Seinfeld
cool handsome face of an anchorman or to dealt with one of the more taboo subjects of
the attractive one of an anchorwoman to tell our society, masturbation; and the list could
us what it's all about. The news items, the go on and on.
film footage, the commentaries are all fast- With the advent of satellite transmission,
paced and brief. They are designed to be television has also become a powerful me-
visually dramatic snippets of easily digest- dium for inducing radical social, moral, and
ible information. Within such a stylistic political changes in all cultures. When asked
environment, the news information is be- about the stunning defeat of communism in
yond comprehension. The facts of the news eastern Europe in the late 1980s, the Polish
are subjected to the stylized signature of the leader Lech Walesa was reported by the
specific news program - the same story will newspapers as saying that it 'all came from
be interpreted differently according to who- the television set/ implying that television
ever the television journalist is. had undermined the stability of the commu-
nist world's relatively poor and largely
television, as social text sheltered lifestyle with images of consumer
[< Greek TELE 'far off; Latin VIDERE 'to see'] delights seen in Western programs and
View that television, like a religious (e.g. commercials. Marshall *McLuhan's phrase
biblical) narrative, constitutes a *social text of the 'global village' rings true today more
that is directive of behavior and lifestyle. than ever before. Television has indeed
shrunk the world into a village.
television culture Like the automobile did at the turn of the
[< Greek TELE 'far off; Latin VIDERE 'to see'] century, television has changed the general
View that since the 1950s the history of shape of world culture. Demographic sur-
television has become the history of many veys now show consistently that people
cultures. spend more time in front of television sets
Note: TV has showcased racial protests, than they do working, that watching TV is
riots, and other significant social events, bringing about a gradual decline in reading,
thus forcing the hand of change several that television's particular form of textuality
is leading to the demise of the nation-state
television mythologies 229
concept as ideas and images cross national in terms of plot, character, and setting.
boundaries daily through television chan- There were several exceptions to this: e.g.
nels. The medium has induced a kind of The Honeymooners and / Love Lucy, both of
insatiability for entertainment, variety, and which revolved around strong-willed wives
visual stimulation in society at large. With who were, in effect, precursors of later TV
the barrage of TV images that assail people feminist characters. But, in general, the
daily, individuals are conditioned to crave subtext to the 1950s TV sitcom was father =
constantly for sensory stimulation and know-all and be-all.
variety. In the 1960s and early 1970s the situation
changed drastically, and the mythology was
television mythologies changed to reflect new times. The TV father
[< Greek TELE 'far off; Latin VIDERE 'to see'] was becoming more and more of a ludi-
[see also *mythologie] crous character. The sitcom that reflected
View that television shows are often based this new subtext the most was All in the
around a mythologie, the term used by semi- Family. The North American continent was
otician Roland *Barthes in reference to the divided, ideologically and emotionally, into
fact that the original mythic themes con- two camps - those who supported the
tinue to reverberate residually in modern- views and attitudes of the TV father, Archie
day societies, especially in discourse, rituals, Bunker, a staunch defender of the Vietnam
and performances. War, and those who despised the war and
Illustration: Early television programming thus the persona of Archie Bunker. What
genres were derived from radio. The situa- was happening inside the TV Bunker family
tion comedy, or sitcom, which uses recur- was apparently happening in families
ring characters and conditions to explore across the continent. North American soci-
life in the home, the workplace, and other ety had entered into a period of emotional
common locations has remained to this day turmoil and bitter debate over such contro-
a framework where modern-day mytholo- versial issues as the Vietnam War, racism,
gies are made, developed, and eventually the role of women in society, and the he-
discarded. Consider, as a case in point, the gemony of the patriarchal family. The new
mythology of fatherhood that TV con- subtext that was informing the sitcoms of
structed and developed from the 1950s to the late 1960s and early 1970s was father =
the late 1990s. opinionated, ludicrous character.
In the 1950s television programs like The total 'deconstruction' of the 1950s
Father Knows Best and The Adventures of mythology of fatherhood became apparent
Ozzie and Harriet sculpted the father figure in many of the 1980s and 1990s sitcoms. A
to fit the requirements of the traditional typical example was Married ... with Chil-
patriarchal family structure. Most of these dren, a morbid parody of fatherhood and of
early sitcoms painted the family in a rosy- the nuclear family. The father on this pro-
colored fashion. The father was in charge of gram, Al Bundy, was little more than a
the family, with his wife working behind the physical brute, a reprehensible character
scenes to maintain harmony through sub- who was hardly deserving of the title of
servience. This mythology of fatherhood father. Indeed, as the title of the sitcom sug-
reflected the social mindset of the 1950s. TV gested, he was merely 'married' and just
reinforced it and gave it a narrative form for happened to have 'children/ who were
people to enjoy on a weekly basis, allowing about as shallow and despicable as he was -
them to evaluate their own family situations Bud, his boorish, sex-crazed son, and Kelly,
his empty-headed and over-sexed daughter.
230 tempo
There was no sugar-coating in that sitcom. Unlike the wife in Father Knows Best,
Married ... with Children was implanted on a Cosby's wife had a more assertive role to
new parodic subtext: father - moron. play in the family. This 'new-look' patriar-
Married ... with Children and similar sit- chal family provided reassuring in tradi-
coms (e.g. the cartoon The Simpsons) consti- tional values in a world that was, and
tuted a scathing indictment of traditional continues to be, in constant moral doubt
family values and roles. The fathers on and flux.
those sitcoms were antiheroes who had all By contrast, Roseanne (featuring Roseanne
the wrong answers to family problems, and Barr) portrayed a boisterous working-class
who always felt sorry for themselves. The family in a constant state of upheaval. Brash
television programs of the 1950s and 1960s and often controversial, this 1990s sitcom
had built up a patriarchal mythology of was praised for its honesty and ground-
fatherhood. This mythology was challenged breaking discussion of current social issues.
not only by All in the Family, but also
throughout the 1970s by programs such as tempo
The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Wonder Woman, [see *rhythm]
Rhoda, Maude, The Days and Nights of Molly
Dodd, Cagney and Lacey, and others that temporal deixis
portrayed strong, independent women who [see *deixis]
were attempting to survive, socially and
professionally, in a world that was disas- tenor
sembling patriarchal structures. [see *topic]
It is interesting to note that in the midst of
that mythological reconfiguration, a pro- territoriality
gram like the Bill Cosby Show achieved un- [< Latin TERRA 'earth']
expected success throughout the 1980s. In Mechanism by which animals seek out
hindsight, there were a number of reasons territories for survival.
for the success of that apparent throwback Note: Each species has the biological means
to the patriarchal programs of the 1950s. for seeking out appropriate territories for its
First and foremost, Bill Cosby himself was a survival, of marking them, and of defending
great comedian who could easily endear them. Intrusion into the territory is per-
himself to a large audience. But, more im- ceived instinctively as a signal of aggres-
portant, the Cosby Show was appropriate for sion. Cats, for example, mark the
the 1980s. In the 1970s, programs like All in boundaries of their proclaimed territory by
the Family and The feffersons reflected an urination, and are prepared to challenge any
iconoclastic movement to tear down author- intrusions into the territory aggressively.
ity models and figures. But during the In the mid part of the 20th century the
1980s, with the ascendancy of a new right- territoriality mechanism became the target
wing moralism, as evidenced by the election of behavioral psychologists, whose experi-
of conservative governments in Canada and ments received much media attention be-
the United States, the mythology of patriar- cause of the implications they seemed to
chal authority was making a comeback. have at the time for life in modern crowded
Once more, audiences were searching for urban centers. The gist of these experiments
TV father figures who were gentle and un- can be outlined as follows. When two labo-
derstanding at the same time. Bill Cosby fit ratory rats were enclosed in the same cage,
this image perfectly - with a difference. the researchers found that each one would
texture 231
instinctively seize an area of approximately shapes, symbols, etc. to show where places
equal dimensions. When a third rat would are in relation to each other.
be introduced into the same cage, then a
tripartite arrangement of subdivided areas text, social
would seem to be negotiated among the Any text that is known, explicitly or implic-
three rats. However, there always seemed to itly, by a group of people (society, tribe, etc.).
be some initial reluctance to do so, as Note: A social text is an overriding *text that
signaled by minor altercations among the informs a society. The Christian social text,
three rats at the beginning of the negotia- for example, is based on biblical and specific
tions. As each extra rat would be introduced theological traditions. This is why religious
progressively into the same environment, dates such as Christmas and Easter are
more reluctance and aggression would regularly planned yearly events when many
ensue until a 'critical mass' would appar- people in Western society organize signifi-
ently be reached, whereupon the rats in the cant social activities. In medieval Europe,
cage would either fight aggressively and the Christian text probably regulated one's
relentlessly or demonstrate some form of entire day. In that era, people emphasized
aberrant behavior. The implications for going to church regularly during the day
'urban overcrowding' that those experi- and the week, lived by strict moral codes
ments apparently had were not missed by derived from the Bible, and listened consci-
journalists and reporters. The experiments entiously to the dictates of clergymen. The
also seemed to provide an explanation as to underlying *subtext of the medieval Chris-
why some people 'snap/ as the expression tian social text was that each day brought
goes, when this critical mass is surpassed, one closer and closer to one's true destiny -
and why others seek rational solutions such salvation and an afterlife with God. Living
as escaping into the suburbs, moving to the according to this text no doubt imparted a
country, etc. feeling of security, emotional shelter, and
spiritual meaning to life.
tertiary modeling system After the Renaissance, the Enlightenment,
Highly complex neural system that allows and the Industrial Revolution, the Christian
human beings to engage in abstract forms of social text came gradually to be replaced by
*semiosis, which in turn permit symbolic a more secular form of textuality. Today,
representational activities (narration, art, people organize their day typically around
etc.). work commitments, social appointments,
etc. that have hardly anything to do with
text salvation; and only at those traditional
[< Latin TEXTUS 'fabric'] 'points' in the calendar (Christmas, Easter,
Anything put together with *signs to etc.) do they synchronize their secular text
represent or communicate something - with the more traditional religious one.
conversations, letters, speeches, poems, Outside of special cases - such as in certain
myths, novels, television programs, paint- cloisters and monasteries - the textual or-
ings, scientific theories, musical composi- ganization of the day is hardly ever con-
tions, etc. scious.
Illustrations: I. A novel, for instance, is a
verbal text constructed with language signs texture
according to the rules of the language's [< Latin TEXTUS 'fabric']
orthographic and grammatical systems. Sensation of touch evoked imagistically
2. A map is a nonverbal text constructed with when one looks at some drawn figure.
232 theater
the hand sufficiently to allow it to become a among certain tribal or traditional peoples
supremely sensitive and precise manipula- as the emblem of a clan or family and often
tor and grasper, thus permitting proficient revered as its founder, ancestor, or guardian.
tool making and use. The earliest stone tools
date back to about 2.5 million years ago. trade advertising
Sites in various parts of eastern Africa, from [see *advertising, trade]
1.5 million years ago, contain not only many
stone tools, but also animal bones with trademark
scratch marks that research has shown [see "brand name]
could only have been left by human-like
cutting actions. traditional transmission
In communication theory, term referring to
topic the fact that language is transmitted from
[also called *tenor; see also Vehicle] one generation to the next primarily by a
What a metaphor is about; also called the process of teaching and learning (not by
A-domain in the formula [A is B], which genetic inheritance).
shows the general (explicit or implicit) form
of metaphor. tragedy
Illustrations: 1. In John is a snake, John is the [< Greek TRAGOIDIA 'tragedy']
topic (= A-domain) and snake the vehicle Serious *drama typically dealing with the
(= B-domain). 2. In That woman is a computer, problems of a central character, leading to
That woman is the topic (= A-domain) and an unhappy or disastrous ending brought
computer the vehicle (= B-domain). on by fate, a tragic character flaw, moral
weakness, psychological maladjustment, or
topographic map social pressure.
[see *map] Illustrations: Two classic tragedies of West-
ern culture are Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
toponym (4967-406? BC), considered one of the great-
[< Greek TOPOS 'place' + ONOMA 'name'] est of all Greek dramatists, and King Lear by
Name given to a geographical place. William Shakespeare (1564-1616). In Oedi-
Note: Toponyms are assigned typically (1) to pus Rex (Oedipus the King), Sophocles
honor famous personages (Washington, dramatized the famous story of Oedipus,
Lincoln), (2) to describe some salient topo- the Greek mythological figure who unwit-
logical characteristic (Black Creek, Niagara tingly killed his father, the king, and mar-
Falls), or (3) to recall a different place seen to ried his own mother; in King Lear, Shake-
have some connection with it (Syracuse, speare deals with the consequences of the
Paris in New York State). irresponsibility and misjudgment of a father
who gives power to his evil children, rather
total feedback than to his good child.
In communication theory, term referring to
the fact that speakers of a language hear transformational-generative grammar
and can reflect upon everything that they [see ^grammar]
say (unlike the visual displays often used in
animal courtship signaling). translation
[< Latin TRANSLATARE 'to transfer']
totem 1. conversion of writing or speech from one
Animal, plant, or natural object serving language to another; 2. in computer science,
234 transliteration
signed to show that a computer can 'think' thropology at Oxford University in 1884.
essentially like a human. Tylor's studies on the role of religion in
cultures, along with his definition of cul-
Turing machine ture, were important early contributions to
[named for British mathematician Alan the field of anthropology.
Turing]
^Algorithm for carrying out a specific com- type vs. token
putation. [< Latin TYPUS 'a model, symbol']
Note: Turing showed that by putting four Distinction between a general form, a type,
simple operations on a tape - move to the and a specific manifestation of that form, a
right, move to the left, erase the slash, print the token.
slash - a machine could execute any kind of Illustrations: 1. A tree is a type of plant; a
*program that could be expressed in a bi- maple is a token example of this type. 2. Blue
nary code (as, for example, a code of blanks is a type of color; celeste is a token example
and slashes). So long as one could specify of this type.
the steps involved in carrying out a task and
translating them into the binary code, the typological classification
Turing machine would be able to scan [< Latin TYPUS 'a model, symbol']
the tape containing the code and carry out Classification of languages according to
the instructions. type of grammatical system they display.
Illustrations: I. English is classified as an
Turing test ^analytic or word-order language because it
[named for British mathematician Alan depends mainly on word-order in order to
Turing] deliver meaning: e.g. The boy loves the girl
Logical argument devised by mathemati- has a different meaning from The girl loves
cian Alan Turing to show that one could the boy. 2. Latin is classified as a *synthetic
program a computer in such a way that it language because it delivers meaning
would be virtually impossible to discrimi- through a change in the form of words: e.g.
nate between its answers and those con- the words in The boy (PUER) loves (AMAT) the
trived by a human being. girl (PUELLAM) can be arranged in any order
Illustration: Suppose someone is in a room and the result would not alter the meaning.
that hides on one side a programmed com-
puter and, on the other, a human being. The
computer and the human being can only
respond to the person's questions typed on
u
pieces of paper that both pass on to the
observer through slits in the wall. If the Uexkiill, Jacob von
observer cannot identify, on the basis of the [1864-1944]
written responses, who is the computer and Estonian biologist who established a point
who the human being, then she/he must of contact between biology and ""semiotics;
logically conclude that the machine is 'intel- i.e. between studying the ^biosphere and
ligent.' It has passed the Turing test. the *semiosphere. For von Uexkiill every
organism has different inward and outward
Tylor, Edward B. 'lives.' The key to understanding this
[1832-1917] duality is in the anatomical structure of
British founder of cultural ""anthropology the organism itself. Animals with widely
who started up the first department of an- divergent anatomies do not share common
236 Umwelt
visual sign
[see *sign, visual] w
vocable
[< Latin VOCALIS 'of the voice'] Warhol, Andy
Word considered only as a sequence of [19287-1987]
sounds or letters rather than as a unit of American pop artist and cinematographer
meaning (= verbal *signifier). who produced paintings and silk-screen
prints of commonplace objects and images,
Illustrations: 1. plunt (= a word with no
such as soup cans and photographs of celeb-
meaning); 2. joip (= a word with no mean-
rities. Warhol's films were characterized by
ing).
improvised dialogue, lack of plot, and ex-
treme eroticism. In 1994 the Andy Warhol
vocabulary
Museum was opened in Pittsburgh.
[see *lexicon]
Watson, John B.
vocal icon
[1878-1958]
[see *iconicity]
American psychologist, founder and lead-
ing exponent of the school of psychology
vocality
known as *behaviorism. Watson believed
[< Latin VOCALIS 'of the voice']
that the only legitimate and realizable goal
In communication theory, term referring to
for psychology was the study of objectively
the fact that *signals and ^messages can be
observable behavior.
transmitted vocally or nonvocally. Bird
communication, for instance, is vocal; bee-
Welby, Lady Victoria
dancing is nonvocal.
[1837-1912]
British semiotician who put forward the
voice-recognition module
theory of *significs, a branch of semiotics
[see *input hardware]
dealing with meaning in all its forms and
manifestations, verbal and nonverbal. Lady
vowel
Welby's correspondence with Charles
[< Latin VOCALIS 'of the voice']
*Peirce has become a key source for under-
[see also *consonant]
standing the development of the ideas of
Vocal sound produced with no significant
both scholars.
obstruction to the airstream emanating from
the lungs.
Illustrations: 1. cold; 2. up; 3. live; 4. cat.
240 Wernicke's area
to do much more than just construct propo- sign, of an amulet worn around the neck
sitions about the world. So, he introduced several centuries ago. In each line of the
the idea of 'language games/ by which he pyramid there was a letter. Each letter was
claimed that there existed a variety of lin- supposed to vanish magically until only the
guistic games (describing, reporting, guess- A remained to form the vertex of the trian-
ing riddles, making jokes, etc.) that went gle. As the letters disappeared, so purport-
beyond simple reference to the world. edly did the disease or problem of its
wearer.
willingness In tribal societies, shamans are thought to
In communication theory, term referring to possess knowledge of magical words that
the fact that certain messages have been allows them to control objects, people, spir-
constructed purposefully and intentionally, its, and natural events, and thus cure dis-
rather than emitted spontaneously (as in ease, ward off evil, and bring good or harm
animal signaling behavior). to another person. In some cultures, know-
ing the name of God is thought to give the
word knower great power. Such knowledge is
[< Indo-European root WER- 'speak, say' via often a closely guarded secret, if indeed it is
early Germanic WORDAM] allowed to be known by anyone but a select
[see also *morpheme] few. In Native American cultures, the given
Unit of meaning in a language that is recog- *name is thought to bring with it all the
nized as separable from other parts of a spiritual qualities of the individuals who
sentence. have shared that name. These are thought to
Note: A word is not the smallest unit of cast a magical, protective spell on the child
meaning. For example, words such as spear- given the name.
head, loveboat, etc. are made up of two other
words. Also, forms such as illegitimate and word square
irregular, can be decomposed into smaller [see *acrostic]
units: // + legitimate and ir + regular.
World Wide Web
word magic [abbreviated to www]
Belief that words evoke magic or can cause Information server on the Internet com-
things tcr happen magically. posed of interconnected sites and files de-
veloped in 1989.
Illustrations: Techniques of word magic
typically include chants and spells (special wriling
gestures and actions). Throughout the [see *alphabet]
world, naming objects and artifacts is felt to 1. process of representing speech with
bestow upon them a mysterious life force. graphic characters; 2. written work, espe-
When a name is given to a brand product or cially a literary composition.
a tropical storm, for instance, these seem to
take on an identity, a personality. Note: In evolutionary terms writing did not
Word magic is a common theme in litera- develop as a simple substitute for speech.
ture. A well-known example is the Open Alphabets are late developments. The earli-
Sesame formula used by AH Baba in Arabian est writing systems were all independent of
Nights to open the door of the robbers' cave. speech and not alphabetic or syllabic in
The word abracadabra derives from the let- nature. They were pictographic. In the an-
ters, arranged in the inverted pyramid de- cient civilization of Sumer around 3500 BC,
for instance, *pictographs were used to
242 Wundt, Wilhelm Max
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256 Bibliography
This index contains both notions and the names of personages not listed as main entries in the
corpus of the dictionary, as well as important additional references to notions and names that do
have entries.