Chapter 10 & 11

Chapter 10: Questions for Discussion and Further Research

1.) Jakobson's six constitutive factors involved in verbal communication:
Context: either verbal or capable of being verbalized, the part that is viewed or written
Message: communication containing information/context
Addresser: the person who is sending the communication
Addressee: the person who is receiving the communication
Contact: a physical channel in which the message is to travel through between the 2 people
Code: a system of communication

2.) Emotive is expressive when referential is denotative or specific.

3.) There is definitely a difference between a message and a meaning. A message contains a meaning, so, for example, when I send an e-mail it is considered a message but what I am actually trying to say in the message is the meaning.

4.) People have different meanings for codes so it can be confusing to somebody who understands a code one way and they're talking to someone who understands the same code in a different way.

Chapter 11: Questions for Discussion and Further Research

1.) A formula is a fundamental true statement. It is different from a model because models can be shown graphically and are abstract.

2.) The Laswell formula is pretty much the structure and basics of the Jakobson model. It asks, "Who? Says what? In which channel? To whom? and With what effect?".

3.) Some communications have attacked it because it has certain desired effects and persuassions. Also, they're not sure about how powerful the effects are.

4.) Phatic communication is used to express emotions and not communicate information. An exmaple could maybe be like a guy whistling at a girl.

Chapter 7 & 8

Chapter 7: Questions for Discussion and Further Research

1.) To say that "the mind works through form" means that everything we take in comes in a different form. For example, in the book, it says that any experience is received through a structured form.

2.) I disagree with Claude Levi-Strauss when they say that the way the mind works hasn't changed over history. I believe that our mind works the same way in some senses like with our emotions, but hundreds of years ago, our ancestors saw an animal and thought to hunt it, and obviously MOST people don't think that way anymore.

3.) Claude Levi-Strauss believes that everything comes in form into the mind, and that the form comes in pairs of opposites but I really don't understand why this statement is made.

4.) Separate units have no meaning in language because there are no polar opposites. In our society we usually speak using opposites like hot and cold or light and dark. We hardly ever use separate units because there's nothing for it to compare to.

5.) It is the way they are assembled that is crucial because "in both language and myths, the separate units have no meanings". So if we are told a myth assembled with separate units, it will be harder to pass down from generation to generation since we have no meanings for separate units in our language.

6.) Structuralism has the structural principle that society comes before individuals.

Chapter 8: Questions for Discussion and Further Research

1.) E.B. Tyler explained culture as "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." So, he pretty much gives the basic definition of culture as anyone else would describe it.

2.) The only thing I would probably add is religion, because most people in the same culture practice the same religion. Other than that, I think Tyler explains culture pretty well.

3.) We know this because our unconscious is based on our unconscious and anthropologists can study this as long as the analysis is carried on long enough since it is all pretty much the same for all minds, all the way back to ancient times.

4.) He argues this because even though there may be different cultures, our minds still work the same way. Our unconscious is still based on what our conscious is and it is all the same "ancient and modern, primitive and civilized".

5.) We are all made the same way, even though we are in different cultures, our minds still work the same way. Yes, the way we think may have changed a little but the way our brains work has not changed.

6.) Collective phenomena can be unconscious because it is affected by the conscious. For example, language we learn at such a young age because we learn from our parents or anyone else who surrounds us at a young age, but it's through osmosis that we really learn the rules for speaking so it is all done unconsciously.

Chapters 5 & 6

Chapter 2: Questions for Discussion and Further Research

1.) When Culler says "society is the primary reality" he means that the normal things that happen in society is what people think of as reality.

2.) Society can "precede" the individual because the whole of society makes up the meanings of things. Things become more popular as a group than if it was done by one person.

3.) Society isn't the result of individual behavior because nothing comes from just one person's actions. There has to a whole group acting as one in order for it to actually become an actual society.

4.) The underlying basis of the science of semiotics for Culler is that there has to be "an underlying system of conventions which makes this meaning possible." There must be a society that teaches the meaning of semiotics if there is a society that uses them.

5.) It is incorrect to say that the individual doesn't think. The individual does think, but just because they think does not make them a society. The individual has thoughts, but its only when a group of individuals have thoughts when they can create a society.

6.) The term "self-made man/woman" is an illusion because we are all influenced by other people or things. We are not self-made, we are made from what surrounds us and what we are influenced by.

Chapter 6: Questions for Discussion and Further Research

1.) Restricted and elaborated codes affect people's lives because they help children interpret the world. However their parents speak, either in elaborated or restricted codes, that is most likely how the child will end up speaking.

2.) Elaborated code is kind of connected to the way upper-class English people speak because it is more complex grammar and it is just a more proper way of speaking. Restricted code is related to the way middle-class English people speak because it is simple grammar and it is just the normal laid back way that people speak.

3.) In the book, Bernstein talks about how if you learn a code with a low level of conceptualization then you will most likely have a more "simplistic perspective on things". I would say that I agree with this, and that could be a positive or negative thing. If you learn a code with a high level of conceptualization then maybe you will think more deeply about things. All of this could be looked at in a positive or negative way.

4.) Language codes shape future behavior because when children are young, they are taught either elaborated code or restricted code and they interpret everything they take in through whatever code they are learning. Whatever the child's parents use to speak with, the child will most likely do the same.

5.) I think the coding notion does help explain the "culture of poverty" a little bit. It may be hard to understand what they're going through or what they're trying to explain to you because of the codes but at the same time, I believe that someone will an elaborated code should be able to figure out any other code lower than the one they're using.

6.) I believe that my mom spoke in an elaborated code but my dad spoke in a restricted code. When I was younger and my mom would be talking about something, I would always have to ask her what certain words meant and give examples of those words. When my dad would be talking, I could usually understand what he was talking about without having to ask him a ton of questions.

7.) I don't believe that the mass media has affected the codes people learn because we catch on to the codes from our parents at such a young age that I think at that point, we aren't really affected by the mass media.

Chapter 2

Questions for Discussion and Further Research

1.) Sassure defines a sign by saying "The linguistic sign unites not a thing and its name, but a concept and a sound-image." By this, he means that a sign is formed from an idea and a sound.

2.) The relationship between a signifier and a signified is random and "based on convention". Society gives meanings to words and they can all be changed.

3.) Sassure is saying that concepts are just technical, defined mostly by what they are not instead of what they are.

4.) He says that in language there are only difference because in our language we always think in opposites. It is never "I'm happy" then "I'm unhappy", it's "I'm happy" then "I'm sad".

5.) Language is a social institution, speech is individual and social, and parole is just individual.

6.) I would have to say it is Parole because I'm wearing it to be comfortable and I'm not wearing it for anyone else but myself. If I were more dressed up then it would either be Language or Speech.

Chapters 4 & 9

Chapter 4: Questions for Discussion and Further Research

1.) Freud believes that "no" does not exist in dreams because dreams take in any element possible and anything can pretty much come out representing that element. If you hate someone, in your dreams, you may love them.  Anything can be twisted around but it all means something in the end.

2.) A word can have two meanings that are the opposites of one another because the meanings of words can change over time.

3.) I always thought the iceberg model was an interesting way of putting Freud's theories.  I do believe that it does justice to his theories because he believed that there was so much more to the mind that we could really see and learn about.  Only a very small amount of what people are thinking is consciousness, the rest is mostly unconsciousness. 

4.) Reaction formation is when a feeling is expressed, like hate, but the opposite feeling, love, is adopted.

5.) I would have to say that most people in the United States are dominated by their ids.  It seems it might be impossible not to be dominated by their ids because everything is almost always considered sexual now. You can refer anything back to sexuality if you try to.

6.) A cigar is only a cigar when it is not meant to be sexual.

Chapter 9: Questions for Discussion and Further Research

1.) Metaphor: based on analogy and similarity - talking about one thing in terms of another

Simile: based on analogy but more with comparison

Metonymy: associating things with other things

Synecdoche: a form of metonymy in which a part is used to stand for the whole

2.) I believe that our conceptual system is fundamentally metaphoric because people never say what they mean anymore, whether it's because they're afraid of expressing themselves or some other reason.  People constantly use metaphors to try and explain how they're really feeling. 

3.) Just like I said before, people use metaphors to cover up how they really may be feeling, maybe by putting it in a more gentle way.

4.) A concept is a general notion or idea and concepts affect our behavior because they "structure what we perceive" and they help to define what happens to us every day.

5.) Depending on the person looking at the snake, they can think different things.  Nobody thinks the same way and has the same ideas when they see a snake.

6.) "Metaphors shape our notions about what we can expect, so they play a much more important part in our lives than we might imagine." Couch potato - lazy person

Chapters 1 & 3

Chapter 1: Questions for Discussion and Further Research 

1.) When language is considered a "game", they are talking about how languages have rules and people have to follow those rules in order to speak a language, just like they have to follow certain rules to play games.

2.) I do not necessarily think that a conversation is a game just because language is considered a game. Yes, you have to follows certain rules for a language but during conversation, depending on who it is with, you don't always have to follow the rules of the language.

3.) Farb says that language "has the power to shape our perceptions of the world" and that using language is just conveying information, feelings, and other things.

4.) Language is what helps shape us. He says "It is language that is the cornerstone of culture, and it is words and the rules that ell us how to use them that shape, in varying degrees, our sense of ourselves and of our place in the universe." Without language, there wouldn't be much more to life because there would be minimal ways of expressing yourself.

5.) A game has rules just like language, and over time, as the game progresses, you will usually progress. As you grow up, you become more familiar with the language and it expands.

Chapter 3: Questions for Discussion and Further Research

1.) It would not be better to celebrate "unbirthdays" because then our birthdays would not be considered very special days.

2.) Humpty Dumpty was incorrect when he thought words could mean whatever he wanted them to mean.  This was wrong because if people want to use words to communicate, the words have to mean the same thing to people.

3.) Connotation is the secondary meaning of a word and denotation is the direct meaning of word.

4.) Dictionary makers could be considered the "masters" of what words mean just because they are the people who kind of set in stone the meanings of words.

5.) If words would mean whatever we wanted them to mean, we would not be able to communicate with others just like I said in number two.

Word that played an important role in the history of the US: Democracy

Word that played an important role in my life: Cottage

Word that has changed meaning through the years: Coke, screw, hoe, wicked