General language

General language

Use this category for general terms related to languages.

Contributors in General language

General language

Greimas introduced the semiotic square as a means of mapping the logical conjunctions and disjunctions relating key semantic features in a text. If we begin by drawing a horizontal line linking two ...

Semiosphere

Language; General language

The Russian cultural semiotician Yuri Lotman coined this term to refer to 'the whole semiotic space of the culture in question' - it can be thought of as a semiotic ecology in which different ...

Semiotic economy

Language; General language

The infinite use of finite elements is a feature which in relation to media in general has been referred to as 'semiotic economy'. The structural feature of double articulation within a semiotic ...

Linguistic universalism

Language; General language

This term refers to the view that, whilst languages vary in their surface structure, every language is based on the same underlying universal structure or laws. In contrast to linguistic relativists, ...

Value

Language; General language

For Saussure language was a relational system of 'values'. He distinguished the value of a sign from its signification or referential meaning. A sign does not have an 'absolute' value in itself - ...

Valorization

Language; General language

Loosely, the term refers to the attribution of value, but it is also used more specifically to refer to its attribution to members of binary semantic oppositions, where one signifier and its ...

Orders of signification

Language; General language

Barthes adopted from Hjelmslev the notion that there are different orders of signification (levels of meaning) in semiotic systems. The first order of signification is that of denotation: at this ...