3. What is Structuralism
Structuralism is a 20th Century intellectual movement
and approach to the human sciences (it has had a
profound effect on linguistics, sociology, anthropology
and other fields in addition to philosophy) that
attempts to analyze a specific field as a complex
system of interrelated parts.
A system in which each element in a group can only be
understood by its relation to other elements as part of
a larger structure.
4. Sigmund Freud
Freud’s passion for psychology
and for giving an explanation to
everything made him one of the
founding fathers of psychology
as a science. He strove to find
new ways that seemed to
explain and defies things that
had never before been
questioned so deeply. This is
why Structuralism finds many
roots in psychology.
5. Claude Levi-Strauss
It was during Levi-
Strauss’s period in the
US that “structural
anthropology” became
constructed. This led
to what has come to
known as
“structuralism”
6. Wilhelm Wundt
1832-1920
Established first Psychology
Lab in Germany
Defined psychology as the
science of human mind and
consciousness
Used the method of objective
introspection to identify the
basic mental elements
9. Ferdinand de Saussure
Swiss Linguist 1857-1913
Father of Structuralism
Credited for founding
Semiotics (he called it
Semiology)
10. Semiology
is the study of meaning-
making, the study of sign
processes and meaningful
communication
11. three branches
Semantics: relation between signs and the
things to which they refer; their
signified denotata, or meaning
Syntactics: relations among or between signs in
formal structures
Pragmatics: relation between signs and sign-
using agents or interpreters
14. The way these words ‘fit’ in the context of each
language as a whole helps to define what we think of
when we see this picture
In English, a dog
In Spanish, un perro
In German, ein Hund
In French, le chien
15. Saussure’s Definition of Language
All language is made of signs
By putting together signs it is possible to
create complex messages
Each sign has two parts: signifier and
signified
16. Sign Part 1: Signifier
“ The psychological imprint of the
sound, the impression it makes on our
senses”
(how we think of something in our
head)
“sound-image”
17. Sign part 2: Signified
The concept or essence of
something
What the signifier is referring to
(the sound “dog” refers to the
concept of a dog)
21. The nature of signs
Arbitrary- meaning there is
no natural connection
between signifier and
signified
22. But what about….
Onomatopoeia and Interjections
Still arbitrary, since each language
has a slightly different version of
them
23. String signs together to create
more complex meaning
Ex. The bird barks the dog at
Becomes: the dog barks at the bird
But not; barks the bird at the dog, bird dog barks
at the the, dog at bird the barks the
24. Syntagm
An ordered series of signs that
make sense.
The signs make sense because of
their relation to other signs
25. Associations
Words related to a word (through
meaning, letter, composition,
sound, etc)
Unlike in syntagms, order does
not matter
26. ASSOCIATIVE
Signs are stored in your memory, for example, not in syntagmatic
links or sentences, but in ASSOCIATIVE groups.
"Education" "-tion":education, relation, association
Similar associations: education, teacher, textbook, college,
expensive.
Random set of linkages: education, baseball, computer games,
psychoanalysis
ASSOCIATIVE relations are only in your head, not in the
structure of language itself, whereas SYNTAGMATIC relations
are a product of linguistic structure.
27. LINGUISTICVALUE
Thought is a shapeless mass, which is only ordered by language.
One of the questions philosophers have puzzled over for
centuries is whether ideas can exist at all without language. No
ideas preexist language; language itself gives shape to ideas and
makes them expressible.
The VALUE of a sign is determined, however, not by what
signifiers get linked to what particular signified, but rather by the
whole system of signs used within a community. VALUE is the
product of a system or structure (LANGUE), not the result of
individual relations (PAROLE).
28. Langue: The structure of the language that is
mastered and shared by its speakers. It refers
about all the rules of the language (grammar,
syntax…)
Parole: It is the individual’s actual speech
utterances and writing. It refers about colloquial
(popular) language.
29. Structuralism as a philosophical
stance
Structuralists are interested in the interrelationship between
UNITS ( also called "surface phenomena," )
and RULES (the ways that units can be put together. )
In language: units are words and the rules are the forms of
grammar which order words. In different languages, the grammar rules
are different, as are the words, but the structure is still the same in all
languages: words are put together within a grammatical system to
make meaning.
30. an example of this using literature
Three characters:
princess, stepmother, and prince
a princess is persecuted by a stepmother and
rescued (and married) by a prince
Cinderella
“units” are: princess, stepmother, and prince
"rules" are: stepmothers are evil, princesses
are victims, and princes and princesses have
to marry.
31. A more formal definition:
a structure is any conceptual system that has the following
three properties:
Wholeness. This means that the system functions as a whole, not just as a
collection of independent parts.
Transformation. This means that the system is not static, but capable of
change. New units can enter the system, but when they do they're
governed by the rules of the system.
Self-Regulation. This is related to the idea of transformation. You can add
elements to the system, but you can't change the basic structure of the
system no matter what you add to it. The transformations of a system
never lead to anything outside the system.
32. Conclusion: Saussure's structuralism is based
upon three assumptions
the systematic nature of language, where
the whole is greater than the sum of its
parts
the relational conception of the elements
of language, where linguistic "entities" are
defined in relationships of combination and
contrast to one another
the arbitrary nature of linguistic elements,
where they are defined in terms of the
function and purpose they serve rather than
in terms of their inherent qualities
The linguistic SIGN (a key word) is made of the union of a concept and a sound image. A more common way to define a linguistic SIGN is that a SIGN is the combination of a SIGNIFIER and a SIGNIFIED. Saussure says the sound image is the SIGNIFIER and the concept the SIGNIFIED.
The SIGN, as union of a SIGNIFIER and a SIGNIFIED, has two main characteristics.
This principle dominates all ideas about the STRUCTURE of language. It makes it possible to separate the signifier and signified, or to change the relation between them.
The second characteristic of the SIGN is that the signifier exists in TIME, and that time can be measured as LINEAR.