General language

General language

Use this category for general terms related to languages.

Contributors in General language

General language

For Hjelmslev and Barthes, the signifiers on the plane of expression were: substance of expression (which included physical materials of the medium - e.g. images and sounds) and form of expression ...

poetic function

Language; General language

In Jakobson's model of linguistic communication the dominance of any one of six factors within an utterance reflects a different linguistic function. In utterances where the poetic function is ...

polysemy

Language; General language

Those who reject textual determinism (such as poststructuralists) emphasize the 'polysemic' nature of texts - their plurality of meanings.

polyvocality

Language; General language

In contrast to univocality, this is the use of multiple voices as a narrative mode within a text, typically in order to encourage diverse readings rather than to promote a preferred reading.

postmodernism

Language; General language

This slippery term, which ostensibly refers to an era succeeding modernism, is philosophically allied with poststructuralism, deconstruction, radical scepticism and relativism - with which it shares ...

poststructuralism

Language; General language

Whilst poststructuralism is often interpreted simply as 'anti-structuralism', it is worth noting that the label refers to a school of thought which developed after, out of, and in relation to ...

pragmatics

Language; General language

Morris divided semiotics into three branches: syntactics, semantics and pragmatics. Pragmatics refers to the study of the ways in which signs are used and interpreted. The interpretation of signs ...