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Types of signs

Types of signs. Indexical A mode defined by relationship of necessity (especially cause and effect). Prototypically, think fever . Iconic A mode defined by relationship of resemblance . Prototypically, think picture . Symbolic

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Types of signs

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  1. Types of signs • Indexical • A mode defined by relationship of necessity (especially cause and effect). Prototypically, think fever. • Iconic • A mode defined by relationship of resemblance. Prototypically, think picture. • Symbolic • A mode defined by relationship of arbitrariness, convention, and learning. Prototypically, think word. English 306A; Harris

  2. Bow-wow-pooh-pooh-yo-he-ho theories • Index-to-icon-to-symbol migration theories English 306A; Harris

  3. Dimensions of signs • Indexicality An onomasiological tendency defined by relationship of necessity (esp. cause and effect). • Iconicity An onomasiological tendency defined by relationship of resemblance. • Symbolicity An onomasiological tendency defined by relationship of arbitrariness, convention, and learning. English 306A; Harris

  4. Metaphor and metonymy • Indirect representation Something (called the vehicle) carries the primary signification for something else (tenor) that ordinarily holds that signification. • Metaphor is iconic The vehicle/tenor relationship is an asserted resemblance: the tenor is said to be like the vehicle in some way. • Metonymy is indexical The vehicle/tenor relationship is (not exactly necessary but) drawn from the same habitat: the tenor is related to the vehicle in some way. English 306A; Harris

  5. Metonymy—The principle of set membership • One element of a set or a relationship (the vehicle) singled out to represent other element(s) (the tenor) • Hollywood loves westerns. • Toronto collapses! • Calgary wins in OT! • All hands on deck. • Thirty head of cattle. English 306A; Harris

  6. Metaphor—The principle of comparison • One element (the vehicle) represents another element (the tenor), to which it is unrelated. • My love is red, red rose. • Homer is a pig. • Toronto is toast. • The table leg is broken. • The orthopedic wing is closed. • Fire kills thousands every year.(Personification) English 306A; Harris

  7. Metonym • Attributes are picked out (taken as indexical) to represent something associated with those attributes. Like a mascot. Dancin’ Homer English 306A; Harris

  8. Metaphor • Attributes are invoked, by way of resemblance (iconic). • Homer is a pig. • Eats a lot • Noisy • Not very clean. English 306A; Harris

  9. English 306A; Harris

  10. “Pussy” English 306A; Harris

  11. “Pussy” English 306A; Harris

  12. “Pussy” English 306A; Harris

  13. “Pussy” English 306A; Harris

  14. “Pussy” • Metaphor • Tenor = vagina • Vehicle = cat • Attributes • Warm • Furry English 306A; Harris

  15. “Pussy” • Metonymy • Tenor = woman • Vehicle = vagina/pussy • The ultimate devaluing of a (category of a) person: to a small anatomical component. English 306A; Harris

  16. “Pussy” • Metaphor • Tenor = the insult target • Vehicle = woman (not vagina) • Attributes • Weak • Soft • Quitter • Means ‘Opposite of a man’, but in a wholly evaluative way. = English 306A; Harris

  17. “Pussy”Metaphor Metonymy Metaphor • Indexicality, Iconicity • a relatively mundane example of ordinary language • not a fancy literary or rhetorical device • these processes, and figuration generally, are pervasive English 306A; Harris

  18. “Pussy” English 306A; Harris

  19. “Pussy” • Metaphor • Tenor = the insult target • Vehicle = a particular type of woman (still not vagina) • Attributes • Weak • Soft • Quitter • Means ‘the sort of woman that gives all of us a bad name for being weak, soft, quitters’ (?); in a wholly evaluative way. = English 306A; Harris

  20. We now return you to regular programming F English 306A; Harris

  21. Indexicality • Deixis Pointing words • Egocentricity Speaker-oriented • Anthropocentrism Human-oriented • Inherent orientation Human-body orientation projected to objects English 306A; Harris

  22. IndexicalityDeictics • Gk. deiktos ≈ “to show” • Pointing words • Pronouns • Picks out attributes (speaker, hearer, masculine, feminine, …) • Proximals • Speaking location • Speaking time • Relative location to speaker English 306A; Harris

  23. Indexical orientation — Deictic centreEgocentricity • The speaker (or, in a rhetorical extention, the hearer) as the (default) reference point for everything else. • “The squirrel is behind the tree.” • “Mount Pinotubo is on the left” (compare “your left”) English 306A; Harris

  24. Indexical orientation — Deictic centreEgocentricity • Pronouns • First person (I, me, we, us,…) • Second person (you, your) • Third person (he, she, it, they, …) • Proximals • Speaking location (here and there) • Speaking time (now and then) • Relative location to speaker (this and that) English 306A; Harris

  25. Indexicality— Inherent orientationAnthropocentricity • Gk. anthropos ≈ “man” • (hu)man-centred • Human-first (agent-centred) syntax • I feel bad • *Bad is felt by me. • She knows math. • *Math is known by her. English 306A; Harris

  26. IndexicalityAnthropocentricity • Gk. anthropos ≈ “man” • (hu)man-centred • Other objects oriented like humans • front, back • left, right • before, behind English 306A; Harris

  27. Deictic (egocentric) vs. Inherent (anthropocentric) Orientation English 306A; Harris

  28. IndexicalityAnthropocentricity • Gk. anthropos ≈ “man” • (hu)man-centred • Personification • Metaphor sub-type (i.e., iconic) • X is a person • My car just doesn’t want to go. • Unemployment has moved into Canada. • Tuition ate up my wages. English 306A; Harris

  29. IndexicalityAnthropocentricity • Gk. anthropos ≈ “man” • (hu)man-centred • Personification • Metaphor sub-type (i.e., iconic) • X is a person • My car just doesn’t want to go. • Unemployment has moved into Canada. • Tuition ate up my wages. ‘Sentientification’‘organismification’ English 306A; Harris

  30. IndexicalityAnthropocentricity • Gk. anthropos ≈ “man” • (hu)man-centred • Daniel Dennett’s “Intentional stance” English 306A; Harris

  31. “It works with people almost all the time. … Our use of the intentional strategy is so habitual and effortless that the role it plays in shaping our expectations about people is easily overlooked. The strategy also works on most other mammals most of the time. For instance, you can use it to design better traps to catch those mammals, by reasoning about what the creature knows or believes about various things, what it prefers, what it wants to avoid. The strategy works on birds, and on fish, and on reptiles, and on insects and spiders, and even on such lowly and unenterprising creatures as clams (once a clam believes there is danger about, it will not relax its grip on its closed shell until it is convinced that the danger has passed). It also works on some artifacts: the chess-playing computer will not take your knight because it knows that there is a line of ensuing play that would lead to losing its rook, and it does not want that to happen. More modestly, the thermostat will turn off the boiler as soon as it comes to believe the room has reached the desired temperature. The strategy even works for plants. In a locale with late spring storms, you should plant apple varieties that are particularly cautious about concluding that it is spring--which is when they want to blossom, of course. It even works for such inanimate and apparently undesigned phenomena as lightning. An electrician once explained to me how he worked out how to protect my underground water pump from lightning damage: lightning, he said, always wants to find the best way to ground, but sometimes it gets tricked into taking the second-best paths. You can protect the pump by making another, better path more obvious to the lightning.” (Dennett, 1997, 65) English 306A; Harris

  32. Iconicity • Sequential order “Don’t drink and drive” • Distance Immediacy of action • Quantity Reduplication English 306A; Harris

  33. IconicityPrinciple of sequential order • Unless marked, the order of words (by default) mirrors the order of events. • He kicked sand in my face and I got mad. • I got mad and he kicked sand in my face. English 306A; Harris

  34. IconicityPrinciple of distance • Linguistic distance (proximity) tends to mirror conceptual distance. • She squeezed me. • She gave me a squeeze. • She gave a squeeze to me. English 306A; Harris

  35. IconicityPrinciple of quantity • Length of utterance correlates with (speaker’s perception of) quantity of concept. • Dinosaurs lived a l o o o n g time ago. • Dinosaurs lived a long, long, long, … time ago. • Lawyerese. • Political speeches. English 306A; Harris

  36. Iconicity — Principle of quantityReduplication • Japanese hito 'person' hitobito ’group of people' kami 'god' kamigami ’group of gods' • Mandarin xiao 'small' xiaoxiao 'very small' gaoxing 'happy' gaogaoxingxing 'very happy' English 306A; Harris

  37. Iconicity — Principle of quantityReduplication English 306A; Harris

  38. Iconicity — Principle of quantityReduplication Download the SIL IPA fonts to see these transcriptions in PPS files English 306A; Harris

  39. Iconicity — Principle of quantityConceptual Reduplication • Trinidad and Tobago [jEswij] • emphatic confirmation, agreement; interjective intensifier Children at Play, Romeo Downer http://caribbeanartist.com/ English 306A; Harris

  40. Iconicity — Principle of quantityConceptual Reduplication • Trinidad and Tobago [jEswij] • emphatic confirmation, agreement; interjective intensifier • yes-we? Children at Play, Romeo Downer http://caribbeanartist.com/ English 306A; Harris

  41. Iconicity — Principle of quantityConceptual Reduplication • Trinidad and Tobago [jEswij] • emphatic confirmation, agreement; interjective intensifier • yes-we? • yes-whee? Children at Play, Romeo Downer http://caribbeanartist.com/ English 306A; Harris

  42. Iconicity — Principle of quantityConceptual Reduplication • Trinidad and Tobago [jEswij] • emphatic confirmation, agreement; interjective intensifier • yes-we? • yes-whee? • yes-oui! Children at Play, Romeo Downer http://caribbeanartist.com/ English 306A; Harris

  43. Iconicity — Quantity or distance?Politeness/Face preservation • No smoking. • Please, don’t smoke. • Would you mind not smoking? • I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t smoke. • Customers are requested to refrain from smoking if they can. • It would be appreciated deeply by all of us here at Rapperswill Clothiers if you observe our no-smoking policy. English 306A; Harris

  44. Any questions? • Indexicality Necessary linkage; metonymical; linguistic pointing. • Iconicity Representational linkage; metaphorical; linguistic and conceptual linkages. • (Symbolicity “Arbitrary”, conventional linkages; motivations atrophied.) English 306A; Harris

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