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Addresser, Address,
Addressee
three main components of any act of
communication:
someone (addresser) communicates
something (address) to someone
(addressee)
subject position:
'speaking subject' (first person, I/we)
'spoken-about subject' (third person
she/he/they/it)
'spoken-to subject' (second person, you)
Other ways to express relation, depending
on medium
speech: speaker-speech-audience
writing, print: writer-text-reader
theatre, film, TV: performer-play-audience,
producer-programme/film-viewer
We see ADDRESS as something caught in the act between
ADDRESSER and ADDRESSEE
we cannot concentrate only on 'words on the page' =
NEW CRITICISM
or form and structure of text itself = FORMALIST
cannot be fully grasped independantly of relationship
between the elements
This equals a FUNCTIONALIST and CONTEXTUAL
approach to communication
ROMAN JAKOBSON drew attention to other elements
takes place in a general context: (1960s,
Nigeria, President Obama’s bedroom)
involves a specific moment of contact:
(meeting in a bar by chance)
form of a specific message: (sequence of
words or images)
draws on a particular code: (spoken,
written, photography, film)
Addresser-centered communication is expressive
(I feel I need to tell someone...)
Addressee-centered communication is directive
(You, tell him)
Context-centered communication is referential
(That is what she said)
Context-centered communication is phatic and
checks that channels of communication are
open (You know she said that, OK?)
Message-centered communication is poetic and
plays around wtih the materiality of the message
(Telling-shmelling)
Code-centered communication is metalinguistic,
a comment on language in language (I'm telling
you in her very words)
Can help break down act into functions, but basically for a
monologic (one-way, linear) model
direct flow from addresser to addressee, ignores two
way, many-way, dialogic communication
addresser and addresee are usually changing places
exchange and interaction, not just send and receive
distinguish between 'actual' and 'implied' addresees:
NARRATIVE
more than one moment involved
can be a base if all these things kept in mind
Jakobson
Language must be investigated in all the variety of its functions. Before
discussing the poetic function we must define its place among the other
functions of language. An outline of those functions demands a concise
survey of the constitutive factors in any speech event, in any act of
verbal communication. The addresser sends a message to the
addressee. To be operative, the message requires a context referred to,
seizable by the addressee, and either verbal or capable of being
verbalized; a code fully, or at least partially, common to the addresser
and the addressee; and finally, a contact, a physical channel and
psychological connection betweeen the addresser and the addressee,
enabling both of them to enter and stay in communication.
- from “Linguistics and Poetics”
From Beowulf, lines 863-873
At times the war-band broke into a gallop,
letting their chestnut horses race
whenever they found the going good
on those well-known tracks. Meanwhile, a thane
of the king’s household, a carrier of tales,
a traditional singer deeply schooled
in the lore of the past, linked a new theme
to a strict meter. The man started
to recite with skill, rehearsing Beowulf’s
triumphs and feats in well-fashioned lines,
entwining his words.
Stephen Herben, “The Ruin” MLN
(1939)
The poem usually called “The Ruin is to be found
on f. 124 of the Exeter Book, except for its first
seven words which form the last line of the
preceeding folio. The last twelve pages of this
codex have been mutilated by fire, apparently by
a brand which fell upon the book when it was
face down, destroying many lines of text. About
one quater of the poem here considered is thus
irrevocably lost; what remains is excessively
puzzling. The fragment abounds in hapax
legomena, scribal errors and ambiguities. The
poem itself is a ruin.
“The Ruin”
Well-wrought this wall: Wierds broke it.
The stronghold burst....
Snapped rooftrees, towers fallen,
The work of the Giants, the stonesmiths,
Mouldereth.
Rime scoureth gatetowers
rime on mortar.
Shattered the showershields, roofs ruined,
age under-ate them.
And the wielders & wrights?
Earthgrip holds them – gone, long gone,
Fast in gravesgrip while fifty fathers
And sons have passed.