Download Theories of Meaning

What is communication?
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Transmission
Message
Clarity of transmission and reception
Mutual understanding
Layers of meanings, “winks upon winks”
Sensemaking, reflection, and telling
One cannot not communicate
Communication - Culture
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Culture shapes language choice
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Culture shapes language use
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Language use shapes culture
Modernist
Communication is
a tool we use
within culture
Communication is
a transmission or
transaction
Language reflects
or depicts reality
Social Constructionist
Culture evolves from
Communication
Communication is a
continuous relationship
Language
constructs reality
Theories of Meaning
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Modernist:
Picture Theory of Language
(represented well by Ludwig Wittgenstein)
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Social Constructionist:
Entitlement Theory of Language
(represented well by Kenneth Burke)
Picture Theory
Language is a representation of reality
 Language presents a picture of reality
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Entitlement Theory
Language filters and organizes reality.
 We use language to name; therefore shape
and delimit our reality
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Entitlement through Texts
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E.g.: Ritual of reading newspapers
E.g.: Superbowl viewing
E.g.: Reading articles for class
Filters our experience of the world
Tells us what’s important
Builds a particular view of reality
Over time, becomes reality
Naming and Framing Reality
Irving Goffman, social psychologist writing in
the ’60s.
Studying the way that neuroses get built
through language (which informs science,
which informs language…)
Talked about how we frame our experiences
Naming and Framing Reality
Experience builds frames
 Language choices and limits are built into
frames
 Frames are passed on to children and
students
 Social reality is built….
 On patterns or habits
 through communication interaction
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Naming and framing reality = is
metaphorical process
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Frames are mostly dead metaphors
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“Frame break” = catalyst for change
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Change in thinking is limited by
imagination
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Imagination is limited by root metaphors
Framing our experience of the Internet
Frontier
 Information Superhighway
 Net, Network
 Web
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