Structuralism 杨品娜 What is Structuralism?

Structuralism

杨品娜

What is Structuralism?

• 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

Major figures

• Ferdinand de Saussure
• Roman Jakobson
• Claude Lévi-Strauss
• A. J. Greimas
• Jonathan Culler
• Roland Barthes
• Vladimir Propp
• Terence Hawkes.

Hawkes:

• Structuralism is a way of thinking about the world which is predominantly concerned with the perceptions and description of structures.
• At its simplest, structuralism claims that the nature of every element in any given situation has no significance by itself, and in fact is determined by all the other elements involved in that situation.
• The full significance of any entity cannot be perceived unless and until it is integrated into the structure of which it forms a part

Ferdinand de Saussure

• 1857-1913
• Credited with founding Semiotics(符号学)(he called it Semiology)
• Class notes compiled into the book Course in General Linguistics 《普通语言学教程》

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

Sign part1: signifier（意指）

• “The psychological imprint of the sound, the impression it makes on our senses”
• ex: thinking in your head
• Also known as: “sound-image”

Sign part 2: signified(所指)

• The concept or essence of something
• What the signifier is referring to(the sound ”dog” refer to the concept of a dog)

The Language is made of signs

The nature of signs→Arbitrary

• Meaning: there's no natural connection between signifier and signified
• Because of the arbitrariness, signs must be agreed on by a goup of people in order to be effective
• Therefore, some languages have words for concepts that don't exist in other languages(incarnadine)