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http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://we.excelalways.net/techbiz/wp-content/uploads/paradigm-shift.gif&imgrefurl=http://we.excelalways.net/techbiz/ptc/why-are-we-here&usg=__oWNPkEyfCoUUidwI279BTh_E1s4=&h=831&w=618&sz=25&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=4WFvn3NImmNm1M:&tbnh=144&tbnw=107&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dparadigm%2Bshift%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7SNYJ%26um%3D1

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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Duck-Rabbit_illusion.jpg

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Dis(order)

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You may see the world around youdevastated by evil lunatics, or know your

honor trampled in the sewers of baser

minds. There is only one thing for it then

to learn. Learn why the world wags and

what wags it.

--T.H.White, The Once and Future King

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Why theory?

The main reason for studying theory at the same time asliterature is that it forces you to deal consciously with theproblem of ideologies...There are many truths and the one youwill find depends partly on the ideology you start with.[Studying theory] means you can take your own part in thestruggles for power between different ideologies. It helps you

to discover elements of your own ideology, and understandwhy you hold certain values unconsciously. It means noauthority can impose a truth on you in a dogmatic way--and ifsome authority does try, you can challenge that truth in apowerful way, by asking what ideology it is based on... Theoryis subversive because it puts authority in question.

- Bonnycastle, In Search o f Au tho r i ty, p. 34

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ideology

The term ideology describes the

beliefs, attitudes, and habits of feeling

which a society inculcates in order to

generate an automatic reproduction ofits structuring premises. Ideology is

what preserves social power in the

absence of direct coercion.(Ryan)

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Until lions tell their stories, tales

of hunting will glorify the hunter. African proverb

truth told by the ones in power

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Literary theory can handle Bob Dylan

just as well as John Milton.

-Terry Eagleton

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Now we can treat this image

as part of a system thatsignifies a practice...

The world as a text...

Empiricists would name a thing

or a mental object

Logos would hold that meaning is

inherent ....

There is always something yet

to be determined

Once upon a time, this

picture represented

only a bird ...

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Paradigm shift

in the Structure of Scientific Revolution

(1962), Thomas Kuhn demonstrated how

all knowledge produced within

communities condition the questions whichmight be posed. This framework of

knowledge is termed as paradigm.

Radical reconstitution of facts occur within acommunity

Copernican shift

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The Name Game

Now the LORD God hadformed out of the ground allthe beasts of the field and allthe birds of the air. He broughtthem to the man to see what

he would name them; andwhatever the man called eachliving creature, that was itsname. So the man gavenames to all the livestock, thebirds of the air and all the

beasts of the field. Genesis2:19-20.

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Structuralist Philosophy

Language and history precede the self. We areborn into a world where language is alreadythere and history has already decided howlanguage will be used.

Before Saussaure, the study of language (philology) was essentiallyhistorical, tracing change and development in phonology andsemantics within and between languages or groups of languages.

Diachronic linguistics or historical linguistics: Language, seen thus, is a word-heap gradually accumulated over time and its

primary function is to refer to things in the world.

In other words, words are mere symbols that correspond toreferents.

The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure raised the following twoquestions that helped the development of structuralism: What is the object of linguistic investigation?

What is the relationship between words and things?

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Saussures semiotics (science of signs)

is a scientific reexamination of language.

Language is systematic (the whole is greater

than the sum of its parts);

Its elements are relational

The nature of linguistic elements are arbitrary

(i.e. functional) Language has a social nature

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Linguistic turn

In a series of lectures given by Ferdinand deSaussure, the Swiss linguist proposed anabandonment of analytical perspectives in orderto use language as the norm of all othermanifestation of speech

Language is not simply a tool devised for therepresentation of a pre-existing reality It is rather a constitutive part of reality, deeply

implicated in the way the world is constructed asmeaningful

Langue and parole

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Language, seen thus, is a word-heap gradually

accumulated over time and its primary function

is to refer to things in the world.

In other words, words are mere symbols thatcorrespond to referents.

Before Saussure, the study of language (philology)

was essentially historical, tracing change and

development in phonology and semantics within andbetween languages or groups of languages.

Diachronic linguistics

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Langue and Parole

Saussure focuses on what makes a language what it is at any given

moment, forgetting about time altogether.

Synchronicl inguistics.

Synchronic linguistics studies what he calls la langue (which is

French for "language"):: the language system. an arrangement of interrelated elements and accounts for the

way these elements relate to each other. The elements in

Saussures language system are signs.

It is because of the specific ways in which these signs interrelate

in the system that it is possible to say anything at all. When we do say anything it is an instance of what Saussure

calls parole (French for speech).

An instance of parole can be called an utterance. An utterance is

any meaningful event that has been made possible and

governed to an extent by a pre-existing system of signs.

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The Cat

Etymology: Middle English, from Old

English catt, probably from Late

Latin cattus, catta cat. Date:

before 12th century.

1 a: a carnivorous mammal (Felis

catus) long domesticated as a petand for catching rats and mice b:

any of a family (Felidae) of

carnivorous usually solitary and

nocturnal mammals (as the

domestic cat, lion, tiger, leopard,

jaguar, cougar, wildcat, lynx, andcheetah).

2: a malicious woman.

3: a strong tackle used to hoist an

anchor to the cathead of a ship.

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Ferdinand de Saussure and structural linguistics

Course on General Linguist ics(1915).

He understood language as a

differential system.

Meaning is a function of difference, not

identity.

There isno "identity," no natural relation,

between word and thing.

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1. Structuralism as a method of

classification

a. underlying or hidden principles

b. internalization of conceptual

frameworks

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i. a system of signs

ii. Sign = signifier + signified

The sign (or word) is made up of two parts,

a signifier (the acoustic image) and a

signified (the mental concept).

iii, Any signifier that does not evoke asignified is not a word.

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Signs dont have to be words of

course.

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i. If the basic units of language can be analyzed as signsystems, then it must be possible to categorize largerunits of language

ii. If words can be understood as signs, than cant we do

the same for all forms of meaning-making?iii. Structural Anthropology. An entry point for cultural

analysis.

Structuralists are interested in the interrelationshipbetween UNITS ( also called "surface phenomena," )

and

RULES (the ways that units can be put together. )

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Structuralism

The structuralists drew an analogy betweenlanguage systems and social systems

Language has a systematic (synchronic) as well

as a historical (diachronic) form They defined societies as complex systemsruled by a social contract The participant are not always conscious of this

(latent) contract

Structuralism is a unified theory that aims toestablish the overall structure of society at large

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Language and society

What is the status of words in society

Is literature to be compared to ritual, or does it

work in a distinctively different way?

According to Geoffrey Hartman, these questionslead to two important discoveries:

1. Myths and arts, as models productive of social

cohesion, have an exemplary role in society2. All myths are homologous in structure as well

as analogous in function.

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An example

Three characters: princess, stepmother,and prince

A princess is persecuted by a stepmotherand rescued (and married) by a prince

ex. Cinderellaunits are:princess, stepmother, and prince

"rules"are: stepmothers are evil, princessesare victims, and princes and princesses

have to marry.

Structuralism analyses the relationshipbetween units and rules.

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Structuralist notions on units and rules

Structuralists believe that the underlying structures whichorganize units and rules into meaningful systems aregenerated by the human mind itself, and not by senseperception.

As such, the mind is itself a structuring mechanismwhich looks through units and files them according torules.

So structuralism sees itself as a science of humankind,and works to uncover all the structures that underlie all

the things that humans do, think, perceive, and feel

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Structuralist analysis posits these systems

as universal Every human mind in every culture at every point

in history has used some sort of structuringprinciple to organize and understand culturalphenomena.

Every human culture has some sort of language,which has the basic structure of all language:words/phonemes are combined according to agrammar of rules to produce meaning.

Every human culture similarly has some sort ofsocial organization

All of these organizations are governed,according to structuralism, by structures which

are universal.

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Structure

A structure is any conceptual system that has the followingthree properties:

Wholeness:

This means that the system functions as a whole, not just as acollection of independent parts.

Transformat ion: This means that the system is not static, but capable of change.

New units can enter the system, but when they do they'regoverned by the rules of the system.

Self-Regulation: This is related to the idea of transformation. You can add

elements to the system, but you can't change the basic structureof the system no matter what you add to it. The transformationsof a system never lead to anything outside the system.

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Saussure ideas on linguisticsI: THE NATURE OF THE L INGUISTIC SIGN

Language is based on a NAMING process, by which things get

associated with a word or name.

The linguistic SIGN (a key word) is made of the union of aconceptand a sound image. A more common way to define a linguistic SIGN

is that a SIGN is the combination of a SIGNIFIER and a SIGNIFIED.

Saussure saysthe sound image is the SIGNIFIER and the conceptthe SIGNIFIED.

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The SIGN, as union of a SIGNIFIER and a SIGNIFIED, has two main characteristics.

The SIGN, as union of a SIGNIFIER and a SIGNIFIED,has two main characteristics.

This principle dominates all ideas about the STRUCTUREof language. It makes it possible to separate the signifier

and signified, or to change the relation between them.

The second characteristic of the SIGN is thatthe signifier exists in TIME, and that time can be

measured as LINEAR.

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II: LINGUISTIC VALUE

Thought is a shapeless mass, which is only ordered bylanguage. One of the questions philosophers havepuzzled over for centuries is whether ideas can existat all without language. No ideas preexist language;language itself gives shape to ideas and makes themexpressible.

The VALUE of a sign is determined, however, not bywhat signifiers get linked to what particularsignifieds, but rather by the whole system of signs

used within a community. VALUE is the product of asystem or structure (LANGUE), not the result ofindividual relations (PAROLE).

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III.SYNTAGMATIC AND ASSOCIATIVE RELATIONS

The most important kind of relation between units in a signifying system, is a

SYNTAGMATIC relation. This means, basically, a LINEAR relation. In spoken

or written language, words come out one by one .Because language is linear, it

forms a chain, by which one unit is linked to the next.

An example The cat sat on the mat

The mat sat on the cat

English word order :SVO

Japanese word order:SOV etc.

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SYNTAGMS

Combinations or relations formed by position within a

chain are called SYNTAGMS.

The terms within a syntagm acquire VALUE only

because theystand in opposition to everything before orafter them. Each termIS something because it is NOTsomething else in the sequence.

SYNTAGMATIC relations are most crucial in written and

spokenlanguage, in DISCOURSE, where the ideas oftime, linearity, andsyntactical meaning are important.

ASSOCIATIVE

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ASSOCIATIVE

Signs are stored in your memory, for example, not in

syntagmatic links or sentences, but in ASSOCIATIVE groups.

"Education" "-tion":education, relation, association

Similar associations: education, teacher, textbook, college,

expensive.

Random set of linkages: education, baseball, computer

games, psychoanalysis

ASSOCIATIVE relations are only in your head, not in thestructure of language itself, whereas SYNTAGMATIC

relations

are aproduct of linguistic structure.

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Conclusion: Saussure's structuralism is

based upon three assumptions

the systematicnature of language, where the

whole is greater than the sum of its parts

the relationalconception of the elements of

language, where linguistic "entities" are defined in

relationships of combination and contrast to one

another

the arbitrary nature of linguistic elements, wherethey are defined in terms of the function and

purpose they serve rather than in terms of their

inherent qualities

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The Structuralists

Saussure (Course in general linguistics, 1915) holds that linguisticsis only a part of the general science of semiology [signs]): 1. What isthe object of linguistic investigation? 2. What is the relationshipbetween words and things? Langue (social system) and Parole(individual utterance)

Levi-Strauss sought the common element of all cultures, traceable

ultimately to universal structures embedded deep in the human mind(The Raw and the Cooked). Mythemes.

Vladimir Propp (1928) studied fairytales to trace 7 possiblecharacters and 31 functions.

A.J. Greimas (Structural Semiotics 1966) combined Saussure andLevi-Strauss to find a pattern for all stories, centring on the conflict

between the heros quest for individual freedom and the constraintsof the existing order.

Roland Barthe in S/Z: to see whole landscape in a bean to see allthe worlds stories within a single culturethe text thereby loses itsdifference.

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