Theories of language and representation
Theories of language and representation The way we communicate and share ideas and concepts in our society is complex. How do we conceptualize ideas and explain them to others? How does discourse work and how do we understand each other? What is truth and what is not? Many questions can be asked about how language, discourse and representation are organized and the way they work. Implicit rules of communication exist in our society without even being aware of them. Saussure, Barthe and Foucault are three theorists who took different directions in answering these questions. I will discuss their research and findings which are known as Saussure's Social Constructionist view of language and representation, the Semiotic Approach of Roland Barthe, and Foucault's explication of Discourse, Knowledge, and Power. Saussure, the father of modern linguistics, contributed to a general semiotic approach. He was interested in how we understand meaning and how representation works. He saw language as a system of signs, which conveys information to us and gives meaning to us. Signs are meant to communicate ideas and concepts. He divided the system of language into three interrelated parts, which are the signifier, the signified and the sign
Foucault started the analysis with culture instead of with the object itself. Continuing with the same example, there are many investigators on the murder scene searching for evidence. For example, if after having seen a scene once and having noticed the knife after one of the policemen pointed it out, you could reward and watch the scene over again. For instance, high could not be understood without low, in the same way that cold could not be understood without hot. Then, we relate it to the situation. However, this time, the knife will already exist before the dialogue between the two policemen because it has already been acknowledged. First the signifiers and the signifieds unite to form a sign, which creates an understood object. For example, for one society, a bottle of water (the signifier) means life and luxury (the signified), while for another it simply means wet. The knife that we see under the table is an object. Without this explanation, it was hard to use his approach in real life. The characters as well as the mise en scene and the dialogue are the signs, which give to us meaning and representation of a specific scene. I will analyze one film technique by taking Foucault's theory on the existence of things. Representation was the production of knowledge rather than simply the production of meaning called discourse. Later, Barthe applied Saussure's linguistic approach to a broader field by analyzing it more in depth.
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Power Saussure,
Barthe Foucault,
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Saussure's Social,
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constructionist view language,
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