Structuralism

Description
Structuralism assumes that things are the sum of their parts and the relationships between the parts, which are assembled into the larger structure. Thus it combines separation and creation of a distinct part with relational combination of parts into a greater whole. It seeks to describe meta-languages that describe the systems under scrutiny. Structuralism rejects the purposeful human agent as the key force in history.

For parts to be identified, they must have boundaries that separate them as unities. In psychology, structuralism started with William Wundt, who sought to break consciousness down into its constituent parts. In anthropology, meaning seen to be produced and reproduced through practices, phenomena and activities which act as systems of signification. Claude Lvi-Strauss, analyzed cultural phenomena including mythology, kinship, and food preparation. He rejected the purposeful human agent as the motivating force in history. In linguistics, Ferdinand de Saussure used structuralism in his analysis of language and signs, creating Semiotics and his idea of parole (talk) and langue (underlying structured system). He argued that meaning is created inside language in the difference between words.

Discussion
Structuralism aligns with the positivist viewpoint, but not with postmodernism.

See also: Post-structuralism

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La definicin de semitica de Saussure. Segn Saussure la lengua es un sistema de signos que expresan ideas y, por esa razn, es comparable con la escritura, el alfabeto de los sordomudos, los ritos simblicos, las formas de cortesa, las seales militares, etc. Simplemente es el ms importante de dichos sistemas. As, pues, podemos concebir una ciencia que estudie la vida de los signos en el marco de la vida social; podra formar parte de la psicologa social y, por consiguiente, de la psicologa general; nosotros vamos a llamarla semiologa (del griego , signo). Podra decirnos en qu consisten los signos, qu leyes los regulan. Como todava no existe, no podemos decir cmo ser; no obstante, tiene derecho a existir y su lugar est determinado desde el punto de partida. La definicin de Saussure es muy importante y ha servido para desarrollar una conciencia semitica. Su definicin de signo como entidad de dos caras (signifiant y signifi) ha anticipado y determinado todas las definiciones posteriores de la funcin semitica. Y en la medida en que la relacin entre significante y significado se establece sobre la base de un sistema de reglas (la lange), la semiologa saussureana puede parecer una semiologa rigurosa de la significacin. (Curso de lingstica general, -Ttulo original: Cours de linguistique gnrale - , Editorial Losada, Buenos Aires, 1970, p. 60. Citado por Umberto Eco. Tratado de semitica general. Editoriales Nueva Imagen y Lumen. Traduccin de Carlos Manzano. Ttulo original: A theory of semiotics. Mxico, 1978, pp. 43 y 45).

Langue and Parole

Description Langue and parole are more than just 'language and speech' (although this is a useful quick way of remembering them).
Langue

used, and therefore enabling these two very different things to be studied as separate entities. As a structuralist, Saussure was interested more in la langue than parole. It was the system by which meaning could be created that was of interest rather than individual instances of its use. Marxist Mikhail Bakhtin (1929) criticized the splitting of langue and parole as separating individuals and society where it matters most, at the point of production. He developed a 'dialogic' theory of utterances where language is understood in terms of how it orients the speaker/writer to the listener/reader. Words are subject to negotiation, contest and struggle. Language is strongly affected by social context. Modification of langue at the point of parole is used to create new meaning, either where the speaker has limited grasp of language or where deliberate distortion is used.

La langue is the whole system of language that precedes and makes speech possible. A sign is a basic unit of langue. Learning a language, we master the system of grammar, spelling, syntax and punctuation. These are all elements of langue. Langue is a system in that it has a large number of elements whereby meaning is created in the arrangements of its elements and the consequent relationships between these arranged elements.
Parole

See also
Synchrony and Diachrony

Parole is the concrete use of the language, the actual utterances. It is an external manifestation of langue. It is the usage of the system, but not the system. By defining Langue and Parole, Saussure differentiates between the language and how it is

Semiotics
Description
Semiotics (also called Semiology) is the study of signs and their use. Two key elements of a sign are signifier and signified. Saussure defined Semiotics as 'the science of signs' with the purpose of understand systematic regularities from which meaning is derived (and is hence a Structuralist and Constructionalist approach). The word 'semiotics' was first used by John Locke in the 17th century. In modern times, groundwork was done by American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce who defined a sign as 'something which stands to somebody for something.' He grouped signs into three main types:

Icons, which resemble the referent, such as road signs. Indices, which are related to the referent, such as smoke indicating fire. Symbols, which are related to the referent only by convention. This includes words.

Semiotics often generates different viewpoints, for example in the the way that Lacan defines the subconscious as a 'sliding set of signifiers' and downplays the existence of the signified. Language creates meaning through a system of differences. Meaning is thus relative and contrastive, needing two things to give one thing meaning.

Like Levi-Strauss' Anthropology, language is consistent with everyday needs, but is not determined by them. Much is a system of symbolism that can be determined by studying societies to determine differential features of relationships.

instances. A signifier without signified has no meaning, and the signified changes with person and context. For Saussure, even the root concept is malleable. The relationship between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary (Saussure called this 'unmotivated'). A real object need not actually exist 'out there'. Whilst the letters 'c-a-t' spell cat, they do not embody 'catness'. The French 'chat' is not identical to the English 'cat' in the signified that it creates (to the French, 'chat' has differences of meaning). In French, 'mouton' means both 'mutton' and a living 'sheep', whilst the English does not differentiate. Saussure inverts the usual reflectionist view that the signifier reflects the signified: the signifier creates the signified in terms of the meaning it triggers for us. The meaning of a sign needs both the signifier and the signified as created by an interpreter. A signifier without a signified is noise. A signified without a signifier is impossible. Language is a series of 'negative' values in that each sign marks a divergence of meaning betweens signs. Words have meaning in the difference and relationships with other words. The language forms a 'conceptual grid', as defined by structural anthropologist Edmund Leach, which we impose on the world in order to make sense. Lacan defined the unconscious as being structured like language and dealing with a shifting set of signifiers. When we think in words and images, these still signify: they are not the final signified, which appears as a more abstract sensation. In that we can never know the Real, the external signified can neither be truly known. Jaques Derrida criticized the neat simplicity of signs. The signifier-signified is stable only if one term is final and incapable of referring beyond itself, which is not true. Meaning is deferred as you slide between signs.

See also
Signifier and Signified

Signifier and Signified

Description Saussure's 'theory of the sign' defined a sign as being made up of the matched pair of signifier and signified.
Signifier:

A word is simply a jumble of letters. The pointing finger is not the star. It is in the interpretation of the signifier that meaning is created.
Signified

The signified is the concept, the meaning, the thing indicated by the signifier. It need not be a 'real object' but is some referent to which the signifier refers. The thing signified is created in the perceiver and is internal to them. Whilst we share concepts, we do so via signifiers. Whilst the signifier is more stable, the signified varies between people and contexts. The signified does stabilize with habit, as the signifier cues thoughts and images.

Discussion
The signifier and signified, whilst superficially simple, form a core element of semiotics. Saussure's ideas are contrary to Plato's notion of ideas being eternally stable. Plato saw ideas as the root concept that was implemented in individual

See also
Semiotics, Use of Language, Diffrance, Structuralism