Re: Semiotics
@ K. 2004 02 25
Reference: Ogden & Richards, The Meaning of Meaning, 1923
Symbolism is the study of the part played in human affairs by language and symbols of all kinds, and especially of their influence on Thought.It singles out for special inquiry the ways in which symbols help us and hinder us in reflecting on things.
“Words, as every one now knows, ‘mean’ nothing by themselves, although the belief that they did … was once equally universal. It is only when a thinker makes use of them that they stand for anything, or, in one sense, have ‘meaning’.”
I imitate their graphic (Chapter One):
| causal relation | Thought or Reference |
causal relation |
| SYMBOL |
Stands for (an imputed relation) |
REFERENT |
“Symbol and Referent … are not connected directly (and when, for grammatical reasons, we imply such a relation, it will merely be an imputed, not a real, relation) but only indirectly round the two sides of the triangle.”
pk hammers it: The relation between symbol and referent is indirect: the base of the triangle is not filled in.
I’ll expand on those implications which I see as key when I return.
