Lexical (semiotics)
Encyclopedia
In the lexicon
of a language
, lexical words or nouns refer to things. These words fall into three main classes:
Other than lexical words, the lexicon consists of functional or grammatical words which do not refer to objects in the world.
of things (e.g. 'animals' or 'insects') or to concept
s (e.g. 'nonhuman'). Depending on the degree of specialisation, language may create a taxonomy
or simple categories, but the act of creating a group by reference to one or more similarities, breaks the natural link between a name and its reality. Hence, "copse" is more than "tree" and less than "forest" and, as spatial areas, both copses and forests contain more than trees.
In semiotics
, the initial view was that language creates perception
s of reality
. By giving salience
to particular characteristics by naming them, the community
is differentiating things from their context. Then, by making a qualitative judgement of sameness, all things sharing those characteristics may be considered the same. This creates a form of metareality. These perceptions will also be diachronic
, i.e. change over time (see Saussure
(1857-1913) and his concept of evolutionary linguistics
). The major theoretical question is the extent to which members of a culture can rely on their language to be real.
Saussure believed that language constructs rather than reflects reality. For example, time passes in all cultures but, unless and until a community agrees signifiers for "yesterday, "today", and "tomorrow", there is no conceptual framework within which to discuss the passage of time
. Further, even though measurement systems based on diurnal and sidereal observation may produce some degree of scientific universality across cultures, this does not mean that different communities will discuss time in the same way. In the Chinese language, the verbs are not inflected
and do not conjugate
, so time is marked adverb
ially and through suffixes, and the number of participants must be determined from context and collocation
. In contrast to Latinate languages where verb
forms enable a substantial range of temporal differentiation, the Chinese express their conception of time using a completely different lexicon of language. Similarly, the Chinese have two concepts of face: lian i.e. each individual must preserve their moral character in the eyes of the community, and mianzi, i.e. personal prestige and personal success. This is a fundamental concept to the culture in that loss of face can incapacitate a Chinese person as a member of his or her community. Hence, conflict avoidance and dispute resolution strategies are very different from their Western equivalents. Indians too have a fluid concept of time without sharp demarcations regulated by the rising and setting of the sun. In modern Hindustani, the word "kal" could mean yesterday as well tomorrow and "parsoun" (soun pronounced as in "soul") could mean day before yesterday as well as day after tomorrow. What it is can only de derived from the context of the sentence.
Such contrasts suggest that while the relationships between signifiers and their signifieds are ontologically irrelevant, i.e. philosophically, it would not affect the value
of the signs if the words lian and face were transposed between Chinese and English, those relationships influence the cognitive processes and establish the levels of connotation
that constitute the social reality in each culture. The controversial Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
asserted that people who speak with different phonological, syntactical, and semantic systems construct different world view
s. Such determinism
would now be considered too extreme. The modern theoretical view is that the sign system adopted is simply the means to express all aspects of each culture's evolving understanding of their own reality, i.e. reality is constructed by interaction between mind, perception and meanings. Language is the mechanism through which communities operate a social memory in which common experiences are encoded and decoded. If the experiences or the perceptions of those experiences change, the lexical words used to recall the past must be deconstructed and reconstructed to reflect the new common understanding. It may also lead to the compression of events and the omission of elements of data no longer considered useful. This is also a narrativisation, i.e. the community is constructing a narrative
(sometimes of myth
ic proportions) about its own knowledge and experience that marks some areas of knowledge as more important than others. This changes the symbol
ic function of the lexical words used to differentiate their value and allows the creation of metadiscourses or metarealities in which communities may reflect upon their knowledge
in increasingly more abstract
forms. Because this process may be politicised, the values of the lexical words may shift attention away from some areas of knowledge and make that part of the discourse less real.
Lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
of a language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
, lexical words or nouns refer to things. These words fall into three main classes:
- proper nouns refer exclusively to the place, object or person named, i.e. nomenclature or a namingNameA name is a word or term used for identification. Names can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. A personal name identifies a specific unique and identifiable individual person, and may or may not include a middle name...
system; - concrete nouns refer to physical objects; and
- abstract nouns refer to concepts and ideas.
Other than lexical words, the lexicon consists of functional or grammatical words which do not refer to objects in the world.
Discussion
Language is more than a functional system for naming things. Most lexical words refer to classesClass (philosophy)
Philosophers sometimes distinguish classes from types and kinds. We can talk about the class of human beings, just as we can talk about the type , human being, or humanity...
of things (e.g. 'animals' or 'insects') or to concept
Concept
The word concept is used in ordinary language as well as in almost all academic disciplines. Particularly in philosophy, psychology and cognitive sciences the term is much used and much discussed. WordNet defines concept: "conception, construct ". However, the meaning of the term concept is much...
s (e.g. 'nonhuman'). Depending on the degree of specialisation, language may create a taxonomy
Taxonomy
Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...
or simple categories, but the act of creating a group by reference to one or more similarities, breaks the natural link between a name and its reality. Hence, "copse" is more than "tree" and less than "forest" and, as spatial areas, both copses and forests contain more than trees.
In semiotics
Semiotics
Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
, the initial view was that language creates perception
Perception
Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs...
s of reality
Reality
In philosophy, reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined. In a wider definition, reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible...
. By giving salience
Salience (semiotics)
Salience is the state or condition of being prominent. The Oxford English Dictionary defines salience as "most noticeable or important." The concept is discussed in communication, semiotics, linguistics, sociology, psychology, and political science...
to particular characteristics by naming them, the community
Community
The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
is differentiating things from their context. Then, by making a qualitative judgement of sameness, all things sharing those characteristics may be considered the same. This creates a form of metareality. These perceptions will also be diachronic
Diachronic
Diachronic or Diachronous,from the Greek word Διαχρονικός , is a term for something happening over time. It is used in several fields of research.*Diachronic linguistics : see Historical linguistics...
, i.e. change over time (see Saussure
Ferdinand de Saussure
Ferdinand de Saussure was a Swiss linguist whose ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in linguistics in the 20th century. He is widely considered one of the fathers of 20th-century linguistics...
(1857-1913) and his concept of evolutionary linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
). The major theoretical question is the extent to which members of a culture can rely on their language to be real.
Saussure believed that language constructs rather than reflects reality. For example, time passes in all cultures but, unless and until a community agrees signifiers for "yesterday, "today", and "tomorrow", there is no conceptual framework within which to discuss the passage of time
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
. Further, even though measurement systems based on diurnal and sidereal observation may produce some degree of scientific universality across cultures, this does not mean that different communities will discuss time in the same way. In the Chinese language, the verbs are not inflected
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
and do not conjugate
Grammatical conjugation
In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
, so time is marked adverb
Adverb
An adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than a noun . Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences, and other adverbs....
ially and through suffixes, and the number of participants must be determined from context and collocation
Collocation
In corpus linguistics, collocation defines a sequence of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. In phraseology, collocation is a sub-type of phraseme. An example of a phraseological collocation is the expression strong tea...
. In contrast to Latinate languages where verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
forms enable a substantial range of temporal differentiation, the Chinese express their conception of time using a completely different lexicon of language. Similarly, the Chinese have two concepts of face: lian i.e. each individual must preserve their moral character in the eyes of the community, and mianzi, i.e. personal prestige and personal success. This is a fundamental concept to the culture in that loss of face can incapacitate a Chinese person as a member of his or her community. Hence, conflict avoidance and dispute resolution strategies are very different from their Western equivalents. Indians too have a fluid concept of time without sharp demarcations regulated by the rising and setting of the sun. In modern Hindustani, the word "kal" could mean yesterday as well tomorrow and "parsoun" (soun pronounced as in "soul") could mean day before yesterday as well as day after tomorrow. What it is can only de derived from the context of the sentence.
Such contrasts suggest that while the relationships between signifiers and their signifieds are ontologically irrelevant, i.e. philosophically, it would not affect the value
Value (semiotics)
In semiotics, the value of a sign depends on its position and relations in the system of signification and upon the particular codes being used.-Saussure's Value:Value is the sign as it is determined by the other signs in a semiotic system...
of the signs if the words lian and face were transposed between Chinese and English, those relationships influence the cognitive processes and establish the levels of connotation
Connotation (semiotics)
In semiotics, connotation arises when the denotative relationship between a signifier and its signified is inadequate to serve the needs of the community. A second level of meanings is termed connotative...
that constitute the social reality in each culture. The controversial Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
Linguistic relativity
The principle of linguistic relativity holds that the structure of a language affects the ways in which its speakers are able to conceptualize their world, i.e. their world view...
asserted that people who speak with different phonological, syntactical, and semantic systems construct different world view
World view
A comprehensive world view is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the entirety of the individual or society's knowledge and point-of-view, including natural philosophy; fundamental, existential, and normative postulates; or themes, values, emotions, and...
s. Such determinism
Determinism
Determinism is the general philosophical thesis that states that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given them, nothing else could happen. There are many versions of this thesis. Each of them rests upon various alleged connections, and interdependencies of things and...
would now be considered too extreme. The modern theoretical view is that the sign system adopted is simply the means to express all aspects of each culture's evolving understanding of their own reality, i.e. reality is constructed by interaction between mind, perception and meanings. Language is the mechanism through which communities operate a social memory in which common experiences are encoded and decoded. If the experiences or the perceptions of those experiences change, the lexical words used to recall the past must be deconstructed and reconstructed to reflect the new common understanding. It may also lead to the compression of events and the omission of elements of data no longer considered useful. This is also a narrativisation, i.e. the community is constructing a narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
(sometimes of myth
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
ic proportions) about its own knowledge and experience that marks some areas of knowledge as more important than others. This changes the symbol
Symbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
ic function of the lexical words used to differentiate their value and allows the creation of metadiscourses or metarealities in which communities may reflect upon their knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...
in increasingly more abstract
Abstraction
Abstraction is a process by which higher concepts are derived from the usage and classification of literal concepts, first principles, or other methods....
forms. Because this process may be politicised, the values of the lexical words may shift attention away from some areas of knowledge and make that part of the discourse less real.