Redefined!

1. Literary Criticism
STRUCTURALISM

2. Structuralism
European
1920’s
North American
1930’s – 1960’s
Structuralism offers a scientific view of
how we achieve meaning not only in
literary works but also in every form of
communication and social behavior.

3. Linguists tried to reconstruct
dead languages on the basis
of the similarities that were
found to exist between
languages thought to be
related historically to those
dead languages.
In short, during the 19th century
scholars in linguistics worked from a
historical, diachronic, perspective.

4. European Structuralism
Ferdinand de Saussure
1857 - 1913
De Saussure was not satisfied
with the historical comparison
of language. He stated that
such comparison only
answered where a language
comes from, but not what
language is.

5. Main tenets
1) Language has a structure- Language is a
structure in which each elements interact.
2) Language is a system of signs
3) Language operates at two levels:
langue and parole
European Structuralism
Langue
The abstract system
Parole
Actual speech

6. Signified Signifier
Physical dimension of language
Sign
/ka:r/
Car
Example:

7. Example:

8. • Langue: The structure of the language
that is mastered and shared by al its
speakers. It refers about all the rules
of the language (grammar, syntax…)
• Parole: It is the individual’s actual
speech utterances and writing. It
refers about colloquial (popular)
language.

9. • NorthAmerican.ppt
North American Structuralism

10. Different kinds of SIGNS
Iconic
representation -
here the car is an
image which directly
resembles the real
thing
Indexical
representation –
the image
suggests the
presence of a
car
Symbolic – a
sign that bears
no obvious
relation to the
thing that is
signified

11. The signifier does not resemble the
signified. It is arbitrary - so that the
relationship must be learnt: e.g.
language in general (alphabetical
letters, punctuation marks, words,
phrases and sentences), numbers,
morse code, traffic lights, national
flags.
Symbol/symbolic

12. The signifier is perceived
as resembling or imitating the
signified (recognizably looking,
sounding, feeling, tasting or smelling
like it) e.g. a portrait, a cartoon, a
scale-model, onomatopoeia,
metaphors.
Icon/Iconic

13. The signifier is not arbitrary but is
directly connected in some way
(physically or causally) to the
signified - this link can be observed
or inferred.
Index/Indexical

14. Syntagmatic Analysis
The term syntagm
means chain, and the
syntagmatic analysis
of texts involves the
study of the linear
progression of
narratives.

15. Paradigmatic Analysis
 involves the analysis of texts in
terms of the patterns of opposition
(based on the speech and actions of
characters) found in texts.
 often uses commutation tests, i.e.
analysis by substituting words of
the same type or class to calibrate
shifts in connotation.

16. involves comparing and contrasting each of the
signifiers present in the text with absent signifiers
which in similar circumstances might have been chosen,
and considering the significance of the choices made.
The use of one signifier rather than another from
the same paradigm is based on factors such as
technical constraints, code (e.g. genre), convention,
connotation, style, rhetorical purpose and the
limitations of the individual's own repertoire.

17. PARADIGMATIC & SYNTAGMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN
SIGNIFIERS
Vertical or horizontal relations between words/ objects to create
meaning
In their
paradigmatic
relationship, the
meaning of
words & objects
is shaped by the
category they
belong to and
other signifiers
that could take
their place.
In visual media,
there are links
to iconography
and genre.
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Syntagmatic
Addition and deletion
In a syntagmatic relationship, the meaning of
words & objects is shaped by their linear/
horizontal relationship with other
words/objects around them. In visual media,
this links to composition, iconography, and
genre.

18. Syntagmatic
 Tells us
what
happens in a
text
Paradigmatic
 Tells us
what a
text means

19. Syntagmatic
Example:
Paradigmatic
Example:
The baby
sleeps on the
crib.
Crib- is an
infant bed.

20. Syntagmatic
Example:
Paradigmatic
Example:
He
__________
the lights.
switched on
switched off
turned on
turned off

21. Example:
Syntagmatic axis
P
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Librarians are searching information
Users are looking for documents
He is looking for facts

22. Roland Barthes – semiology- the study of signs
and their relationship to meaning
Ferdinand Saussure – lingusitic structuralism
Rose Is just a wordThe reader shapes or decodes the
meaning
Rose DENOTES a
red sweet-smelling
flower
Rose CONNOTES
(has connotations of)
love, passion &
romance
DENOTATION & CONNOTATION

23. Assumption
Structuralists believe that codes, signs and
rules govern all human social and cultural
practices, including communication. That
communication can refers about sports,
education, fashion, friendship and others,
each is a systematized combinations of
codes (signs) governed by rules.

24. Methodologies
• Vladimir Propp: Ilustrate how a story’s
meaning develops from its overall
structure given logical and proper
sequence
• Gerad Genette: developed methods of
analyzing a story´s structure to uncover its
meaning (figure of speech).

25. Strengths
• This theory does focus on the
author’s intent, and does
focus on an objective
interpretation without
clouding the text with a
subjective or emotional
interpretation

26. Weaknesses
Difficult to know who controls
the meaning of a text.
Reader looks only at linguistic
structure and is not permitted
to have an emotional
attachment to the text.
Not open to different
interpretations

27. SUMMARY
(STRUCTURE)
Morphemes
Phonemes
Syntax
Semantic
Basic building block of a sentence

28. SUMMARY
(STRUCTURE)
Phonemes Speech sound that distinguishes one word from another
Morphemes a meaningful morphological unit of a language that cannot
be further divided (e.g., in, come, -ing, forming incoming ).
Syntax
Semantic
the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-
formed sentences in a language.
"the syntax of English"
relating to meaning in language or logic.

29. CONCLUSION
 Semiotics and semiology focus our
attention on how people generate
meanings- in their use of language, in their
behavior (body language, dress, facial
expression, and so on), and in creative
texts of all kinds.

30.  Everyone tries to make sense of human
behavior, in our everyday lives, in the
novels we read, in the films and television
shows we see, in the concerts we attend, in
sports events we watch or participate in-
humans are meaning-generating and
meaning interpreting animals, whatever
else we are.