Posted by dorayme on 02/20/07 01:50

In article <vc7kt2peh97a1savd8jnh37c7ejbbc6s89@4ax.com>,
Andy Dingley <dingbat@codesmiths.com> wrote:

> The core of Saussure's analysis could be said to be that signs
> ("elements" in our world) have two aspects: signifier and signified. The
> signifier is the sound or symbol with which we express them and the
> signified is the concept we actually mean behind them. Only the
> signifier is immediately obvious, but only the signified conveys real
> meaning.

Be careful of this continental stuff, Andy, they like reinventing
wheels and adding epicycles and in their factories, some anti
Ockham principle seems the main guide, and, for good measure, a
device to add great fat dollops of pure obscurantism (in
Australia, we call it bullshit).

There are words and sentences and these have meanings. We do not
need some third ghostly intermediary called a concept. What do
you really think the concept of "is" is? It has a meaning but you
will not find it conveniently in some object. My cat has a name
and this name refers to the actual cat. There is a cat and there
is a word. And there is how the word is used.

The whole terminology of "signifier" and "signified" is
hopelessly based on false ideas. "is" and "it" and a million
other things do not signify in any useful meaning of this word.
Remember, we already have a set of words: "words", "sentences",
"equations", "meaning" and many others in the English language
and no doubt in Continental languages. Be sure that if you are
going to use special terminology, it is an enhancement that has a
real utility.

"only the signified conveys real meaning"? What? You mean there
is the signifier (that has meaning, it sounds like it refers to
something that has a function of some sort). And there is the
signified. The signified, says you, also has meaning. Or it is
the thing that really has the meaning. Forget the lot. It will
not be missed.

I shudder to think of a panel of folks making a wsiwig anything
steeped in this sort of thing...

--
dorayme

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