Lisible A French word meaning intelligible or "readable". Roland Barthes used this term to identify a particular type of text, one in which the reader is urged to do nothing but consume the meaning given in advance. Related: Writerly
Semiology Glossary
Literal vs. Metaphorical(Figurative) Usage
We call literal usage a way of using language characterized by adherence to the primary vocabulary meaning of words; Metaphorical (Figurative) Usage is a use of language in which words or expressions go beyond known meanings (metaphor). When used literally, words and...
Literariness
Literariness is a series of techniques, conventions, and tools that distinguish literal from other uses of language. Identifying these techniques, conventions, and means was one of the key pursuits of Russian formalists.
Locutionary Force
Locutionary Force is the innate force or meaning of a message, as opposed to its effect on the listener and his status or function as an action. John L. Austin distinguishes the Locutionary force of sentences from their illocutionary and perlocutionary force. If I...
Logic
Logic is the study of types or forms of inference. Systematic analysis and evaluation of forms of inference can be traced far back. All the way to Aristotle. In this long history, a huge share of the importance of semiotics also falls. Charles S. Peirce, one of the...
Logical Positivism
Logical Positivism is an influential philosophical movement from the first half of the twentieth century. The movement was founded around 1920 by a group of philosophers, scientists, and intellectuals in Vienna and is known as the Vienna Circle. At the heart of...
Logocentrism
Logocentrism is the orientation of those who privilege logos, identity, self-identity, and presence over dynamics (power or might), diversity, and traces. Logocentrism is considered to be the dominant node or achievement of Western thinking and, more generally, of...
Logos
Logos is a Greek word with many meanings, the most basic of which are: Word Argument Discourse Language Reason To get an idea and understand the meaning of this term, the opening sentence of the Gospel of John "In the beginning was the Word (Logos) and the Word became...
Manifest Content
Manifested content is what a message or other configuration of signs (such as a dream) manifests (on the surface) or directly conveys. Manifested content is often constructed as something superficial, i.e., floating on the surface while latent content is something...
Margin, Margins
Margin, Margins is a common metaphor in modern scripture used to thematize what is overly denied or devalued. The metaphor of marginality and periphery has become a central trope of deconstructivist and postmodernist writings. Inevitably, in one discourse, some topics...
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Conventional Signs
Signs based on convention and different from natural signs. A little girl watches the rapidly darkening sky and accepts that it is a sign of an approaching storm. As the girl looks around in horror for her dog, she hears her aunt calling her name. Storm clouds are...
Conversation Analysis(CA)
Conversation analysis is an empirical, inductive study, usually undertaken by sociolinguists and social psychologists, on current conversations, mostly by recording a tape recorder and audio and video media. The analysis of the conversation should not be confused with...
Conversation/Inquiry
Today, the metaphor of conversation, introduced under the influence of Richard Rorty, has gained importance and even centrality that it did not have before. According to Rorty, philosophers must stop seeing philosophy as a form of inquiry (a process of semiosis aimed...
Conversational Rules
In an influential essay entitled "Logic and Conversation," Paul Grice argues that every conversation should be guided by certain rules that relate to a common principle. This principle brings together the participants in the conversation to do the following: "Make...
Cooperative Principle
To learn more about the term Cooperative principle, please see conversational rules.
Free Course in Semiology
A completely and truly free course on Semiology (Semiotics). Learn about the meaning of signs, how and why did the field emerged. What is the relationship between the street signs and the signs that we use every day - words.
