I think that, for the purposes of this discussion, the theories of the Geneva-born Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure, are still quite relevant. Saussure was the father of twentieth-century linguistics. He had a great influence on many thinkers who came after him such as Barthes; Levi-Strauss; Lacan; Derrida; and Foucault. Saussure is famous for his Cours de linguistique generale. One of Sausure's major ideas was the disjunction, the gap between the signifier [le signifiant] and the signified [le signifie]. The relationship between the two is utterly arbitrary.
Rapunzel
JoinedPosts by Rapunzel
-
36
WORDS are dangerous things!!
by Terry init is sometimes easy to be confused by the difference between:.
what we call things.
2.how many key words that make up my world view are really bad lables?.
-
-
-
18
Pentecostals? Should I be afraid of them?
by ThomasCovenant injust finished watching the film 'borat'.
in it there is a scene where he attends what i assume is a pentecostal church meeting.
for all i know it is a setup.
-
-
Rapunzel
When Pentecostals "speak in tongues," they are doing essentially the same thing as vocal jazz singers do when they perform "scat" singing. Scat singing is vocal improvisation with nonsense words and syllables. But, whereas scat singing is a melodic and rhythmic art form, "speaking in tongues" is cacaphonic gibberish. With Pentecostals, it's a question of learned behavior and mimicry; they learn to "speak in tongues" by watching the people around them. They start off by uttering simple strings of nonsense syllables, and then "progress" to longer strings. They literally train themselves to speak continually longer strings of nonsense syllables and gibberish. There's nothing "mystical" about it. The only difference between "speaking in tongues" and scat singing is that scat is pleasant to listen to because of its rhythm.
-
18
Pentecostals? Should I be afraid of them?
by ThomasCovenant injust finished watching the film 'borat'.
in it there is a scene where he attends what i assume is a pentecostal church meeting.
for all i know it is a setup.
-
-
Rapunzel
"Democracy is different in America. For example: Women can vote. Horses cannot." - Borat
-
40
What kind of a funeral do you want?
by Princess Daisy Boo inso all this talk at the moment about funerals and stuff got me thinking... what kind of an exit party would i like?.
i reckon i would not want anything too formal, but i would want loads of people saying how great i was - i people to notice that i am no longer around, and be sad about it!
i want people to share good memories.
-
-
Rapunzel
"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying." -Woody Allen
-
-
-
Rapunzel
Alle ist klar, herr Komissar?
-
43
God Damn America - in context
by mavie inhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvmbevqj6lw.
sucks to be suckered.
.
-
-
Rapunzel
BizzyBee - Even though you say that slavery, discrimination, and segregation are "very old news," the truth of the matter is that today - in the year 2008 - slavery continues to be a world-wide scourge, especially [but by no means exclusively] the enslavement of children for sexual purposes. And when I say "world-wide," I mean world-wide. It happens often in Europe and in the United States. Children [and adults] are held in bondage against their will. They are literally nothing but chattel, another person's property.
And, as for segregation and discrimination, both nefarious forces are alive and well in the United States. American society is one of the most racist societies in the world. It was founded on racist ideology such as the notion of the "white man's burden." One of the founding fathers - Thomas Jefferson - was a slave-owner. Even today - in the year 2008 - if a person is born black in certain parts of the United States, they may as well be born dead. There are some ares of the United States in which black people have the same life expectancy as people in Bangladesh. The low life expectancy of black Americans lowers the average national life expectancy of the United States in general. There are quite a few countries with a higher life expectancy than the U.S., and the reason for this is the inequality in life expectancy rates between whites and blacks in the U.S.
So, by no means are slavery, discrimination and segregation "very old news;" they are as persistent and as destructive as they always have been previously.
-
30
What do you think of todays youth?
by dawg inas many of you know, i live in a college town and therefore i'm around people much younger than me almost all day.
here's one thing i've noticed, the youth today have left the god of the bible behind.
they have been brought up in a world where information is available at a very rapid rate and have already figured out the biblical god is a fairy tale.
-
-
Rapunzel
The quote that Open Mind cites was attributed to Socrates by Plato. Socrates was born four and a half centuries before Christ. As the Bible says, there is nothing new under the sun. I would not be surprised if the Neanderthal people expressed similar laments about the "kids nowadays." I can just hear them: "Today's youth are spoiled by modern technology. Nowadays, it seems that every kid is clamoring for fire - 'Daddy, make me a fire! Mommy, cook my meat on the fire!' When I was a kid, we ate our meat raw - right off the bones. And, I'll tell you, we were damn happy to have it! When I was a kid, it was the meat that got spoiled rotten. Nowadays, it's the kids who are spoiled!"
-
10
Calling all JWD Geniuses!!!
by momzcrazy infor every word you correctly define on this game, they will donate 20 grains of rice to the un world food program.
the ads pay for the rice.. http://freerice.com/index.php.
fight world hunger and play!.
-
-
Rapunzel
Yes, you called? I'm here. How may I help you?
-
3
Watch Tower Bullies Theft Society
by R.Crusoe inwho would think inviting a jw into ones house was inviting them to steal away your family and friends?.
who would have imagined jw s coming into your home was inviting them to steal your soul?.
dictating life and afterlife on allcomers like some ruthless killer snatching dreams and love from all they choose and ruthlessly destroying lives of all they touch with their poisoned intent to subdue and enslave any they can deceive with their forked tongues!.
-
-
Rapunzel
R.Crusoe - The very same denunciations that you make against the Witnesses could also be made against any other religion. In other words, anyone who disapproves of a given religion might say exactly what you say. Besides, didn't Jesus explicitly say that he had come to divide families? Didn't he say that in order to follow him, people would have to hate other familiy members ["hate" in the sense of love them less than him]?
-
26
Do you enjoy listening to music from another generation?
by JH insome people only like recent music, maybe because they don't want to identify themselves to an older generation.. often, i'll listen and download music that played when i was a kid, and really enjoy it..
-
-
Rapunzel
I like all kinds of music, including bluegrass, country, folk and singers of the so-called "folk revival" of the 1960's - singers like Pete Seager; Bob Dylan; Joan Baez; Joni Mitchell; and Odetta. A lot of folk songs go back hundreds of years; their variants have origins in Elizabethan times. Just think of "John Barleycorn" by the group Traffic. Both Odetta and Led Zepplin sing versions of "The Gallow's Pole." Baez has sung versions of "Silkie" and "Barbara Allen," Both songs are very old.