The Meaning of ‘Meaning’

Author(s):  
Fiona Sampson

This chapter considers whether one can think of the semiotic or ‘musical’ elements in language, particularly in poetry, as meaning-laden in their own terms. The previous chapters have shown how abstract formal elements such as texture and formal proportion can supplement literal, denotative meaning. They have also revealed how a richer sense of ‘meaning’, and richer meanings, can be found in discourses such as poetry, which try to harness the semiotic elements in language, than in those such as instruction manuals, that do not. A distinctive characteristic of the semantic in language is the syntactic relationship it makes with the objects of experience. This orderly sense-making turns out to be the engine of denotation, and it is the very element of language that this chapter explores.

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Pezzo ◽  
Sarah McDougal ◽  
Jordan Litman
Keyword(s):  

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra M. van Alphen ◽  
Jos J. A. van Berkum
Keyword(s):  

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth I. Pakenham
Keyword(s):  

2021 ◽  
pp. 0961463X2110318
Author(s):  
Marius Wamsiedel

The connection between time and power has been studied extensively. A common strategy through which street-level bureaucrats exert power and dominance over their clients consists of imposing protracted waiting and maintaining uncertainty regarding the outcomes of waiting. In this study, I argue that another facet of power in organizations is related to the temporal typification of cases. By exploring the triage work in two emergency departments (EDs), I show that nurses and clerks identify patterns in the temporal distribution of visits and attach clinical and moral meanings to them. The temporal typifications are sense-making devices through which triage workers orient to patients. They form a stock of tacit experiential knowledge that delineates specific expectations about the legitimacy of cases and the worth of patients. These expectations impact the unfolding and structure of triage admission interviews and contribute to the prioritization of cases. The study brings into conversation the sociological literature on time and power with the study of the moral evaluation of patients to examine temporal typifications as an organizational resource in healthcare settings. It contributes to a better understanding of triage workers’ experiential knowledge and the practical accomplishment of moral evaluation in EDs.


2021 ◽  
pp. 194084472110027
Author(s):  
Kurt Borchard

I present four poems written in response to the U.S. Capitol insurrection. The poems are constructed through fragments of contemporary phrases, words from national anthems and pledges, and word play through spelling, phonetics, and semantics. They produce discordant, emergent sense-making through free form verse composed during a singular crisis of political legitimacy.


ZDM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gemma Carotenuto ◽  
Pietro Di Martino ◽  
Marta Lemmi

AbstractResearch on mathematical problem solving has a long tradition: retracing its fascinating story sheds light on its intricacies and, therefore, on its needs. When we analyze this impressive literature, a critical issue emerges clearly, namely, the presence of words and expressions having many and sometimes opposite meanings. Significant examples are the terms ‘realistic’ and ‘modeling’ associated with word problems in school. Understanding how these terms are used is important in research, because this issue relates to the design of several studies and to the interpretation of a large number of phenomena, such as the well-known phenomenon of students’ suspension of sense making when they solve mathematical problems. In order to deepen our understanding of this phenomenon, we describe a large empirical and qualitative study focused on the effects of variations in the presentation (text, picture, format) of word problems on students’ approaches to these problems. The results of our study show that the phenomenon of suspension of sense making is more precisely a phenomenon of activation of alternative kinds of sense making: the different kinds of active sense making appear to be strongly affected by the presentation of the word problem.


2021 ◽  
Vol 146 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-218
Author(s):  
ALEXANDER ROBINSON

AbstractAlthough royal entries have long been studied by scholars, those undertaken by nobles and other political figures have generally attracted less attention. This is particularly true in musicological literature, a fact undoubtedly attributable to the paucity of surviving documentation on this topic. Yet music often played an important part in these spectacles, both by underlining the dignitary’s status and by enhancing key components of the symbolism deployed. Rather than concentrating on one particular event, this article brings together information about as many entries as possible made by such figures into French cities in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. This enables us to make general observations about the types of music used in these events (such as fanfares, Te Deums and dance music) in order to draw possible connections with extant musical sources, and also to ponder why certain musical elements mattered more than others to the contemporaries describing these occasions.


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