Meaning as a Nonlinear Effect: The Birth of Cool

Autor/in	Blommaert, Jan
Titel	Meaning as a Nonlinear Effect: The Birth of Cool
Quelle	In: AILA Review, 28 (2015), S.7-27 (21 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1461-0213
DOI	10.1075/aila.28.01blo
Schlagwörter	Linguistic Theory; Pragmatics; Discourse Analysis; Systems Approach; Semiotics; Social Media; Anthropology + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Linguistische Theorie; Pragmalinguistik; Diskursanalyse; Systemischer Ansatz; Semiotik; Soziale Medien; Anthropologie
Abstract	Saussurean and Chomskyan "conduit" views of meaning in communication, dominant in much of expert and lay linguistic semantics, presuppose a simple, closed and linear system in which outcomes can be predicted and explained in terms of finite sets of rules. Summarizing critical traditions of scholarship, notably those driven by Bateson's view of systems infused with more recent linguistic-anthropological insights into the ideologically mediated and indexically organized "total linguistic fact," this paper argues for a view of meaning in terms of complex open systems in which complex units of analysis invite more precise distinctions within "meaning." Using online viral memes and the metapragmatic qualifier of "cool" as cases in point, we see that the meaning of such memes is better described as a range of "effects," most of them nonlinear and not predictable on the basis of the features of the sign itself. Such effects suggest a revised and broader notion of nonlinear "perlocution." (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01