• Reading for Next Class
  • For Tuesday
    • Ryan Heuser, “Word Vectors in the Eighteenth Century” (conference proceedings abstract) (2017)
      • Optional: If you are interested, you may wish to read Ryan Heuser’s series of blog posts about word embedding linked from this page on his blog (with individual posts on “Concepts,” “Methods,” “From Fields to Vectors,” and “Semantic Networks”).
  • Due Tuesday (optional practicum): Word Embedding Exercise

Student outputs

Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics (1916)  – read pp. 114-117, 123-27

Claude Lévi-Strauss, “The Structural Study of Myth” (1951) and Savage Mind (1962)

The Linguistic Turn

“The Linguistic Turn”

Roland Barthes, The Fashion System (1967, trans. 1983)

Deconstruction (Poststructuralism)

Jacques Derrida, “Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences” (1966)

Derrida, Positions (1972)

The maintenance of the rigorous distinction–an essential and juridical distinction — between the signans and the signatum, the equation of the signatum and the concept, inherently leaves open the possibility of thinking a concept signified in and of itself, a concept simply present for thought, independent of a relationship to language, that is of a relationship to a system of signifiers. By leaving open this possibility — and it is inherent even in the opposition signifier/signified, that is in the sign — Saussure contradicts the critical acquisitions of which we were just speaking. He accedes to the classical exigency of what I have proposed to call a “transcendental signified,” which in and of itself, in its essence, would refer to no signifier, would exceed the chain of signs, and would no longer function as a signifier. On the contrary, though, from the moment that one questions the possibility of such a transcendental signified, and that one recognizes that every signified is also in the position of a signifier, the distinction between signified and signifier becomes problematical at its root. (pp. 19-20)

Some key terms used by Derrida and deconstruction:

• “Presence” / “Absence”
• “Center” / “Decentered”
• “Supplement”
• “Trace”
• “Différance”
• “Intertextuality”
• “Catachresis”

J. [John] R. [Rupert] Firth, “A Synopsis of Linguistic Theory, 1930-55” – read sections III-IV (pp. 7-13)

The basic assumption of the theory of analysis by levels is that any text can be regarded as a constituent of a context of situation or of a series of such contexts…. The context of situation according to this theory is not merely a setting, background, or ‘back-drop’ for the ‘words’. The text in the focus of attention on renewal of connection with an instance, is regarded as an integral part of the context, and is observed in relation to the other parts regarded as relevant in the statement of the context. (7)

The placing of a text as a constituent in a context of situation contributes to the statement of meaning since situations are set up to recognize use. As Wittgenstein says, ‘the meaning of words lies in their use.’ The day to day practice of playing language games recognizes customs and rules. It follows that a text in such established usage may contain sentences such as ‘Don’t be such an ass!’, ‘You silly ass!’, ‘What an ass he is!’ In these examples, the word ass is in familiar and habitual company, commonly collocated with you silly–, he is a silly–, don’t be such an–. You shall know a word by the company it keeps! One of the meanings of ass is its habitual collocation with such other words as those above quoted. (11)

It will then be found that meaning by collocation will suggest a small number of groups of collocations for each word studied. (13)

Relativity

• Albert Einstein, “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” (paper on special relativity) (1905)

The Unconscious

• Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (1899)

Structural Lingustics & Distributional Semantics

• Ferdinand de Saussure, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Jacques Derrida, J. R. Firth, etc.

Media

• Marshall McLuhan

• Luis Serrano, “What Are Word and Sentence Embeddings?” (2023)
  • Optional: create an account on the Cohere site mentioned in the article and try the “embedding” function in the Cohere “playground.” (See an example of results.)
• Saptarashmi Bandyopadhyay et al., “Word Embedding Demo: Tutorial” (2022) — Note: The actual interactive demo accompanying this tutorial about word embeddings (or word vectors) is assigned for the second part of Practicum 5.
• Nika Mavrody, Laura B. McGrath, Nichole Nomura, and Alexander Sherman, “Voice” (2021) — Read the “Abstract” and pp. 155-164.

Ultimately, we show that voice, style, and genre operate in a unified vernacular critical system, that voice (along with genre) is a subcategory of style, and that voice consists of the parts of style not otherwise captured by genre.

“Voice”
“Style”
“Style – Voice = Genre”
“Style – Genre = Voice”