Tuesday 24 March 2009

The semiotic square

Continuing my study of semiotics using Chandler's book, I was pondering the concept of markedness and also the idea of Greimas's semiotic square.


At the time reading a review of The EGO Tunnel by Thomas Metzinger in the New Scientist, and had just read the words "... the forgettable concept of the ego tunnel...". I first read it as "...unforgettable.." and this led to some musings:
  • Perhaps unforgettable is an unmarked term and forgettable the marked term? And that was why I 'naturally' read unforgettable? I don't know. Things are probably forgettable by default, making forgettable unmarked?
  • What about 'memorable'? Can I put memorable, forgettable and unforgettable on a square:


Actually I'm not convinced. I don't see why 'unforgettable' could be described as 'non-assertion'. I think 'unforgettable' and 'memorable' are synonyms. or maybe I've got 'memorable' and 'unforgettable' the wrong way around. 'Unforgettable' is stronger than 'memorable'.

Or, have I completely misunderstood these concepts...

No comments: