De con struct ion

Start with the basics: signifier = a word (or an image, gesture, etc.) signified = the idea a word represents sign = signifier + signified sign = a word with meaning Start with a noun like ‘tree’: a real, specific tree; the word ‘tree’; and the idea of a tree. In a unified, coherent system, this equation should be complete…but it isn’t.

Tree

A quick example: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference” (4.18-20). Does “that” refer to the choice, the road itself, or the lack of other travelers? Is “difference” meant as an opposition to sameness or conformity, or it is it in opposition to harmony, meaning that “the difference” made was a conflict? Does the repetition of “I” suggest certainty or uncertainty? What is the relationship between “diverge” and “difference”? Depending on the readers already existing but non-static ideology, different binary oppositions will appear to be more meaningful: for example, road and wood as man vs nature, or traveled as known vs unknown, or difference as conformity vs rebellion. These oppositions then take on value hierarchies (also depending on ideology): roads are manmade, artificial, transient, unnatural, bad – a wood is natural, organic, uncontrolled, will outlast many lives of men, good. conformity/rebellion – rebellion/conformity Because all of these possible interpretations reveal multiple possible meanings (an interplay of meanings), they will naturally contradict each other at some point and become meaningless.

Key Terms and Concepts Undecidability: no text has a fixed, absolute, or objective “meaning.” This applies to language itself – words have flexible definitions that are constantly changing. Binary opposition: ideas defined by opposition to each other: good/bad, up/down, strong/weak. Binary structures reveal ideologies and instabilities. Semiotics: communication outside of literal or denotative word definitions. Figurative language, inflection, tone of voice, body language, etc. Semiotics contributes to the ambiguity of language.