Communications Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Communications - Coursework Example The movement of structuralism is closely connected to the study of signs and symbols and how individuals created meanings of these signs and symbols. The movement of structuralism is said to have been originated in the theories of Ferdinand de Saussure during the early period of the 1900s (Berger, 2006, p.20). Saussure was the one who developed signs and symbols and believed that all languages constitute of difficult system of symbols and these symbols help in expressing ideas and there are certain regulations that are governing the way these symbols are used. He asserted that any particular symbol is a matter of chance and a link does not exist between a word and the meaning attached to it. For example: the word â€Å"dog† does not signify an image of an animal. Structuralism even states that a literary piece of work has zero origin and the individual authoring a piece of literary work simply occupies an already existing language which assists him/her in created sentences for his/her story. 2. Culler states that society is a primary reality, by this statement he is entering into an argument against Ferdinand de Saussure who is of the idea that human beings are the ones who have created society and the society itself was not created first (Berger, 2006, p.14). Basically, Culler is entering into a chicken and egg debate in which the issue is whether chicken created eggs or the eggs created chicken. Culler is arguing that it was not the humans who created the society, and society preceded human beings. Culler states that the society is not an outcome of behaviors conducted by human beings and is not demonstration of the human mind. Culler even stated that if an individual wants to conduct a study on human behavior and wants to analyze human behavior, he/she should first study the society and he even added that meanings are derived when an individual interacts with the society and thus they should be explained in the context of the society. Culler has raise d a significant debate against the assumptions of structuralism, this is because if the society would not have existed human beings would not have learned how to interpret the meaning of a specific sign or object and this is because the meaning of science do not evolve out of nowhere, they are created by the society. The society is very important for the development of communication as due to its existence, humans learn how to speak and write and learn meanings of different signs and symbols. 3. The patterns in which stories and speeches are narrated and told are a huge field of study and one of the greatest theorists who contributed to this study was William Labov during 1972 (Berger, 2006, p.40). According to Labov there are six steps if story telling starting from abstract in which an overview of the story is provided. For example: In a recent speech on animal behavior I attended, the speaker started by proving an overview of what he is going to talk about. Next comes the orienta tion in which the speaker informed us about which animals he is going to talk about, their behaviors at under different situations and the reasons for exhibiting that behavior. Next is the complicating action in which the speaker informed us about the events in which he will narrate the entire topic starting off with a background, concentrating on theorists and application of theories and in the end he concludes. Next he provided an evaluation of the events