We are a society that thrives upon communication, from texting to “tweeting” and all forms in between. It is not surprising that we often find ourselves drawn in and influenced by the manipulative skills of well organized syllables and strong punctuation. Political rallies are in no shortage of examples of the prowess of semiotics. We use them to speak our minds, to spread the truth, to satirize other’s opinions, and to fabricate our own. As human beings we are not unused to the idea that politics often involves tricky rhetoric and verbal wordplay in efforts to persuade us. However, not often are we aware that tangible signs sway us to much the same effect.
Political signs first and foremost seek to influence a decision, or ideals that will lead to said decision. The way these signs seek to enforce the opinions is to plant a main thought or image. Many of these signs simply display a name or a thought in bold lettering with a follow up message or title in smaller lettering, for example a sign may include a name of someone up for election; Dillinger, followed up by “City Council” in smaller more inconspicuous letters. This style of signs seeks to implant the name of the candidate in someones mind with more importance than the rest of the information, seeming to make the candidate themselves appear m with more importance. This tactic of sign can be seen on elitedesignweb.com a common place for people to order election signs. Similarly, an anti-Bush political sign displaying the message, “ Who Lost $9 Billion in Iraq” puts it’s emphasis on the word lost, the negative connotation associated with the word lost conveys the negative emotions associated with the Bush administration in reference to the war in Iraq. When emphasis is put...
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Many political cartoons often contain rhetoric device, such as pathos, ethos, and logos. Ethos often is the speaker, pathos is the audience, logos is the subject. In my political cartoon, Barack Obama is holding an image of the Pope and the Pope is smiling, there is a blurb from Obama saying "Thought you might like this!".
The mighty river flows through the mountains with liquidity and nurture providing life for all those who wish to take a sip from it. Yet the river is powerful in its own force destroying even the largest rocks, crumbling them into small pieces. People may be able to stop the river for a short time or even dry it up but the water always comes back in one form or another, every dam is bound to fail. Some people have been able to harness the power of the river, redirecting the mighty water making it flow in constructive ways. Similar to the river, language is influential. Its true power is not seen by the naked eye but by those who study it, those who use it as their ally in a war of linguistics. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter, Birmingham City Jail he is able to use all three rhetorical appeals to prove that demonstrations lead to negotiations and benefit for both sides of an argument.
The EMC Masterpiece Series. (2005). Literature and the language arts: Understanding literature (2nd ed.). St. Paul, MN: EMC: Paradigm Publishing.
We can therefore draw the conclusion that meanings and ideologies are, indeed, produced through signs. By following semiotic analysis of the one dollar note, I am able to link those concept together. In a linguistic analysis, the dollar note doesn’t have a specific meaning, however as soon as values and signs are attributed to it, a meaning and ideologies come trough. All the symbols are here to represent what the United States represent and convey a strong patriotism. Nevertheless, the dollar stays a currency, it therefore takes
These devices can be applied more effectively by verbal communication. Firstly, face-to-face communication allows speaker to show his persistence, determination, establishing trust and constitute a strong emotional bond on audiences. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is an accurate masterpiece of rhetorical devices. In his speech, he quotes from the Constitution of the United States and builds up his own credibility, refers to the religious and patriotic documents by drawing attention on emotional values of many people. Additionally, he makes some rhythmic repetitions, which enriches the power of his words such as “Let freedom ring from”, “One hundred years later” and “Now is the time”. These strong traditions of verbal communication support political leaders in public speaking.“Anyone who has heard the speeches of Martin Luther King, such as are still available in recorded form will recognize the rhetorical features that lay behind such powerful words.” (Furniss, 2004, P. 88) Speakers who use paralinguistic features and rhetorical devices appropriately can give the message without isolating at the time of oral argument, while understanding the reactions of audiences and leading the
Political poster is a widely used way of publicity, as can be seen from the posters of the Nazi propaganda connotations for worship leaders and policy. There are three main characteristics of posters.
Scott, Robert Ian. (1995). Messages and meanings: An essay/review – Messages and Meanings: An introduction to semiotics by Marcel Danesi. Et Cetera: Vol. 52 (pp. 482-486).
“Political Language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.” So states George Orwell; an English novelist famous for his essays and numerous novels such as 1984. Though his essay Language and Politics was written as far back as the mid 1940s, his ideals and perspectives on political language still ring true in many of today’s current events. He discusses the vagueness that political writers use in order to sound better to their audience, as well as basic rules to follow when writing to prevent repetition. Then there’s also Daniel J. Boorstin; an American historian at the University of Chicago, who wrote the essay Pseudo-Events that stressed arranged news articles to gain publicity in certain areas of media. He discussed
Politicians frequently receive negative publicity at the hand of their own use of language. Their uses of words as they relate to persuasion typically fall within one of the three dimensions of language functions, semantic or thematic. Often their persuasive language can be found to closely resemble any of these three categories simultaneously. There are many tools for analyzing persuasive symbols, many of which should be utilized when analyzing great communicators such as President Ronald Reagan. In response to the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion on January 28th, 1986 where seven brave American’s gave their lives. President Ronald Reagan made history with his famous speech, which didn’t only serve to address the great tragedy, but served as a focal point of comfort for the grieving nation. He commemorated the seven heroes who had fallen that morning in route to outer space; he expressed gratitude to NASA for their past developments and encouraged further explorations. Ronald Reagan was a great communicator, a charismatic persuader whose words delivered focus of the message through utilization of persuasive symbols. This paper aims not to be an all-inclusive guide for analyzing persuasive symbols, but will sufficiently guide the reader to be a more perceptive of persuasive language.
Danesi, M. (1998). Sign, thought, & culture: A basic course in semiotics. Canadian Scholarsí Press: Toronto, Ontario.
Lowe, Peter J. Texas Studies in Literature & Language; Spring2007, Vol. 49 Issue 1, p21-44, 24p Academic Search Complete Ebesco. Web. 23 July 2011
A symbol is any “‘object, act, event, quality, or relation which serves as a vehicle for conception’” (230). Peyote Hunt: The Sacred Journey of the Huichol Indians by Barbara Myerhoff is a very intricate text which involves numerous aspects of symbolism. Myerhoff not only applies a much deeper meaning to deer, maize, and peyote, but she also uses these objects as a representation of divine beings and spirits. The deer, maize, and peyote are very powerful entities but together they form the deer-maize-peyote complex, which is central to the Huichol life. The unification of these disparate objects can be easily understood once they are analyzed on three different levels: exegetical, operational, and positional.
In Mr. Brzoska’s class I had to choose four essays to analyze for figurative language. I dreaded the thought of having to read twelve essays, nor did I believe that I would enjoy the readings. When selecting the essays, I was driven by curiosity. I chose DON’T EAT BEFORE READING THIS by Anthony Bourdain, SANDRA BLAND AND OR VULNERABLE BODIES constructed by Roxane Gay, WHY WE CRAVE HORROR MOVIES by the famous Stephen King. Lastly, I selected FROM JAMAICA TO MINNESOTA TO MYSELF written by Marlon James.
The cover of this magazine can be analyzed using different theories, including the semiotics of symbolic theory, Performance as Political Action idea and postmodern theories within cultural studies. The first theory used to analyze this magazine is the semiotic theory, developed by C.S. Peirce. This theory is used to find the meaning in signs and claims it is all in the meaning of the signs used.
Shea, Renee, Lawrence Scanlon, and Robin Scanlon. The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2013. 525-529,546-551. Print.