Chapter 1: Figure and Ground
1.1. Introduction to Figure and Ground
The two most basic linguistic terms in describing spatial relations are Figure and Ground. First used by Talmy (1972) they refer to an entity being located (i.e. Figure, also theme, trajector and target) and the locating entity (i.e. Ground, also relatum, refer-ence object, landmark).
This chapter presents how languages create a system in which one entity or con-cept functions as a reference point or an anchor for another concept (Talmy, 2000).
The first mentions of the Figure and Ground distinction were introduced in psy-chology by Edgar Rubin in his 1915 study, where he described how humans perceive a drawing of a vase, where the shape being perceived depends on the direction
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First used by Talmy (1972) they refer to an entity being located (i.e. Figure, also theme, trajector and target) and the locating entity (i.e. Ground, also relatum, refer-ence object, landmark).
This chapter presents how languages create a system in which one entity or con-cept functions as a reference point or an anchor for another concept (Talmy, 2000).
The first mentions of the Figure and Ground distinction were introduced in psy-chology by Edgar Rubin in his 1915 study, where he described how humans perceive a drawing of a vase, where the shape being perceived depends on the direction in which the border between the black and white regions is assigned. This idea was later trans-ferred into Gestalt psychology of perception, where a figure is identified from the back-ground, e.g. words on a sheet of paper function as the figure and the white sheet as the background.
In his work, Talmy (1972, 1983, 2000) uses the notions of Figure and Ground, where Figure is a movable entity, whose path, site and orientation are variables, and Ground is a reference entity, or a stationary setting relative to a reference setting, with respect to which the Figure’s path, site or orientation is characterized, as in
First, a brief background in the three dimensions of language discussed throughout this paper. The functional, semantic, or thematic dimensions of language as previously mentioned are often used in parallel with each other. Due, to this fact it is important to be able to identify them as they take place and differentiate between these dimensions i...
Fromm, Erich. “The Nature of Symbolic Language.” Class Handout: English 101. Cerro Coso Community College, 2010. 121-26. Print.
In their most basic and natural settings, these two concepts can simply be defined as such:
Mervis, C. B. & Rosch, E. (1981). Categorization of natural objects. Annual Review of Psychology, 32, 89-115.
Sajda P. & Finkle, L.H. (1995) Intermediate Visual Representations and the Construction of Surface Perception. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 7, 267-291.
exactly imagery is, to do this I used an Oxford dictionary and this is the
This solution can be found in his article 'On Denoting' (Mind, 1905). What follows is an outline of the theory as it is proposed in that article.
century. In G. A. Kimble & K. Schlesinger (Eds.), Topics in the history of psychology (Vol. 2,
One of the more interesting concepts is the "Chain of signifiers", in which the signifier itself points not to the signified, or concept, but rather points to another set of signifiers, which each point to another set of signifiers, ad infinitum. It is this idea that "the word...never reaches the point when it refers to a signified" (Tyson 252) that positions language as nonreferential, with no end-game where a signified is met and all the supplements provided by the signifiers are resolves. There is no point at which language "refer[s] to things in the world" (252) instead relying on how we, through our own structures of signification, view concepts. Each chain of signifiers is dependent upon the structure that acts upon the creation of meaning and experience, and no longer dependent on the signified itself. For instance, a text never reaches the point where it relays the disparate ideas that formulated the text in the mind of the author - it instead is formulated of supplements that point to poten...
There are many different Visual Perception principles in perception. The main principles are Gestalt. Gestalt is a German word meaning 'form' or 'shape'. Gestalt psychologists formulated a series of principles that describe how t...
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams. An Introduction to Language. 8th ed. Boston: Thomson, 2007.
Deixis is the single most obvious way in which the relationship between language and context is reflected in the structures of languages themselves. Deixis concerns on the interpretation of utterances depends on the analysis of that context of utterance.
Reiteration, as the first category of lexical cohesion, is a phenomenon in which the lexical item refers back to another item that has a connection with a general reference. It is a lexical cohesion which forms a constituent that has been mentioned. Reiteration consists of repetition, hyponymy, synonyms, and antonymy. The purpose of using these aspects of reiteration is to obtain the effect of the intensity of the meaning of language, information events, and beauty of other languages. Haliday and Hasan (1976) says that:
Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2003). An introduction to language (7th ed.). Boston: Heinle.
Language, according to Owens (2012, p. 6), “can be defined as a socially shared code or conventional system for representing concepts through the use of arbitrary symbols and rule-governed combinations of those symbols”. Language is thought to be a complex system; however, it can be broken down into three different components. These three components consist of content, form, and use. Within these three components, language has five main components which includes semantics, morphology, phonology, syntax, and pragmatics (Owens, 2012, p. 18).