What semiotics does: tests analytical methods and systems to see how and if they work.
Functionalism as a part truce and wY of thinking that ran through society in 20th cent. Swung back in the late 60s and 70s.
## functionalism in architecture Form follows function takes on a less aesthetic feel. Base design on purpose. 70
Note that van l brings in some social history to discuss architecture. 69-71. Why?
Straightaway, form starts to mean. 72. Couldn't strip meaning out of form. Facades develop in po mo buildings to create a symbolic surface to be read. 72
But buildings are always about meaning. The functions of shelter, warmth, comfort, stability are semiotic, and so culturally inflected, differently understood. 73
## In sociology and anthropology Emphasis on systems of parts and whole functioning to fulfill social needs such as order, unity. Human needs become cultural imperatives, which are naturalized. 73. All activities are cultural. 74.
## in linguistics Clauses become parts of a larger group, each w a function.
Borrowed into semiotics so we can see that different modes can fulfill the same roles in different forms. 76. Powerful abstraction. He and k base their study on functions like this.
Allows van l to make an argument that we are natural meaning makers. It's not just language that they learn but how to use semiological resources.
Ideational Interpersonal Textual 77
Problem is that these systems seem to be producer oriented and so make interpretation structurally determined. Allow no space for improvisation or innovation we actually see. 78 they become normative.
In response, van l trys it on. What semiotics does: tests analytical methods and systems to see how and if they work.
## functional analysis Looks at ideational meaning potential in the dominant elements of each toy. 81 draws on cultural knowledge of meaning. Babies are surrounded by cultural artifacts by parents. Those artifacts are created using ideational and interactional resources. 82.
We get an analysis, drawing on reading, observing, but no signal on how to do this. Consider how: what read, did, etc. inventory .
Inventory of rules. 84ff
Next: exercise on p 87. Reading Images, pp 121 - 130 (or chapter: 119 - 158). Chap 4: Representation and Interaction in Reading Images.