Course Description

Words and symbols, as two indispensable kinds of signs created and maintained for human communication, are often the subject of profound controversy. To explore how contestable these signs are, we can delve into several essential questions: What is the nature of words/symbols/signs? How do we identify them and prolong their identity (enough for us to recount and argue about the ‘same word’/‘same symbol’)? How do they mean – with reference to an ontological reality, or not at all? Based on the answers to the above, how do we strike a balance between the determinacy of words and symbols needed for stabilization, equality and fairness, correctness, etc., and the indeterminacy of these signs for creativity and the freedom to express oneself?

These are questions we will address and rethink over and over again as we dive into the multitude of discourses in which we find something about words or symbols disputable – discourses such as law, science, gender, race, linguistics, digital communication, etc. By analyzing such disputes, we will realize that they are merely manifestations of an essential nature of language and communication, and come to reflect on people’s communicative strategies and reflexivity, the sources of authority to which they appeal and the types of identity/power positions they take. At stake in such disputes include but are not limited to people’s freedom of expression, their own voice in society, the control and censorship of the public sphere, the boundary between lay and non-lay discourse, the ownership of symbols and words, and the right to control their origin, use and/or interpretation.

Course Learning Outcomes

On completing the course, students will be able to:

1. Identify and describe the ways in which words and symbols are contestable.
2. Understand the personal, socio-cultural, and circumstantial factors that shape disputes over words and symbols.
3. Apply basic research skills and develop an appreciation of the role and status of different kinds of sources (blogs, media reports, discussion forums, historical texts, secondary literature), including referencing and citation conventions.
4. Analyze critically the reflexivity of language, the linguistic arguments, communicative strategies, and ideologies involved in word/symbol disputes.
5. Identify a case study of a word/symbol dispute and analyze its origins, development and the underlying issues at stake.

Offer Semester and Day of Teaching

First semester (Wed)

Study Load

Assessment: 100% coursework

Required Reading

Excerpts from:

• Durant, A. (2010). Meaning in the media: Discourse, controversy and debate. Cambridge University Press.
• Hewings, A., & Tagg, C. (2012). The Politics of English: Conflict, Competition, Co-existence. Routledge.
• Hutton, C. (2014). Word meaning and legal interpretation. Palgrave.

Primary texts from media sources and the worldwide web, relating to individual case studies.

Other readings may be recommended but not required.

Course Co-ordinator and Teacher(s)