Codes, concepts and shared conceptual maps

Overview

Hall's proposition about concepts and signs, colour code and its cultural limits and negotiated reading.

What you need to know

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Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   State Hall's proposition about concepts and signs.

   Model answer

   Hall argued that codes govern how a concept and a sign are linked. Codes fix the tie between an idea and its sign.

2. 2

   Why is the link between a sign and a concept described as arbitrary?

   Model answer

   Most signs bear no natural resemblance to what they mean. Convention alone attaches the word tree to the idea of a tree.

3. 3

   What does a code do in Hall's account?

   Model answer

   A code holds the relationship between concept and sign stable across a culture. Codes are learned rather than natural.

4. 4

   How are codes learned?

   Model answer

   Codes are absorbed through upbringing, education and media exposure. Familiarity makes a learned convention feel obvious.

5. 5

   Why can codes change over time?

   Model answer

   Cultural attitudes shift and the meaning attached to a sign moves with them. A representation acceptable in one decade can be unreadable in another.

6. 6

   Give an example of a colour code and its cultural limits.

   Model answer

   Black connotes mourning across much of Europe. White carries the same meaning in parts of East Asia.

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