.png)
Key terms
Sikia – 1. hear. 2. obey, pay attention. 3.
feel, sense: ~ baridi feel cold; ji~ vibaya feel unwell; ji~
nyumbani feel at home; ~ njaa feel hungry.
Usikivu - attentiveness.
Derived
terms
Verbal
derivations:
Applicative: -sikilia
(“listen for something”)
Causative: -sikilisha, -sikiliza
Passive: -sikiwa
Reciprocal: -sikiana, -sikizana (“understand each other”)
Stative: -sikika (“being heard/being understood/being obeyed”)
Nominal
derivations:
sikio (“ear”)
Kusikia
(to hear/to sense)
In
Kiswahili, Sikia (hear) covers the general meaning of sense, whether it
is hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, feeling, and even some, though less commonly,
may use it to refer to seeing.
The
essence of perception is in the workings of the sense organs. Generally, every
human being has these sense organs, and they gather information from the
environment in very much the same way. This general information is therefore
universal by default. This is what is called common sense. When any rogue
element tries to deform this information, they are said to be projecting
nonsense. It is important to note how in contemporary society, perception,
which is the primary source of sense, is being bastardized with mantras such as
“that’s your perception”, “their perceptions”. Recorded examples of statements include:
“Nonetheless,
Gaetz teamed up with many caucus members to oppose McCarthy as speaker in
January and does little to beat back the perception that he is allied with the
group.”
—Molly
Ball, Time, 18 July 2023
“Changing
the perception of a store among shoppers is not easy.”
—Jordyn
Holman, New York Times, 16 July 2023
Furthermore,
Merriam webster dictionary conflates the meaning of perception with conception
which are two separate ideas. In their definition of “perception” as shown in
the image below, they state,
This
conflation of perception with conception is elaborated further in the last sub-topic
of this post that shows the deification of the element of “interpretant” in the
theory of signification and the switching of meanings for signifier to imply “real
perceived object” and signified to imply “mental image/concept”, which is
opposite of the original meaning. The deified “interpretant” and “signifier”
are further attached in an unnatural combination. This has resulted in much
confusion and unreasonableness in contemporary society.
Common
sense and sense organs (perception)
The
sense organs work by perceiving signs and making meaning out of these signs. Signifier(symbol)
and signified(object) stand for the two main components of a sign, where signifier
is the "plane of expression/symbol", while signified pertains to the
"plane of content/object."
A
sign is defined as anything that communicates something, usually called a
meaning, to the sign's interpreter. The meaning can be intentional, such as a
word uttered with a specific meaning; or unintentional, such as: 1. a symptom
being a sign of a particular medical condition or, 2. A reaction from a
perception, for example, cringing at a sight, covering the nose at a smell,
holding a part of the body due to pain. Signs can also communicate feelings
(which are usually not considered meanings) and may communicate internally
(through thought itself) or through any of the senses: visual, auditory,
tactile, olfactory, or gustatory (taste).
Ideologies
and mind (conception)
In
the realm of conception, which involves ideologies, beliefs and hypothesis, sense
takes meaning in language. Language utilizes symbols in its expression and
content. It is therefore primarily a signifier. Saussure, in his 1916 Course in
General Linguistics, still divides the sign (in language) into two distinct
components: the signifier ('sound-image') and the signified ('concept'). This
is similar to the categories of general signification, but in this case, in the
deeper level of language as a signifier, as shown in the tree diagram below.
For
Saussure, the signified and signifier in languages are purely psychological:
they are form rather than substance. This means, but rather vaguely, that the signified cannot be perceived directly by any of the physical sense organs, but they can
be conceived psychologically. However, this can only be true
when the signified is a concept rather than real-perceivable-object. Languages signify real objects too.
Post-1945 war on common sense
Post-1945 (post-ww 2), a new element was implanted into this
structure. This was most famously given the name “interpretant” by Charles Sanders
Pierce (1955). He claimed that the theory of signification would from then
consist, not of two parts, but three: the signifier, the signified, and an
interpretant. Or as he put it, sign, object and interpretant. This hypothetically
opens the gates for creation of new meanings by entities that may falsely claim
to be interpretants, which provides the possibility by ill-intentioned entities
to twist and dampen common sense which is received from universal perceptions.
Some semioticians have each brought their own concerns to the
study of signs. Umberto Eco (1976), a distinguished Italian semiotician, came
to the conclusion that "if signs can be used to tell the truth, they can
also be used to lie. Postmodernist social theorist Jean Baudrillard spoke of ‘hyperreality’,
referring to a copy becoming more real than reality. In other words, how the
signifier becomes more important than the signified. I agree with these
concerns. The deification of the “signifier” and its attached “interpretant”
who is often the producer of the signifier, provides apparent free reign for propaganda/taqiyya
to appear “real”, “objective”, “authentic” and “normal”.
References
Berger, Arthur Asa (2005).
Media Analysis Techniques, Third Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
Berger, Arthur Asa (2012).
Media Analysis Techniques. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.
Berger, Arthur Asa (2013).
"Semiotics and Society." Soc 51(1):22–26.
Campbell, C., Olteanu, A.,
& Kull, K. (2019). Learning and knowing as semiosis: Extending the
conceptual apparatus of semiotics. Sign Systems Studies 47(3/4), 352–381
Retrieved 23/07/2023. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perception.
TUKI (2001), Kamusi Ya
Kiswahili-Kiingereza; Swahili-English Dictionary. Published by Taasisi ya
Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili (TUKI), Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Comments
Post a Comment