Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Language

1. Concept of Communication

a) Value

b) Transmission through a Code of Signals

c) Sending a Message

Sending a message from a sender to a receiver in a code of signs. Communication is impossible without a code.

Difference between Signal and Sign:

• Signal is a hereditary reflection, not learned. It is the physical manifestation itself.
• Signs are universal units of communication and are purely physical, while a sign is of psychophysical nature, i.e., a signal containing conscious content intended to be understood, not just to trigger a response.

2. Do Animals Have Language?

No, because we define language as a sign communication system used exclusively by humans. Therefore, language is foreign to animals. Moreover, the power to create and use sign systems... Continue reading "Understanding Communication: Signs, Signals, and Language" »

• Talk: A meeting where a speaker provides information and communicates with the audience.
  • Objective: To inform people and create a mental connection.
  • Information is informal and cannot be read.
  • Talks should not last more than one hour.
  • The speaker can ask the public questions, and vice versa.
  • Only one person can participate in a talk as the speaker.
  • The audience can ask questions during a talk.
  • The presenter of a talk can be introduced or follow a specific order.
• Conference: A gathering of people who listen to and face the information others provide.
• Address: An oral argument, persuasive to some extent, addressed to an audience or one person.
  • An address cannot be written as it is an oral presentation that targets the public.
• Interview:
  • The purpose of an

Comparing Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and Poor People

The relationship between Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (1866) and Poor People (1846) lies in the profound realism with which the characters are depicted. Both works feature characters living in poverty. Dostoevsky highlights the circumstances of living in poverty, creating settings marked by the characters' impoverished status, which significantly influences their actions.

In both novels, the idea of love often functions as a moral imperative. In some cases, characters feel morally obliged to make decisions that shape the narrative. Although Poor People is not a tragedy like Crime and Punishment, it reveals themes that haunted the author from his youth. There is a clear difference... Continue reading "Literary Connections: Dostoevsky and Kafka" »

Substantive Clauses

Substantive clauses can function as the main verb. They can often be substituted by "what."

Example: "I told him to come right away."

Substantive Complement Indirect (CI)

Functions as the verb of the main proposition. Can be pronominalized (le).

Example: "Give this letter to whoever is reading."

Substantive Direct Complement (DC)

Functions as the verb of the main proposition.

Example: "He did it without anyone knowing."

Substantive of Prepositional Phrase (C. Scheme)

Functions as a complement of the verb in the main proposition. It is often preceded by a preposition, with or without a following conjunction.

Example: "Trust those who care about you."

Substantive of Attribute

Functions as an attribute in the main proposition, typically... Continue reading "Substantive, Adjective, and Adverbial Clauses" »

Process of Structural Engineering

The construction of structures, such as bridges, roads, buildings, dams, and stadiums, requires careful consideration of various factors. Engineers must propose the most convenient criteria, ensuring the structure is functional, strong, durable, and economical, while also considering environmental and aesthetic aspects. The realization of a work begins with stating the problem and ends with execution, following this order:

1. Planning: This stage involves examining the program, analyzing needs and resources, and establishing the general approach to construction.
2. Project: This stage proposes the general geometry and distribution, including the structural system, according to the services the structure will provide

1. Time

Antonio Machado identified himself as a "poet of time," understanding time not as an abstract concept but as something living and personal. It is the limited, individual history of each person, which exists and passes, yet remains in memory. Within memory, personal boundaries and anecdotes blur, leaving behind universal, refined sentiment. The poet expresses a keen sensitivity to time, facing the fatal passage of hours and days.

Symbols of Time:

• Water: The flow of a river symbolizes the passage of time and, consequently, inner life. However, water can also represent death.
• Afternoon: Expresses a melancholy feeling, a spiritual voice.
• Roads: Symbols of life or associated with it. When depicted in a poem, the road often blurs, clearing into

This is an argumentative-expository text where the author presents a claim and argues their opinion.

Regarding adequacy, the author aims to inform readers of their findings on (...), specifically on (...); thus, the informative function is predominant. However, as common in such texts, the argument serves a secondary purpose: guiding the reader's opinion, adding a persuasive function.

The intended audience is clearly journalistic, as the text is for publication (... in a newspaper, in this case, the newspaper "..."). It's a (...) (article/editorial/letter to the editor = opinion; news/feature/interview = news genre; chronicle/critical = hybrid genre), typical of argumentative expository journalistic texts that address current issues. This was... Continue reading "Analysis of an Argumentative-Expository Text" »

Characteristics of the Realist Novel

European realist novels showcase a great variety, yet share common features reflecting new literary principles.

• Bourgeois Movement: Realism is a bourgeois literary movement, rooted in practicality and progress. Unlike romantic authors, realist novelists are ordinary citizens committed to reflecting their society's everyday problems and conflicts.
• Focus on Contemporary Reality: The story centers on contemporary life, aiming to provide a comprehensive picture of social life, customs, and ideas. Realistic novels depict scenes from streets, markets, factories, gatherings, cafes, and casinos. Protagonists are ordinary people, not heroes.
• Striving for Objectivity: Writers aim to be reporters, photographers, and faithful

means of "you" or a number of nicknames: "hilarious ladies, dear ladies, young ladies, young valuable..."

The Youth:

• Their meeting
• Their decisions
• Their adventures

It is a well-defined framework, characters, scenario, historical time.

Narrative Planes:

• The 'own stories, each with its own characteristics. The first two planes are related by the main narrator, but from different functions.
• In the foreground, the first-person narrator fully identifies with the author and has no narrative function, but expository or argumentative: Boccaccio not "tells", but reflects and expresses his ideology, world view, and value of literature itself.
• In the second, an omniscient third-person voice acts as narrator. This map is dotted with the first interference, as comments

Item 8: Language and Art

1. The Sign and its Components

A sign is anything that represents and communicates something. This includes all signs that humans use, such as language, art, and mathematics. Linguistic signs can be differentiated into:

• A signifier: the "perceptible" part of the sign, whether sounds (phonemes) or graphics (letters).
• A meaning: what the sign represents. This meaning can be an object (referent) or a "mental concept."

2. Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics: Parts of Language

• Syntax examines combinations of signifiers.
• Semantics focuses on the study of the meaning of linguistic signs.
• Pragmatics is concerned with the use of language in terms of the relationship established between utterance, context, and actors. It analyzes how speakers