What is Representation?

About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about what representation is, focusing in particular on: (i) understanding semiosis to meaning the designation of signs to concepts, to disambiguate their meaning; (ii) nationality, gender and age as examples of concepts which might employ semiosis; (iii) potentially ambiguous social constructs associated with nationhood, including cultural practices and geographic location of birth; (iv) the Union Jack flag and its representation of both the geographic United Kingdom and associated cultures and people as an example of semiosis; (v) gender as an example of where stereotypical features associated with gender and sex don’t necessarily represent the reality of someone’s gender identity; (vi) a communicative mode being any way in which meaning can be conveyed; (vii) passive and active subject agency as an example of representation in grammar; (viii) make-up as an example of gendered social actor associations, despite not being exclusively gendered.

About the lecturer

Dr Frazer Heritage is a lecturer in linguistics in the Department of Languages, Information and Communications at Manchester Metropolitan University. Dr Heritage’s research interests are in corpus linguistics, sexuality and new media studies. Some of Dr Heritage’s recent publications include ‘Language, gender, and videogames: Using corpora to analyse the representation of gender in video games’ (2021) and ‘Are videogames represented as violent in the press? Hypothesis testing using MD-CADS and corpora from UK newspapers in 2000 and 2020’ (2023).