A Summary of Representation, Meaning and Language by Stuart Hall

Representation

Representation has an important place in cultural studies as it connects meaning and language to
culture. Representation means using language to represent or to say something meaningful about
the world meaningfully. According to Stuart Hall, it is an essential part of the process of
production and exchange of meaning between members of a culture.

Stuart Hall draws a distinction between three different theories; the reflective (reflecting an
already existing meaning), the intentional (expressing a writer’s or speaker’s personally intended
meaning) and the constructionist (constructing meaning in and through language). These are the
approaches to representation. In recent years, ‘constructionist approach’ has had the most
significant impact on cultural studies. Stuart Hall focuses on two models of constructionist
approach; the ‘semiotic’ approach which is greatly influenced by Saussure, and the ‘discursive’
approach which is associated with Michel Foucault.

Stuart Hall argues that representation is the production of the meaning of the concepts in our
mind through language. The link between concepts and language enables us to refer to either the
real world of objects, people or events, or to imaginary worlds of fictional objects, people,
events. In the process of representation, there are two systems. The first system correlates
objects, people and events with a set of concepts or mental representations that we carry in our
heads. We interpret the world meaningfully with the help of this system.

While constructing meaning, language is the second system of representation. Our shared
conceptual map (culture) must be translated into a common language so that we can correlate our
concepts and ideas with written words, spoken sounds or visual images. The term ‘signs’ is used
to refer to words, sounds, or images that carry meaning. Language refers not only to the literal
language written or spoken. It also refers to objects, images or anything else when they are used
to express meaning. From this point of view, any sound, word, image or object which functions
as a sign, and is organized with other signs into a system capable of carrying and expressing
meaning, is a language. Hence, the first system enables us to give meaning to the world by
constructing a set of correspondences between things and our system of conceptual maps. In
contrast, the second system depends on constructing a set of correspondences between our
conceptual map and a set of signs, organized into various languages which represent those
concepts. The relation between things, concepts and signs lies at the center of the production of
meaning in language. Representation is what links these three elements together.
Language and Representation – Stuart Hall

According to Stuart Hall, people who belong to the same culture must share a similar conceptual
map and the same way of interpreting the signs of a language so that meaning can be exchanged
effectively. Visual signs and images, even when they closely resemble the things they refer to,
are still signs; they carry meaning and have to be interpreted. To interpret, we must have access
to the two systems of representation. Visual signs are also called ‘iconic’ signs because they bear
a certain resemblance to the referent. On the other hand, written or spoken signs are also called
‘indexical’. Words don’t look or sound anything like the things they refer to, hence it’s
comparatively more difficult to create meaning through indexical signs.

In systems of representation, the relationship between the sign, the concept and the object to
which they might be used to refer is entirely arbitrary.

Meaning – Stuart Hall

According to Stuart Hall, the meaning is not in the thing itself, nor is it in the word. We fix the
meaning so firmly that it later becomes natural and inevitable. Meaning is fixed by the code,
which sets up the correlation between our conceptual system and our language system in such a
way that whenever we think of a tree, the code tells us to use the word TREE. Stuart Hall asserts
that we think about culture in terms of shared conceptual maps, shared language systems, and
codes which fix the relationship between concepts and signs. When codes arbitrarily fix the
relationship between conceptual and linguistic systems, we can speak and hear intelligibly. In
this process, meaning passes from speaker to hearer and is effectively communicated within a
culture. Hall argues that cultural codes, in fact, make biological individuals cultural objects.
Children learn the systems and conventions of representation, the odes of their culture and
language so that they can become culturally competent subjects.

Since meaning is established by our social, cultural and linguistic conventions, meaning can
never be finally fixed.

Theories of Representation – Stuart Hall

There are three approaches to explaining how the representation of meaning through language
works. They are the reflective, the intentional, and the constructionist.

- Reflective Approach of Representation

In the reflective approach of representation, the meaning is supposed to lie in the object, person
or idea in the real world, and language functions like a mirror, to reflect the true meaning.
To explain how language, in a broad sense, imitated Nature, the Greeks used the notion of
‘mimesis’ in the 4th century B.C. Hence, the theory that says language functions by simply
reflecting the truth which already exists in the world, is often known as ‘mimetic’. Nevertheless,
there are many words, sounds and images which we fully understand but are entirely fictional
and the world is wholly imaginary.

- Intentional Approach of Representation

The intentional approach of representation argues that the author or the speaker imposes meaning
on the world through language. In this approach, words mean what the author intends them to
mean. However, the intentional approach is also flawed. As ourselves being the source of
meaning, we could express in entirely private languages. Nonetheless, the truth is that language
depends on shared linguistic conventions and shared codes. In order for us to be understood, our
intended meanings have to enter into the rules, codes, and conventions of language. It is because
language is completely a social system.

- Constructionist Approach of Representation

The constructionist approach is a mixture of reflectiveand intentional. It seen as a response to the

weakness in those other two approaches, as some woukd argue that they are too simplistic. This approach
suggests that the meaning of a representation is constructed in the mind of the audience. So, the
representation is constructed from a mixture of:

 The thing itself (image, text or sound) the opinions of the people doing the representation
 The reaction of the individual to the representation
 The context of the society in which the representation is taking place