structuralists
System-focused analysts
Structuralists are scholars who analyze systems—language, society, culture—by examining the underlying structures and relationships between elements rather than the elements themselves.
The approach, influential in mid-20th-century linguistics and anthropology, holds that meaning emerges from contrasts and patterns within a system: The structuralists argued that myth operates like language.
French structural anthropologist
- AlthusserStructuralist Marxist thinker
- LacanFrench psychoanalytic theorist
- PiagetChild cognition researcher
- signifierMeaning-bearing form
Genette · signified · langue · parole · synchronic · diachronic · paradigm · semiotics
Science of language sounds
- morphologyStudy of structural forms
- syntaxRules for arranging words
- phonemeMinimal distinctive sound unit
- morphemeSmallest meaningful language unit
paradigmatic · Chomsky · Bloomfield · langue · parole · competence · performance · universal grammar
State of being related
- mythologyBody of traditional tales
- cultureCollective social practices
- ritualCeremonial set of actions
- Lévi-StraussFrench structural anthropologist
totemism · exchange · reciprocity · incest taboo · classification · bricolage · ethnography · cross-cultural
- focalizationNarrative point of view
- mythologiesBodies of traditional narratives
- text analysisStudy of written material
- readerOne who peruses text
author · intertextuality · story · discourse · semiotics
Doctrine of fixed natures
- ahistoricalIgnoring past events
- reductionismExplaining wholes through parts
- DerridaGrammatology's French author
- FoucaultProminent French family name
anti-humanism · determinism · agency · subject · deconstruction · contingency · power · genealogy
Lévi-Strauss
French structural anthropologist
- AlthusserStructuralist Marxist thinker
- LacanFrench psychoanalytic theorist
- PiagetChild cognition researcher
Genette · signifier · signified · langue · parole · synchronic · diachronic · paradigm · semiotics · deconstruction
phonology
Science of language sounds
- morphologyStudy of structural forms
- syntaxRules for arranging words
- phonemeMinimal distinctive sound unit
morpheme · paradigmatic · Chomsky · Bloomfield · langue · parole · competence · performance · universal grammar · language system
kinship
State of being related
Lévi-Strauss · totemism · exchange · reciprocity · incest taboo · classification · bricolage · ethnography · cross-cultural · symbolism
Genette
- focalizationNarrative point of view
- mythologiesBodies of traditional narratives
- text analysisStudy of written material
reader · author · intertextuality · story · discourse · semiotics
essentialism
Doctrine of fixed natures
- ahistoricalIgnoring past events
- reductionismExplaining wholes through parts
- DerridaGrammatology's French author
Foucault · anti-humanism · determinism · agency · subject · deconstruction · contingency · power · genealogy
structuralistsindividualists
Those prioritizing personal independence
humanists · phenomenologists · existentialists · functionalists · empiricists