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ambiguity
Having more than one meaning. The simplest case is lexical ambiguity, where a single term has two meanings. A sentence or grammatically complex construction can be ambiguous without any of the words ...

communication
The result of any action (physical, written, or verbal) that conveys meanings between two individuals. In the context of marketing, the marketer wants the communication, in the form of a promotional ...

deixis
A term used in linguistics to denote those aspects of an utterance that refer to and depend upon the situation in which the utterance is made. Deictic words indicate the situational ‘co-ordinates’ of ...

determinism
The doctrine that every event has a cause. The usual explanation of this is that for every event, there is some antecedent state, related in such a way that it would break a law of nature for this ...

empathy
n. the ability to imagine and understand the thoughts, perspective, and emotions of another person. In counselling and psychotherapy empathy is often considered to be one of the necessary qualities ...

essentialism
[Th]The idea that there are certain attitudes or emotions that are biologically inherent to human beings in general or to males or females differently. Essentialist claims are often backed up with ...

ethnography
The scientific study of customs, habits, and behavior of specified groups of people, usually applied to tribes or clans of people in nonliterate societies.

Giambattista Vico
(1668–1744)Italian philosopher of history. Vico was born in Naples, and educated by the Jesuits. From 1699 he held the chair of rhetoric at the university of Naples. Vico's principal work was the ...

indeterminacy
Unpredictability in outcome, because a very large number of interrelated factors are involved and/or because understanding of the particular system is still quite limited.

interpretation
[Th]The stage in research at which the results of archaeological analyses are synthesized and there is an attempt to explain their meaning or consolidate a knowledgeable understanding of the results. ...

metaphor
A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. Recorded from the late 15th century, the word comes via French and Latin from ...

pragmatics
1. (linguistics) A branch of semantics concerned with the communicative use and functions of language in particular social contexts, especially in conversations: see also discourse analysis; ...

reductionism
[Th]The general principle that complicated phenomena can be explained by conceptually reducing them to a set of simple variables. This is often linked to essentialist or socio‐biological approaches.

Roger Bacon
(c.1214–92)English philosopher and scientist, known as Doctor Mirabilis (‘marvellous doctor’). A member of the Franciscan order, Bacon began his career studying the previously forbidden works of ...

semantics
[Th]The study of the imputed relations between signs and the designata: the meaning of signs such as may be found in material culture and its disposition.

subjectivity
The self-conscious perspective of the person or subject. This is invariably contrasted with objectivity and is used pejoratively by positivistic social scientists. By contrast, it is seen as crucial ...

subtext
Underlying any text, utterance, or action, a meaning, theme, or viewpoint interpreted as being implied, backgrounded, hidden, repressed, or unconscious rather than explicit or foregrounded. See also ...
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