13. Dialogic Aspects of Communication

Why does Bakhtin assert that "the word is born in a dialogue"?



How does he define "dialogic"? Define "dialogism".



How does he explain the way we understand linguistic utterances?

We understand the utterance because of the language used, but the meaning we understand because of what else is said before and after the utterance that relate to the utterance. The utterance isn't simply a mumble of something, it can be an entire sentence or word.

Define "intertexuality". Give some examples of it from films, tv, and music.

Basically there's strong relations between the texts that are produced at any given time, and texts that were previously created. The relation between the recently publicized Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer and Dracula can be seen.

The idea that vampires co-exist and thrive off human blood. The difference in relation is that the vampires in Stephanie Meyer's books are good and can also feed off animals to survive in a near perfect condition.

The idea of a solo guitarist can be related to the bards of the medievel period. Someone who sings and plays an instrument.

The idea of reality tv can relate to the news. The news lets us read about what happens in the real world, mostly through one side, but sometimes multiple views. Reality tv shows us one side of what happens as well and sometimes, if the camera follows more than one person, more than one view can be seen.

Can a work ever not be intertextual? Defend your answer.

Technically I don't think a work can ever not be intertextual. All artists derive their creative ideas from some other source that inspires them. They can come close to how a scenario goes but change their own so it's different, but that doesn't mean it doesn't still relate.

Communication must take cultural norms into account. How does this affect media?

If the media wishes for a certain affect, the idea of how normal something can be must be accounted for. If the news wishes for people to believe them, they must make their news at least somewhat truthful and believeable. If it's not, no one will credit it for being truthful and thus the prupose for news is defeated.

Is there a difference between conversation and dialogue? Explain your answer.

I argue there is.
Conversation is merely what is being said on the outside. That one comments with nice weather, another agrees, they transist into baseball and in the end neither can remember how the conversation started.

Dialogue is what is meaningfully being said. Not only does it start with nice weather but transits into how baseball is a good pasttime and who wins which launches into a discussion about who's stats are better and which team will fall into first or second according to their players' stats. While neither may be able to remember how the conversation started, the bulk of what was talked about was remembered and thus there was dialogue.