After reading chapter 4 ‘Language, Meaning and Interpretation’ by Jonathan Culler, there are three measurements of meaning: the first being the significance of a word, an expression, and a book. The subsequent measurement tends to the potential implications of words that add to the importance of an articulation, which is a demonstration by the speaker. The content, something the writer has built, and its importance isn’t a recommendation however what it does, its capability to influence perusers is the third measurement. All things considered, it is essential to take a gander at the entire picture while perusing a book, the strict language utilized, however why that particular language was utilized versus some other number of words. It is extremely unlikely of indicating that there are considerations of one language that can’t be thought or communicated in another, however, we do have proof that one language makes ‘common’ or ‘ordinary’ contemplations that require a unique exertion in another. This can likewise be separated by the sounds words make and the implications of each word, in light of the fact that the sound is comparative doesn’t imply that the word is. The meaning is the thing that somebody expects the peruser to understand. At times the importance is in the content and different occasions the setting is the thing that decides to mean. The significance of work to someone, in particular, may not be what the essayist proposed, and can vary among people. On the off chance that we need to concoct an understanding and, we need to convince others of its relevance. Which means is the experience of a subject and a property of a book.

In the “Literature, Meaning, and Interpretation” by Culler, the author discusses the connection between language and meaning. One of the ideas from this chapter that attract my attention is literature language can have different meaning. The understanding of the language depends to the meaning we accord to the words, the utterance we hear and how the text is structured.  There are different kind of writers, some of them are very simple and clear in their words and sentences they use to communicate with the readers but, others use some complex texts in their writing. For this kind of group, sometimes we can have some difficulties to understand the meaning of the text because of the style and form of the words they use. The meaning of the words can have different interpretation and that fact can change the meaning of the text. Furthermore, the utterance of the words can also give another signification of the text. In some cases, the sentence is written very simple, but the meaning of the language requires deep reflection to be understood. For some writers who use fiction to express their opinion, the meaning of the text can be related to the real situation which indirectly connected to text, that mean we have to be able to analyze deeply the text to understand the text. Also, in some particular situation our differences, for example our culture or origin can influence to the interpretation of the text, we can see or read the text in different angles. In addition, language of literature is one of the ways to learn how we can articulate words and give signification to the words.

In the chapter of “Literature, Meaning, and Interpretation”, Culler argues that language, which is used to present meaning, is not pre-existing, on contrary, the meaning of language is given by various interpretations of human, that makes language meaningful. Therefore, literature is not just about reading words or sentences, but thinking what information and emotion writer wants to pass to readers. On one hand, culler mentions that meaning should not be determined by words. Language as a sign of convention, is restricting the expression of writer and reader’s comprehension, idea and imaginary are limited because language too rigid to deliver them. On the other hand, while reading a literature, analyze writer’s situation and feeling is crucial, because without it, different meaning might be delivered to reader cause misunderstanding. A good lecture can be more likely to cause a positive respond to reader, however, it is normal to say reader might have different views on the same lecture. As well as writer, reader also have their own culture, experiences, and values that shape their personality, that makes even a language might have different meaning to them. As a result, reading is like an unknown chemistry reaction, when writer and reader’s idea crash together, you have no idea what would come out eventually.

In my view, I am most interested in is that if language is created to deliver meaning, then meaning should not be bounded by words, but what if we create new words or languages to help us express and understand better, how do we deliver the exactly same meaning or felling to everyone?

According to the chapter, there are three dimensions or levels of meaning: the first being the meaning of a word, of an utterance, and of a text. The first dimension is the word which is the literal meaning of the word. The second dimension addresses the possible meanings of words that contribute to the meaning of an utterance, which is an act by the speaker. The third dimension is text, something the author has constructed, and its meaning is not a proposition but what it does, its potential to affect readers. It is important to look at the whole picture while reading a text, not just the literal language that the author used, the same literal language in the different pictures may present a totally different meaning. I was interested in how language can be a system of differences, his theory of language states that “what makes each element of a language what it is, and what gives it its identity, are the contrasts between it and other elements within the system of the language” (58). Since language is a system of signs and the key facts, Saussure calls this “arbitrary nature of the linguistic sign”, which means the sign is a combination of a form and a meaning, and the relation between form and meaning is based on convention, not natural resemblance. Each language is a system of concepts as well as forms: a system of conventional signs that organize the world. Meaning is the experience of a subject and a property of a text; what we understand and what we try to understand.

   I see that the most interesting idea in this chapter is the part that relates to “language and thought.” As Culler says that there is a theory that says “language expresses the existing ideas by providing methods for this.” So language and thought interact in many significant ways, thought comes first, while language is an expression of what we think. Also each specific language has its own influence on the thought and action of its speakers. Likewise, according to Culler, Expressing ideas that we think are easy and natural in our language may require a great effort from us to express them in another language. This brings us to an important point, anyone who has learned more than one language is struck by the many ways in which languages differ from one to another. I think that this part reminds me of myself when I started learning languages other than Arabic. Sometimes it was very difficult for me to express what I was thinking in English, I felt like my thoughts were frozen, and other times I couldn’t express them at all. Therefore, Culler mentions that literary works often try to reconfigure ideas in order to be able to express things that we did not expect to think of before. The relationship between language and thinking is often a strong one, but literature generates other ideas so we can see a different reality.

From the chapter “Literature, Meaning, and Interpretation”, one of the ideas that strikes me as interesting regarding the relationship between language and meaning is the method of reading literature works, which is the combination of poetics and hermeneutics. The author made the concepts of these two methods clear to us. The poetics is based on the attested meaning and aims to find out what have to be accounted and how the meaning is achieved. However, hermeneutics is based on the forms of the literature works and aims to discover new and better interpretation of the it. Poetics and hermeneutics are often combined to read literature works. I believe reading literature works by both of these methods is important and helpful for us to grasp and discover the meaning that we find in the literature works. Only when we know how the attested meaning is achieved by learning every part of the literature work will we have a better understanding of this, which I think is the basis of seeking to discover the new interpretation. Just like our annotations assignments, we read the poems, note what this part or that part is talking about and grasp what the author wants to deliver. After we have a basic understanding of this, we can read the poems again and try to think deeply.

An idea from the chapter, “Literature, Meaning, and Interpretation,” by Jonathan Culler that I found most interesting regarding the relationship between language and meaning was the role of intention in the determination of literary meaning. Culler argues that interpretation of an authors work is not settled by consulting the author, but by what he or she was able to successfully embody in the work. I found this to be interesting because I agree with this theory  that literary works are open to interpretation by the reader based on what the author was able to deliver. I believe that oftentimes, the message that the reader or audience takes away from the authors work is different from what the author initially desired to deliver. This does not mean that the author failed to deliver their message in a successful way, but proves a point that it is truly important for authors to communicate exactly what they desire for the reader to grasp. However, authors sometimes intentionally leave endings ambiguous for readers to interpret.