On 06/04/2010, at 10:58 PM, Don Norman wrote:
> I am fully aware that the field of semiotics, among others, has owned and
> abused all sorts of words over its lifetime, including sign, signal, and
> signifier. I am aware that they will complain that I have abused their
> concept. But that's life:
Indeed it is! In some future distopia we might be able send in the Language Police to arrest the abusers and clean up the mess with a bit of language disinfectant, but until then we are stuck with the usual messy world. In that messy world it is highly likely that the problems you had with the abuse of 'affordances' will be amplified by your recent choice of 'signifier' where past masters in language abuse have left a long trail of damage. But, as you say, that's life!
David
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blog: www.communication.org.au/dsblog
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