According to Stuart Hall in “The Work of Representation” (1997), the relationship between language and reality is explained by three different approaches:

a)  The Reflective approach

•  Meaning lies in the object or event in the real world.

•  Language is a mirror that reflects the true meaning as it already exists in the world.

•  Also called the mimetic approach.

b)  The Intentional approach

•  The addresser / author imposes meaning on the world through language.

•  Words mean what the author intends them to mean.

c)  The Constructionist approach

•  Insists on the social character of language.

•  We construct meaning, using representational systems – concepts and signs.

•  The material world and the symbolic or representational world are not the same.

•  Though representation does use material objects like images, sounds, bytes, etc, meaning depends on the symbolic function of those objects.

•  Meaning through representational symbols is relational (as shown by Saussure).