Object Grammar: A New Way of Explaining Meaning-Making and Change in Material Objects

• In Event: 20420 - Section on Sociology of Culture Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 5: Materiality and Affordances

Abstract

This article proposes a new concept to explain the source of meaning of material objects and its transformation: object grammar, defined as the clustering rule of objects, directs how audiences interpret objects. While existing theories in cultural sociology have examined the interaction between individual objects and their audiences, they overlook how the meaning of an object can be shaped by its relationship with other objects within a classification system. Object grammar highlights the role of criteria of resemblance among objects in shaping their meaning based on the iterative interaction between tokens and types. Using the case of the contemporary revival of “Hanfu (Han clothing)” in China, where the concept of Hanfu is newly invented and its meaning and referents are unstable, the study shows how the public interprets its pivotal meanings in ways contrary to revivalists’ intentions. To redirect audience interpretations, revivalists (re)construct the criteria for Hanfu’s typification – a process that existing theories fail to fully explain. This article calls for greater attention to the clustering rule of objects in the meaning-making process and underscores the potential to redirect audience interpretation.

Author

• Shining Wang, University of Virginia