CONVENTIONS
Some early papers used variants, but the following are now the settled conventions for terms.
- 'Legitimation Code Theory' is always capitalized
- 'epistemic relations' and 'social relations' are always pluralised
- Specialization and Semantics have capitals and are the names for two dimensions of LCT. They are also referred to as LCT(Specialization) and LCT(Semantics).
- Specialization = ER/SR (specialization codes), knowledge-knower structures, epistemic-pedagogic device, gazes, insights, etc. (Note: 'knower-grammars' is only a bridging concept for introducing social relations and replaced by SR).
- Semantics = SG/SD (semantic codes), semantic waves, condensation, ESP device, etc
- 'Legitimation codes' is the generic name for all LCT codes; i.e. specialization codes, semantic codes, etc are all legitimation codes. They are referred to as 'specialization (or semantic) codes of legitimation’ or just ‘specialization codes’ and ‘semantic codes, (but not ‘legitimation codes of specialization’).
- - ER+/-, SR+/- = specialization codes
- - SG+/-, SD+/- = semantic codes
- - PA+/-, RA+/- = autonomy codes
- The ordering of concepts for coding: ER before SR, SG before SD, PA before RA, TP before TO
- +/- and ↑↓ come after each concept and not before it - this is not something to be adjusted to match conventions in linguistics as the ordering has condensed meaning: it is part of the technicality.
- The symbols '+/-' are inherited conventions from Bernstein's code theory, which he described as 'strong/weak'. In LCT these always denote stronger / weaker or relatively strong / relatively weak (never just the binaries of strong/weak).
- ↑↓ = up and down arrows indicate strengthening (↑) and weakening (↓). They always mean the same, so ER↓ is weakening of epistemic relations and SG↑ is strengthening of semantic gravity (however counterintuitive that might seem).
- For annotating data (e.g. transcripts) notation is sometimes used to indicate change that remains within a quadrant of the plane, such as ER-↑- to indicate ‘weaker ER that is strengthened but remains relatively weaker'.
- The ‘graph’ or ‘compass’ picture used for each dimension of LCT is a Cartesian plane and named after the dimension, e.g. that for ER/SR is the Specialization plane; that for SG/SD is the Semantic plane, etc.
ANNOTATION: A key to symbols
Commonly used terms
ER - epistemic relations
OR - ontic relations
DR - discursive relations
SR - social relations
SubR - subjective relations
IR - interactional relations
SG - semantic gravity
SD - semantic density
EC - epistemological condensation (OC - ontic condensation; DC - discursive condensation)
AC - axiological condensation (SubR - subjective condensation; IC - interactional condensation)
PA - positional autonomy
RA - relational autonomy
Qualifiers
+ stronger
- weaker
↑ strengthening
↓ weakening
-↑ weak being strengthened +↑ = strong being strengthened
-↓ weak being weakened -↑ = weak being strengthened
+↓+ relatively strong being weakened but still relatively strong
+↓- relatively strong being weakened to relatively weak
So, ER+↓+ = relation / position 1 / direction / position 2 within Specialization plane
→ forward in time
← backwards in time
(x) focus of action
e.g. “SR↑(classroom)” = “strengthening social relation re classroom”
(x,y) focus of action, kind of SR / ER
e.g. “SR↑(classroom, dispositions)” = “strengthening social relation re dispositions of actors in classroom”
SRf superscript f = focus; e.g. social relation as focus (can be ER, SR, SG, SD, etc)
SRb superscript b = basis; e.g. social relation as basis
SD+(ER) is stronger semantic density (based on epistemic relations), i.e. epistemological condensation or EC
SD+(SR) is stronger semantic density (based on social relations), i.e. axiological condensation or AC
Note:
SG↓ means ‘weakening of semantic gravity’. This may be counter-intuitive (as stronger semantic gravity might suggest pointing towards the earth, the concrete) but the qualifier ‘↓’ always remains the same.
Graffiti for annotating texts
SMALL CAPITALS = symbol with stronger epistemological semantic density
wavy underline = symbol with stronger axiological semantic density
BOTH = symbol with stronger epistemological and axiological semantic density