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semiotics
semiotics or semiology, discipline deriving from the American logician C. S. Peirce and the French linguist Ferdinand de Saussure . It has come to mean generally the study of any cultural product (e.g., a text) as a formal system of signs. Saussure's key notion of the arbitrary nature of the...
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Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Trianon 1920, agreement following World War I in which the Allies disposed of Hungarian territories. The internal chaos in Hungary that followed the dissolution (1918) of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy delayed the signing of a peace treaty with the Allies of World War I (excluding the Un...
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Locarno Pact
Locarno Pact 1925, concluded at a conference held at Locarno, Switzerland, by representatives of Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. The request of Gustav Stresemann for a mutual guarantee of the Rhineland met with the approval of Aristide Briand ; under...
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Roland Barthes
Roland Barthes , 1915-80, French critic. Barthes was one of the founding figures in the theoretical movement centered around the journal Tel Quel. In his earlier works, such as Writing Degree Zero (tr. 1953) and Mythologies (1957, tr. 1972), he argued that literature, like all forms of communi...
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sign language
sign language gestural communication used as an alternative or replacement for speech. Sign languages resemble oral languages in every way other than their modality. As with oral languages, sign languages are acquired spontaneously and have highly intricate, rule-governed grammar and phonology ....
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Anson Burlingame
Anson Burlingame , 1820-70, American diplomat, b. New Berlin, N.Y. He became a lawyer in Boston and later (1855-61) a Congressman. Defeated for reelection, he was made (1861) minister to China. By his tact and understanding of Chinese opposition to the autocratic methods of foreigners in the treaty ...
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Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), international organization established as the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in 1973, during the cold war , to promote East-West cooperation. Headquarters are in Prague, Czech Republic. The CSCE's 1975 meeting in ...
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radical
radical in mathematics, symbol placed over a number or expression, called the radicand, to indicate a root of the radicand. When used without a sign or index number, it designates the positive square root of the radicand, i.e., 2. If both square roots are meant, the radical sign is preceded by &p...
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bourse
bourse , term applied to a European stock exchange . The first international bourse was established in Antwerp in the 16th cent. The Paris bourse, dating from 1720 but completely reorganized in 1999, consists of the main exchange, equivalent to the New York Stock Exchange, plus the Matif (the deriv...
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Fath Ali Shah
Fath Ali Shah , also spelled Feth Ali Shah, 1762-1834, shah of Persia (1797-1834), nephew and successor of Aga Muhammad Khan , founder of the Qajar dynasty. Most of his reign was spent in internal and external warfare. He managed to maintain himself against other claimants to the throne but was not...
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