Fish, Chandler & Eagleton

We are all able to predict what a piece of writing is based on the characteristics and techniques used. As mentioned in our class discussions and what Chandler has been talking about, we base our knowledge of genre according to the descriptions and details. If we see/read something using horses, gun, cowboys, barfights, or phrases like, "Stick `em up!" we assume it's a western. When there's something that deals with undefining true love and effection, we think of a romance. Stanley Fish also stated something similiar in his How to Recognize a Poem When You See One. "You know a poem when you see one because its language displays the characteristics that you know to be proper to poems." The same way we predict genres, we use the same strategy in determining poems.
Although we have similar ways in determining pieces of writing, not all of us will think the same exact thing. Fish used an example of how people can interpret different meanings according to ones interaction. A student was waving his hand up in class and Fish asked the fellow students why was he doing that. The students replied that he was waiting to be called on to speak. Just because they're all in a classroom doesn't mean the reason will be because he wanted to be picked on. Perhaps he wanted to point to the light, or just go to the bathroom. In Terry Eagleton's short essay, "not only do different languages use diiferent signifiers, they also 'cut up' the phenomenal world differently, articulating it through language-specific concepts-that is, they use different signifieds."
This is true as seen in our daily lives. One is the use of footwear into a home. In American cultures, we don't really need to take off our shoes. In other cultures as in Asia, there is a need to do so. It is very disrespectful and dirty to walk into a home with shoes already worn outside in the public. Being a Cuban-American, I've realized that the usage of words can be taken differently in different languages. You can say something in Spanish that is offensive but isn't offensive in English, or vice versa. For example, in the reality show I Love New York, a hispanic man told Tiffany Pollack also known as "New York" that she was his ''negrita. She took it highly offensive because in English it sounds like something else, whereas in Spanish it doesn't intend to mean anything disrespectful. People have different perceptives and interpretations based on the setting and their surroundings. Like Fish's classroom example as mentioned, when a student was waving his hand the others assumed he wanted to be called on based on the setting of a classroom and what they do. The same applies to the usage of items and languages. In one country it may symbolize one thing and in another it means something entirely different, whether it is positive or not.