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Convention

Philosophy
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Convention refers to established norms or accepted practices within a culture or discipline. It shapes expectations and meaning.

Detailed Definition
In philosophy and literary theory, convention governs how meaning is produced and understood. In poetry, conventions include forms, genres, and stylistic norms. Poets may follow or break conventions to create familiarity or innovation, using them as a framework for expression or critique.
Example
Example in poetry:
Wittgenstein's analysis of social practice as rule-following, and his claim that following a rule is a convention rather than a logical necessity, has profound implications for poetry — conventions of form (the sonnet, the ode) are not natural or necessary but are shared practices that make certain kinds of meaning possible; Pope's "Essay on Criticism" is a philosophical treatise on poetic convention — the neo-classical rules of decorum, genre, and imitation — defended on the grounds that conventions encode the accumulated wisdom of tradition; A poet choosing to work in traditional forms might reflect philosophically on convention — the decision to accept formal constraints is not mere conservatism but an acknowledgment that conventions provide the shared grammar through which communication becomes possible; The avant-garde's rejection of convention is itself a philosophical claim about the relation between convention and freedom — the argument that inherited forms carry ideological content that constrains what can be said and thought within them; Language poetry's interrogation of the conventions of transparent communication — the convention that words refer to things, that sentences express thoughts — is a philosophical analysis of the arbitrary character of linguistic convention (following Saussure's insight that the sign is conventional, not natural); Adrienne Rich's departure from her early formal conventionality into free verse is a philosophical act — the rejection of inherited conventions as inadequate to the truths she needed to tell, an argument that convention can become a form of dishonesty
Additional Notes
Convention is analyzed philosophically through multiple lenses. In philosophy of language, convention (Lewis's "Convention") is what makes signs meaningful — a sign means what it does because of a regularity in how speakers use it, not because of any natural connection between sign and signified. Saussure's insight that the linguistic sign is arbitrary (the connection between signifier and signified is conventional, not natural) is foundational for structuralist and poststructuralist theory. In ethics, conventionalism holds that moral norms are social conventions rather than mind-independent truths. In aesthetics, the question of convention concerns what rules govern artistic practice — the sonnet's fourteen lines are a convention, and the decision to follow or break conventions carries meaning. Wittgenstein's rule-following considerations raise deep questions about what it means to follow a convention. Related terms: Lewis's convention, Saussure's arbitrariness, rule-following, Wittgenstein, norm, practice.
Also Known As
social agreement cultural norm established practice
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