MEANING AS SIGN

PEOPLE CREATE SIGNS THAT MEDIATE BETWEEN THEM AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT.

IN CREATING SIGNS, PEOPLE MAKE MEANING BY MAKING USE OF TWO ELEMENTS: A SIGNIFIER AND A SIGNIFIED

SIGN, SIGNIFIER AND SIGNIFIED

a thorny stemAnd many petals

The four letters ofthe word

‘rose’Or the sound

/rouz/

The concept related to an object in the world

signifiers for

A signifier A signified

What about this?

Tycoon

/taiku:n/Signifiers for ?

A signifier ------------------------- A signified

Thus, the signifier (sound or word) in itself is not a signunless someone recognizes it as such and relates it toSignified (concept)

What is a sign?

A Sign

the relation between A signified (concept)

A signifier

(sound or word)

not not

Is the relation between word and object necessary?NO

e.g.

The word ‘rose’ can be related to various shapes, smells, and colors of flowers.

The object ‘rose’ can be given meaning by variety of signifiers: Morning Glory, Madame Meillon, flower.

Other concepts in SemanticsFORM

MEANING

REFERENT

ELEMENTS OF LANGUAGE

FORM AND MEANINGFORM SEGMENT, SYLLABLE, WORD, PARAGRAPH, DISCOURSE (C0NCRETE UTTERANCE)MEANINGCONCEPT/NON-CONCRETE UTTERANCE

FORM, MEANING, REFERENT

FORM

MEANING REFERENT

MEANING VS REFERENT

MEANING REFERENT EXAMPLES

1) Yes No and, or

2) Different Same morning star

vs

evening star

(Venus Planet)

3) Some Changeable Person

Deixis (we, they)