“we think only in signs”
•Signs take the form of words, images, sounds, odours, flavours, acts or
objects, but such things have no intrinsic meaning and become signs only when we invest
them with meaning.
•“Nothing is a sign unless it is
interpreted as a sign” (Peirce,
1931).
•Anything can be a sign as long as someone interprets it as 'signifying'
something - referring to or standing
for something other than itself. We
interpret things as signs largely unconsciously by relating them to familiar
systems of conventions. It is this meaningful use of signs which is at the
heart of the concerns of semiotics.
Three
types of sign...
Icon/iconic: a mode in which the signifier is perceived as resembling or imitating the signified (recognizably looking, sounding, feeling,
tasting or smelling like it) - being similar in possessing some of its
qualities: e.g. a portrait, a cartoon, a scale-model, onomatopoeia, metaphors,
'realistic' sounds in 'programme music', sound effects in radio drama, a dubbed
film soundtrack, imitative gestures
Index/indexical: a mode in which the signifier is not
arbitrary but is directly connected in some way (physically or causally) to the signified - this link can
be observed or inferred: e.g. 'natural
signs' (smoke, thunder, footprints,
echoes, non-synthetic odours and flavours), medical
symptoms (pain, a rash, pulse-rate), measuring instruments (weathercock, thermometer, clock, spirit-level).
Symbol/symbolic: a mode in which the signifier does not resemble the signified but which is fundamentally arbitrary or purely conventional - so that the relationship must be learnt: e.g. language in general (plus specific languages, alphabetical letters, punctuation marks, words, phrases and sentences), numbers, morse code, traffic lights, national flags.
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