We explain what a sign is, how it is composed and what types of signs exist. Also, linguistic and non-linguistic signs and symbols.
What is a sign?
A sign is called, from a general perspective, those entities or phenomena with which we can represent and / or substitute a specific referent. In other words, a sign is what we can put in the place of another object, that is, with which we can evoke it in its absence or we can deduce its presence, since every sign has some kind of identity relationship with its referent.
It is possible to think of the signs as coupons or wild cards, which represent an absent reality. Let's imagine that we go to the supermarket, we fill the cart and at the checkout they tell us the total to pay. So, since we don't have that amount of cash on top of us, we use our card and it is as if we have paid with the appropriate amount of bills and coins.
Signs work in a similar way, but in the field of communication: when you have the sign, you can allude to or evoke an object without the need for it to be present.
The signs are everywhere, all around us, and thanks to them we can handle the information of the complex ways we do it. While all living beings communicate, only the Humans and some other animals are capable of understanding and making signs, that is, referring to things that are absent.
However, we must not confuse signs with writing (although this consists, of course, of written signs), or with the words of a language (although all words are precisely unions of linguistic signs). A sign is a mental entity, which consists of the union of two parts, according to the linguistics traditional:
- A signifier, which is a form, an object or an event, concrete and identifiable in the real world. For example: the drawing of a black arrow curving to the left on a white sign.
- A meaning, which is the conclusion or the information that we recover from the interpretation of the signifier, that is, that is contained in it. For example: a curve to the left is approaching on the road.
Depending on the case, the same signifier can have several meanings, or vice versa. It all depends on the way in which that association between one and the other is carried out.
Finally, the signs can be of different types: visual, verbal, auditory, etc., depending on the nature of their signifier. Or even natural and artificial, depending on whether they are generated by the nature or by human intervention. According to the theories of the American Charles Peirce (1839-1914), however, they can be classified into three categories, depending on how the relationship between signified and signifier is:
- Indicators or indicators, in which the relationship between signified and signifier is of a natural, logical or necessary type, generally the result of a previous relationship of cause and effect. For example, if we see black smoke in the distance (significant), we can assume that there is a fire in its vicinity (meaning).
- Icons, in which the relationship between signified and signifier is one of imitation or mimetic, that is, of an evident resemblance. A perfect example of this are the maps, which resemble the geography they describe, or the “cut” icon in our word processor, which looks like scissors.
- Symbols, in which the relationship between signified and signifier is totally conventional, that is, it does not respond to either of the two previous conditions, but was determined socially, culturally and historically. An example of this would be the flags of each country, whose colors they make sense only to those who know the historical explanation.
Linguistic signs
The signs of language respond to history and culture, they are social and conventional.
As we just said, linguistic signs are those that allow the construction of the language verbal, that is, of the human capacity to compose complex systems of sounds (and eventually, of graphics that represent them) through which to communicate and represent the reality.
Linguistic signs are part of a concrete system of meanings and associations. They are essentially representations of reality, that is, pieces or mental jokers with which to refer to it. They are composed of a sound signifier and an abstract, mental meaning, which coincides with some kind of real referent.
We must not confuse the signs of language with the letters of the alphabet, or with written signs. We refer to much more abstract entities, which take place in our minds and in the society.
According to Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), one of the greatest scholars of the linguistic sign and founding father of linguistics, the essential features of every linguistic sign are the following:
- The arbitrariness of the sign. This means that the relationship between signifier and signified, in the case of language signs, is arbitrary or conventional. In other words, it is not determined in a natural, logical, necessary way, but is the result of a way of thinking that can vary depending on the case. For example, there is nothing that relates the word "tree" to a tree, and in fact if we change the language, we will also change the sign: tree in English, baum in German, δέντρο in Greek. We can even go further: there is nothing that resembles the sound that we associate with the “a” in Spanish with the sign through which we represent said sound. In short, the signs of language respond to the history Yet the cultureThey are social and conventional.
- The mutability and immutability of the sign. This means that the signs of language are, at the same time, changing and unchanging, depending on how we see them. They are changing throughout the weather, since the language is a living entity and it adapts to its users, changing with them, over the centuries. However, as it belongs to a convention and a social order, language is also a static and firm entity, which allows us a certain margin of creativity Y Liberty, but always within established borders. We cannot decide to rename things, for example. For this reason, the language is immutable, since we need it to be common to all those persons with whom we speak on a daily basis.
- It has a linear signifier. This means that the linguistic signs are always presented one after the other, in a chain, happening in time, in order to form clusters of sounds that we know as words and as prayers. However, this also means that we can only pronounce one sound at a time. Thus, the linguistic signs are mutually exclusive, since we must choose which one to pronounce and in what order or sequence, not being able to combine them freely: it is not the same to say "dog" than "orrep" or "rpoer", despite the fact that they are the same signs in each case.
Non-linguistic signs
For their part, non-linguistic signs are those that, although they make up some kind of sense system in their own way, have nothing to do with verbal language. This does not mean that they cannot be interpreted and even “translated” into verbal language, but rather that they obey another type of logic.
Examples of non-linguistic signs are: traffic signs, warning signs against risk of death, corrosion or electricity, or even signs that we can “read” in nature: the tracks of an animal in the mud, the dark clouds that will bring rain, etc.
Signs and symbols
We have already seen that, according to Charles Peirce, symbols are a specific type of sign, in which the relationship between signifier and signified is completely arbitrary. These types of signs are the most complex of all and, therefore, only human beings are capable of interpreting and recognizing them, since they depend directly on the cultural heritage. In that they are also distinguished from other types of signs.
Some examples of symbols are:
- The representation of the elements of the periodic table: O, Br, Fe, Zn.
- The national coats of arms and flags of the countries.
- The emblems of heraldry.
- The logos of trademarks.