CIN301Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Historical Linguistics, Morse Code, Ferdinand De Saussure
Document Summary
Semiotics: the study of signs, sign systems, and signifying practices. A signis something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity. A sign is a linked compound or unity of: Signifier: the form which the sign takes. Signified: the concept it represents, the thing indicated by the signifier. Symbol: a mode in which the signifier does not resemble the signified but which is fundamentally arbitrary or purely conventional. Ex. language in general, numbers, morse code, traffic lights, national flags. Icon: a mode in which the signifier is perceived as resembling or imitating the signified. Recognizably looking, sounding, feeling, tasting or smelling like it. Ex. a portrait, a cartoon, a scale-model, onomatopoeia, metaphors, imitative gestures. Index: 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. Philology as historical surveys of texts and authors.
