LING 100 Lecture 2: Week 2 & 3
10 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
It serves as a means of communication. A plant, having a trunk with leaves and/or needles. A signifier is that part of a sign that stimulates at least one sense organ of the receiver of a message. For example, the pronunciation of the word tree [tri:]. The signified component of the sign refers to both the real world object it represents and its conceptual content. All signs can act as signals when they trigger a specific action on the part of the receiver of the message, as do many traffic lights, words in human language ( take" or bring", etc. ) Signs can be divided into three basic types, depending on: Iconic signs; whether the signifier naturally resembles its referent. Indexical signs: whether the signifier is directly linked with the referent being a partial or representative sample of it. Symbollic signs: whether the signifier and referent are arbitrarily associated. Discrete sign structure (no gradual transition, categorical (stepwise) differences)
