CMNS 110 Chapter Notes -Jacques Lacan, Semiotics, Arbitrariness
16 Apr 2013
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Saussure offered a 2 part model of the sign: 1. signifier: form the sign takes, 2. signified: the concept to which it refers. Saussure thought signifier and signified were psychological. Nowadays signifier considered the physical form of the sign. Saussure thought signifier was a sound: considered written word in a different system than spoken letter signifies a sound. Saussure believed signified was a concept not a thing: when you hear signifier it makes you think of the signified. Two sides of a page signifier and signified can be distinguished between each other, but cannot be separated. The relational system signs only make sense in a formal, generalized abstract system. What distinguishes a sign is what makes it different signs defined by their negative opposition between other signs in the same system characterized by whatever the others are not. 2 signs are not different, but in opposition.
