Sign (Linguistics)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. There are many models of the linguistic sign (see also sign (semiotics)). A classic model is the one by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. According to him, language is made up of signs and every sign has two sides: the signifier (French signifiant), the "shape" of a word, its phonic component, i.e. the sequence of letters or phonemes e.g. C-A-T the signified (French signifié), the ideational component, the concept or object that appears in our minds when we hear or read the signifier e.g. a small domesticated feline (The signified is not to be confused with the "referent". The former is a "mental concept", the latter the "actual object" in the world) Furthermore, Saussure separated speech acts (la parole) from the system of a language (la langue). Parole was the free will of the individual, whereas langue was regulated by the group, albeit unknowingly.

Pagina's: 88, Paperback, Betascript Publishers