The 5 differences between signified and significant

The ability to communicate is essential for the human being. Being able to express information to others in a way that they can understand and being able to understanding what others may be telling us allows us to maintain contact and coexistence with others. In fact, not only humans, but also many other animals need to be able to establish relationships in which mutual understanding prevails. For this we use a series of symbolic elements that serve as a representation of what we want to communicate.

In a technical way, we can say that we use signifiers to communicate meanings. What are these two terms? What are the differences between signified and significant? We are going to talk about it in this article.

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A definition of these concepts of linguistics

In order to establish the existence of differences between the signified and the signified, we first have to determine what each of these concepts is.

Meaning

Regarding the meaning, the concept behind this term is well known by most people, being a word widely used in our day to day.

We understand the meaning of something to be the idea that is intended to be expressed through an element. That is, if language is a symbolic element, the meaning would be that which wants to be symbolized or represented by means of a word or symbol. In one word, it is about the concept.

Thus, if we use the word dog, the word in question is nothing more than a symbol through which we arrive at the concept or idea that we have of a canid. The meaning is the idea in question, what we refer to when we express something. The represented.

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significant

Although the term signified is common in the language of most people and the concept to which it refers is generally clear, the same is not the case when we talk about the signifier. And yet it is the only thing that we really perceive through the senses when we communicate.

We call the stimulus or element that we use in order to refer to a certain concept as significant. We would be talking about the physical and sensorially perceptible part: the sign.

It is important to bear in mind that the signifier can appear in very diverse modalities: it is possible to use language through oral level to produce signifiers that the listener can perceive through hearing, but we can also generate words written. These two are the main means that we usually think of when talking about signs to communicate, but they are not the only ones. And it is that it is possible to imbue gestures with a differentiated meaning, as occurs for example in sign language.

Drawings or even abstract symbols can also be used as long as they convey an idea that can be understood. One could even use the drawing of symbols on the skin to convey meaning through touch.

With this we can see that the possibilities to generate signifiers for a concept or meaning is practically unlimited, any sensory modality can be used as long as it can be used as a communicative element with meaning own.

Main differences between signified and signifier

Having seen a brief definition of each of the two concepts, it may be easy to observe the main difference between signifier and signified. However, it must be borne in mind that we are actually between two concepts that, although they refer to different aspects, require one another to exist.

Without signifier we could not refer to something, while without meaning the words or elements that form the signifier would lack any utility.

1. Fundamental difference: what is it?

And it is that while the signifier refers to the way of naming or referring to something determined, the meaning refers to the concept, object or entity to which we intend to refer with the significant.

2. different nature

Another difference that can be commented regarding signified and signifier is their nature: the signified is a construct, an idea that represents a reality but that in itself does not have any physical component although the concept does refer to he. On the other hand, the signifier is purely physical, being the expressed representation of said concept through a symbolic element such as the word.

3. Significant-significant proportionality

The relationship between signifier and signified tends to be unequal: although the same signifier can refer to different concepts depending on the situation, the intentionality or the context in which it occurs, as a general rule we observe that the most frequent thing is that the same meaning has multiple signifiers that refer to him. we would be talking about polysemy in the first case and synonymy in the second.

4. temporal variability

Another possible difference, which we have mentioned in the previous explanation, has to do with its relative temporal invariance.

And it is that the meaning behind a signifier, as a general rule and due to the fact that it is an idea, tends to remain relatively stable (although there may be changes depending on the understanding of the concept itself) through the time.

However, language evolves and flows at great speed, being born and dying different ways of expressing the same thing. In this way, the signifiers that refer to a signified tend to vary as the way of expressing itself evolves, being much more unstable.

5. Transculturality

In addition to the above, we can find another difference in terms of the existing variations depending on culture or location. So, the same concept will have very different ways of expressing itself in different countries and in different languages. Although in this sense it is also necessary to be very careful, because not only the signifier can vary: the same concept can be interpreted in very different ways. For example, love, value, loyalty, family or work can have very different connotations depending on the culture.

Likewise, there may not even be a specific concept in certain cultures, something that makes it impossible to understand words linked to it. This does not mean, however, that it is not possible to generate the understanding of a concept or meaning through signifiers linked to other nearby meanings.