LINGUISTIC sign: definition, characteristics and examples

Human beings use language to communicate. This communication is only possible through a system established, shared and understood by all members of the same group. In this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to talk about linguistic signs, their definition, characteristics and examples. In this way you can understand what one of the essential parts of communication consists of.

Index

1. Linguistic sign: easy definition
2. Parts of the linguistic sign: Significant and meaning
3. Characteristics of the linguistic sign
4. Examples of linguistic sign

When we refer to Linguistic sign we must point out that this always intervenes in the Verbal communication. This is the minimum unit that must exist for it to exist and is an essential part of communication and language.

Language and communication help us to express ideas and concepts and make them reach other human beings. For communication to be effective, there must be a series of mechanisms that allow the ideas or objects that are captured through the senses to be transformed into words. In other words, linguistic signs are those that substitute an element of reality in a encoded representation that can be decoded and interpreted by the receiver to understand the message.

Therefore, we can say that a sign is nothing more than a representation of reality through a specific word or sound that replaces the thing that exists in reality. Thus the word AppleIt would be the graphic representation or linguistic sign of the fruit that we see in reality.

It can be presented in different ways since this will depend on its nature, to give some examples, a sign is one that can be perceived through the senses to express a concept or idea, be it through a photograph, an emoticon or a word. In the present case, the linguistic signs will be those that have to do with words.

Image: Slideshare

We must indicate that the linguistic sign must always establish a relationship between a concept, object or idea and its physical form, whether it is written or oral. This translates into the existence of two terms that must be joined by our brain in order to decode the message and to carry out effective communication. These parts of the linguistic sign are: the signifier and meaning.

• Significant: it is the physical image of the sign, that is, the sign will appear written and will have its own morphology. This word will represent the referring idea or object as a chain of sounds. Thus, the signifier of the apple would be the word as we see or hear it.
• Meaning: it is the image that is created in our automatically when we read or hear a word. That is, when we hear or read the word apple, our brain immediately establishes a mental image of it.

We already know the definition of a linguistic sign. Once the concept is clarified, it is necessary to indicate what its main characteristics are so that you can distinguish it and learn to identify it easily. Thus, we can point out that the sign has four characteristics of its own:

• Arbitrariness: there is no relationship between signifier and signified, that is, the word with which we write apple has nothing to do with an apple in reality. The relationship between the two has been established by the human being, hence things are named in different ways in different languages.
• Double joint: the linguistic signs are formed by monemes that are the components of each one of them, and in turn these are divided into phonemes. In other words, each linguistic sign has this double articulation.
• Linearity: has its own time and space. The first one refers to the time it takes to pronounce a specific word and the space that its letters occupy when we write them.
• Mutable and Immutable: the language changes over the years due to its use, therefore it can be noted that the signs are mutable. This means that words change shape over time due to their use by speakers. On the other hand, when we refer to the signs being immutable, we are pointing out that the word itself does not change, that is, the sign It is always the same individually, the word apple, always refers to the same thing, although the way it is written varies by the use.

Image: Teaching Resources

In the attached image we are going to show a series of examples with which you can better understand what we mean by the linguistic sign. All of them have a signifier and a meaning and are associated by our brain to establish a relationship between them that makes communication effective.

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Peirce, Charles Sanders, What is a sign?, Spanish translation by Uxia Rivas, Madrid, 1999.

Saussure, Ferdinand de (1998); General linguistics course. Madrid: Editorial Alianza