- What are the signified and the signifier?
- The relationship between meaning and signifier
- Characteristics of meaning
- Characteristics of the signifier
We explain what the meaning and the signifier are in linguistics and semiology, the relationship between the two and what are the characteristics of each one.
What are the signified and the signifier?
In linguistics Y semiology, is known as meaning and significant to the two parts that make up the Linguistic sign, according to the view expressed by the Swiss linguist and philosopher Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) in his famous General linguistics course published in 1916.
According to this view, signified and signifier form a dichotomy, that is, they cannot exist without each other, like the two sides of a sheet of paper. On the one hand, meaning is concept, the idea or mental referent that we want to transmit through the language; while the signifier is the mental imprint we have of the sound with which that referent should be associated. In other words, the signified is the content and the signifier is the form.
Suppose a small child points a finger at a tree in the park. His father immediately tells him the word “tree”, so that he associates it with that same referent. This exact sequence of sounds (“á-r-b-o-l”) is perceived by the child's ears and memorized, thus forming the psychic imprint of the sound (a kind of mental recording, that is, the signifier).
In this way, the child associates that sequence of sounds with the idea of a tree (the abstract concept, that is, the meaning). From now on, the boy will be able to tell his father to look at the tree in the park, without having to point a finger at him.This is how the linguistic sign operates.
The relationship between meaning and signifier
The relationships between signified and signifier are not always identical, and language allows a certain margin of ambiguity and creativity when using words. Thus, some meanings may have more than one signifier, or the same signifier may have different meanings.
Let's think about what happens with the signifier "bank", for example, which refers to two different meanings: the bank of the square and the money bank. Or let's think about the multiple terms with which we can refer to a ball: ball, ball, pellet, for example. The latter is possible because the relationship between meanings and signifiers is arbitrary, that is, conventional, artificial, it does not respond to any natural or spontaneous principle.
In other words, there is no reason why the sign “a” corresponds to the sound /a/, nor is there any reason why we call the "tree" that way, other than the very history of our idiom. That is also why the same concept can be expressed in different ways in different languages, for example: tree, tree, albero, Baum, tree.
That does not mean, however, that individuals can call things whatever they want. language is a Social phenomenon, whose rules serve so that people can understand each other, and for this it is necessary that there is a certain consensus. Saussure explains this phenomenon by stating that the relationship between signified and signifier is, at the same time, mutable and immutable, that is, variable and invariable:
- It is mutable or variable only with the passage of time, since the language evolves and things are called in other ways, or simply new things and new relationships emerge that merit new names. If we review the history of the Spanish language, for example, we will see that the word talk ended up becoming our modern speak. In other words, the signifier changed over time, but the meaning remains exactly the same. On the other hand, the appearance in our language of the verb “to print” is the result of the invention of the printer, so that neither the signifier nor the signified existed previously.
- It is immutable or invariable at a given moment in time, since the existing agreement between people to call things the same way prevents us from deciding one day to call the tree "dog" and the dog "tree": no one would understand us. . In this way, the association between a signifier and a signified resists our desire, since we cannot force everyone to change the use of words.
Characteristics of meaning
The meaning or concept is characterized by the following:
- It is a mental concept, that is, it is abstract, it belongs to the realm of ideas, and it is formed from the real or imaginary referents of things: the meaning “tree” refers to those tall plants with a rough and strong trunk that we see in the park.
- It is universal, since it serves as a category to encompass a set of different but similar referents. Not all trees are identical, for example, but they all fit into the concept of "tree" because they have certain minimal features in common. And, similarly, we all have a concept of a “tree”, no matter what language we speak.
- It has diffuse limits, that is, it has meeting points and contact with other meanings. For example, we know that "dog", "poodle", "mastiff" or "dogo" are partially different concepts, but they all constitute variations of the concept "dog".
- It refers to the content, that is, to what we want to evoke in the mind of the person with whom we communicate.
Characteristics of the signifier
The signifier or acoustic image is characterized by the following:
- It is an acoustic trace, that is, a mental echo of the (physical, material) sound of speech, so that it tends towards the concrete rather than the abstract. It is formed from the sounds that make up speech: “á-r-b-o-l”.
- It is particular, since a signifier is a specific way of associating sounds to invoke a certain meaning. Saying "ball" is not the same as saying "ball" or "ball", although all these specific forms refer to the same concept.
- It has a linear structure, that is, it has a fixed and determined sequence, since the sounds of speech are pronounced one at a time: the signifier “tree” is not the same as “álobr” or “ablorá”, even though they have exactly the same sounds , because their ordering is vital to convey meaning.
- It refers to the form, that is, to the specific way in which we transmit a meaning to others.