#semiotics

An icon resembles what it represents (a photo of a dog represents dogs). A symbol has an arbitrary relation to its referent (the word "dog" doesn't lo…

Saussure's founding claim: the linguistic sign is arbitrary. There is no natural connection between the word "tree" and the concept of a tree. The lin…

An indexical expression is one whose meaning depends on context of utterance: "here," "now," "I," "this." Most language is not indexical — "photosynt…