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Unreferenced|date=March 2008distinguish|sineOther usesselfref|For how to sign your posts on Wikipedia talk pages, see Wikipedia:Signatures .A sign is a representation of an object that implies a connection between itself and its object. A natural sign bears a causal relation to its object—for instance, thunder is a sign of storm. A conventional sign signifies by agreement, as a full stop signifies the end of a sentence. (This is in contrast to a symbol which stands for another thing, as a flag may be a symbol of a nation).
The way a sign signifies is called semiosis which is a topic of semiotics and philosophy of language .
How a sign is perceived depends upon what is intended or expressed in the semiotic relationship of:
Signification
Significance (i.e. Meaning (semiotics)|meaning )
Importance
Thus, for example, people may speak of the significance of events, the signification of characters, the meaning of sentences, or the import of a communication. Different ways of relating signs to their objects are called Semiotic elements and classes of signs (Peirce)#Classes_of_signs|modes of signification .
Uses of conventional signs are varied. Usually the goal is to elicit a response or simply inform. That can be achieved by marking something, displaying a message (i.e. a notice ), drawing attention or presenting evidence of an underlying cause (for instance, medical symptom s signify a disease), performing a bodily gesture , etc.
Nature
Semiotics , epistemology , logic, and philosophy of language are concerned about the nature of signs, what they are and how they signify. The nature of signs and symbols and significations, their definition, elements, and types, is mainly established by Aristotle , Augustine of Hippo|Augustine , and Aquinas . According to these classic sources, significance is a relationship between two sorts of things: signs and the kinds of things they signify (intend, express or mean), where one term necessarily causes something else to come to the mind. Distinguishing natural signs and conventional signs, the traditional theory of signsWho|date=January 2011 sets the following threefold partition of things:
# There are things that are just things, not any sign at all; # There are things that are also signs of other things (as natural signs of the physical world and mental signs of the mind); # There are things that are always signs, as languages (natural and artificial) and other cultural nonverbal symbols, as documents, money, ceremonies, and rites.
Thus there are things which may act as signs without any respect to the human agent (the things of the external world, all sorts of indications, evidences, symptoms, and physical signals), there are signs which are always signs (the entities of the mind as ideas and images, thoughts and feelings, constructs and intentions); and there are signs that have to get their signification (as linguistic entities and cultural symbols). So, while natural signs serve as the source of signification, the human mind is the agency through which signs signify naturally occurring things, such as objects, states, qualities, quantities, events, processes, or relationships. Human language and discourse , communication , philosophy , science , logic , mathematics , poetry , theology , and religion are only some of fields of human study and activity where grasping the nature of signs and symbols and patterns of signification may have a decisive value.
Types
A sign can denote any of the following:
Sign, in astrology : often used to mean the Sun sign
Sign or signing, in communication: communicating via hand gesture s, such as in sign language .
Gang signal
Sign, in Tracking (hunting) : also known as Spoor (animal) ; trace evidence left on the ground after passage.
A signboard .
A sign, in common use, is an indication that a previously observed event is about to occur again
Sign, in divination and religion: an omen , an event or occurrence believed to foretell the future
Sign, in ontology and spirituality : a coincidence ; see synchronicity
Sign (linguistics) : a combination of a concept and a sound-image described by Ferdinand de Saussure
In mathematics , the sign (mathematics)|sign of a number tells whether it is positive and negative numbers|positive or negative . Also, the sign of a permutation tells whether it is the product of an parity (mathematics)|even or odd number of transposition (mathematics)|transpositions .
Signedness , in computing, is the property that a representation of a number has one bit, the sign bit, which denotes whether the number is non-negative or negative. A number is called signed if it contains a sign bit, otherwise unsigned. See also signed number representation
Sign, in biology : an indication of some living thing's presence
Medical sign , in medicine : objective evidence of the presence of a disease or disorder, as opposed to a symptom , which is subjective
Sign (semiotics) : the basic unit of meaning
Information sign : a notice that instructs, advises, informs or warns people
Traffic sign : a sign that instructs drivers; see also stop sign , speed limit sign, cross walk sign
Sign, in a writing system : a basic unit. Similar terms which are more specific are character, letter or grapheme
Commercial signage , including flashing sign s, such as on a retail store, factory, or theatre
Signature , in history: a handwritten depiction observed on a document to show authorship and will
See also
Col-beginCol-2
Asemic writing
Roland Barthes
Commercial signage
Mary Douglas
Icon
Icon (computing)
Ideogram
Oneiromancy|Interpretation of dreams
Edmund Leach
Claude Lévi-Strauss
List of symbols
Logotype
Map-territory relation – view that an abstraction derived from something, or a reaction to it, is not the thing itself.
Col-2
National symbol
Neon sign
Religious symbolism
Representation (arts)|Representation
Ferdinand de Saussure
Semiotics
Signing
Structuralism
Symbol
Synchronicity
Traffic sign
Col-end
References
wiktionary|signreflist philosophy of language Category:Communication Category:Semiotics
