In order for human beings to be able to keep in touch and to be able to exchange information clearly and directly, an excellent communication system is required. There are many ways to send information and for this, signs are required, such as graphic signs or certain signs that make the job simple. Within the verbal language are located the so-called oral signs, known as linguistic signs.
A linguistic sign represents an element that in linguistics can be understood by people through the senses and that helps to fully represent a communicative fact in its own expression.
This term was raised by two completely different authors: Charles Sanders Peirce and Ferdinand de Saussure. Both authors carried out their studies on linguistic signs at the end of the 19th century, however each one of them focused on different ideas. Saussure focused on linguistics, while Peirce leaned towards the logical-pragmatics. It is important to note that these two characters were the ones who established the foundations of what is known today as "the general principles of signs."
Saussure supports the theory that a linguistic sign is represented by two elements: a signifier and a signified. Both elements make up what is known as "significance."
The meaning consists of all the ideas or thoughts that are stored in the mind of a word that is remembered. For example, when hearing the word “bicycle”, immediately the brain will look for the image that most closely matches and is associated with the word heard; this has been a mental image of what that term represents.
The signifier for its part, has been a graphic image, produced by the senses, this term can actually be defined as words or letters.
Saussure considered that linguistic signs had the following characteristics:
- Arbitrariness: the link that links the signified with the signifier is arbitrary, which leads to the linguistic sign being arbitrary.
- Mutability: being arbitrary, the sign is not subject to any particular speaker, that is, it is immutable, it cannot be changed by any person. However, it should be mentioned that it is evident that languages change because the signs are changing, which means that in the long term, they are mutable.
In conclusion, Saussure's theory states that all words have a material component (acoustic image) which he called the signifier and a component at the mental level, referring to the idea represented by the signifier which he called the meaning. Both make up a sign.
Pierce, for his part, adds another element to the linguistic sign (in addition to the signified and the signifier): the referent. For him, this represents the true element to which the sign alludes. Next to it is the signifier, which has been the material support that is captured through the senses and the meaning that the mental image represents.
