According to Cambridge Dictionary, the term “signify” denotes as (1) to be a sign of something; to mean, (2) to make something known; to show, and ...
According to Cambridge Dictionary, the term “signify” denotes as (1) to be a sign of something; to mean, (2) to make something known; to show, and (3) to have importance or to matter. And terms “signifier” and “signified” are related to semiotics, whose studies deal with signs and symbols and their use or interpretation. The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure was one of the two founders of semiotics. In his Course in general linguistics (1916 [1959]), Saussure explains that a sign is both a sound-image and a concept. He divides the sign into two elements −the signifier (sound-image) and the signified (concept). The signified is not to be a real object but is some referent to which the signifier refers. This varies between people and contexts because it is the concept, the meaning, the thing indicated by the more stable signifier. Therefore, the relationship between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary. Saussure introduced structuralism in linguistics and made a revolution in the study of language.
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