Language as a sign system

Maslov: "A sign is a deliberately reproducible material fact, calculated on someone's perception and intended to serve as a means of conveying information about something outside of this fact."

The main signs inherent in signs (signs of a sign in general):

1. Any sign is a material, sensually perceived phenomenon.

2. Any sign has something outside it.

3. Conventionality - any sign is conventional, subject to some agreement.

4. All characters replace something and carry a message. Any item can act as a mark.

5. Communication - any sign is a means of communication, as it carries any information.

6. The presence of an interpreter - one who will be able to perceive the sign and explain its meaning.

7. Bilateral character - the unity of the signified and the signifier.

Meaning - content, meaning - expression, form. Each sign must have both.

Not all scientists highlight this criterion. Therefore, there are two concepts of the mark:

1. The unilateral theory. A sign is only a signifier. The sign is completely unrelated to the signified. A sign has only a plan of expression, the value is not included in the sign. Since they believe that meaning is a fact of consciousness, it exists only in a person’s head. Therefore, only a person can establish a connection between a subject and a sign.

The same sign in different systems has a different meaning.

2. Bilateral theory. Signs highlight the content plan and expression plan. Scientists say that the sign is not important in itself, but only because of what stands behind it (the argument). In other words, signs are not abstract. These are specific associations, held together by collective consent, stored uniformly in the brain of individuals.

We will deal with the bilateral concept. It is more common.

Aspects in the sign that we should consider:

1. Cognitive aspect. That is, all signs play a role in the process of learning. With the help of signs, a person fixes in his mind everything that he has already met.

2. The communicative aspect. The mark must replace not any particular object, but any object and situation as a whole.

Saussure: "There are a lot of signs around us." He proposed - semiology.

Semiotics - the science of signs.

The founder of semiotics is Charles Pierce.