Information AboutSign |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT SIGN | |
| communication | |
| semiotics | |
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ONTOLOGY OF SIGNS Distinguishing natural and conventional signs, the traditional theory of signs set the threefold partition of things. Namely: 1. there are things that are merely things, functioning as the real world cause of meanings; 2. there are things that are also signs of other things (causally related natural signs of the physical world and mental signs of the mind); 3. there are things that are always signs, as languages (natural and artificial) and other cultural nonverbal symbols. 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 OF SIGNS The types and modes of signification vary according as the types of signs (or symbols), natural and conventional, vocal and nonvocal, material and cultural, and the kinds of things which the signs (symbols) signify or stand for. Like the semantic relationships of words and ideas and things in the natural languages. In all, a sign can denote any of the following:
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