Signifier and Signified

Signs and Meaning

All of the images above are 'signs'. They consist of two things called the signified and the signifier. The signifier is the printed image itself and the signified is the idea or meaning of the image e.g. a green square with a cross means first aid.
Without both the signifier and signified there cannot be a sign.

Symbolic Signs have no obvious connection between the object and the sign. An example of a symbolic sign is the word Dog as it has no link with a furry small animal. Nether the less we understand the word Dog as when know that when these letted are put into a certain order that meaning is created.

Icon
Iconic is the simplest as it physically resembles what it stands for. Examples of Icons would be a picture of your face is an icon of you, an image of a magnifying glass in the corner of your computer as it is an icon for the search feature. Words can be pronounced iconically swell : his nose grew waaaay out here.

Symbolic
Symbolic meaning is assigned arbitrarily or is accepted as societal convention. An example of something symbolic would be the alphabet as its meaning of each letter has been made because of its arbitrary mean, another would be flag colours as it has arbitrary meaning to the country.

Indexical
Indexical signs are when the signifier is caused by the signified. An example of this would be smoke as it signifies fire. Another example would be puddles on the ground as it signifies that it has recently rained.