What is a sign in semiotics?

A sign is an object, quality, event, or entity whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else. Signs can be natural, bearing a causal relation to their object like thunder signaling a storm, or conventional, signifying by agreement like words and punctuation. The philosophical study of these signs and symbols is known as semiotics.

What we know

• A sign is an object, quality, event, or entity whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else. [1, 2]
• Natural signs bear a causal relation to their objects, such as medical symptoms indicating disease or thunder indicating a storm. [2]
• Conventional signs signify by agreement, including punctuation marks like full stops and the words and expressions of a language. [2]
• The philosophical study of signs, symbols, and how they operate is called semiotics. [2]

Where to go next

• the bigger pictureHow does semiotics study how signs operate?
• a case in pointWhat is a natural sign?
• how it workedHow do conventional signs like punctuation work?
• what followedHow does literacy relate to written signs?
• an unexpected connectionHow are signs used in creative writing?

Sources

• [1]sign (Wikidata Q3695082) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Sign · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Creative writing · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Automatic writing · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Literacy · CC BY-SA 4.0