We come across signs everyday in our lives, whether we notice it or not. To be exact, we encounter icons, index and symbols in our daily lives and even use them perhaps.
Some of us may look at it everyday without realizing that it functions as a symbol/icon/index, for instance, how many of us realize that we actually encounter icons and symbols when we log in to Facebook or when we open our web browser? The image of the word Facebook is itself a symbol and the little square with a picture of a house on our web browsers is an icon for the Home page.
Is this an icon, index or a symbol?
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| C.S. Pierce - An American philosopher,
mathematician, logician & scientist. |
This is what we will be discussing this week - C.S Pierce's classification of signs which are Icon, Index and Symbols. Before continuing on to icon, index and symbols there are 2 terms that we must identify ourselves with, that is the 'signifier' and the 'signified'.
Signifier acts as the pointer object and the Signified is the meaning pointed upon by the signifier. In short, a signifier points to a signified. A signifier can be a physical object such as a picture, drawing and sound while the signified usually refers to the actual 'meaning' or object or a mental concept.
Firstly, Icons are a mode in which the signifier resembles or imitates the signified. For example, the photograph here of C.S. Pierce is an icon because it resembles or is imitating the real C.S. Pierce.
Index is a mode in which the signifier is not completely arbitrary, but is connected in someways to the signified. Index is when a signifier indicates the signified. For example, dark clouds (signifier) is an index that indicates that it will rain(signified) soon. Another example is a yawning face which is an index of sleepiness.
Symbols is a mode in which the signifier does not resemble the signified, but is arbitrary in which the meaning has to be learnt either by deriving it from mental association with other symbols or deriving the meaning from its correlation with environmental patterns. For example, the exclamation mark is a symbol for danger and the shape of a heart can be a symbol for health, love, happiness.
There are many more examples of icon, index and symbols and perhaps even more clearer definition to the meaning of icon, index and symbol. Let us discuss this and feel free to share your take on this week's topic.
Icon is an image or a visual representation of an object , a person and etcetera. Just like the painting of Mona Lisa by Leornado Da Vinci which appear to be like the real Mosa Lisa. You shouldn't call the painting as Mona Lisa because it is not the real Mosa Lisa, it is only a painting that resembles Mona Lisa.
ReplyDeleteIndex in simple words can be defined as an indicator or a pointer of something. For instance, a person who is having red cheeks shows that he is blushing which means he is shy or embarrased.
Symbol , either in written or printed form, it has to represent something that cannot be seen such as thoughts, feelings, elements, and etcetera. An example would be the usage of '+' or '-' symbols in Mathematicics, people will get the meaning that it represents addition and subtraction. Plus, the square symbol on your remote controller represents stop.
Icon: it is a small picture that represent a program,device or file that hat stands for its object by virtue of a resemblance.As their 1st developed,icon was as a mean to make computer easier for novices to use. Example of icon include a file folder as to represent a directory in computer.
ReplyDeleteIndex:It is a statistical device which summarizes a collection of data.They usually have a sequential arrangement especially in alphabetical or numerical order.
Symbol:It is a mark & sign that representing as an idea object which represents something other than itself.For example,in the poem-"The Road Not Taken", . . . the wood and the roads are symbols. The successive details of the poem and its total form point to a symbolic interpretation.
In the technology era, everyone of us is used with the icon that occur around us, how much of us realize event when we was not in front of computer, we still see and "use" icons while we might not realize, those icons are the icons in our phone, MP4, and some other devices we use. Even company brand, advertisement or stuff that being sell, we also see them everyday without realizing how much icons is around us in our daily life. This show how icons has been widely use to represent some text that can be easily understand with one icon picture.
ReplyDeleteIndex is not as arbitrary icons or symbol, it is more factual in connecting to an object. For example a person sneeze or feel weak after walk in rain indicate he is falling sick.
Symbol is something more on mentally feel or understanding of a person on something. For example, colour of red can be symbolize of danger, it can also be passion, or maybe prosperous.
An icon sign is a sign that resembles something, such as photograph of a person. Usually, icons have specific properties in common with their objects. The physical resemblance or similarity is in between the signifier and signified. It makes them visually recognizable to anyone. For instance, a map is an icon of its territory.
ReplyDeleteIndex is a sign that is physically connected to its object. It has a direct link between the sign and the object. Most of the traffic signs are index signs because they represent information that relates to a location. For example, a ‘slippery road surface’ sign is placed on a road which tends to flooding.
Symbol is a sign whose relationship to its object is arbitrary. The symbol itself has no logical and obvious connection to the meaning it signifies. When people see the bio-hazard symbol, they will know the symbol represents bio-hazard warning and associates words such as chemicals and danger.
Icons is where the signifier resembles the signified. Eg: A photograph of landscape in the postcard.
ReplyDeleteIndex is where the signifier is not completely arbitrary but points to the signified. Eg: the sound effect of slapping indicates someone is being slapped although the image might not be shown.
Symbols is where the signifier does not resemble the signified but is associated with other symbols to make meanings. Eg, the “V” sign(by pointing up the index and middle finer) is the symbol of peace.
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