Icon is better to be considered first. Essentially, icon means a pictorial representation of something. An icon also can be illustrative or diagrammatic. For example, the “No smoking sign” below always reminds of a very important message “You are not allowed to smoke in this place”. So, it really is warning us that we are not allowed to smoke or if we smoke we are going to face the law. In essence, in this sign we see a picture of cigarette that is lit up and a red line drawn on it to show that cigarette is extremely prohibited in a particular place.
Index sign is another type of signs. Basically, an Index signs is a sign where there is a direct link between the sign and the object. Most of traffic signs are index signs, because, they give information which relates to a particular location. Traffic signs or road signs are signs placed at the side of roads to provide information to drivers. For example, picture of “No U turn” traffic sign is simple to analyze, because its meaning is obvious. Whenever we are driving in a road and face this sign, automatically, we know that we may not turn because it is prohibited. If we do so, we are going to face further penalties.
Symbol is another type of signs that are important to be considered. A symbol has no logical meaning between it and the object. For instance, if we look at the symbol of love below, we see a red heart that every time we see it, it gives us the sign of love. As everyone knows, the most common symbol for love and certainly the most recognizable is the Heart symbol. But, why the shape of heart is shown like that? As, it was written before, symbols may not have any logical meaning to its object represented. The shape of heart is only assumed to be the sign of love and has become a symbol in the society during ages. So, the shape of heart always is used to strengthen relationships and passion. The heart shape may convey a lot of massages that all of them are related to love at the end. One of the meanings that it may convey is that a new love interest is on the way or another massage is that sometimes you should pay Closer attention to loved ones at this time.
Basically, all these three words which are icon, index and symbol have a particular meaning. They all are related to each other in some ways. To prove, they all are representing a meaning which sometimes can be straight forward like index signs or somehow vague like symbols which some of them are needed to be studied and some of them have got a meaning during ages. It was the way I analyze the three signs of semiotics which are Icon, Index and symbols. What do you think about these three types of signs?
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ReplyDeleteJust to differentiate three words of icon, index and symbol, I'd like to add another point here. Take for example a basketball game as the subject. Now, as an icon , we could say Micheal Jordan is the best(known), icon for this game, because he's always been the popular basketball player of all time. Now, as an index, NBA is a good example I guess since it is the biggest NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATIONS!; it is something associated to basketball game. And now as for a symbol, let's imagine we have three different signs: one shows only a basketball ( an orange simple ball with black lines), the other one is sign of a player who's jumped on air to throw the ball in a basket, rather to dunk actually. And in the last sign, we have a map of a game court which we automatically associate it with basketball court. OK, to sum up what I've said, it is clear that an icon is a kind of sign which is almost known to public. an index is not necessarily known to the public, it is could be something to be educated for; like, it is true that NBA is the NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATIONS and it's rather a big thing but it's yet not known to everybody, too. And a symbol is a kind of sign which we can associate one thing to another by referring to what we can get from that specific sign through our memory.
ReplyDeleteAli, it really was a good elaboration on 3 types of signs. I would like to write a bit about symbols more...as you have written and elaborated, there is no logical meaning between the symbol and the object. This means that when people see a particular symbol, it reminds a particular meaning, but, for them, the meaning is not related to the symbol at all... they just know it. But, I think that some symbols need to be studied if anyone wants to find out about their particular meaning. For instance, have you ever seen the peace symbol? I bet you have. People just like that symbol and know it as peace symbol but they don't know why it is designed like that. Actually,The peace symbol was designed by Gerald Holtom, a designer from West London. He designed the peace symbol to say that everyone is against nuclear war.The symbol is said to be composed of the semaphore symbols for N and D, while placing them within a circle, which is said to represent Earth. He designed it for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) campaign. However, for some other parties got other meanings. But the thing is that it was designed for that campaign and against nuclear war. I have attached an address bellow, if you want to see the peace symbol one more time.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.free-extras.com/images/peace_symbol-2204.htm
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ReplyDeleteSo far my group mates have pointed out good examples on the topic and shared their ideas. I would like to talk about how and why these signs came into existence and and became an inseparable part of human communication.
ReplyDeleteFirst let's talk about INDEX. As civilization grow and people started to live in cities, they started to develop social rules and laws which had to be learnt and practiced by everyone who wanted to live in that society. For example traffic signs which Ali talked about them earlier. In order to have safe roads and decrease the amount of road accidents there are rules and regulations for driving a car, for instance in some roads you are allowed to drive in one direction only or in some places you are not allowed to hunk or some parking spots are reserved for disabled people only. But how do we indicate this massage to drivers? We can't put a police officer on each and every corner of the city just to explain a simple law for every single passing car. That's where traffic signs come into play. they are planted everywhere in a city to help drivers make the right decision. Thy convey a logical and direct massage to people, that's why they fall into category of INDEX. Their indication is direct and clear. For example the sign board for "two way street" or "the road gets narrow" or "the speed limit is 80km".
These signs are international and are valid everywhere in the world. Of course on must study and learn all these signs and indications in order to achieve a driving license. In other words when someone have a driving license, it means that they know the meaning of these INDEXES and should follow them exactly, failing to do so cannot end up very pretty.
A valid question might be; why not just write on the sign boards and skip the hassle of learning a whole new sign language just to be allowed to drive? The answer is not really related to the topic we are talking about but in a quick reply I might must say, since vehicles are moving in speed on the roads, there is not enough time for a driver to read a whole sentence plus they will lose concentration on driving trying to interpret what they have just read. scientific researches show that interpreting signs of any kind happens faster than reading a sentence and understanding it in human brain. Although in some traffic signs writing is used along with the INDEX just to give extra information or emphasis on the meaning.
Now let's talk about ICON. A simple definition for ICON might be, the simplified shape of an object or action which represents all of its kinds. perhaps an example can help you understand better what I actually mean.
ReplyDeleteTake the illustration of wine glass for example, this glass can be considered as the ICON of an object called glass, in any shape, size or kind they might be. One of the properties of ICON is that if used in different places or situations, can yield into a totally different meaning. For example the glass ICON put on a box in a cargo means "there are breakable items inside, be careful when handling", same ICON used on entrance of a shop or a particular area in a hotel lobby can mean that "there is a bar here".
Most of the ICONs used today are internationally known, especially those in digital world. A good example might be the smiles used in messengers, for each represents a particular facial expression or action of human. It does't matter if you are chatting with a man, woman, child, young, old, relative or stranger, when you receive the smiling face ICON, you'll know that the person on the other end of the line is happy and smiling. Thus this ICON represents all kinds of smiles there might be on anybody's face with any kind of gesture all over the world.
The last kind of signs I'm going to talk about is SYMBOL. Unlike INDEX and ICON which are more global signs, SYMBOL is considered to be more regional and local. More over in contrary with the other two, you can rarely find any logical relationship between signifier and signified. The reason might lay in the fact that SYMBOLs have more to do with feelings rather than logic of human, SYMBOL of love, SYMBOL of honesty, SYMBOL of peace and so on.
ReplyDeleteAll SYMBOLs get their meaning because of the way they make an individual or a society feel, sensations like, love, hatred and etc. But why do they make you feel that way? I think it is safe to say that any SYMBOL that provokes a particular feeling in human, comes from a historical/mythical background or a personal or group experience of that society. And for the same reason they are more regional instead of global. Of course some symbols have become very popular that they are known as global symbols. Just like a heart which is the SYMBOL of love as Ali mentioned or SYMBOL of peace which comes from a regional background but in time gained global popularity, mentioned by Bahar. Another characteristic of SYMBOL is that one single concept can have several SYMBOLs, for example a ROSE or the color RED are as much the SYMBOL of love as a HEART is.
Concepts are the same in every society but they are represented with different SYMBOL because of different experiences, historical or mythical stories that society preserves for that concept. For instance the concept of death of a beloved one is a bitter experience for everybody in the world. In such occasion most of the people around the globe dress in black but in India, for whatever reason it might be, they wear white. In other words in India wearing white is a SYMBOL of showing sorrow whereas in other parts of the globe color black symbolizes that same feeling.
Basically, an Index signs is a sign where there is a direct link between the sign and the object.
ReplyDeleteTraffic signs are a terrible example, they are either icon or symbol, not index. Index is more like a boot print in the snow. That boot print is a sign that is created by the boot and signifies the boot. There is a direct correlation between the signified and the signified. A car, the road nor the driver made the traffic sign, it is in no way correlated between the signified and the signifier. They are closer to icon and symbol because often the signifier looks like but was not created by the signified. The signifier is also, often, not even pectoral and does not relate to the actual thing in any way other than social convention, such as a traffic light. The color red, yellow and green have no universal meaning, they couldn't they're colors and any meaning derived from that is connoted not denoted.
*pictorial
ReplyDeleteCan you give me some more exapmles of index, icon and symbol I have a presentation tommorrow on this.
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