What do signifier and signified mean?

Signifier and signified are a pair of categories in structural linguistics.

In Saussure's structural linguistics, signified function, signifier and signified are three closely related concepts. On the one hand, it is a language symbol representing concrete things or abstract concepts; On the other hand, it is the concrete things or abstract concepts represented by language symbols. He called the linguistic symbols used to express abstract concepts in signified signifier, while the specific things represented by linguistic symbols were called signified, that is, the meaning to be expressed in signified.

Can refer to the form or sound of words, the object or meaning represented by words. For example, the word "table" as a language symbol refers to energy, and the table as a concrete thing also refers to the meaning of this language symbol.

Theoretical development of signifier and signified

The arbitrariness of the relationship between the signifier and the signified ensures their independence, that is, the signifier and the signified cannot be reduced to a concept (that is, what Saussure said), and the signified is not attached to a specific signifier (that is, a specific language unit).

An isolated "signifier" can have many meanings, which is polysemy; Conversely, a concept can also be expressed by different signifiers, which is synonymous. Since Saussure, the theory that language signs consist of "signifier" and "signified" has gradually become a common topic in the field of literary theory.

The opposition between the signified and the signified, the opposition between one language symbol and another language symbol, etc. All of them are the results of Saussure's synchronic study of language, rather than the isolated study of language entities. Simply understanding language symbols as an isolated entity is not in line with the original intention of Soxhlet's thought.

The above contents refer to Baidu Encyclopedia-signifier and signified