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Signs - Symbols

 

 

Characterization of signs (Clive Ashwin)
Characterization of signs (Ernest H. Hutten)
Function of signs (Clive Ashwin)
Definition of signs and symbols (Russell L. Ackoff and Fred E. Emery)
Function of signs and symbols (Susanne K. Langer)
Function of symbols (John Dewey)
Function of symbols (Thomas S. Kuhn)
Function of symbols (Ludwig van Bertalanffy)

 

 

 

Characterization of signs

[1989] Clive Ashwin in Victor Margolin (editor), Design Discourse
“Signs may be characterized as having three possible levels of specificity:
-  Monosemic systems offer only one correct interpretation; other interpretations are not viable alternatives: they are considered mistakes or wrong. Hence, cartographical signs and engineering drawings are predominantly monosemic.
-  Polysemic systems offer more than one legitimate interpretation.  Hence a figurative drawing of a car for an advertisement might evoke a variety of acceptable responses from interpreters, such as speed, power, reliability, and so forth.
-  Pansemic systems offer apparently unlimited possibilities of interpretation, a good example being much nonfigurative drawing and painting.”
("Drawing, Design and Semiotics", p. 203)

[1962] Ernest H. Hutten, The Origins of Science
Natural Signs: “e.g. we say that black clouds are a sign of rain: we use one event to stand for another, future, event because we know a natural law that relates them to each other.”
Iconic Signs: “when the sign is similar to the thing it stands for, like a picture.”
Artificial Signs or Symbols: “that is the red cross as representing medicine or the flag which stands for a country. Language is ordinarily believed to belong to this category.”  “... we split form from content in a verbal symbol” ... “otherwise we cannot use it for expressing abstract thought.”  But “form and content can never be totally cut asunder in a symbol, otherwise we lose the symbolic power, even though we do formalize our symbols more and more.” (Chapter IX, pp. 117-120)

 

Function of signs

[1989] Clive Ashwin in Victor Margolin (editor), Design Discourse
“It has been claimed that sign systems serve at least six principal functions.
A message may be:
-  referential (attempts to describe or communicate a form or idea in as objective and dispassionate a manner as possible);
-  emotive (attempts to communicate certain subjective responses of the emitter in terms of, for example, excitement, attraction or repulsion);
-  conative, or injunctive (in that it persuades or exhorts the receiver to respond and behave in a certain way);
-  poetic (in that the principal intention is not to communicate facts or influence behaviour, but to create an intrinsically admirable form);
-  phatic (is one that does not attempt to record or communicate facts, views, or information but serves as a means of initiating, maintaining, or concluding communication between the emitter and the receiver);
-  metalinguistic (created for the express purpose of clarifying other signs, e.g. the key provided on a map).”
(from "Drawing, Design and Semiotics", pp. 202-203)

 

Definition of signs and symbols

[1972] Russell L. Ackoff and Fred E. Emery, On Purposeful Systems, Tavistock Publications, London.
“Sign: anything that is a potential producer of a response to something other than itself.” (p. 161)
“Symbol: a sign that is a potential producer of a response to something which in turn is a potential producer of a response to something other than itself.” (p. 168)

 

Function of signs and symbols

[1957] Susanne K. Langer, Philosophy in a New Key, First Published 1942
“Sign and symbol are knotted together in the production of those fixed realities that we call ‘facts’.”  (Chapter X, p. 281)

 

Function of symbols 

[1916, First published 1903] John Dewey, Essays in Experimental Logic
“A word, an algebraic sign, is just as much a concrete existence as is a horse, a fire-engine, or a flyspeck. But its value resides in its representative character: in its suggestive and directive force for operations that when performed lead us to non-symbolic objects, which without symbolic operations would not be apprehended, or at least would not be so easily apprehended.” (Chapter VII, p. 226)

[1970] Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Second Ed. Enlarged
“... the power of a science seems quite generally to increase with the number of symbolic generalizations its practitioners have at their disposal.” (Postscript, p. 183)
 

[1960, First English Edition 1952] Ludwig van Bertalanffy, Problems of Life
“... it is a fact, documented by the history of science that progress is to a great extent dependent on the development of suitable theoretical abstractions and symbolisms.” (p. 160)
“The goal of science can therefore be reached only when symbols having unequivocal and fixed meanings are linked according to equally unequivocal rules of the game.” (p. 161)

 

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