Linguistic Signs, Communication, and Language Functions

The Linguistic Sign

Signs are realities that we perceive through our senses and that signify something. They consist of:

• Signifier: The part of the sign that is perceptible to the senses and is associated in the mind with another reality (e.g., a red light).
• Signified: The concept or reality that the signifier evokes (e.g., the idea of 'do not cross').

Classes of Signs

• Signs created by humans to communicate. These signs are:
  • Conventional: They are the result of an agreement between users.
  • Encoded: They are used according to the rules of a code.
  • When signs bear a resemblance to the reality they represent, they are called icons. When they represent a social, religious, or cultural concept, they are called symbols.
• Symptoms or Indices: Signs that refer to natural phenomena and have no communicative intention, but they still convey information.

Components of the Linguistic Sign

• The signifier consists of a sound or an acoustic image.
• The signified consists of a concept or a reality.

Features of the Linguistic Sign

• Linguistic signs are part of a code.
• They are linear.
• They are conventional.
• They are arbitrary.
• Onomatopoeia: The formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named.

Communication

• Elements: Sender, receiver, message, channel, code, and context (mediate and immediate).

The Functions of Language

• Referential or Representational Function: Reports on a fact without expressing feelings.
• Emotive or Expressive Function: Used for the expression of feelings and experiences.
• Phatic or Contact Function: Responsible for initiating, maintaining, and ending contact between the sender and receiver.
• Conative or Appellative Function: Seeks to influence the receiver in some way.
• Metalinguistic Function: Refers to the language itself.
• Poetic Function: Aims to embellish what is conveyed to achieve aesthetic purposes or to attract the receiver's attention.

Special Cases of Noun Gender

• Common Gender: Nouns that can be masculine or feminine without changing their form (e.g., the artist, the janitor).
• Epicene Gender: Nouns with a single grammatical gender that can refer to either sex of a species (e.g., the ant, the nightingale).
• Ambiguous Gender: Nouns that can be used as either masculine or feminine without changing their meaning (e.g., the sea).