Post-lecture (3) Thoughts: Iconic, Symbolic, or Indexical Sign?

Signs can be confused sometimes, and to me, symbolic and indexical signs can be confusing sometimes. A sign can take on iconic, symbolic and/or indexical meanings at the same time and the most important thing is to identify what it represents what it symbolizes and what it does have an indirect relationship with respectively.

Let's take a look at a few examples :)



The above is a common sign we see around in our daily lives. It can be an iconic representation of how we express the number "2" but symbolically, in specific cultural contexts, it can be a expression that expresses happiness. To verbalize it, it would mean "yayyy!. Pretty sure that I don't need to exemplify when and where we use it \/
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The inverted version of it actually symbolizes a rude message in some cultural contexts as well, but not in the others. What a symbolic sign expresses, is dependent on the culture a society has.



The above is a funny sign the message that "marriage is the end of your happy life of singlehood" has always been a joke for many people because it is true in a sadly humourous way. It is an iconic representation of a man and woman walking down the red carpet in a Western wedding, and it is also indexical of the idea that your singlehood is officially over upon marriage. The relationship between marrying someone and the ending of life as a single person is abstract, however this relationship can be linked through this sign.

This a small discussion on signs, in a nutshell.