Meaning (semiotics)

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Semiotics/Semeiotics
General concepts
Biosemiotics · Code
Computational semiotics
Connotation · Decode
Denotation · Encode
Lexical · Modality
Salience · Sign
Sign relation · Sign relational complex
Semiosis · Semiosphere
Semiotic literary criticism
Triadic relation
Umwelt · Value
Methods
Commutation test Paradigmatic analysis Syntagmatic analysis
Semioticians
Roland Barthes · Marcel Danesi
Ferdinand de Saussure
Umberto Eco · Louis Hjelmslev
Roman Jakobson · Roberta Kevelson
Charles Peirce · Thomas Sebeok
Topics of interest
Aestheticization as propaganda Aestheticization of violence Americanism
Semiotics of Ideal Beauty

In semiotics, the meaning of a sign is its place in a sign relation, in other words, the set of roles that it occupies within a given sign relation. This statement holds whether sign is taken to mean a sign type or a sign token. Defined in these global terms, the meaning of a sign is not in general analyzable with full exactness into completely localized terms, but aspects of its meaning can be given approximate analyses, and special cases of sign relations frequently admit of more local analyses.

Two aspects of meaning that may be given approximate analyses are the connotative relation and the denotative relation. The connotative relation is the relation between signs and their interpretant signs. The denotative relation is the relation between signs and objects. An arbitrary association exists between the signfied and the signifier.