Behaviors of Some Linguistic Signs

By

 Obododimma Oha

Introduction :

It has been stated that language is unique to human beings. We don't know for sure whether there are our kind elsewhere using language, our kind of sign system. We only imagine that our creator also understands the sign system given to us.

Some behaviors of linguistic signs are significant and worth discussing. These behaviors are namely: (1) ability to convey ideas, (2) ability to stand in opposition to some others, (3) ability to keep company and co-occur with some others, (4) ability to provide fuller information, or anchor other class of signs whose meanings can shift, as Roland Barthes explains, (5) ability to help humans in thinking and figuring out things, forming impressions of things through analogy, (that is not to claim that without linguistic signs humans cannot think!), (6) alteration of their senses over time and place, (7) linguistic signs having many interpretations. 

Ability to Convey Ideas:

The primary function assigned to signs in human interaction is conveying ideas. Humans have to understand their kind, although they sometimes misunderstand them and that causes problems. Humans exploit and try to use those linguistic signs that can convey ideas clearly. This means sometimes avoiding those ones or groups that can adversely affect meaning. This requires that the sign system be treated creatively and not as something finished and ready.

Ability to Stand in Opposition:

In this case, two senses are involved: first, signs which are considered opposites and second, signs not necessarily opposite but used to destroy other signs. Naturally, signs that are considered opposites or antonyms are helpful in establishing meanings or identifying something. So, signs that are opposites could be said to be what things are not. 

 But modern life has a lot to do with standing against something. This so much involves using signs to try to destroy what we stand against. Ideologies often differ and may employ signs to try to discredit the other. Is it political rhetoric? Is the defensive posture? Is it blaming? The other ideology is a sign itself, sign of what we don't like. 

From songs and slogans to uniform and dressing style, ideologies emerge as signs.  

Then the illocutionary acts of attacking, criticizing, blaming, and accusing the other, which are obviously a weaponization of the linguistic sign. 

Ability to Keep Company and to Co-occur with Some Others:

Some linguistic signs naturally keep some other linguistic signs company in expressions. That is, they often co-occur. This implies that one would make signs attract attention to themselves by using them in ways people don't expect. Indeed, it is human beings that started using them regularly that way. It was not the Maker that made them that way. 

This is usually called "collocation" in linguistics. It is still collocation but we should note they are instances of signs appearing together in agreement. 

There are also other instances of different signs co-occurring. Pictures or drawings can occur together with words, one further explaining the other. We often call this a case of "multimodality" or multiple modes of a message. One mode alone may be problematic. So, the second mode is supporting it. 

Often in cartoons, we find multimodality, although some cartoons may employ a single mode. Stories in newspapers and magazines may be only photographs, what is normally called "photostories." 

Ability to Anchor the Meanings of Other Significations:

This was brought up above in our discussion on signs keeping company. It was Roland Barthes, in his essay "Rhetoric of the Image," that indicated that linguistic signs can anchor the meanings of visual images and prevent them from "proliferating," that is moving in various directions, what we see in ambiguity. 

We commonly refer to this as illustration but illustration can be in any sign. Visuals or diagrams could be used in illustrating a point. So, what the linguistic sign does is more than illustration. It holds meaning down. 

Ability to Help Humans in Thinking and in Figuring Things Out:

It has been pointed out that thinking and the use of language are two different things, although language can assist thinking. Thinking that goes along what obtains in language could use configurations, patterns, comparisons and sundry strategies possible in linguistic communications. These may be creatively enhanced, depending on the disposition of the person, what is at stake, the nature of the mode, etc

Alteration of Their Senses Over Time and Place:

Time changes everything. Same for place. Time and place can make the meanings of linguistic signs to begin to acquire different senses. Time and place are really the audience and make serious demands of meanings which we must not ignore. Language variety determined by time is called "chronolect" in linguistics while place gives us "regional dialect." 

Linguistic signs shaped by time and place may be used stylishly and intertextually in a discourse, thus making context very crucial in the interpretation. 

Linguistic Signs May Have Many Interpretations:

When linguistic signs have diverse interpretations, as we find in adverts, it is intended to call attention to what is being advertised. The multiple interpretation surprises us but engages our attention. We could say that, in such a case, the ambiguity is being creatively used. In other communication, we are discouraged from using ambiguity expressions. Such expressions

-- cause misunderstanding, 

-- cause confusion, 

-- cause quarrels, 

-- mislead,

-- are considered dishonest,

--- are viewed as immature use of language.

That only confirms that whatever has a good use could have a bad use. Some ways of attending to the problem of ambiguity in expressions (disambiguation) include

-- using the context,

-- changing the structure of the expression to remove the ambiguity,

-- avoiding saying one thing and meaning another. 

Generally, some nonlinguistic signs have that

 tendency to submit to many interpretations and linguistic signs are used to disambiguate them in communication. 

Concluding Remarks:

Linguistic signs are at the heart of competence and creativity and so deserve to be properly observed and described. Here we have tried only to identify some attributes, knowing that there are many more. 

It is crucial to realize how linguistic signs interact with the nonlinguistic in modern communications.