Signs and meaning

Firstly, this article introduces the relationship between sings and meanings. It examines the difficulties associated with trying to understand signs by themselves and then trying to interpret those signs in different contexts. The article explains that labeling objects, acts or experiences with words will not go without predicaments due to the disagreements caused by what the words may ‘really’ mean to the individual. This suggests that people’s understanding of sings can differ based on their personal experience and the context the signs are used in. A possible example of this dilemma is the word ‘sex’. While a religious person may associate the word ‘sex’ with the mechanics of ‘intercourse’ and the sole purpose of reproducing, someone else may view the word ‘sex’ as an act of pleasure and affection towards a loved one.

According to Saussure, words have not been created by the objects, instead the objects have been made identifiable by the words allocated to them. Such as the words of William Shakespeare‘s “a rose called by any other name with still smell as sweet”. This implies that if the red petal flower had been called a ‘lamp’ instead, we would still associate the word ‘lamp’ with sweet aroma, soft petals and thorns. In summary, we have not made objects definable because of the sounds or words we assign to them but instead have tried to differentiate objects by creating an ‘arbitrary relation between itself and something else’.

Lastly, based on the German philosopher Nietzsche’s notion that ‘the production of meaning is always, first and foremost, a sign of power’, a modern example of this can be seen by the international R&B performer Beyoncé inventing the word ‘bootylicious’ in one of her singles. Given that Beyoncé is a multi-platinum album selling artist, her highly influential stature in the entertainment business made it possible for her to easily encourage the masses to start associating the word ‘bootylicious’ to her own newly founded concept of referring to a ‘sexually attractive woman, especially because of her buttocks’ (Webster 2003-2009).