Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One that signifies.
- noun Linguistics A linguistic unit or pattern, such as a succession of speech sounds, written symbols, or gestures, that conveys meaning; a linguistic sign. The signifier of the concept “tree” is, in English, the string of speech sounds (t), (r), and (ē); in German, (b), (ou), and (m).
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One who or that which signifies, indicates, or makes known.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun linguistics The sound of spoken word or string of letters on a page that a person recognizes as a
sign .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the phonological or orthographic sound or appearance of a word that can be used to describe or identify something
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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A social signifier is one that is either created or interpreted by people or society, signifying social activity or appropriate social behavior.
Why YouTube should support Creative Commons now | FactoryCity 2008
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This country's chief signifier is our staggering capacity to isolate ourselves from the effects of our political and lifestyle choices.
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Return of the MacGuffin: Iran and Nuclear Weapons (K-punk) “A MacGuffin (sometimes spelt McGuffin or Magoffin), an empty master-signifier, is a now-ubiquitous plot device or catalyst that holds no meaning or purpose of its own except to motivate the players or characters and advance a narrative or story.”
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Return of the MacGuffin: Iran and Nuclear Weapons (K-punk) “A MacGuffin (sometimes spelt McGuffin or Magoffin), an empty master-signifier, is a now-ubiquitous plot device or catalyst that holds no meaning or purpose of its own except to motivate the players or characters and advance a narrative or story.”
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The fallacious translation of trope into signifier is symptomatically reiterated later in the chapter in the form of an atypical terminological mistake.
Professing Literature: John Guillory's Misreading of Paul de Man 2005
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The ideas behind the words, the signified beyond the signifier, is what really matters.
talking the talk Dean Francis Alfar 2004
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The ideas behind the words, the signified beyond the signifier, is what really matters.
Archive 2004-07-01 Dean Francis Alfar 2004
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The signifier is the word itself, its sound and the actual sequence of its letters.
Ravenna Michalsen: Listening To Matra Music Ravenna Michalsen 2011
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If we presume the signifier is the signified we fall into the trap of logocentrism.
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If we presume the signifier is the signified we fall into the trap of logocentrism.
Archive 2009-04-10 2009
michaelt42 commented on the word signifier
I love the sound of T - and I love the way in which it acts as a rich signifier: (AFTERNOON) TEA, (BUILDERS') TEA), (CHINA, INDIAN) TEA, (GOLF) TEE, TI AS OPPOSED TO VI (in Serbian, with corresponding differentiation in other Slavonic languages), criterion of suitability and other examples that I will allow you to discover for yourselves. Clashes between homophones can be seen in this light.
May 8, 2013