Symbol

Symbol 

In our definition, we have been careful to add that “semantics is the study of
meaning in language”. The reason is that language is not the only way in which we
can communicate meaning.
Almost everybody in our Western culture knows the meaning that these
“signs” have (approximately, disapproval, victory (or peace), approval, question and
greeting). There are lots of “symbols” that are used to communicate meaning: all the
traffic signs are an example. If you want to communicate that something is
dangerous,
The study of meaning in general is done by semiotics. Semiotics studies
how “signs” mean, that is, how we can make one thing stand for another (a
“signifier” stands for a “signified”). For example, in Western culture, black clothes
are used to indicate mourning, and in our beaches, a red flag means that it’s
dangerous to swim. It is clear that all these signs are culturally-based: for example, in
some Eastern cultures, the color to indicate mourning is white.
Normally, semioticians find it useful to make a three-way distinction, first
established by C.S. Pierce:
1. Icon: a relation of similarity between the sign and what it represents; for
example, a portrait, etc.
2. Index: a cause-effect relationship; contiguity in space or time; for example,
smoke and fire, yawning and boredom, vultures circling overhead a dead
animal
3. Symbol: an arbitrary, conventional relationship between sign and meaning:
for example, red flag and danger.

Clearly, linguistic meaning will be mainly circumscribed to the third type.
Therefore, semantics must be seen as a sub-part of semiotics, and this is how most
scholars regard language. Very often we find cases in which a sign is at the same
time, icon, index and symbol, they are built upon each other: symbols on indices
and indices on icons.