Sign is a stimulus pattern that has a meaning. The difference between the various kinds of sign has to do with how the meaning happens to be attached to (or associated with) the pattern. There are three types of signs: Symbol, Index and Icon.
Icon
An Icon sign is a sign that resembles something, it also be illustrative or diagrammatic. An icon is directly related to what it represents, the meaning is immediately evident and it can be a smaller part that represents a whole.
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| The little icon appear on your computer screen is an icon for your to function it. Take an example, a ‘B’ alphabet icon is an icon for the BlogSpot. |
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| A picture of a smoking cigarette with a diagonal bar across the picture is an icon that directly represents `Smoking? Don't do it' |
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| A picture of Avril Lavigne portrait is an icon of Avril Lavigne. |
Index
An `index' is defined by some sensory feature, A, (something directly visible, audible, smellable, etc) that correlates with and thus implies or `points to' B, something of interest to an animal. Another way to explain this is an Index sign is a sign where there is a direct link between the sign and the object.
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| This is and index sign that finger pointing up, which means a giving direction to someone. |
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| This is an index sign, giving direction and information. |
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| Dark cloud scenes, first sign what message u get? Going to raining? |
Symbol
A symbol does not have direct connection to what it represents. The meaning usually needs to be learned through association.
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| This image of an anchor is a symbol of hope in most cultures. Hope is the main theme behind the image. Without cultural knowledge, someone might just see this image as an anchor. |
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| This is a symbol created by Disney. It is a symbol because this picture can be any dog character. But to who watch Disney, they able to know that this is a Goofy create by Disney. |
Conclusion by http://www.cs.indiana.edu/~port/teach/103/sign.symbol.html
The term sign is often used for all three of these: icons, indices and symbols. All have a signal aspect, some physical pattern (eg, a sound or visible shape) and a meaning (some semantic content that is implied or `brought to mind') by the signal. But they differ in that icons have a physical resemblance between the signal and the meaning and an index has a correlation in space and time with its meaning. But a symbol is an arbitrary pattern (usually a sound pattern in a language) that gets its meaning primarily from its mental association with other symbols and only secondarily from its correlation with environmentally relevant properties.
Mini exercises :
These 3 picture under which categories ?
*Every comment represent our own opinion, no plagiarism.
*Author of this post: Lee Mun Ket
Icon is a sign or representation that stands for its object by virtue of a resemblance or analogy to it. It can be in the form of image, picture, or other representation. Just like the blogspot icon that come with an icon with a word of B, which represent the blogspot.
ReplyDeleteIndex is something that is used or serving to point out. It might be a sign, token, or indication. Example like the picture that showing above, dark cloud will indicate it's going to rain soon.
Symbol something that represents or stands for something else. It does not have a direct connection with what it represent. Just like the symbol of a male. ♂♂♂♂♂
Question :
Picture of a frog - Icon
Picture of a bunny - Index
Picture of a deer - Symbol
by Chan Wei Kee
Although icon, index and symbol looks different in some way but they actually had many common between them as they all will bring a sign to us. All 3 of it can either bring a hidden meaning, message, or represent something to us which can greatly help us in handling thing in our daily life. Without it we will feel lost and get confuse because the system has break down.
ReplyDeleteAnswer to the question:
Picture of the frog represent an example of an icon.
Picture of the bunny represent an example of index
Picture of a deer represent a symbol.
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ReplyDeleteAs i can see, icon, index and symbol can be found everywhere, they appear everywhere in our daily life. They seem synchronize, and actually they have their own indication and representation.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, icon is representing the existence thing that everyone knows with no doubt, just like the alphabet M in yellow color, it is the icon of Mcdonald. Once we see it, we get the message directly, and hence the word 'iconic' exist in dictionary as well.
For index, the sign of wave is an indication of saying goodbye, but when the gesture change into another way, it means another sign.
Symbol deliver a arbitrary meaning, it depends on everyone's knowledge and experiences. It is what you see and what you get, what is in your mind is how you consider it.
Answer of the picture above, left is icon, middle is symbol and index on the right.