Ferdinand De Saussure: Two Part Model Of Sign

As a human, we certainly need a communication tool in order to understand each other about something. One of the examples is by understanding a sign. To understand the sign, we need the concept so that there will be no misunderstanding, but in fact, the sign cannot be understood correctly and equally in society. Everyone has their own interpretation of the meaning and, of course, there are varieties of reasons that lie behind them. A knowledge which deals with the sign is called as semiotics (the study of signs). To understand the semiotic any further, there will be discussed one of the prominent figures semiotic and all his thoughts in semiotics, Ferdinand de Saussure.
Model of sign that is proposed by Saussure is a two-part model of sign or it referred to the term 'dyadic'. Saussure asserted that the sign is formed from two things, namely 'signifier' and ‘signified’. The signifier is interpreted as a sound pattern; it is the psychological impression to the sound listener. The pattern of sound (sound pattern) ultimately distinguishes the meaning contained in the sound. Signified itself does not refer to an object, but tend to refer to the concept. Thus, Saussure stressed that the linguistic sign is a relationship between a concept and the sound pattern.

The relationship between signifier and signified referred to as 'signification'. Signification represented by arrows. Broken lines mark the two elements as a ‘the bar’. As an example of this model, we can take the word 'exit' in a parking lot. The 'exit' is composed on:

- A signifier, namely the word 'exit'
- A signified, the concept to indicate a vehicle’s track for the