Ferdinand de Saussure and the duo, Ogden and Richards approached the subject of concepts to present their theories of the sign in semantics. “Sign” itself is an entity that is used to represent another entity. As presented by many linguists that words are also signs, it suggests that words are also used to represent different entities. This relationship between the word and the entities they represent was explored by Saussure and the duo: Ogden and Richards.
Ferdinand de Saussure Theory:
Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist presents the “Theory of Signs” according to which language consists of many signs. According to him, these signs can be explored by discussing the relationship between the signifier and the signified. Signifiers are the linguistic expressions: strictly pointing out they are the sounds of words spoken or written whereas the signified is the entity itself. Saussure highlighted that the relationship between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary whereas there exists a psychological association between the two as pointed out below.
Language
Signified -------------------------------- Signified
psychological association
(Linguistic Expressions) (Object / Entity)
Ogden and Richards
Ogden and Richards presented their theory of sign which had a tripartite structure. Their stutter consisted of symbol i.e. the word, the concept i.e. the meaning, and the referent i.e. the entity or object. According to them, there is no relationship between the word and the referent. Their relationship is constructed through the concept i.e. the relationship between the word and the concept creates meaning. The tripartite model of Ogden and Richards is presented below:
Concept (Conceptual idea)
Symbol Referent
(Word) (Object/ entity)
According to this mentalist theory, the relationship between words and their concepts generate meaning. Whenever we hear a word, the mental/ conceptual image of that entity is created in the mind.
Palmers Interpretation:
Planet in his interpretation presents certain drawbacks of this mentalist theory
• We always do not visualize the words whenever we hear them. For instance, we always do not visualize or create a mental image of the word “mother” whenever we hear it.
• Some words have a different set of/ wide range of meanings that cannot be conceptualized.
• Some words don’t convey meaning themselves but only aid the content words so, that cannot be conceptualized.
• Concepts are the mental images of each word. Each individual has a different set of images associated with a word resulting in multiple meanings. Similarly, one cannot access the mental images in the mind of a person.
• Words are not only linguistic units that convert meaning. There are shorter linguistic units such as morphemes that convert meanings.
• There are also longer linguistic units such as phrases and sentences which convey meaning.
• Meanings are not limited to denotations and concepts.
• Words are “slippery customers” they change meaning depending on the context.
• We do not always use language to convey meanings. We use it sometimes, to convey our opinions and thoughts, and emotions. The words like “ouch” cannot be conceptualized.
• A concept can be represented through different words.
Conclusion:
In short, Saussure and Ogden, and Richards approach the subject of concepts through their theories of the sign in semantics. Palmer interprets these theories and presents certain drawbacks of these theories. He ends his argument with Wittgenstein’s approach of studying the “use” of linguistic expressions instead of the “meaning” of words.
