http://users.aber.ac.uk/dgc/Documents/S4B/sem02.html
A sign consists of the signified and the signifier
If what is signified is love,the signifier may vary … it can be a “x “.a bunch of flowers,a poem.
Of course it may be misunderstood if two people come from different cultures/countries or even different parts of the same country with maybe a different form of Christianity,with an atheisitic family etc
Some people tend to see a meaning in an act or word that was not intended…if carried too far it can lead to paranoia…I can imagine writing a funny play based on such confusion
More from Wikipedia
Signifier
Ferdinand de Saussure theorizes that a “sign“[clarification needed] has two parts: signifier and signified. The signifier is the form that the sign will take, whether it be a sound or image and the signified is the meaning that is conveyed.
Example
Signifier: the word ‘tree’ = Signified: the mental image of a tree.
Charles Sanders Pierce analyzed sign systems and came up with the following: An Icon signifies by resemblance. An Indexical sign signifies by causal connection and finally, a Symbol signifies by learned convention.
See also
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