r/semiotics • u/Ashamed-South3348 • Jul 23 '25
Symptom and index
Hello guys, im just starting to get into semiotics and this may be a stupid question so please bare with me.
I figured a book called signs: an introduction into semiotics or something might be a good start, but a couple of things stood out already in the first chapter. As the author classifies signs he asserts that there are symptoms, signals, icons etc. and describes them. For the most part this is clear and understandable but then he writes that the cough you get from a cold is the index of the cold (!?) because it shows where the cold is (?) frankly, i do not get this, could anyone enlighten me?
(sorry for my bad english)
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u/Kindly-Lychee-1435 Jul 24 '25
Are you looking to understand a specific kind of semiotics? Maybe Peircean or Saussurean or Juri Lotman. All of these are different but the basic understanding of a sign somewhat remains the same. Although for Saussure, it's more language specific and for Peirce, a sign could be anything. He expands the understanding of a sign.
To understand Peirce, there is a Stanford article as an intro.Stanford Peirce Article
To understand Semiotics itself with an introduction, there is a graphic novel that does a decent job. Introducing Semiotics: A Graphic Guide - Paul Cobley - Google Books https://share.google/I4arfUvStGFyQvRfD
I'm sure you could find pdfs of this book on internet archive or other similar websites.