The Relationship between the Signifier and the Signified in the Qur’anic Text

Abstract

The signifier and the signified, or what is sometimes called the word and the meaning, are part of what is known as semantics, one of the branches of modern linguistics, which is concerned with the study of words and sentences in a descriptive and objective manner. Semantics developed in several stages throughout history. In Greece before Christ, Plato and his teacher Socrates saw that the connection between words and their signifieds was a natural, intrinsic connection. As for Aristotle, he saw that the connection between the word and the meaning was a conventional one that people in a society agreed upon. The relationship between the signifier and the signified according to Saussure falls within the scope of the linguistic sign, which is a psychological entity with two aspects: the signifier, which expresses the sound image of the word from a psychological perspective, which is the impression and effect it leaves on the senses, and the signified, which expresses the idea in its abstract form of the word. The signifier chosen by the language cannot be replaced by another. Change means a change in the relationship between the signifier and the signified. It also means that the language changes even though the speakers are unable to change it. Most contemporary Arabs have rejected the natural relationship between the signifier and the signified or the word and the meaning, and they have demonstrated this as follows :

1- One word in one language may express different meanings, which is called homonym.

2 - One meaning may be expressed by several words, which is called synonymy.

3- Linguistic development may result in the development of words and their change in form while maintaining the same meanings, and it may result in a change in meanings while maintaining the same form.

4-The relationship between the signifier and the signified in modern Western linguistic theories revolved around the relationship between the signifier and the signified, including :

First: The referential theory was developed by the two English scholars Ogden and Richards. The concept of their theory is based on the fact that the meanings of words are what the reference to things other than themselves leads to. The relationship between the thing and the idea may be a direct relationship, for example, when we think of colored things when we see them, or an indirect relationship, as when we think of Aristotle, for example.

Second: The conceptual theory began with John Locke, who said: “The use of words should be a sensitive indication of ideas, and the ideas they represent are their direct and specific meaning.” The theory says that language is a means of conveying ideas or is a moral representation of what is inside the speaker, and that what is expressed linguistically is considered a sign indicating a specific idea.

Third: The American behavioral theory, founded by the American linguist Bloomfield, is based on what is required for the use of language in communication. It depends on the meaning that stimulates a specific verbal response, and meaning, according to Bloomfield, is the set of results obtained through the situation in which a specific speech occurs, and this occurs through the elements of stimulus and response.

Fourth: The English social theory, which concluded that the meaning of the word, according to the proponents of this theory, is its use in the language, the way it is used, or the role it plays. It is the study of the word within the structure or formation in which it appears, as the true meaning of the word does not appear except through the context in its various forms. Thus, the meaning is interpreted as a function in a context.

Fifth: The theory of semantic fields. Semantic fields are defined as a group of words whose meanings are linked within a specific concept, i.e. a group of concepts that are built on shared linguistic relationships, such as when we say (father, brother, mother, etc.). In this sense, they belong to the field of kinship, for example.