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Signified

Philosophy
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The signified is the concept or meaning to which a signifier refers. It is the mental representation associated with a linguistic sign, not the physical thing itself.

Detailed Definition
Saussure's term is a cornerstone of structuralist linguistics. In poetry, the relationship between signifier and signified is often unstable. A poet can play with this gap, creating multiple meanings or breaking the link entirely. This concept helps analyze how poetic language generates its effects, as the signified is never fully fixed but is shaped by context and interpretation.
Example
Example in poetry:
In a poem, the concept of "love" is the signified, the mental concept the word points to; The idea of "freedom" that a poet invokes is the signified; The feeling of "sorrow" that a poem conveys is its signified; The abstract concept of "justice" is the signified in a political poem.
Additional Notes
The signified is one half of the linguistic sign in Ferdinand de Saussure's structural linguistics. It is the concept or meaning to which a signifier (the sound-image or written word) refers. The signified is a mental representation, not a physical object in the world. For example, the concept of a "tree" is the signified. In poetry, the relationship between signifier and signified is often unstable. A poet can play with this gap, creating multiple meanings or breaking the link entirely. A poem might use a word like "rose" (signifier) to evoke a complex set of signifieds (love, beauty, transience). This concept helps analyze how poetic language generates its effects, as the signified is never fully fixed.
Also Known As
Signified concept Mental representation Meaning
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