When considering language, the basic concept seems to be that different symbols, e.g. words, represent different things, actions, concepts. This is a very vague notion of language, though, according to the ideas of the late Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. Instead, according to Saussure's Arbitrary Social Values and the Linguistic Sign, "The linguistic sign unites, not a thing and a name, but a concept and a sound-image. The latter is not the material sound, a purely physical thing, but the psychological imprint of the sound, the impression that it makes on our senses." I took this to mean that the sounds and movements our mouths make when producing a word tie in directly to the concept we are trying to convey by using that particular word. Or, to try and make the idea a little clearer, a word has certain characteristics because we associate them with similar characteristics found in the thing that the word represents. Because of this bond between word and idea, Saussure suggested that it would be more accurate to label them respectively as signifier and signified.

Suassure also pointed out that the relationship between that signifier and the signified is arbitrary, evidenced by the fact that there are many, many languages in the world - all with their own signifiers and signified. This almost seems to contrast with the previous line of thinking, that a bond exists between the signifier and the signified. However, we must realize that different cultures that produce different languages often have differing attitudes and behaviorisms from each other. These differences in psych will lead cultures to recognie and develop their own connections between signifiers and signified that are unique to them.