chapter 2

According to Saussure, language is a social institution that consists of many signs (sound image) and their concept or meaning. The study of these signs and their function is called semiotics (formerly, semiology). Saussure elaborates that there is a little more to it than this, and to understand it we must break down language even further. The sound image is also called the signifier, which is basically the word without its connotation. The signified is the concept or meaning implied by or associated with the word (signifier). The relationship between these two, the signifier and signified, is based on what definitions are socially developed based on usage and can change over the years (just as we talked about a few days ago). While Saussure believes language is a social institution, he says speech is social and speaking is individual. 

In my ad, the signifier was the word "small" and the signified is that it is secret or easy to hide (like the woman hides them behind her back).