Symbols



“A symbol is something such as an object, picture, written word, sound, or particular mark that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention.”


From the above definition, we can simply say that a symbol is something that represents something else . It tends to be the result of convention among the members of society. The important point to understand the concept of symbol is that a conventional relationship must exist between the symbol and its interpretation. In the history of human kind, we know symbol was first introduced by Ancient Egyptian. They used hieroglyphs as their written language which were in the form of symbols, In the linguistic field they are commonly called  pictogram (picture-writing). Take a look these below examples:

From the above example, we can see that there is a direct connection between the symbols and their representations. The Egyptian directly adopted the nature phenomena into the abstract drawing which had been agreed by the members of the society. More abstract form from a symbol is called logograms, it will be discussed in the next section.



................................................................................................................................................

See also:

      Things to Contemplate

      Things to Contemplate

      When you realize how you have wasted your entire life for nothing, since all you have done just unimportant matters for you, your surrounds, and God, that will be a bright spot to start a new leaf. To fix everything you have done won't be as easy as you think, indeed, look deep down to your heart you'll see how cheeky the thing you do to him. As you look back, it just likes playing the recorder over and over, you can stop it but you can't change it. As a human, indeed, you’ll feel a sorry and that is a gift, it means that you have passed the contemplation journey to make you realize about all of it and to make you know what is wrong and what is right.

      When you think everything was right and so perfect, in that point you have lost the battle. You don’t have any reason to continue your fighting anymore; you have lost even before the battle is started. Sometimes you feel that nothing else matters since you have everything you need right here, but believe me, you are wrong. Thankful is a must but never give up is more important. Although it is a pain when you feed and let your ambition takes every single conscience in every parts of your life, but surely you can’t just surrender and beg everything you desire to God without doing anything to make it real. So I can say that fight and struggle are something that become, just say, a must to do.

      When you feel that a ton of problems come to stop you to light your spirit brighter, in that rate you are facing the real enemy. It is not the visible enemies that you have to worry about, but the invisible one, it always be. There always be options either let him to take control yourself or you fight to defeat him once and forever. Just like a cancer gnaws on your heart, sooner or later, it will weaken your faith and let you die at the end in remorse. Fight back, and always keep your faith guiding you. Don’t you ever think that you’re all alone, since He always opens His “arms” widely for those who walk into His path, He always there to welcome those who come near to Him. Always remember, through pain you can learn valuable thing that be able to sharpen your sense and accelerate your maturity. The more pain you get the more mature you will be.

      When you feel everything is messed up, it means that your conscience is sharpened even more than before and your character is growing stronger, you have to thank for that. Do mess things is just natural. No one in this world is so perfect with no mistake, that thing makes you human. You are only human, the place of forgets and mistakes, not angle whose life is dedicated only for God. Doing mistake is not always that bad, as long as you can take a lesson from it to learn how to avoid the similar thing happens. Try to think that do mistake is just the same as gaining new experience, the more experience you got the stronger person you will be.    

      When you feel so tired and disappoint, you are learning about earnestness. So tired since you have done many things and you feel that you have put your best on it but at the end it only gives you disappointments.  However, when you decide not to surrender to this bitterness, at this point you show the quality of your earnestness, the earnest of your will, spirit, and heart. Always remember this life is a test, a sustainable test that will only stop when you face your death. How strong you can cope with all the tiredness and disappointments reflects your true earnestness.   

      When you feel all your hard works are not appreciated, you are learning about sincerity. Sincerity doesn’t mean giving up to the condition, but do everything you have to do with no expecting anything in return. Perhaps, it will be so wise when you learn this thing from a lover; he will give everything he has to someone who he loves without expecting anything in return but happiness of that one he loves.   So just put your best in things that you have to do, hand the result to God, He is the All Fair and All Seeing. Ignore everything that can make you down. Keep that way; it is because what you have done and are doing will determine your quality in the eyes of God and other people. Does not mean that you have to always care of other people opinions, you may simply say I don’t care what the neighbor’s thinking or I don’t care what do they know about me, but notice this, the value of yourself is reflected from what they say about you that will be the real you.


         

      Onomatopoeia vs. Arbitrariness

       Onomatopoeia (The echo of nature)
      The controversy among linguist concerning either language is arbitrary or onomatopoeia begins since 6 B.C. in the ancient Greek. There were two groups of linguist who had different concept of naming things in language; they were, in one side, phusis who believed that language was onomatopoeia and thesis, on the other side, who believed that language was arbitrary. 
      • First was introduced by phusis;
      • There are connections/associations between words and nature; 
      • The echo of nature is used to name the concepts of material.
      • Other examples of onomatopoeia:splash, pick, sway, etc.  


                    
                     Arbitrary 
        “There be no direct, necessary connection between the nature of the things or ideas language deals with and the linguistic units or combinations by which these things or ideas are expressed”
        • The language items have no direct connection with the concepts they represent;
        • In naming things, human doesn't follow certain rule;
        • The names of things are the result of convention among the language users.