Introduction Signs and Symbols Keywords Semiotics, the study of signs and meaning has two founders.
Iconic signs have a visual relationship or similarity to what they are signifying.
A Netscape browser, for example, uses a number of icons. Indexical signs are connected in some way to the thing or action they are trying to signify. Symbols have a totally arbitrary relationship to what they represent. Their meaning is not fixed and depends on social debates and processes. The swastika is a symbol.