Discoveries: Signs, Symbols and Ciphers

Download or read book Discoveries: Signs, Symbols and Ciphers written by Georges Jean and published by . This book was released on 1998-10 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To communicate, people have always used signs and symbols: marks, gestures, and words that represent abstract ideas and concrete objects. Over time, these have multiplied into an immense and complex network of images, figures, emblems. We use signs to measure such difficult concepts as number, danger, value, distances in time and space, and even love. How does a sign represent the thing for which it substitutes? How do we come to understand the meaning of a written symbol? What happens when a sign crosses international borders of language and culture? Chapter by chapter, Georges Jean conducts us through the fascinating realm of maps, pictograms, logographs, letterforms, patterns, signals, codes, and facial expressions.