“The sign is a gesture produced with the intention of communicating, that is, in order to transmit one's representation or inner state to another being.”

— Umberto Eco , book Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language

[I] Signs, 1.2.2
Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language (1984)
Context: The sign is a gesture produced with the intention of communicating, that is, in order to transmit one's representation or inner state to another being. The existence of a certain rule (a code) enabling both the sender and the addressee to understand the manifestation in the same way must, of course, be presupposed if the transmission is to be successful; in this sense, navy flags, street signs, signboards, trademarks, labels, emblems, coats of arms, and letters are taken to be signs.<!-- Dictionaries and cultivated language must at this point agree and take as signs also words, that is, the elements of verbal language. In all the cases examined here, the relationship between the and that for which it stands seems to be less adventurous than for the first category.

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Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic… 1932–2016

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“Ebbinghaus: Language is a system of conventional signs that can be voluntarily produced at any time.
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Source: On Human Communication (1957), What Is It That We Communicate?, p. 10

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