The following text describes Semiotics. Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation. Ferdinand de Saussure divided the sign into two components: the 'signifier' (the sound pattern or written word) and the 'signified' (the concept it represents). He argued that the relationship between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary; there is no natural connection between the word 'tree' and the physical object. Thus, language is a system of differences where meaning is generated not by defining things in themselves, but by distinguishing them from what they are not.