The article is about Indexicality and its theories and approaches for using it.

In the article, the

authors discuss some factors we are using as a form of language in the material world.
Geosemiotics is the study of the indexicality of the material world. Everyone is a performer in a
certain physical space. It is a task of geosemiotics to tie language and the meanings relating to
space, social relationships and time. On the other hand, Indexicality is the property of language
which is defined by where it is placed in the world.

There are three types of signs by which we can signal our meaning to others: Iconicity,
Indexicality, and Symbolism. A sign can resemble the object, what actions are expected or not
expected can be defined by seeing Icons (Fig. 1). A sign can point to or be attached to the object,
and then it is called Index (Fig.2). Or a sign can be only arbitrary or conventionally associated
with the object, and then it can be defined as Symbol (Fig.3).

Fig. 1

Fig. 2
Fig.3

The picture in Fig. 1 shows some icons incorporated in a mobile screen. This tells us what
actions to be expected or not expected. For example, by looking at the icon of the 1 st row, 1st
column, we can understand that it is the icon for using camera, likewise by looking at the icon of
the 3rd row, 1st column, we can understand that it is the icon for using messaging system. These
icons are the symbolic view of the objects. Also, we can interpret the meaning of an icon by
looking at its color, size and many other factors (Fig. 4).

Fig.4

In the picture of Fig. 2 we can see that a person is running outside the door, and an arrow is also
there in the picture, to get the idea in which direction the person should go. The picture overall is
interpreted for the exit system. If this picture is placed besides a wall, then one can easily
interpret the idea that he/ she would find exit door while going to down direction, maybe in
downstairs. This picture shows both icon and index. The arrow (index) is used here to pointing
out the direction.

Another example of indexing is given in Fig 5. We can easily interpret by looking at the arrow
sign that the car parking and riding should be done from the left direction. The picture
incorporates both Iconic and linguistic parts. Upper (ideal) section represents the Iconic part and
lower (real) section represents the Linguistic part here. And the images (icons) clearly show that
the picture was captured in a gas station. Indexicality makes it meaningful in which it is placed in
the world.
Fig. 5

In Fig. 3 we can see a symbol “g”. Symbols can be arbitrary or conventional signs that do not
resemble their meaning and do not point to it. Chinese language and many other languages use
different symbols to get a meaningful meaning.

Indexicality is not only found in signs and symbols, it can be incorporated in language and
utterance also. To locate a potential meaning of an utterance, the gesture of the speaker is
important. Even a gesture does not always tell us what the language is indexing. It is totally
dependent on the context of the utterance, how, why, when a speaker utters any word in which
environment. The main systems of indexicality are demonstratives, deictic adverbials, personal
pronouns and tense.

 Demonstrative pronouns: This, That, These, Those

 Deictic Adverbs: Here, There, Now, Then
 Personal Pronouns: I, You, We
 Tense: Present, Past and Future

Indexicality works as a lived, real time process by which we can incorporate any signs to any
meaning making system. Though indexicality may vary from culture to culture, language to
language every indexical items can be defined through their spatial, sociopolitical and temporal
relationships within the specific language.