Specific language signals represent specific meanings; the associations are ‘relatively fixed’. An example is how a single object is represented by different language signals i.e. words in different languages. In French, the word sel represents a white, crystalline substance consisting of sodium and chlorine atoms. Yet in English, this same substance is represented by the word salt.
Likewise, the crying of babies may, depending on circumstance, convey to its parent that it requires milk, rest or a change of clothes.