symbols and semiosis

The word symbolism might be a bit value-laden, as there is a sort of mystical connotation to the word (as I was hinting in a jokey way with the 'dream-symbolism' comment). Perhaps it is more helpful to talk about the construction of meaning (which is what you are talking about), and the way in which meaning changes depending on context. The notion of semiosis (Saussure and Roland Barthes) - where something (a word, object, image ... a text) functions as a sign works for me. There is of course no indexical one-to-one relationship between the sign and the signified, and in fact unlimited semiosis can occur (the paddle as sign signifies many other things, which in turn are signs pointing to other signifieds in a continuous exponential multiplication) the sign can stand for an infinite number of signifieds depending on the context in which it occurs - and of course this can be multimodal, shifting between the verbal, written, visual, performative .... So the paddle can mean anything and everything. The difficulty the museum might have is that they want it to have a single, static meaning so that they can attach a label to it.

I'm sorry to hear you have an alergy to cake Steve.