Definition of "signifying"

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor playerthat struts and frets his hour upon the stageand then is heard no more: it is a taletold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,signifying nothing.

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene v]

For the sake of convenience, we may call these pointings or signifyings the secondary phase of meaning.

1939, Coleman Roberts Griffith, Psychology Applied to Teaching and Learning