14
culminates, though this product or content may itself be an act, a state of agitation, a conduct, etc.
c.
An object: to which the sign refers.
31
An object or semiotic object is a subject matter of a sign and an interpretant. It can be anything
discussable or thinkable, a thing, event, relationship, quality, law, argument, etc., and can even be fictional, for instance Hamlet. All of
those are special or partial objects. The object most accurately is the universe of discourse to which the partial or special object belongs. For
instance, a perturbation of Plutos orbit is a sign about Pluto but ultimately not only about Pluto.
Thus: A sign … [in the form of a representamen] is something which stands
to somebody for something in some respect or capacity,. It addresses somebody, that is, creates in the mind of that person an equivalent
sign, or perhaps a more developed sign. That sign which it creates I call the interpretant of the first sign. The sign stands for something. Its
object. It stands for that object, not in all respects, but in reference to sort of idea, which I have sometimes called the ground of the
representamen. Pierce 1931 – 58, 2.228.
Sign Interpretant
Object
2. Classes of Sign
The three aspects or elements of sign, 1 the sign itself, 2 the sign in relation to its object, 3 the sign in relation to its interpretant stand in a special
relationship to one another that is logically a three-place triadic relation. The
31
Ibid
15
three aspects of the triad – the sign-aspect Qualisign, Sinsign, Legising, the object-aspect Icon, Index, Symbol, the interpretant-aspect Rheme, Dicisign,
Argument can each be divided into three further elements.
32
a.
Qualisign, Sinsign, Legisign.
The sign-aspect divides into: • The Qualisign: characterizes the sensory quality of a sign, its intrinsic
visible appearance e.g. “green”. Also called tone, potisign, and mark is a sign which consists in a quality of feeling, a possibility.
• The Sinsign: by contrast, its individual reality e.g. a particular road sign in a particular street. Also called token and actisign is a sign
which consists in a reactionresistance, an actual singular thing, an actual occurrence or fact.
• The legisign: the general type of a sign e.g. the word “tree”. Also called type and famisign is a sign which consists in a general idea, a
norm or law or habit, a representational relation.
b. Icon, Index, Symbol.
The object-aspect divides into: • An Icon: a sign that share a resemblance with its real or fiction object
e.g. a picture, a diagram.
33
Another reference said that an Icon is a sign which refers to the object that is denotes merely by virtue of
characters of its own, and which it possesses, just the same, whether
32
Die Welt Als Zeichen 1987, op.cit. p.5
33
Ibid
16
any such object actually exist or not.
34
Icon Iconic: a mode in which the signifier is perceived as resembling or imitating the signified
recognizably looking, sounding, feeling, tasting or smelling like it – being similar in possessing some of its qualities: e.g. a portrait, a
cartoon, a scale mode, onomatopoeia, metaphors, ‘realistic’ sounds in ‘programme music’, sound effects in radio drama, a dubbed film
soundtrack, imitative gestures.
35
• An Index: is a sign which refers to the object that it denotes by virtue of being really affected by that object. It cannot, therefore, be a
qualisign, because qualities are whatever they are independently of anything else.
36
Index indexical is a mode in which the signifier is not arbitrary but is directly connected in some way physically or causally
to the signified – this link can be observed or inferred : e.g. ‘natural sign’ smoke, thunder, footprints, echoes, non-synthetic odours and
flavours, medical symptoms pain, a rash, pulse-rate, measuring instruments weathercock, thermometer, clock, spirit-level, ‘signals’
a knock on a door, a phone ringing, pointers a pointing ‘index’ finger, a directional signpost, recordings a photograph, a film, video
or television shot, an audio-recorded voice, personal ‘trademarks’ handwriting, catchphrase and indexical words ‘that’, ‘this’, ‘here’,
‘there’.
37
Another reference said that an Index is a sign that relates to
34
Robert E. Innis, Semiotics, An Introductory Anthology, United States: Indiana University Press, 1985, p. 8
35
Daniel Chandler 2002, op.cit. p. 37
36
Robert E. Innis 1985, loc.cit.
37
Daniel Chandler 2002, loc.cit.
17
its object not as a copy but in some real way, as a pointer or marker, e.g. a signpost, a weathercock, an arrow or the symptom of a disease.
38
• A symbol: is a sign which refers to the object that it denotes by virtue of a law, usually an association of general ideas, which operates to
cause the Symbol to be interpreted as referring to that Object.
39
Symbol symbolic is a mode in which the signified but which is fundamentally
arbitrary or purely conventional – so that the relationship must be learned: e.g. language in general plus specific languages, alphabetical
letters, punctuation marks, words, phrases and sentences, numbers, Morse code, traffic lights, national flags.
40
Another reference said that a Symbol is a sign that is determined by its object only in the sense that
it is interpreted as being such, and is thus totally independent of similarity or physical connection to its object, e.g. a flag.
41
c. Rheme, Dicisign, Argument
The interpretant-aspect divides into: • Rheme: is a sign which, for its Interpretant, is a Sign of qualitative
Possibility, that is, is understood as representing such a kind of possible onject.
42
Another book said that a Rheme is any sign that is neither true nor false, e.g. individual words.
43
• Dicisign: is a sign, which, for its Interpretant, is a Sign of actual existence. It cannot, therefore, be an Icon, which affords no ground for
38
Die Welt Als Zeichen 1987, op.cit. p.5 - 6
39
Robert E. Innis 1985, loc.cit.
40
Daniel Chandler 2002, op.cit. p. 36 - 37
41
Die Welt Als Zeichen 1987, op.cit. p. 6
42
Robert E. Innis 1985, op.cit. p. 9
43
Die Welt Als Zeichen 1987, loc.cit.
18
an interpretation of it as referring to actual existence. A discisign necessarily involves, as a part of it, a Rheme, to describe the fact
which it is interpreted as indicating.
44
A dicent is a sign that capable of being translated into a proposition.
45
• Argument: is a sign which, for its Interpretant, is a Sign of law. Or we may say that a Rheme is a sign which is understood to represent its
object in its characters merely; that a decisign is a sign which is understood to represent its object in respect to actual existence; and
that an Argument is a Sign which is understood to represent its Object in its character as Sign.
46
An argument is a sign whose rational necessity must be acknowledged.
47
3. Ten Classes of Signs
