Sign typology

1
Sign typology
2

• The basis of all these tripartitions is Peirce¹s
  distinction of three fundamental categories. For
  Peirce, categories are not, as for Aristotle,
  "modes of proposition," but phenomenological
  modes. The three categories designate all
  possible modes something may appear to us. Thus,
  they are absolutely basic for Peirce¹s
  epistemology and his semiotics as well. To avoid
  misunderstandings, Peirce names his categories
  simply "Firstness," "Secondness," and
  "Thirdness." Something may appear to us either as
  a "First," a "Second," or a "Third," there is no
  other possibility ...
• From Michael H.G. Hoffmann. The 1903
  Classification of Triadic Sign-Relations.
  http//www.digitalpeirce.fee.unicamp.br/hoffmann/p
  -sighof.htm

3

• Each of this three elements of a sign relation
  "is mediated through the others the ability of
  the sign to represent also requires, inherently,
  its power to be interpreted as a sign of that
  object in some respect the ability of the sign
  to be interpreted can only work if it is
  interpreted as representing an object in some
  respect and it can only be understood as
  representing an object in some respect if it is
  interpreted as representing an object as such."
• From Michael H.G. Hoffmann. The 1903
  Classification of Triadic Sign-Relations.
  http//www.digitalpeirce.fee.unicamp.br/hoffmann/p
  -sighof.htm

4
Representamen

• "A sign, or 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 a sort of idea,
  which I have sometimes called the ground of the
  representamen. "Idea" is here to be understood in
  a sort of Platonic sense, very familiar in
  everyday talk I mean in that sense in which we
  say that one man catches another man's idea, in
  which we say that when a man recalls what he was
  thinking of at some previous time, he recalls the
  same idea, and in which when a man continues to
  think anything, say for a tenth of a second, in
  so far as the thought continues to agree with
  itself during that time, that is to have a like
  content, it is the same idea, and is not at each
  instant of the interval a new idea." (A Fragment,
  CP 2.228, c. 1897)
• Terms Used in Peirce's Semiotics.
  http//pages.prodigy.net/lofting/semiterms.htm

5
Object

• "By an object, I mean anything that we can think,
  i.e. anything we can talk about." (Peirce.
  Reflections on Real and Unreal Objects, MS 966,
  not dated)
• A sign must be determined to correspond,
  according to some principle, and by some species
  of causation, with something else, called its
  Object. In a word, whether physically,
  rationally, or otherwise directly or indirectly,
  its Object, as agent, acts upon the sign, as
  patient." ('The Basis of Pragmaticism', MS 283,
  1905)
• Terms Used in Peirce's Semiotics.
  http//pages.prodigy.net/lofting/semiterms.htm

6
Interpretant

• "I define a Sign as anything which is so
  determined by something else, called its Object,
  and so determines an effect upon a person, which
  effect I call its Interpretant, that the latter
  is thereby mediately determined by the former. My
  insertion of "upon a person" is a sop to
  Cerberus, because I despair of making my own
  broader conception understood." (A Letter to Lady
  Welby, SS 80-81, 1908)
• "A sign, or 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." (A Fragment, CP 2.228, c. 1897)
• Terms Used in Peirce's Semiotics.
  http//pages.prodigy.net/lofting/semiterms.htm

7
Peircean typology of the signs

• Problems with Peirce http//jameselkins.com/Texts
  /Peirce.pdf

8
Other version of the table

• Sign relation. Contemporary discussion.
  http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sign_relation
  Deledalle, Gérard (2000), C.S. Peirce's
  Philosophy of Signs, Indiana Univesity Press.

9

• From Michael H.G. Hoffmann. The 1903
  Classification of Triadic Sign-Relations.
  http//www.digitalpeirce.fee.unicamp.br/hoffmann/p
  -sighof.htm

10
Qualisign, sinsign, legisign

• Peirce"As it is in itself, a sign is either of
  the nature of an appearance, when I call it a
  qualisign or secondly, it is an individual
  object or event, when I call it a sinsign (the
  syllable sin being the first sillable sic of
  semel, simul, singular, etc) or thirdly, it is
  of the nature of a general type, when I call it a
  legisign." (A Letter to Lady Welby, SS 32, 1904)
• Terms Used in Peirce's Semiotics.
  http//pages.prodigy.net/lofting/semiterms.htm

11
Difference between token (sinsign) and type

• token (sinsign)
• A particular instance of a word or sign, as
  opposed to the abstract kind or type it
  exemplifies. Thus, for example, the preceding
  sentence is 18 words long (token), but contains
  only 16 words (type), since "a" and "or" are each
  used twice.
• Difference between token and type
• Token concrete utterance of a sign, localized
  in space and time
• Type the sign itself, of which the token is an
  occurrence
• Boys will be boys 2 tokens of one type

12
Rheme, dicent, argument

• Peirce"In regard to its relation to its
  signified interpretant, a sign is either a Rheme,
  a Dicent, or an Argument. This corresponds to the
  old division Term, Proposition, Argument,
  modified so as to be applicable to signs
  generally. --- A rheme is any sign that is not
  true nor false, like almost any single word
  except 'yes' and 'no', which are almost peculiar
  to modern languages. --- A rheme is defined as
  a sign which is represented in its signified
  interpretant as if it were a character or mark
  (or as being so)." (A Letter to Lady Welby, SS
  33-34,1904)
• Terms Used in Peirce's Semiotics.
  http//pages.prodigy.net/lofting/semiterms.htm

13
Icon, index, symbol

• Peirce"... I had observed that the most
  frequently useful division of signs is by
  trichotomy into firstly Likenesses, or, as I
  prefer to say, Icons, which serve to represent
  their objects only in so far as they resemble
  them in themselves secondly, Indices, which
  represent their objects independently of any
  resemblance to them, only by virtue of real
  connections with them, and thirdly Symbols, which
  represent their objects, independently alike of
  any resemblance or any real connection, because
  dispositions or factitious habits of their
  interpreters insure their being so
  understood.('A Sketch of Logical Critics', EP
  2460-461, 1909)
• Terms Used in Peirce's Semiotics.
  http//pages.prodigy.net/lofting/semiterms.htm

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Sign / typology
Icon is a sign which is linked to its object by
qualitative characteristics Index denotes its
object by being physically linked to it, or
affected by it Symbols has no qualitative or
physical link to its object and defined by social
convention most words are symbols
15
Sign typology
Object denoted THE QUEEN
Object denoted A TREE
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Iconic Sign

• An iconic sign is a sign where the representamen
  relates to the object through resemblance.
• A sign is iconic when it actually looks like the
  object in question.
• Iconic signs involve the most direct relationship
  between representamen and object.
• This image represents the actual person Rilla,
  through a photographic image of her.

Rilla
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Iconic sign, example a document

• In the user-interface, iconic signs directly
  represent objects.
• The document icon represents the documents
  through resemblance to actual documents.

Document
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Indexical Sign

• An indexical sign occurs when the representamen
  relates to the object through causation.
• Indexical signs are less literal than iconic
  signs, but are still related in a real way to the
  object.
• A weathervane represents the direction of the
  wind through the wind causing it to point a
  certain way.

Southeast Wind
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Symbolic Sign

• A symbolic sign occurs when the relationship
  between the representamen and the object is
  conventional and arbitrary.
• Symbolic signs are the least direct in their
  connection between representamen and object.
• The image represents no smoking through a
  symbol people associate with that concept.

No Smoking
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Difference between symbol and index

• Symbol a sign represents symbolically when it
  is conventionally associated with the thing it
  represents
• Index a sign represents indexically when its
  tokens are existentially associated with the
  thing represented, e.g. tears are an index of
  distress

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Ten types

• Among the mathematically possible 27 triadic
  combinations only 10, however, can really occur,
  as Peirce says. The reason for that results from
  combining the following points (Cf. Lieb 1977 
  lt1953gt, p.161 Liszka, p.45)
• If you consider the sign relation under the
  aspect of determination, this means that a sign
  will generally be determined, as we have seen, by
  an object, while itself determines its
  interpretant. This is to say that an interpretant
  will always be determined firstly by the kind of 
  sign itself (S) and, secondly, by the kind of the
  object relation (OR).
• Peirce assumes that a First can only determine a
  First, and that a Third can only be determined by
  a Third. This means that if the sign itself (S)
  is a First, the object relation (OR) represented
  and the interpretant determined can only be a
  First as well. If the sign (S), against that, is
  a Second or a Third, there is a corresponding
  increase in possibilities of categorically
  determined sign aspects with regard to the other
  relata.
• This results in a list of 10 possible types or
  classes of sign relations
• From Michael H.G. Hoffmann. The 1903
  Classification of Triadic Sign-Relations.
  http//www.digitalpeirce.fee.unicamp.br/hoffmann/p
  -sighof.htm

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Table Ten types (out of 27)

• Problems with Peirce http//jameselkins.com/Texts
  /Peirce.pdf

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9 and 10 sign types

• Floyd Merrell. Peirce's Basic Classes of Signs in
  a Somewhat Different Vein. http//www.digitalpeir
  ce.fee.unicamp.br/floyd/p-peiflo.htm

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10 sign types presented in 3-dimensional space

• From Michael H.G. Hoffmann. The 1903
  Classification of Triadic Sign-Relations.
  http//www.digitalpeirce.fee.unicamp.br/hoffmann/p
  -sighof.htm

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Links

• Michael H.G. Hoffmann. The 1903 Classification of
  Triadic Sign-Relations. http//www.digitalpeirce.f
  ee.unicamp.br/hoffmann/p-sighof.htm
• Terms Used in Peirce's Semiotics.
  http//pages.prodigy.net/lofting/semiterms.htm
• Triadism and the Universal Categories. In
  Charles Sanders Peirce http//plato.stanford.edu/e
  ntries/peirce/
• Charles S. Peirce. On a New List of Categories.
  Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and
  Sciences 7 (1868), 287-298. http//www.peirce.org/
  writings/p32.html
• Charles S. Peirce. What Is a Sign?
  http//www.ukzn.ac.za/undphil/collier/308/Peirce/W
  hat20Is20a20Sign_.pdf
• Problems with Peirce http//jameselkins.com/Texts
  /Peirce.pdf. Note you are reading an excerpt
  from James Elkins, Visual Culture A Skeptical
  Reader (work in progress). Revised October 12,
  2001.
• Floyd Merrell. Peirce's Basic Classes of Signs in
  a Somewhat Different Vein. http//www.digitalpeir
  ce.fee.unicamp.br/floyd/p-peiflo.htm
• ANNE FREADMAN "The Classification of Signs (I)
  1867-1885"http//www.digitalpeirce.fee.unicamp.br
  /p-186fre.htmIn Digital Encyclopedia of Charles
  S. Peirce , ed. João Queiros, São Paulo
  (PUC)http//www.digitalpeirce.fee.unicamp.br/
  "The Classification of Signs (II)
  1903"http//www.digitalpeirce.fee.unicamp.br/p-19
  0fre.htmIn Digital Encyclopedia of Charles S.
  Peirce , ed. João Queiros, São Paulo
  (PUC)http//www.digitalpeirce.fee.unicamp.br/
• Digital Encyclopedia of Charles S. Peirce.
  http//www.digitalpeirce.fee.unicamp.br/home.htm

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Written assignment (hardcopy)

• Analyze the text by
• Michael H.G. Hoffmann. The 1903 Classification of
  Triadic Sign-Relations. http//www.digitalpeirce.f
  ee.unicamp.br/hoffmann/p-sighof.htm
• and formulate your own opinion on the topic sign
  classification
• Due next week

27
Peircean paradox

• An icon is a sign, 3 (thirdness), but it is
  firstness as well.