Interpreting signs – Charles Sanders Peirce

We are surrounded by numerous types of signs and sign systems that we may not be fully aware of. How we interpret these signs and react to our understanding of them gives them meaning.
Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) formulated the innovative triadic model of the sign, emphasizing in his theory that the way we interpret a ‘sign’ is what allows it to be signified – what gives it its meaning. Therefore, when creating a sign system the main attributes of any sign need to be clear enough to relay their intended meaning, or else they will be valueless.

What are signs?

Peirce’s theory does not focus on just material or concrete signs, but any kind of sign. For example, if a bus driver announces that the next stop is Central Station and a passenger rings the bell, lighting up the ‘stop’ sign  – then the sign system here has been understood.

  • The message contained  in the driver’s announcement is the sign that he will drive straight past that terminal if no one responds. His announcement represents Peirce’s ‘representamen’ or Saussure’s ‘signifier.’ How the passengers interpret and then react is the ‘interpretant’ or ‘signified’, or sense made of the sign.
  • If the driver stops or carries on, that is the referent, the object of the sign. A passenger rings the bell and the stop sign lights up – the driver’s ‘sign’ has been understood.
  • The driver interprets the sound of the bell as representing a sign informing him he must stop. The other passengers on the bus understand this, too, from the sound of the bell and the lighted sign. Both represent that the bus will stop – the object of the sign.

Peirce’s Three Sign Modes

We are surrounded by an infinite number of signs. Peirce understood this and offered many different principles for how to categorize them according to their three triadic elements:  representamen, object and intrepretant.
He proposed that signs could be classified according to the qualities, facts, laws and conventions associated with the objects. This way of tabulating signs led to ten different sign types.
By examining the relationship between objects, interpretants, and representamens and, in particular, the way the referent determines the sign, Peirce also distinguished three main ‘modes’  into which signs can be assigned: symbol, icon and index.
Find out more about signs and their meanings and Peirce's three main modes by reading,  "Charles Sanders Peirce’s Semiotics – The Triadic Model",  an article I wrote for Decoded Science.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Slang, Swearing and Death in The Catcher in the Rye

Image
Salinger's protagonist,  Holden Caulfield reveals his innermost thoughts through a stream of consciousness awash with slang, swearing, and references to death. Societal pressures intensely disturb the anti-hero of   The Catcher in the Rye , causing him to reject and pervert expected social conventions. Although Holden constantly engages himself in conversation, he equally explicitly demonstrates his dislike of dialogue and instead prefers to express himself through the medium of writing, a form of communication that creates a distance between himself and the reader but brings him closer to his older brother D.B., who is a writer. Holden Caulfield’s use of slang Through his writing, Holden discovers a vehicle for self-expression; however, the surface structure of his narration projects simple language, “lousy vocabulary” (8), and consistent vulgarities. Yet, with repeated occurrences of key words or groups of key words, a technique of this kind serves to symbolise a
Read more

Peirce’s Triadic Model – Interpreting Signs

Image
A sign or  a symbol? Image by Lesley Lanir  When Ferdinand de Saussure was formulating his two part ‘dyadic’ model of the sign, consisting of a ‘signifier, or  the form that a sign takes, and the ‘signified,’ or concept  it represents, American, Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) was theorizing his own model of semiotics and signs. In contrast to Saussure’s model, Peirce formulated a three-part triadic model consisting of an interpretant,  representamen, and an object. Symbols according to Peirce. Diagram Lesley Lanir By examining the relationship between objects, interpretants, and representamens and, in particular, the way the referent determines the sign, Peirce also distinguished three main ‘modes’  into which signs can be assigned: symbol, icon and index. Example of  an iconic sign. Image by Lesley Lanir Iconic signs according to Peirce. Diagram Lesley Lanir Example of an indexical sign. Image by Lesley Lanir Indexical signs according to Peirce
Read more