Peirce’s Triadic Model – Interpreting Signs
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