Semiotics – Units

1. Core Unit

• Sign – The basic unit of semiotics.
  • Definition: Anything that stands for something else to someone in some context.
  • Saussurean Model:
  • Signifier – the form (sound, word, image, gesture).
  • Signified – the concept or meaning it represents.
  • Peircean Model:
  • Representamen – the form of the sign.
  • Object – what it refers to.
  • Interpretant – the meaning produced in the mind of the interpreter.

2. Types of Signs (Peirce)

• Icon – resembles the thing it represents (photograph of a cat).
• Index – directly connected to its object (smoke → fire).
• Symbol – meaning is learned/conventional (word "tree").

3. Smaller Meaning Units

• Sememe – smallest unit of meaning in semiotics (conceptual meaning).
• Seme – minimal semantic feature (+human, +female).

4. Larger Structures

• Code – a system of signs with rules (traffic lights, Morse code, language grammar).
• Text – a structured set of signs that forms a coherent message.
• Discourse – a connected series of texts within a social context.

5. Example

Road sign 🚫🚗

• Signifier: red circle with slash over a car.
  
• Signified: “No vehicles allowed.”
  

• Type: Symbol (agreed convention).

• Representamen: 🚫🚗 (red circle with a slash over a car)

• Object: “No vehicles allowed” regulation.

• Interpretant: The observer understands they must not drive a vehicle in that area.

Representamen is What

Object is What means to,

Interpretant is what mean by

Peircean Model of the Sign

Philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce described a sign as a triadic relationship between:

1. Representamen

   • The form of the sign (the “sign vehicle”).
     
   • What we perceive: word, sound, image, gesture, symbol, etc.
     
   • Example: the printed word "cat", the spoken sound /kæt/, or a picture of a cat.

2. Object

   • What the sign refers to — the thing, concept, or rule in the real or imagined world.
     
   • Can be split into:
     • Immediate Object – how the object is represented in the sign.
       
     • Dynamical Object – the actual thing in reality or imagination.
   • Example: the actual animal (cat) or the concept of "cat" as a real entity.

3. Interpretant

   • The meaning or understanding produced in the mind of the interpreter.
     
   • Not the person, but the mental effect of the sign.
     
   • Example: the idea “small furry mammal that meows.”

• Representamen → What it is
  
• Object → What it means to (what the sign points to)
  
• Interpretant → What it means by (meaning in the observer’s mind)

Example

Sign: 🚫🚗 (red circle with slash over a car)

• Representamen: the visual symbol of a red circle with a slash over a car.
  
• Object: the regulation “No vehicles allowed.”
  
• Interpretant: “I should not drive here.”

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Peircean Formula:

Sign = Representamen + Object + Interpretant

Peircean Formula (Quick Memory):

Sign = (What it is) + (What it means to) + (What it means by)

Sign = (Red circle with slash over car)

+ (Traffic rule: No vehicles allowed)

+ (I should not drive here)