Peirce's Pansemiotic View of the Universe

❖ In the history of modern semiotics, Peirce is the major figure of its

philosophical branch, which first developed rather independently of
the linguistic branch represented by the Saussurean and
Hjelmslevian tradition. In contrast to this linguistic branch,
Peirce's semiotics aims at epistemological and even metaphysical
universality.
❖ The point of departure of Peirce's theory of signs is the axiom that
cognition, thought, and even man are semiotic in their essence.
 Peirce's Pansemiotic View of the Universe

❖ "The entire universe is perfused with signs, if it is not composed

exclusively of signs".
❖ "It has never been in my power to study anything, mathematics,
ethics, metaphysics, gravitation, thermodynamics, optics, chemistry,
comparative anatomy, astronomy, psychology, phonetics, economics,
the history of science, whist, men and women, wine, metrology,
except as a study of semeiotic".
Peirce’s aim: typology/classification of signs.
Peirce’s aim: typology/classification of signs.
Peirce’s Universal Category of Signs:
Firstness, Secondness, Thirdness
❖ Firstness
➢ Firstness is the mode of being of that which is such as it is,
positively and independence/without reference to anything else.
❖ Secondness
➢ Secondness involves the relation of a first to a second. It is the
category of comparison, facticity, action, reality, and
experience in time and space.
❖ Thirdness
➢ Thirdness brings a second in relation to a third. It is the category of
mediation, habit, memory, continuity, synthesis,
communication (semiosis), representation, and signs.
Firstness Independence of anything else quality

Secondness In relation to something else fact

Thirdness In domains of rules and laws law

 Peirce's Definition of Sign

❖ A sign, or representamen, is something which stands to somebody for

something in some respect or capacity.
❖ Peirce defined the sign in terms of a triadic process, called semiosis,
consisting of a "triple connection of sign (representamen/sign
vehicle), thing signified (object), cognition produced in the mind
(interpretant)".
 Semiosis Process

interpretant

sign

representamen object
 Semiosis Process

interpretant
❖ Representamen is the
“perceptible object” functioning
as a sign.
❖ Object is that which the sign
sign
represents.
❖ Interpretant is Peirce's term for
representamen object the meaning of a sign.
 Immediate & Dynamic Object

❖ The immediate object is the "Object within the Sign". It is thus a

mental representation of an object, whether this object actually
"exists" or not.
❖ The mediate, real, or dynamical object is the "Object outside of the
Sign". It is "the Reality which by some means contrives to determine the
Sign to its Representation" or that "which, from the nature of things,
the Sign cannot express, which it can only indicate and leave the
interpreter to find out by collateral experience".
 The Three Interpretants

❖ The first category is the immediate interpretant. It is "the Quality of the Impression
that a sign is fit to produce, not any actual reaction" (§ 8.315). In accordance with his
definition of firstness, Peirce defined the immediate interpretant as a semantic
potentiality.
❖ The second category is the dynamical interpretant. It is the "direct effect actually
produced by a Sign upon an Interpreter of it, [ . . .] that which is experienced in each act
of Interpretation and is different in each from that of any other.
❖ The third category, the final interpretant, is associated with the third category of habit
and law. "It is that which would finally be decided to be the true interpretation if
consideration of the matter were carried so far that an ultimate opinion were reached"
 interpretant

“I should stop
my car.”

representamen sign
object

“Cars must
stop here.”
 interpretant

sign
representamen object
 Unlimited Semiosis

❖ Peirce gave a pragmatic account of the nature of meaning when he

defined the interpretant as "the proper significate outcome" or "effect of
the sign".
❖ In accordance with his theory of thought being a sign and his view of
interpretation as a process of semiosis, Peirce also defined the
interpretant as a sign.
❖ Since every sign creates an interpretant which in turn is the
representamen of a second sign, semiosis results in a "series of
successive interpretants" ad infinitum.
 Unlimited Semiosis
I/R

I/R O

I/R O

R O
Peirce’s Triadic & Saussure’s Dyadic Model of Signs
Peirce's view of semiosis integrates all
the components of semiotics:
Pragmatics (the domain of the interpretant) is
inseparable from semantics (the domain of the
object) and from syntax (the domain
of the representamen).
Peirce's Classification of Signs

Peirce developed an elaborate typology of signs,

beginning with a triadic classification of the sign
(firstness, secondness, thirdness) correlates
representamen, object, and interpretant
into three trichotomies.
 interpretant

Firstness Independence of anything else

Secondness In relation to something else

sign
Thirdness In domains of rules and laws

representamen object
 Trichotomy Representamen Object Interpretant

Categories

Firstness Qualisign Icon Rheme

Secondness Sinsign Index Dicent

Thirdness Legisign Symbol Argument

 First Trichotomy (Representamen)

❖ Qualisigns (firstness), is a quality which is a Sign.

❖ Sinsigns (secondness), an actual existent thing or event.
❖ Legisigns (thirdness), is a law that is a Sign. Every conventional sign
is a legisign. It is not a single object, but a general type which, it has
been agreed, shall be significant.
Example:

Every word of a language is a legisign. But in an

individual utterance, the word is also a sinsign. The
qualities which made an embodiment of the word is
qualisign, such as sound and tone.
 Representa
Categories men

Firstness Qualisign ❖ Sifat kemerahan, sifat keputihan, bentuk

(quality) persegi panjang, gradasi gelap terang,
elemen organis memanjang, tulisan
Coca-cola dalam bentuk script/kaligrafis;
❖ Teks “new long can” berkarakter
geometris, weight teks “long”;
❖ Elemen organis, sifat keputihan

Secondness Sinsign ❖ Kaleng minuman Coca-cola;

(fact) ❖ Siluet jerapah;
❖ Teks “new long can” dengan typeface
geometris dan efek bold pada teks “long”.

Thirdness Legisign ❖ Bentuk leher jerapah menandakan

(law) proporsi yang tinggi;
❖ Penekanan pada teks “long”
menandakan kesan penting;
❖ Logo dan kaleng Coca-cola menandakan
produk kaleng Coca-cola yang beredar di
pasar.
Categories Representamen

Firstness Qualisign ❖ Sifat kegelapan, kehitaman dan keunguan, karakter ketajaman, elemen
(quality) kesegitigaan, kedinamisan yang mengarah ke sudut kiri bawah, elemen organis
kekuning-jinggaan;
❖ Sifat organis, sifat keputihan, sifat kemerahan, kedinamisan yang mengarah ke
sudut kanan atas;
❖ Sifat kegelapan, elemen garis yang mengulir dan bertumpang tindih

Secondness Sinsign ❖ Naga yang menyemburkan api;

(fact) ❖ Sarang/kastil Naga dengan latar pohon-pohon;
❖ Ksatria berjubah merah berkuda putih bergerak menuju kastil Naga

Thirdness Legisign ❖ Karakter berwarna gelap dan berbentuk tajam menandakan karakter
(law) jahat/antagonis;
❖ Karakter berwarna putih menandakan kesan baik/protagonis, berjubah merah
menandakan ksatria pemberani;
❖ Pohon-pohon mati menandakan keseraman, asap menandakan misteri
 Second Trichotomy (Object)

❖ This trichotomy classifies signs with respect to the relation between

the representamen and object.
❖ The three members of this trichotomy are icon (firstness), index
(secondness), and symbol (thirdness).
Icon (firstness)

❖ The reference between a sign and its object is iconic if the sign
resembles the object.
❖ An icon may have as its representamen a qualisign, a sinsign or legisign.
❖ For example, the feeling (qualisign) produced by playing a piece of music
is the icon of that piece of music. Someone's portrait (sinsign) is the icon
of that person, and a model (sinsign) is the icon of a building.
❖ A drawing of a glass (sinsign) is the icon of a glass, but if it is placed on a
crate, then it belongs to the pictogram code and becomes a replica of the
legisign signifying 'fragile' through iconic portrayal of a species (a glass)
that is part of a genera (fragile objects).
Index (secondness)

❖ The reference between a sign and its object is indexical if the sign really is
affected by the object.
❖ For example, the position of a weathervane is caused by the direction of the wind;
it is the index of the wind direction. A knock on the door is the index of a visit. The
symptom of an illness is the index of that illness.
❖ An index cannot have a qualisign as its representamen, because there is only
"sameness" in firstness, and no contextual contiguity; therefore, a qualisign is
always iconic (refer to the hierarchy of categories below). An index may have as its
representamen a sinsign, as in the examples above, or a legisign, as in certain
words known as "indexical" words ("this", "that", "I", "here").
Symbol (thirdness)

❖ A sign is a symbol when it refers to its object by virtue of a law.

❖ Passwords, tickets to a show, banknotes, and the words of a language are symbols.
The symbolic rule may have been formulated a priori by convention, or a posteriori
by cultural habit.
❖ A symbol's representamen is necessarily a legisign, but the legisign cannot really
act until it is embodied in a replica, and from that point on, the symbol implies an
index. For example, in the traffic code, the red light in the abstract is a symbolic
legisign, but each one of its replicas is an indexical sinsign.
 Representa
Categories men - Object

Firstness Icon ❖ Foto Jared Leto merupakan penanda

(quality) ikonik dari Manusia bernama Jared Leto

Secondness Index ❖ Gedung pencakar langit dengan setting

(fact) malam merupakan penanda indexical
dari kehidupan metropolitan
❖ Dasi yang tidak rapi merupakan penanda
indexical dari kegiatan sesudah berkerja

Thirdness Symbol ❖ Jared Leto sebagai penanda simbol dari

(law) karakter aneh, liar, maskulin, kreatif, unik
❖ Logo HUGO BOSS sebagai penanda
simbol dari brand HUGO BOSS
 Third Trichotomy (Interpretant)

❖ According to the nature of the interpretant, a sign is either

a rheme, a dicent, or an argument.
❖ This trichotomy corresponds to the old division [of logic],
Term, Proposition, and Argument, modified so as to be
applicable to signs generally.
 Third Trichotomy (Interpretant)

❖ According to the nature of the interpretant, a sign is either

a rheme, a dicent, or an argument.
❖ This trichotomy corresponds to the old division [of logic],
Term, Proposition, and Argument, modified so as to be
applicable to signs generally.
Rheme (firstness)

❖ A rheme is any sign that is not true nor false, like almost any single word
except 'yes' and 'no'.
❖ A rheme is a "simple or substitutive sign" . It is a sign of qualitative possibility
representing such and such a kind of possible Object.
❖ For instance, a person's portrait, with no other indications, represents a whole
class of possible objects: the people who look like the portrait. This is a rhematic
iconic sinsign. But if the portrait is considered in a context where it is accompanied
by something indicating the person's name, for example on a passport, then the
level of interpretation changes: now we are dealing with secondness (a dicent
indexical sinsign). The hierarchy of categories (see below) produces six classes of
rhematic signs.
Dicent (secondness)

❖ A dicent (or dicisign) is a sign of actual existence. Like a proposition, it is an

"informational sign", but it "does not assert".
❖ For example, a person's portrait with an indication of his/her name is a dicent
indexical sinsign. The interpretant of this sign would be the proposition that "the
person shown in this picture is Mr. So-and-So". Later we will see that by virtue of
the hierarchy of categories, there are three classes of dicent signs.
❖ A dicent is true or false, in contrast to a rheme, which represents a possibility and
has no truth value. But a dicisign does not furnish reasons for being true or false,
in contrast to an argument, which arrives at a conclusion by following a rational
process.
Argument (thirdness)

❖ An argument is a sign of law, namely, the law that the passage from all such
premises to such conclusions tends to the truth. While a dicent only
affirms the existence of an object, the argument proves its truth.
❖ An argument always has a legisign as its representamen and a symbol as its object.
However, three kinds of arguments may be distinguished depending on the nature
of the rule that binds the representamen to its object. The rule may be:
➢ (1) imposed on the facts (deduction: "Every time there is a red light, there is
an order to stop"
➢ (2) a result of the facts (induction: "Wherever there is smoke, there is fire")
➢ (3) the argument may consist of formulating a rule in the form of a
hypothesis that would explain a fact (abduction).
Argument (thirdness)

❖ Peirce gives this example of abduction: Imagine that upon entering a room, I
see a table with a handful of white beans on it, and next to it, a bag of beans. I
observe that this bag contains only white beans. I then formulate the hypothesis
that the beans on the table came from this bag.
❖ Abduction is an argument that appeals to firstness in order to formulate the
rule (it is a hypothesis, and therefore a possible rule), whereas induction is based
on secondness (the rule follows from repeated observation of actual, contingent
facts), and deduction falls exclusively under thirdness (as a rule, it justifies
itself).
 Trichotomy Representamen Object Interpretant

Categories

Firstness Qualisign Icon Rheme

Secondness Sinsign Index Dicent

Thirdness Legisign Symbol Argument

 Trichotomy Represent Object Interpretant
Categories amen

Firstness quality Qualisign Greenness, Icon Portrait Rheme A random

etc. photo person’s
portrait
photo

Secondness fact Sinsign Individual Index Footprints Dicent A wanted

pen criminal’s
photo
posted on
police office

Thirdness law Legisign Pen as sign Symbol Dove, Argument A need to

of writing language report to
tools, police if see
language a criminal
posted in
the police
office,
hypothesis
 Ten Principal Classes of Sign

❖ Since every sign is determined by its three correlates, and there are three ways in
which every correlate may be characterized, there are theoretically 33 = 27
possible classes of signs.
❖ However, some of the possible combinations are semiotically impossible. For
example, a qualisign can be only iconic and rhematic, a sinsign cannot be a symbol,
and an index cannot be an argument.
❖ Such restrictions reduce the number of valid combinations to the following ten
principal classes of signs. The semiotically superfluous (presupposed)
characterizations are placed in parentheses:
No. ROI examples

1) 111 rhematic iconic qualisign a general vague of hurt; a feeling of red

a model; an individual diagram

2) 211 rhematic iconic sinsign

3) 221 rhematic indexical sinsign an involuntary shout; a spontaneous cry

a weathervane.
4) 222 dicent indexical sinsign

onomatopoeia: "cock-a-doodle-doo"; a diagram, apart

5) 311 rhematic iconic legisign
from its factual individuality

6) 321 rhematic indexical legisign an indexical word: "that"; "a demonstrative pronoun

7) 322 dicent indexical legisign a red light in context; a street cry; commands

8) 331 rhematic symbolic legisign a common noun: "apple"; a common noun

9) 332 dicent symbolic legisign: a proposition "it's cold in here"; an ordinary proposition

1. abduction: "It's cold in here" interpreted as a

request to close the window.
2. induction: "Where there is smoke there is fire".
10) 333 argument symbolic legisign
3. deduction: the red light of the traffic code in the
abstract.
4. a syllogism
the end.