Changes

The distinction between signs denoting and objects denoted is critical to the discussion of Peirce's  theory of signs.  Wherever needed in the rest of this article, therefore, in order to mark this distinction a little more emphatically than usual, double quotation marks placed around a given sign, for example, a string of zero or more characters, will be used to create a new sign that denotes the given sign as its object.

The distinction between signs denoting and objects denoted is critical to the discussion of Peirce's  theory of signs.  Wherever needed in the rest of this article, therefore, in order to mark this distinction a little more emphatically than usual, double quotation marks placed around a given sign, for example, a string of zero or more characters, will be used to create a new sign that denotes the given sign as its object.

===Theory of signs, or semiotic===

===Semeiotic : Peirce's theory of signs===

Peirce referred to his general study of signs, based on the concept of a [[triadic relation|triadic]] [[sign relation]], as ''[[semiotic]]'' or ''[[semeiotic]]'', either of which terms are currently used in either singular of plural form.  Peirce began writing on semeiotic in the 1860s, around the time that he devised his system of three categories.  He eventually defined ''[[semiosis]]'' as an "action, or influence, which is, or involves, a cooperation of ''three'' subjects, such as a sign, its object, and its interpretant, this tri-relative influence not being in any way resolvable into actions between pairs".  (Houser 1998: 411, written 1907).  This triadic relation grounds the semeiotic.

Peirce referred to his general study of signs, based on the concept of a [[triadic relation|triadic]] [[sign relation]], as ''[[semeiotic]]'' or ''[[semiotic]]'', either of which terms are currently used in both singular of plural forms.  Peirce began writing on semeiotic in the 1860s, around the time that he devised his system of three categories.  He eventually defined ''[[semiosis]]'' as an "action, or influence, which is, or involves, a cooperation of ''three'' subjects, such as a sign, its object, and its interpretant, this tri-relative influence not being in any way resolvable into actions between pairs".  (Houser 1998: 411, written 1907).  This triadic relation grounds the semeiotic.

In order to understand what a ''[[sign (semiotics)|sign]]'' is we need to understand what a ''[[sign relation]]'' is, for signhood is a way of being in relation, not a way of being in itself.  In order to understand what a sign relation is we need to understand what a ''[[triadic relation]]'' is, for the role of a sign is constituted as one among three, where roles in general are distinct even when the things that fill them are not.  In order to understand what a triadic relation is we need to understand what a ''[[relation (mathematics)|relation]]'' is, and here there are traditionally two ways of understanding what a relation is, both of which are necessary if not sufficient to complete understanding, namely, the way of ''[[extension (semantics)|extension]]'' and the way of ''[[intension]]''.  To these traditional approximations, Peirce adds a third way, the way of ''[[semiotic information theory|information]]'', that integrates the other two approaches in a unified whole.

In order to understand what a ''sign'' is we need to understand what a ''[[sign relation]]'' is, for signhood is a way of being in relation, not a way of being in itself.  In order to understand what a sign relation is we need to understand what a ''[[triadic relation]]'' is, for the role of a sign is constituted as one among three, where roles in general are distinct even when the things that fill them are not.  In order to understand what a triadic relation is we need to understand what a ''[[relation (mathematics)|relation]]'' is, and here there are traditionally two ways of understanding what a relation is, both of which are necessary if not sufficient to complete understanding, namely, the way of ''[[extension (semantics)|extension]]'' and the way of ''[[intension]]''.  To these traditional approximations, Peirce adds a third way, the way of ''[[semiotic information theory|information]]'', that integrates the other two approaches in a unified whole.

====Sign relations====

====Sign relations====