Charles Peirce’s Triadic Model of Signs

A guide to analysing signs, including definitions of representamen, mental concept and object.

Introduction

Writing in 1906 for The Monist, one of the world’s oldest journals in philosophy, Charles Peirce described how “three things are concerned in the functioning of a sign: the Sign itself, its Object, and its Interpretant”. The cooperation between these three subjects has become known as the triadic model. The following diagram tries to demonstrate how the elements are connected:

Peirce called the physical form of the sign the representamen. The sign represents its object, or meaning, and this might evoke some sort of mental concept, the interpretant.

Or the viewer might have to interpret the sign before the subject matter becomes clear. Or the sign could be determined by the object which leads to the mental concept. Or we have an idea in our heads and then we search for the right sign to perform an action.

Confused? You are not alone.

The reason this model is often depicted as a triangle is because you can start the sign action at any corner. Hopefully, the various examples in this guide should help to clarify the concept.

Peirce’s Sign Theory in Action

Consider this everyday scenario: you have finished your crucial assignment for media studies, saved the work in the documents folder and now you want to switch off your laptop – the interpretant. You move your cursor to power icon and press it to shut down the computer – the object.

For this process, we started the sign action at the interpretant – the mental concept of shutting down your laptop. Then we had to find the correct representamen and achieve the desired outcome by hitting the button.

Traffic Lights

The triadic model of signs might seem more daunting than Ferdinand de Saussure’s system or Roland Barthes’ signification process, but the analysis of some straightforward examples should give us a good working understanding of Peirce’s theory.

For instance, each time you see a red light at a traffic stop, the representamen (physical form of the sign), you know it is not safe to continue and you must stop your car.

This important interpretation of the danger ahead is the interpretant (the mental concept produced by the representamen).

You then apply the brakes, the intended object (meaning of the sign).

Road Sign

The object of this road sign is to warn drivers there is a school or playground nearby and they need to slow down and be prepared for young children crossing the road. The representamen consists of a red colour code used to signify danger and a pictogram of two children walking together.

The combination of these two elements is designed to create the mental concept of being extra cautious because the children might be excited or distracted and not realise your car approaching.

Making Signs

Imagine you wanted to create a sign which informed students in school that there was no entry allowed down a particular corridor. The object is to stop people walking that way. So you design a red poster with an appropriate icon, the representamen, to call attention to the rule. Your audience will understand its general meaning, the interpretant, and then come to the conclusion that they are not permitted to go down the corridor, the object you wanted to communicate.

Remember, the triangular representation of this model is quite effective because you could start at any corner of the process to develop a new sign or action.

Representamen and Interpretant

The word representamen comes from the Latin repraesentāmen, which meant to display or perform.

Interpretant is also derived from a Latin word, interpretārī, which is defined as to explain, translate or interpret.

While they both refer to communicating ideas, there is a subtle difference in terms of those thoughts being sent and received. For example, the traffic signs are displayed along the road and drivers have to interpret each one. This awareness of deixis (direction) might help to clarify the relationship between the two parts in the sign action.

Even if you are using other theories to study a media text, the words display and perform are a great way to describe the physical form of the sign or the signification process.

The Interpretant and Roses

Interestingly, Peirce suggested we only need to use to certain aspects of the signifier to convey the appropriate message. By ignoring the other parts, meaning is created.

A good example is the signifier of roses creating a mental concept of love and romance when presented as tokens of affection on Valentine’s Day. But look at the following image. What are the actual elements that signify the intended meaning of love:

Peirce would argue the green leaves and prickly thorns are irrelevant and should be ignored. By focusing on the beauty of the red petals, the preferred reading of a romantic gesture is decoded by the audience.

This rationalisation and simplifying of the signifier adds the interpretant stage to the sign action. Put simply, we need to select the relevant aspects of the signifier in order for the interpretation to make sense.

IKEA Advertisement

One of the best ways to develop your knowledge and understanding of Peirce’s triadic model of communication is to apply it to media texts. The first one we are going to explore is IKEA’s “The Wonderful Everyday” campaign.

IKEA is the largest furniture retailer in the world with over two billion customers each year walking through its doors and shopping online. The company began running this campaign at the start of 2014 with tremendous success, targeting the audience with television slots, billboards, experiential marketing and magazine inserts.

The preferred reading of these advertisements is simple: buy the products and improve the quality of your home and your life. It is a bold message, so it is important to analyse how the producers achieve that mental concept.

Charles Peirce conceived a three-stage approach to understanding how signs communicate ideas: the representamen, or physical form of the signifier, the interpretant and the mental concept produced by the signifier, and then the object, which is the intended purpose of the sign.

This triadic model of communication recognises the importance of the individual’s interpretation and understanding of the sign before reaching a conclusion about its intention. Therefore, some of the audience will accept the message while others might take an oppositional reading.

The advertisement features the representamen of “wonderful” furniture, such as the sofa, chair, table, bookcase, and rug. Obviously, the producers want to make the consumer aware of the products available in the superstore.

We could ignore some of the decorations and personal affects in the room because Peirce argued we should focus on the important parts which signal the meaning. In other words, we only need to acknowledge some aspects of the image to understand its purpose.

However, the dominant signifier of the grandmother and granddaughter flicking through a photograph album encodes a lifestyle which will appeal to the target audience. Make your house a home full of love and memories.

The combination of all the elements creates the interpretant of a cosy and loving living room. This mental concept is anchored by the tagline “The Wonderful Everyday”.

The object of the advertisement is to make the audience buy into IKEA’s aspirational vision of homelife.

Sign Categories

Charles Peirce also analysed the relationship between the representamen and the mental concept. He developed his ideas over several decades of letters and publications, but his most accessible model is the division of signs into three categories:

1. Icon – there is a physical resemblance between the representamen and the mental concept.
2. Symbol – the relationship between the representamen and mental concept is arbitrary
3. Index – the relationship between the two parts of the sign action is logical or factual.

You can find out more about the relationships in our guide to Peirce’s classification of signs which looks at the theory or our more practical application of the three categories.