Interpretant
Encyclopedia
An interpretant, in semiotics
, is the effect of a sign
on someone who reads or comprehends it. The concept of "interpretant" is part of Charles Sanders Peirce's "triadic" theory of the sign. For Peirce, the interpretant is an element that allows taking a representamen for the sign of an object, and is also the "effect" of the process of semeiosis or signification.
Peirce delineates three types of interpretants: the immediate, the dynamical, and the final or normal.
Semiotics
Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
, is the effect of a sign
Sign (semiotics)
A sign is understood as a discrete unit of meaning in semiotics. It is defined as "something that stands for something, to someone in some capacity" It includes words, images, gestures, scents, tastes, textures, sounds – essentially all of the ways in which information can be...
on someone who reads or comprehends it. The concept of "interpretant" is part of Charles Sanders Peirce's "triadic" theory of the sign. For Peirce, the interpretant is an element that allows taking a representamen for the sign of an object, and is also the "effect" of the process of semeiosis or signification.
Peirce delineates three types of interpretants: the immediate, the dynamical, and the final or normal.
Immediate Interpretant
"The Immediate Interpretant consists in the Quality of the Impression that a sign is fit to produce, not to any actual reaction." (Letter to William James, CP 8.315, 1909)Dynamical Interpretant
"[The] Dynamical Interpretant consists in direct effect actually produced by a Sign upon an Interpreter of it. [---] [The] Dynamical Interpretant is that which is experienced in each act of Interpretation and is different in each from that of the other... [it] is a single actual event." (Letter to Lady Welby, SS 110-1, 1909)Final or Normal Interpretant
"[The] Final Interpretant is [...] the effect the Sign would produce in any mind upon which the circumstances should permit it to work out its full effect. [---] ...[It] is the one Interpretative result to which every Interpreter is destined to come if the Sign is sufficiently considered. [---] The Final Interpretant is that toward which the actual tends." (Letter to Lady Welby, SS 110-1, 1909)See also
- Charles Sanders Peirce
- Charles Sanders Peirce bibliographyCharles Sanders Peirce bibliographyThis Charles Sanders Peirce bibliography consolidates numerous references to Charles Sanders Peirce's writings, including letters, manuscripts, publications, and Nachlass...
- SemiosisSemiosisSemiosis is any form of activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, including the production of meaning. Briefly – semiosis is sign process...
- SemioticsSemioticsSemiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
- SignSign (semiotics)A sign is understood as a discrete unit of meaning in semiotics. It is defined as "something that stands for something, to someone in some capacity" It includes words, images, gestures, scents, tastes, textures, sounds – essentially all of the ways in which information can be...
- Sign relationSign relationA sign relation is the basic construct in the theory of signs, also known as semeiotic or semiotics, as developed by Charles Sanders Peirce.-Anthesis:...
- Triadic relationTriadic relationIn mathematics, a ternary relation or triadic relation is a finitary relation in which the number of places in the relation is three. Ternary relations may also be referred to as 3-adic, 3-ary, 3-dimensional, or 3-place....