Hugo, List,
These six tyes of sign action remind me of some model have seen before, was it by Gary Fuhrman? Or by Gary Richmond? It is a model of sign triads sticking together, and three arrows in a row going around in different ways, leading also to different types of sign action. Maybe it is compatible with your nodel, but I have not found it now in "Turning Signs", can somebody tell us where to find it, and what I mean at all?
Kind regards
Helmut
Gesendet: Sonntag, 15. Juni 2025 um 11:15
Von: "Hugo F. Alrøe" <[email protected]>
Betreff: [PEIRCE-L] Types of sign action
List, Cécile
The paper on the six types of sign action that I mentioned on the list a little while ago has now been published online in Semiotica. The paper is open access, and I have included a link and the abstract below.
As I write in the paper, I am thankful for inspiration from Peirce-L over the years and in particular for the spiral-shaped drawing of the triadic sign in semiosis provided by Cécile Cosculluela in the thread “Graphical Representations of the Sign by Peirce,” January 2024, which inspired my depiction of a "mediating representation" in the paper.
All the best,
Hugo
Alrøe, Hugo F. (2025) The six types of sign action. Semiotica. https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2024-0112
Abstract
The Peircean doctrine of signs is incomplete. This paper rethinks the standard model of sign action to provide a common framework for analyzing all the different kinds of semiotic processes, including the workings of thinking creatures, sentient beings, single cell organisms, social systems, and sciences. Through a detailed theoretical analysis, the paper shows how we can separate mediation (featuring the steps: source, mediator, and outcome) from representation (featuring the conventional sign correlates: object, sign, and interpretant) in Peircean semiotics and combine the two to establish a general model of sign action. This leads to the fundamental and, in a Peircean context, somewhat controversial ideas that there are not two but three dynamical sign correlates and, notably, that there is not one direction of mediation in the sign triad, but six directions, which constitute six fundamental types of sign action: perceiving, acting, interpreting, expressing, sensing, and reacting. The sixfold model of sign action is a step toward a general theory of semiosis, it promises to reconcile the split in biosemiotics, and it provides a coherent semiotic foundation for a general theory of observation in science. Chiefly, it offers a workable framework for semiotics.
The paper on the six types of sign action that I mentioned on the list a little while ago has now been published online in Semiotica. The paper is open access, and I have included a link and the abstract below.
As I write in the paper, I am thankful for inspiration from Peirce-L over the years and in particular for the spiral-shaped drawing of the triadic sign in semiosis provided by Cécile Cosculluela in the thread “Graphical Representations of the Sign by Peirce,” January 2024, which inspired my depiction of a "mediating representation" in the paper.
All the best,
Hugo
Alrøe, Hugo F. (2025) The six types of sign action. Semiotica. https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2024-0112
Abstract
The Peircean doctrine of signs is incomplete. This paper rethinks the standard model of sign action to provide a common framework for analyzing all the different kinds of semiotic processes, including the workings of thinking creatures, sentient beings, single cell organisms, social systems, and sciences. Through a detailed theoretical analysis, the paper shows how we can separate mediation (featuring the steps: source, mediator, and outcome) from representation (featuring the conventional sign correlates: object, sign, and interpretant) in Peircean semiotics and combine the two to establish a general model of sign action. This leads to the fundamental and, in a Peircean context, somewhat controversial ideas that there are not two but three dynamical sign correlates and, notably, that there is not one direction of mediation in the sign triad, but six directions, which constitute six fundamental types of sign action: perceiving, acting, interpreting, expressing, sensing, and reacting. The sixfold model of sign action is a step toward a general theory of semiosis, it promises to reconcile the split in biosemiotics, and it provides a coherent semiotic foundation for a general theory of observation in science. Chiefly, it offers a workable framework for semiotics.
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