The etymology of the word object suggests that an object is:
- that is always against something else (to object)
- that which opposes one thing to another.
The equivalent of the word object in German is Gegenstand which, again, means to oppose.
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While Ferdinand de Saussure’s object is dyadic (double-defined sign – a relation between Signifier and Signified), Charles Peirce proposes a triadic model. According to Peirce, every correctly marked sign has one object. What is more, this object should be perceived in a manner that the object itself could be leading the semiosis (the production of signs).
Consequentially, Saussure believed that language is a self-sufficient system of formal differences, that indicates something free-flowing. On the other hand, the Peircian concept of semiosis is indicating something easily visible in an objective world.
While in the Saussurian Semiology the connection between language and reality is completely removed or at the very least blurred, in the Peircian Semeiotics the relation between the signs is founded on rationality.
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