An iconic sign is a term used by Charles Peirce to denote a specific type of sign or sign function in which the sign vehicle represents its object through resemblance or likeness.
The map, for example, is an iconic sign because it represents an area or terrain, through a perceptible morphism, the configurations on the leaf resemble the configurations of the area (the curving line resembles a meandering river, the network of lines – street branches, etc.).
The Persian definition of the iconic sign is part of the complex classification of signs. Here it is enough to know that the iconic sign is part of the triad, which also includes index signs and symbolic signs.
Peirce considers this triad (trichotomy) to be “the most basic division of signs” (CP 2.275), in any case, one of his most influential discoveries about semiotic doctrine. The basis for this trichotomy is the relationship between the sign and its object.
(The foundations of the other two trichotomies are, on the one hand, the nature of the sign itself and, on the other, the relation of the sign to its interpretant).
If the sign is connected to its object by a resemblance to that object, it is iconic.
If it refers to its object through some physical or actual connections (for example, the wind vane, which moves by the wind and thus indicates its direction), it is an index (indexical sign).
If the sign is connected to its object by some habits or predispositions, innate or acquired, it is a symbol.
The recognition of iconic signs in the sense of Peirce affects the importance of the phenomenon of relativity in Ferdinand de Saussure and the thinkers influenced by him.
Even Umberto Eco – a thinker who relied heavily on Peirce‘s doctrine of signs – considered himself obliged to offer his critique of iconism (1976, 191).
