Qualisign is a Portmanteau word (also called a blend – a word that results from blending two or more words, or parts of words) – from the words quality and sign. Qualisign is a type of sign or a sign function in which the quality serves as a sign vehicle.
According to Peirce signs could be examined:
- in regards of themselves – meaning, as a sign vehicles
- in regards to their objects and
- in regards to their interpretant
In his understanding of signs in regards to their sign vehicles, Charles Peirce divides the trichotomy:
Peirce‘s understanding when it comes to signs in regards to their object, once again, divides them in a trichotomy. Namely:
And when defining the signs in regards to their interpretant, Peirce creates another trichotomy:
The sign vehicle can be the quality in which case it is a qualisign. But also it can be an individual object, or an event, which makes it an individual sign (sinsign), and, of course, the sign vehicle could also be a rule, a habit or Universalis, which will make it a legisign.
