Representamen is a term proposed by Charles S. Peirce to denote a sign in the broadest sense of the word (CP 2.274).
Peirce proposed this term because he believed that the English word “sign”, like most, if not all, of its equivalents in English and other languages, were too close to the mentalist understanding of the sign.
According to this understanding, the interpretant of the sign is something mental (for example, a concept).
Contrary to this understanding, Peirce suggested that the interpretants of some signs were not mental (for example, the plant that turned to the sun).
