Peirce characterized the icon as ‘a sign which stands for something’ merely because it resembles it, as partaking in the characters of object, or a sign whose qualities resemble those of that object, and excite analogous sensations in the mind for which it is a likeness (Noth, 1990:122).
Peirce’s examples of icons are portraits, paintings, photographs, diagrams, logical graphs, and even algebraic formulas. The icon signifies essentially on the basis of its "ground." Ground is another word for object in Peirce’s theory of semiotics. Peirce classified icon into three parts, as follows: \
1) Icon typology
It is based on the spatial sameness of the object and its sign. The description of the spatial sameness refers to profile or the line of the text.
2) Icon diagrammatic
It is based on relational sameness, which is the relation between textual element and referred elements. The use of icon diagrammatic gives us possibility to find out the meanings inside the text, not only in the literary text.
3) Icon metaphor
The characteristic of this icon is there is not the sameness between the sign and its object. But between two objects, these two objects refer to the same sign. Icon metaphor appears not only in metaphysic ballad or ballad based on human existence. Icon metaphor appears also in the smaller elements of the text.
The differences of these three icons are not absolute. It is only about accentuation. To see the differences, it appears in the description which shows its existence (Sudjiman and Zoest, 1996:23). In the description, we used the terms which included in spatiality meaning area and it was used as the existence of icon typology. If icon appeared in relational area, so that the term icon diagrammatic was used. If the description showed the existence of metaphor elements, so that there would be icon metaphor.
The first thing which has to be considered is the signs function and it does not appear and sometimes we don’t realize it. Text iconicity can have the form of an image, a diagram, or a metaphor. Visual poetry, depicting its objects in the form of typography, and onomatopoeic poems are examples of texts functioning as images. Thus, the poet mostly uses it in making concrete or visual poetry.
The icon appeared when the reader realized that a semiotic non-conventional symptom is seen and not the icon which has been exist. We made interpretation about the metaphor symptom in a word after watching that there is violation to the rule of diction.
The discovery of icon signs is done through the same way: when someone knows that the signs are exist, the signs would be found out. Thus, the reader has an important role in finding out those signs through his or her creative sensitivity. Those semiotic terms which given by Peirce have contributed great benefit especially in analyzing semiotic signs in literature field.
Sources:
Noth, Winfried. 1990. The Handbook of Semitocs. USA: Indiana University Press.
Sudjiman, Panuti and Aart van Zoest. 1996. Serba-Serbi Semiotika. Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka Utama.
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