The Trichotomy of Signs and Liushu of Chinese Characters
符号“三分说”与汉字“六书”

Peircean semiotics is based on his three philosophical categories: Firstness,Secondness and Thirdness. The corresponding icon-index-symbol distinction emerges in the Peircean theory of signs which are interdependent with predominance of one over the others. Natural language is symbols in nature. In the light of the Peircean trichotomy of signs,Liushu of Chinese characters can be divided into three categories: Xiangxing (pictographs) with the salient property of likeness of the objects belonging to the icon ...