4.2—
Markers, Signifiers, Counters

I propose to use three existing words in new and technical ways in order to supply the necessary sortal terms. I propose to use the word 'marker' to replace the term 'symbol' in its broadest sense, the usage that can be applied to letters and numerals and carries no syntactic or semantic connotations. There are marker types (e.g., the letter P ) and marker tokens (a particular inscription of the letter P ). Marker types such as letter types and numeral types are a particular class of conventionally established types. And so an object is a marker token just insofar as it is a token of such a conventional type . Sometimes markers are used in such a fashion that they carry semantic values. The complex marker type 'dog', for example, has a conventional interpretation in English, but does not have one in French. Insofar as an object is a marker that carries a semantic value, it will be called a signifier . Finally, markers can be employed in symbol games in such a fashion that they have syntactic properties. The lower-case letters, for example, take on no syntactic properties when they are used on an eyechart, but take on one set of syntactic properties when used as proposition letters in the propositional calculus, and take on a different set of syntactic properties when used as variable letters in the predicate calculus. The syntactic rules of a symbol game serve to partition the markers employed in that game according to the syntactic positions they can occupy. These syntactic types will be called counter types, and a marker will be said to be a counter just insofar as it takes on syntactic properties within a symbol game .

These three sortal terms—'marker', 'signifier', and 'counter'—will play a significant role in the discussion of the nature of symbols and symbolic representation that is to follow. Although this book does not undertake to develop a thoroughgoing semiotics, it will prove helpful to undertake a brief discussion of each of these three terms.