Peirce held that there are exactly three basic semiotic elements, the sign, object, and interpretant, as outlined above and fleshed out here in a bit more detail: A sign (or representamen) represents, in the broadest possible sense of "represents".
It is something interpretable as saying something about something.
The process of semiosis involves a triadic relationship between a sign or representamen (a first), an object (a second) and an interpretant (a third).
The representamen is a thing that represents another thing: its object.
Before it is interpreted, the representamen is a pure potentiality: a first.
This way of tabulating signs led to ten different sign types.
By examining the relationship between objects, interpretants, and representamens and, in particular, the way the referent determines the sign, Peirce also distinguished three main 'modes' into which signs can be assigned: symbol, icon and index.