different between representative vs representamen

English

Etymology

From Old French representatif.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???p???z?nt(?t)?v/
• Hyphenation: rep?re?sen?ta?tive

Adjective

representative (comparative more representative, superlative most representative)

1. Typical; having the same properties or interest as a larger group.
   • c. 1977, Carl Parker (attributed quote)

     If you took all the fools out of the legislature, it wouldn't be a representative body anymore.

2. Representing, showing a likeness.

Translations

Noun

representative (plural representatives)

1. A delegate.
   1. Someone who represents others as a member of a legislative or governing body. [from 17th c.]

   2. (generally) One who speaks for or acts on behalf of another in a particular (especially official) capacity. [from 17th c.]

   3. (law) An heir. [from 17th c.]
      • 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, I.1:

        This pathetic remonstrance had the desired effect upon his representative, who spared no pains to fulfill the request of the deceased […] .

   4. (US, politics) Specifically, a member of the US House of Representatives. [from 18th c.]

   5. A company agent who visits potential purchasers; a salesman. [from 20th c.]
2. Something standing for something else.
   1. Something representing or standing for another; a symbol, an embodiment. [from 17th c.]
   2. Something (especially a living organism]] regarded as typical of its class; a type. [from 17th c.]
   3. A substitute or analogue. [from 17th c.]

Synonyms

• rep
• See also Thesaurus:deputy

Derived terms

• legal representative

Related terms

• House of Representatives
• represent
• representative body
• Member of Parliament

Translations

Further reading

• "representative" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 266.

Norwegian Bokmål

Adjective

representative

1. inflection of representativ:
   1. definite singular
   2. plural

Norwegian Nynorsk

Adjective

representative

1. inflection of representativ:
   1. definite singular
   2. plural

English

Etymology

From Latin repraesentamen

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???p.??.z?n.?te?.m?n/
• enPR: r?p'-r?-z?n-t??-m?n
• Rhymes: -e?m?n

Noun

representamen (plural representamens or representamina)

1. (semiotics) A representation; a thing serving to represent something.
   • 1861, Sir William Hamilton, The Metaphysics of Sir William Hamilton (page 318)

     The Leibnitzio-Wolfians distinguish three acts in the process of representative cognition: — 1° the act of representing a (mediate) object to the mind; 2° the representation, or, to speak more properly, representamen, itself as an (immediate or vicarious) object exhibited to the mind; 3° the act by which the mind is conscious, immediately of the representative object, and, through it, mediately of the remote object represented.

   • circa 1897: Charles Sanders Peirce [aut.] and Justus Buchler [ed.], Philosophical Writings of Peirce, chapter 7: “Logic as Semiotic: The Theory of Signs”, § 1: “What is a Sign? Three Divisions of Logic”, page 99 (from a circa 1897 manuscript (CP 2.227–9), first published in the 1940 selection The Philosophy of Peirce: Selected Writings, and later reprinted sic in 1955 by Dover Publications, Inc., New York; ?ISBN, 9780486202174)

     A sign, or representamen, is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity.

Quotations

• "I confine the word representation to the operation of a sign or its relation to the object for the interpreter of the representation. The concrete subject that represents I call a sign or a representamen." — C. S. Peirce, Lowell Lectures 1903, Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, v. 1, paragraph 540. Eprint.
• "Possibly there may be Representamens that are not Signs." — C. S. Peirce, "A Syllabus of Certain Topics of Logic", 1903, the Essential Peirce v. 2, pp. 272-3. Eprint.
• "It is the science of what is quasi-necessarily true of the representamina of any scientific intelligence in order that they may hold good of any object, that is, may be true." — C. S. Peirce, Collected Papers v. 2, paragraph 229. Eprint.
• Four instances of "representamina" used by John Deely, Four Ages of Understanding (2001, U of Toronto Press), p. 726, Google Books limited preview Eprint

Related terms

• represent
• representable
• representant
• representation
• representative

See also

• sign

References

• representamen in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.