The açaí signboard as an informational mediator: a semiotic analysis in light of Peirce’s trichotomy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5007/1518-2924.2026.e108797Keywords:
Semiotics, Information mediation, Amazonian culture, Sign, Açaí signboardAbstract
Objective: To analyze the açaí signboard as an informational mediating sign in the Amazonian context of Pará, seeking to understand how an everyday visual artifact articulates sensory, cultural, and communicational dimensions, establishing itself as a mediator in the circulation of meanings.
Method: The research is characterized as qualitative and documentary, of a narrative-interpretative nature, grounded in semiotic analysis based on Peircean theory. The empirical corpus consisted of five photographic records of açaí signboards located in different areas of Belém, examined according to Peirce’s three trichotomies (qualisign–sinsign–legisign; icon–index–symbol; rheme–dicent–argument). The investigation integrated documentary description, narrative interpretation, and semiotic analysis.
Results: It was observed that the açaí signboard transcends its commercial function and manifests as an informational sign imbued with social meanings. The predominant red functions as a sensory qualisign and an icon of the fruit; its physical presence constitutes the sinsign and the index of the offer; and its recurrence consolidates the legisign and the cultural symbol that standardizes the collective reading of the sign. The interpretive path, from rheme to argument, demonstrates an informational process that begins with sensory perception and culminates in a socially stabilized convention.
Conclusions: It was found that the açaí signboard expresses an informational mediation rooted in local culture, in which the sign operates as a link between experience, fact, and law, articulating the aesthetic, pragmatic, and symbolic dimensions of Amazonian daily life. The study demonstrated that Peircean semiotics constitutes a consistent theoretical-methodological tool for Information Science, as it enables understanding information as a relational, situated, and culturally mediated phenomenon, expanding the analytical field beyond formal institutions.
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