One of the most concise and clear representations of the relation between object, concept and term or sign is the so called Semiotic triangle, proposed first by the American linguists Ogden and Richards in 1923.
The elements of the semiotic triangle can be defined as follows:
- Object: "any part of the perceivable or conceivable world." [ISO 1087] Objects can be material (e.g. a certain house, Tower Bridge) or immaterial (speed, pain, freedom, process). [cf: DIN 2330, p. 3]
- Concept: "A unit of thought constituted through abstraction on the basis of properties common to a set of objects. The semantic content of a concept can be re-expressed by a combination of other and different concepts, which may vary from one language or culture to another". [ISO 5963:1985]
- Term: "Designation of a defined concept in a special language by a linguistic expression." [ISO 1087]