What Is an Ideogram Definition and Examples

An ideogram is a graphic  picture or  symbol (such as or %) that represents a thing or an idea without expressing the sounds that form its name. Also called ideograph. The use of ideograms is called ideography. Some ideograms says Enn Otts, are  comprehensible only by prior knowledge of their convention; others convey their meaning through pictorial resemblance to a physical object, and therefore may also be described as pictograms, or pictographs (Decoding Theoryspeak,  2011). Ideograms are used in some writing systems, such as Chinese and Japanese.   EtymologyFrom the Greek, idea written Examples and Observations â€Å"[T]he picture [of a finger pointing] is an ideogram; it does not represent a sequence of sounds, but rather a concept that can be expressed in English in various ways: go that way or in this direction or over there or, combined with words or other ideograms, such notions as the stairs are to the right or pick up your luggage at that place. Ideograms are not necessarily pictures of objects; the arithmetic minus sign is an ideogram that depicts not an object but a concept that can be translated as minus or subtract the following from the preceding or negative.(C. M. Millward and Mary Hayes, A Biography of the English Language, 3rd ed. Wadsworth, 2012)The X IdeogramAs a modern ideogram, the diagonal  cross has a wide spectrum of meanings from confrontation, annulment, cancellation, over opposing forces, hindrances, obstruction, to unknown, undecided, unsettled.Here are a number of examples of the specific meanings of X in different systems: a crossbreed between different specie s, varieties or races (in botany and biology), takes (chess), printing error (printing), I/We cannot continue (ground-to-air emergency code), unknown number or multiply  (mathematics), unknown person (Mr. X), and road obstruction (military).The diagonal cross is sometimes used as a symbol for Christ, whose name in Greek begins with the Greek letter X. It also stands for the number 1,000 in ancient Greece, and even represented Chronos, the god of time, the planet Saturn and the god Saturn in Roman mythology.(Carl G. Liungman,  Thought Signs: The Semiotics of Symbols—Western Non-Pictorial Ideograms. IOS Press, 1995)Pictograms and IdeogramsThe difference between pictograms and ideograms is not always clear. Ideograms tend to be less direct representations, and one may have to learn what a particular ideogram means. Pictograms tend to be more literal. For example, the no parking symbol consisting of a black letter P inside a red circle with a slanting red line through it is a n ideogram. It represents the idea of no parking abstractly. A no parking symbol showing an automobile being towed away is more literal, more like a pictogram.(Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams, An Introduction to Language, 9th ed. Wadsworth, 2011)The Rebus PrincipleWhen an ideographic system proves too cumbersome and unwieldy, the rebus principle might be employed for greater efficiency. The rebus principle is an important element in the development of many modern-day writing systems because it is the link to representing the spoken language. Unlike pure ideograms, rebus symbols rely on how a language sounds and are specific to a particular language. For example, if English used the symbol [graphic of an eye] for eye, that would be considered an ideogram. But if English also began to use it to represent the pronoun I or the affirmative aye, that would be an example of the rebus principle in action. In order to understand that [graphic of an eye] could mean the pronoun or the affirmative, one must also know English. You could not use that symbol to conjure up the comparable words in Spanish, for example. So, when you read 2 good 2 B 4 gotten, it is your knowledge of both English and the rebus principle that allows you to assign meaning to it.(Anita K. Barry, Linguistic Perspectives on Language and Education. Greenwood, 2002) Pronunciation: ID-eh-o-gram