Editing Ideogram (section)

=== Pure signs ===
{{Further|Symbol|Sign (semiotics)}}
Many ideograms only represent ideas by convention. For example, a red octagon only carries the meaning of 'stop' due to the public association and [[Reification (linguistics)|reification]] of that meaning over time. In the field of [[semiotics]], these are a type of pure ''[[sign (semiotics)|sign]]'', a term which also includes symbols using non-graphical media. Modern analysis of Chinese characters reveals that pure signs are as old as the system itself, with prominent examples including the numerals representing numbers larger than four, including {{angbr|{{zhi|c=五}}}} 'five', and {{angbr|{{zhi|c=八}}}} 'eight'. These do not indicate anything about the quantities they represent visually or phonetically, only conventionally.