在皮尔斯的符号三分法中,规约符是最为复杂的符号,其最为普遍的代表是语言符号。然而,在语言符号之上建立的文化符号,以及在语言符号之下的自然符号,都可以被视为规约符,因为规约符的建立基础,即习惯,是一个连续发展、跨越了自然和语言文化的概念。规约符的这种连续性,是符号连续论思想的重要体现,对当代符号学研究影响深远。
In C. S. Pierce's classification of signs, symbols are the most advanced and developed signs, with the foundations laid on habit, a concept crossing the borders of nature and culture. Symbols, therefore, include nature signs, languages, and cultural signs and turn out to be an embodiment of semiotic synechism, which is the most important model for contemporary semiotics and of great significance in the future development of semiotic studies.