The Commens Dictionary

Quote from ‘Pragmatism’

The immediate object is the object as the sign represents it: the real object is that same object as it is, in its own mode of being, independent of the sign or any other representation. [—] Every sign must plainly have an immediate object, however indefinite, in order to be a sign. In conversation, it will often be expressed, not in words, but by the environment of the interlocutors. [—] The immediate object resembles the emotional meaning in being common to all signs and also in being subjective.