Enum Modality 

pub enum Modality {
    Iconic,
    Symbolic,
    Hybrid,
}

The semiotic modality of a signal source.

This captures a fundamental distinction in how meaning is encoded:

• Iconic: Physical resemblance (photos, audio waveforms)
• Symbolic: Arbitrary convention (text, notation)
• Indexical: Causal connection (smoke → fire, but rare in our domain)

Why This Matters

The modality affects what linguistic features are relevant:

Feature	Iconic (Vision)	Symbolic (Text)
Negation	No analogue	“not a doctor”
Quantification	Approximate	“every/some/no”
Recursion	Rare	Nested NPs
Compositionality	Limited	Full

Detection in iconic modalities is more about geometry and physics. Detection in symbolic modalities requires cultural/linguistic knowledge.

Variants

Iconic

Iconic sign: signifier resembles signified (images, audio). Detection is primarily geometric/physical.

Symbolic

Symbolic sign: arbitrary convention (text, notation). Detection requires linguistic/cultural knowledge.

Hybrid

Hybrid: OCR text in images, captions, etc. Has both iconic (visual layout) and symbolic (text content) aspects.

Trait Implementations

impl Clone for Modality

fn clone(&self) -> Modality

Returns a duplicate of the value.

fn clone_from(&mut self, source: &Self)

Performs copy-assignment from source.

impl Debug for Modality

fn fmt(&self, f: &mut Formatter<'_>) -> Result<(), Error>

Formats the value using the given formatter.

impl Default for Modality

fn default() -> Modality

Returns the “default value” for a type.

impl<'de> Deserialize<'de> for Modality

fn deserialize<__D>( __deserializer: __D, ) -> Result<Modality, <__D as Deserializer<'de>>::Error>

where __D: Deserializer<'de>,

Deserialize this value from the given Serde deserializer.

impl Hash for Modality

fn hash<__H>(&self, state: &mut __H)

where __H: Hasher,

Feeds this value into the given Hasher.

fn hash_slice<H>(data: &[Self], state: &mut H)

where H: Hasher, Self: Sized,

Feeds a slice of this type into the given Hasher.

impl PartialEq for Modality

fn eq(&self, other: &Modality) -> bool

Tests for self and other values to be equal, and is used by ==.

fn ne(&self, other: &Rhs) -> bool

Tests for !=. The default implementation is almost always sufficient, and should not be overridden without very good reason.

impl Serialize for Modality

fn serialize<__S>( &self, __serializer: __S, ) -> Result<<__S as Serializer>::Ok, <__S as Serializer>::Error>

where __S: Serializer,

Serialize this value into the given Serde serializer.

impl Copy for Modality

impl Eq for Modality

impl StructuralPartialEq for Modality