Semiotics (Semiology)
Semiotics (semiology) is the structured study of the creation of meanings from sign systems. Semiotics was founded by the American philosopher C.S. Peirce and the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure as a distinctive tradition of investigation into human communications. The term 'semiotics' is mainly preferred in English, even though Saussure's concepts have been more authoritative. Semiotics is concerned with the relationships between signs themselves within their structured systems. A semiotician is a practitioner of semiotics [Baldick, p. 233].
Semiotics or semiology (from Greek root: semeion, which means ‘sign’) is the science of signs (and signals) in general; it refers to the theory of sign systems in language. For all practical aims, they are both related to the means of communication as conventions, with particular emphasis on language [Cuddon, p. 643].
Both terms semiotics and semiology are used synonymously, but semiotics is mainly used in the United States. ‘Signs’ in the semiotics are not only words and linguistic signs but also any object or form of activity that may designate something else. Literary semiotics concentrates on verbal signs, even though it admits the presence of non-verbal meaning in literature [Quinn, p. 381].
The study of the attributes of signaling systems, whether natural or artificial, is called semiotics. It refers to the study of sign and symbol systems in general.
At the end of the 20th century, the term ‘semiotics’ started to apply to the investigation of human communication in all its perceptible modes: smell, sight, hearing, taste, and touch.
Specifically in Europe, semiotic analysis has grown as an attempt to investigate all aspects of communication as systems of signals, such as eating, clothes, music, dance, and language [Crystal, p. 431].
⠀ Chris Baldick. (2015). The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
⠀ David Crystal. (2008). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 6th Edition. New-Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell.
⠀ Quinn Edward. (2006). A dictionary of literary and thematic terms. New-York: Infobase Publishing.