# Semiotics By [KlOP](https://paragraph.com/@klop) · 2023-05-30 --- **Semiotics** (also called **semiotic studies**) is the systematic study of sign processes ([semiosis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiosis)) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves [signs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sign_\(semiotics\)), where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something, usually called a [meaning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_\(semiotics\)), to the sign's interpreter. The meaning can be intentional, such as a word uttered with a specific meaning; or unintentional, such as a symptom being a sign of a particular medical condition. Signs can also communicate feelings (which are usually not considered meanings) and may communicate internally (through thought itself) or through any of the senses: [visual](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_system), [auditory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing), [tactile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatosensory_system), [olfactory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olfaction), or [gustatory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taste) (taste). Contemporary semiotics is a branch of science that studies meaning-making and various types of knowledge.[\[1\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics#cite_note-1) The semiotic tradition explores the study of signs and symbols as a significant part of communications. Unlike [linguistics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics), semiotics also studies non-linguistic [sign systems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sign_system). Semiotics includes the study of signs and sign processes, indication, designation, likeness, [analogy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analogy), [allegory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory), [metonymy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy), [metaphor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor), [symbolism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbol), signification, and communication. Semiotics is frequently seen as having important [anthropological](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropology) and [sociological](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology) dimensions; for example the Italian semiotician and novelist [Umberto Eco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_Eco) proposed that every cultural phenomenon may be studied as communication.[\[2\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics#cite_note-caesar-2) Some semioticians focus on the [logical](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic) dimensions of the science, however. They examine areas also belonging to the [life sciences](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_sciences)—such as how organisms make predictions about, and adapt to, their semiotic [niche](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_niche) in the world (see [semiosis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiosis)). Fundamental semiotic theories take _signs_ or sign systems as their object of study; applied semiotics analyzes cultures and cultural artifacts according to the ways they construct meaning through their being signs. The communication of information in living organisms is covered in [biosemiotics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosemiotics) (including [zoosemiotics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoosemiotics) and [phytosemiotics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytosemiotics)). Semiotics is not to be confused with the [Saussurean](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_de_Saussure) tradition called [semiology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_de_Saussure#Language_as_semiology), which is a subset of semiotics.[\[3\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics#cite_note-3)[\[4\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics#cite_note-4) History and terminology ----------------------- The importance of signs and signification has been recognized throughout much of the history of [philosophy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy) and [psychology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology). The term derives from [Ancient Greek](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_language) σημειωτικός _(sēmeiōtikós)_ 'observant of signs'[\[5\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics#cite_note-5) (from σημεῖον _(sēmeîon)_ 'a sign, mark, token').[\[6\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics#cite_note-6) For the Greeks, 'signs' ([σημεῖον](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%83%CE%B7%CE%BC%CE%B5%E1%BF%96%CE%BF%CE%BD) _sēmeîon_) occurred in the world of nature and 'symbols' ([σύμβολον](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%83%CF%8D%CE%BC%CE%B2%CE%BF%CE%BB%CE%BF%CE%BD) _súmbolon_) in the world of culture. As such, [Plato](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato) and [Aristotle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle) explored the relationship between signs and the world.[\[7\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics#cite_note-7) It would not be until [Augustine of Hippo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo)[\[8\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics#cite_note-8) that the nature of the sign would be considered within a conventional system. Augustine introduced a thematic proposal for uniting the two under the notion of 'sign' (_signum_) as transcending the nature-culture divide and identifying symbols as no more than a species (or sub-species) of _signum_.[\[9\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics#cite_note-9) A monograph study on this question would be done by Manetti (1987).[\[10\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics#cite_note-10)[\[a\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics#cite_note-11) These theories have had a lasting effect in [Western philosophy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_philosophy), especially through [scholastic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholasticism) philosophy. The general study of signs that began in Latin with Augustine culminated with the 1632 _Tractatus de Signis_ of [John Poinsot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Poinsot) and then began anew in late modernity with the attempt in 1867 by [Charles Sanders Peirce](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Sanders_Peirce) to draw up a "new list of categories". More recently [Umberto Eco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_Eco), in his [_Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_Eco#Semiotics), has argued that semiotic theories are implicit in the work of most, perhaps all, major thinkers. ### John Locke [John Locke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke) (1690), himself a man of [medicine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine), was familiar with this 'semeiotics' as naming a specialized branch within medical science. In his personal library were two editions of Scapula's 1579 abridgement of [Henricus Stephanus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Estienne)' _Thesaurus Graecae Linguae_, which listed "σημειωτική" as the name for 'diagnostics',[\[11\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics#cite_note-12) the branch of medicine concerned with interpreting symptoms of disease ("[symptomatology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symptomatology)"). Indeed, physician and scholar [Henry Stubbe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Stubbe) (1670) had transliterated this term of specialized science into English precisely as "_semeiotics_," marking the first use of the term in English:[\[12\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics#cite_note-13) --- *Originally published on [KlOP](https://paragraph.com/@klop/semiotics)*