semiotics (n.)

The scientific study of the properties of signalling systems, whether natural or artificial. In its oldest sense, it refers to the study within philosophy of sign and symbol systems in general (also known as semiotic, semeiotics, semiology, semasiology, semeiology, significs). In this approach, LINGUISTIC, psychological, philosophical and sociological characteristics of communicative systems are studied together. The philosophers Charles Peirce (1834–1914), Charles Morris (1901– 1979) and later Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970) saw the field as divisible into three areas: SEMANTICS, the study of the relations between linguistic expression and the objects in the world which they refer to or describe; SYNTACTICS, the study of the relation of these expressions to each other; and PRAGMATICS, the study of the dependence of the meaning of these expressions on their users (including the social situation in which they are used).

In the second part of the twentieth century, the term ‘semiotics’ came to be applied to the analysis of patterned human COMMUNICATION in all its sensory modes, i.e. hearing, sight, taste, touch and smell. Semiotic studies in this sense vary in the degree to which they have progressed: this emphasis has been taken up mainly by anthropologists, linguists, psychologists and sociologists. The branch of the subject which has received most study is the VOCAL–AUDITORY mode, primarily through the subjects of PHONETICS and LINGUISTICS. The study of visual communication is known as KINESICS. The study of touch behavior (and associated phenomena, such as body orientation and distance between people) is often called PROXEMICS. Gustatory (taste) and olfactory (smell) systems of communication have received more study in relation to animal communication. The extension of the subject to the analysis of animal systems of communication is known as ZOÖSEMIOTICS.

Particularly in Europe, semiotic (or semiological) analysis has developed as part of an attempt to analyze all aspects of communication as SYSTEMS of signals (semiotic systems), such as music, eating, clothes and dance, as well as language. In this area, the French writer Roland Barthes (1915–80) has exercised particular influence.