Definition:
The theory and study of signs and symbols, especially as elements of language or other systems of communication. A person who studies or practices semiotics is known as a semiotician.
See also:
Etymology:
From the Greek, "sign"Observations:
- "Semiotics involves the study not only of what we refer to as 'signs' in everyday speech, but of anything which 'stands for' something else. In a semiotic sense, signs take the forms of words, images, sounds, gestures and objects. Contemporary semioticians study signs not only in isolation but as part of semiotic 'sign systems' (such as a medium or genre). They study how meanings are made and how reality is represented. . . .
"Signs do not just 'convey' meanings, but constitute a medium in which meanings are constructed. Semiotics helps us to realize that meaning is not passively absorbed but arises only in the active process of interpretation. . . .
"'Commonsense' suggests that 'I' am a unique individual with a stable, unified identity and ideas of my own. Semiotics can help us to realize that such notions are created and maintained by our engagement with sign systems: our sense of identity is established through signs. We derive a sense of 'self' from drawing upon conventional, pre-existing repertoires of signs and codes . . .. We are thus the subjects of our sign systems rather than being 'users' who are fully in control of them."
(Daniel Chandler, Semiotics: The Basics. Routledge, 2006) - "Not only are words signs but also gestures, images, non-linguistic sounds like the chimes of Big Ben. Obviously devices (such as flags) created by man in order to indicate something are signs, but so are, in ordinary language, the thread of smoke that reveals a fire, the footsteps in the sand that tells Robinson Crusoe a man has passed along the beach, the clue that permits Sherlock Holmes to find the murderer."
(Umberto Eco, Times Literary Supplement. 1973) - Nonlinguistic Sign Systems
"Semiotic methods of analysis which originated in literary criticism have been applied in anthropology, the study of popular culture (e.g., advertisements), geography, architecture, film, and art history. The majority of these approaches emphasize the systemic character of the object under analysis. Buildings, myths, or pictures are regarded as systems of signs in which elements interact in ways analogous to letters, words, and sentences. For this reason, these divergent disciplines are often subsumed under the umbrella-term semiotics (the science of signs)."
(Mario Klarer, An Introduction to Literary Studies, 2nd ed. Routledge, 2004) - Semiotics and Rhetoric
"As distinct traditions within the field of communication theory, rhetoric and semiotics are closely akin in some ways and hybrids of the two are not uncommon (e.g. Burke, 1966; Kaufer & Carley, 1993a, 1993b). Rhetoric can be thought of as the branch of semiotics that studies the structure of language and argument that mediate between communicators and audiences. Semiotics can also be thought of as a particular theory of rhetoric that studies the resources that are available for conveying meanings in rhetorical messages. . . .
"In modernist thought, rhetoric has often been cast as the enemy of communication. Communication for modernists is all about reason, truth, clarity, and understanding; rhetoric is all about traditionalism, artifice, obfuscation, and manipulation. Communication marks the new way of science and enlightenment; rhetoric the old way of obscurantism and reaction.
"In postmodernist thought, of course, all of this has largely been turned on its head. For poststructuralist semioticians all communication is rhetoric--if by rhetoric we mean uses of language for which reason, truth, clarity, and understanding can no longer be upheld as normative criteria. In the rhetorical tradition of communication theory, however, rhetoric typically means . . . communication designed to appeal to an audience and inform their judgment on important matters of opinion and decision."
(Robert T. Craig, "Communication Theory as a Field." Theorizing Communication: Readings Across Traditions, ed by Robert T. Craig and Heidi L. Muller. Sage, 2007)
Pronunciation: se-me-OT-iks
Also Known As: semiology, semasiology, semeiology
