Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols, including their processes and systems. It is an important approach to communication research because it examines the association between signs and their roles in how people create meanings on a daily basis. According to Thomas Sebeok, a U.S. semiotician and linguist, semiotics refers to the exchange of messages and the system of signs that lie beneath them; it enables us to understand and express the signs’ meanings. Sometimes called semiology, semiotics was developed at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century by scholars like Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist and semiotician, and Charles Sanders Peirce, a U.S. philosopher, linguist, semiotician, logician, and mathematician. After further defining the root of semiotics, this entry defines and describes semiosphere and cultural semiotics in the context of communication research. The entry then examines the components of two targeted models of semiotics thought: Saussurean and Peircean semiotics.

Semiotics originates from semiotikon, a Greek term that means “sign.” Semiotikon includes the study of signs and their interpretation. A sign is something that stands for something else (e.g., the Star of David stands for Judaism). Messages have signs, which are then conveyed through sign systems. Such sign systems are termed codes. Meaning can only happen inasmuch as the message receiver comprehends the code. From this perspective, semiotics focuses on the interpretation of sign functions and the receiver’s understanding of meaning. Of equal significance in semiotics is the element of mass communication. As will be demonstrated in the example of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the end of this entry, there is a semiotic code of media; media images can impress or shock audiences so powerfully that the images lend themselves to the study of semiotics.