- "Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes (semiosis) and meaning-making."
How the context in which signs are used influences their meaning and interpretation, as well as the different levels of context that can be relevant in semiotic analysis.
Signifiers and Signifieds: The relationship between the object and its representation or meaning, and how this relationship is formed through context.
The Arbitrary Nature of Signs: The idea that signs do not have any intrinsic connection to the objects they represent, and their meaning is constructed through social conventions.
Structuralism: A theoretical approach to understanding signs and symbols that emphasizes their relationships within larger systems of meaning.
Code-switching: The ability to change one's use of language or behavior in different contexts, and how this can impact communication and interpretation.
Contextualization: The process of interpreting signs and symbols within their specific context, including cultural, social, historical, and linguistic factors.
Linguistic Relativity: The idea that language can shape our perceptions and understanding of the world, and how this relates to context.
Pragmatics: The study of how language is used in context to convey meaning, and how this can vary depending on the situation and the participants.
Intertextuality: The interconnections between different texts and how they influence each other's meaning, including references, allusions, and adaptations.
Cultural Semiotics: The study of how signs and symbols are used and interpreted within different cultures and societies, including their historical and social contexts.
Myth and Symbolism: The analysis of recurring themes, motifs, and archetypes in literature, culture, and society, and how they shape our understanding of the world around us.
Contextualization of Media: The study of how media and technology are shaped by cultural and social contexts, and how they in turn influence our perceptions and behaviors.
Semiotics of Space: The use of signs and symbols in the design and use of physical spaces, and how they shape our experiences of them.
Semiotics of Sound: The study of how sounds and music are used to convey meaning and emotion in different contexts, including the cultural and historical factors that shape their interpretation.
Semiotics of Advertising: The analysis of how advertisements use signs and symbols to evoke emotions and sell products, and how these messages are influenced by cultural and social norms.
Semiotics of Fashion: The study of how dress, style, and fashion are used to communicate identity and social status, and how these meanings change over time and across contexts.
Linguistic context: This refers to the surrounding words or phrases that give meaning to a particular word or phrase used in discourse.
Social context: This includes the cultural, social, and historical background that shapes how individuals interpret and understand messages.
Physical context: This involves the location, environment, and setting in which communication takes place and can influence the interpretation of messages.
Temporal context: This refers to the time span over which communication occurs and can influence the meaning that is conveyed.
Psychological context: This includes individual perceptions, experiences, attitudes, and beliefs that can impact how messages are received and interpreted.
Intertextual context: This involves the connections between texts, including references, allusions, and intertextual relationships.
Discursive context: This refers to the ways in which language is used in particular discourses, including genres, styles, and discourse communities.
Pragmatic context: This encompasses the purpose, intent, and conventions of communication, including rhetorical strategies and the contexts in which they are employed.
Cognitive context: This involves the mental processes and structures that enable individuals to comprehend and interpret messages, including knowledge of the world, memory, and perception.
Semiotic context: This refers to the modes and systems of signification and their relationship to communication practices and contexts, including language, images, sounds, and other semiotic resources.
- "Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something, usually called a meaning, to the sign's interpreter."
- "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, auditory, tactile, olfactory, or gustatory (taste)."
- "Contemporary semiotics is a branch of science that studies meaning-making and various types of knowledge."
- "Unlike linguistics, semiotics also studies non-linguistic sign systems."
- "Semiotics includes the study of signs and sign processes, indication, designation, likeness, analogy, allegory, metonymy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication."
- "Some semioticians focus on the logical dimensions of the science, while others explore the study of signs and symbols as a significant part of communications."
- "The Italian semiotician and novelist Umberto Eco proposed that every cultural phenomenon may be studied as communication."
- "They examine areas also belonging to the life sciences—such as how organisms make predictions about, and adapt to, their semiotic niche in the world."
- "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 (including zoosemiotics and phytosemiotics)."
- "Semiotics is not to be confused with the Saussurean tradition called semiology, which is a subset of semiotics."