- "Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes (semiosis) and meaning-making."
The study of signs and symbols and their use, interpretation, and meaning, including how they are used in language and communication.
Semiotics: Semiotics is the study of meaning-making, symbols, signs, and communication.
Deconstruction: Deconstruction is the critical analysis of the implicit assumptions and frameworks of meaning-making, to reveal the complexity of discourse.
Sign: A sign is an entity that signifies something, such as a symbol or a word.
Icon: An icon is a sign that resembles the object it signifies, such as a photograph or a realistic drawing.
Index: An index is a sign that points to the object it signifies, such as smoke indicating fire.
Symbol: A symbol is a sign that stands for something else, often abstract or arbitrary, such as language.
Signifier and Signified: The signifier is the material form of the sign, such as the sound or image, while the signified is the concept or meaning it represents.
Semiosis: Semiosis is the process of making meaning from signs, where the signifier and signified interact.
Language: Language is a system of signs and symbols used for communication, with grammar and rules governing its use.
Intertextuality: Intertextuality is the relationship between texts, where the meaning of one text is influenced by others.
Metaphor: A metaphor is a figure of speech where one thing is used to represent another, such as "life is a journey.".
Metonymy: Metonymy is a figure of speech where one thing is used to signify another related thing, such as "the pen is mightier than the sword.".
Binary Opposition: Binary opposition is the contrast between two opposing concepts, such as good vs. evil.
Hegemony: Hegemony is the dominance of one group over others, through the manipulation of culture, politics, and ideology.
Power and Knowledge: Power and knowledge are interrelated, where those in power control the creation and dissemination of knowledge to maintain their authority.
Postmodernism: Postmodernism is a philosophical and artistic movement that rejects the grand narratives and objective truths of modernity, emphasizing subjectivity and multiplicity.
Deconstruction in Literature: Deconstruction in literature is the analysis of the underlying assumptions and power structures in written texts, to reveal their complexity and ambiguity.
Deconstruction in Film: Deconstruction in film is the analysis of the implicit meaning and symbolism in visual media, to reveal the cultural and political context of the film.
Deconstruction in Architecture: Deconstruction in architecture is the use of design elements to challenge traditional notions of space, form, and function, creating a sense of ambiguity and deconstruction.
Feminist Deconstruction: Feminist deconstruction is the analysis of the implicit gender assumptions and power structures in texts, to reveal the ways in which gender influences the creation and dissemination of knowledge.
Structuralist Semiotics: It assumes that every structure in the world has meaning that can be decoded.
Semiotics of Culture: It describes the meanings and codes in different cultures.
Greimassian Semiotics: It emphasizes the deep structures of language, emphasizing the grammatical and syntax of language.
Cognitivist Semiotics: It is interested in the cognitive processes of perception, meaning creation, and comprehension.
Marxist Semiotics: It is a methodology for analyzing cultural texts as part of larger societal systems.
Eco-Semiotics: It looks at communication between species, organisms, and the environment.
Social Semiotics: It examines how social relations and power influence meaning and how meaning is created, circulated and used.
Cyber-Semiotics: It examines the meaning of information in the context of cognition and consciousness.
Bio-Semiotics: It studies the communication and meaning-making processes of living organisms.
Critical Semiotics: It approaches Semiotics from a critical and deconstructive perspective, revealing power relations and ideological codes in texts and culture.
Postmodern Semiotics: It aims to challenge and disrupt traditional ways of understanding meaning.
Discourse analysis: It examines the structures, patterns and meanings of language use in context.
Hermeneutics: It involves critical interpretation of texts and contexts and is concerned with understanding and interpreting messages and meaning.
Phenomenology: It is concerned with the study of meaning, drawing upon the experiences and perceptions of individuals.
Post-structuralist Semiotics: It deconstructs the relationship between language, power, and meaning.
- "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."