Outline of semiotics explained
See also: Index of semiotics articles. The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to semiotics:
Semiotics - study of meaning-making, signs and sign processes (semiosis), indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication. Semiotics is closely related to the field of linguistics, which, for its part, studies the structure and meaning of language more specifically. Also called semiotic studies, or semiology (in the Saussurean tradition).
Classification of semiotics
Semiotics can be described as all of the following:
- Academic discipline - branch of knowledge that is taught and researched at the college or university level. Disciplines are defined (in part), and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned societies and academic departments or faculties to which their practitioners belong.
- Social science - field of study concerned with society and human behaviours.
Branches of semiotics
Three main branches
- Semantics - relation between signs and the things to which they refer; their denotata, or meaning
- Syntactics - relations among signs in formal structures
- Pragmatics - relation between signs and the effects they have on the people who use them
Subfields
- Biosemiotics: the study of semiotic processes at all levels of biology, or a semiotic study of living systems (e.g., Copenhagen–Tartu School). Annual meetings ("Gatherings in Biosemiotics") have been held since 2001.
- Semiotic anthropology and anthropological semantics.
- Cognitive semiotics: the study of meaning-making by employing and integrating methods and theories developed in the cognitive sciences. This involves conceptual and textual analysis as well as experimental investigations. Cognitive semiotics initially was developed at the Center for Semiotics at Aarhus University (Denmark), with an important connection with the Center of Functionally Integrated Neuroscience (CFIN) at Aarhus Hospital. Amongst the prominent cognitive semioticians are Per Aage Brandt, Svend Østergaard, Peer Bundgård, Frederik Stjernfelt, Mikkel Wallentin, Kristian Tylén, Riccardo Fusaroli, and Jordan Zlatev. Zlatev later in co-operation with Göran Sonesson established the Center for Cognitive Semiotics (CCS) at Lund University, Sweden.
- Comics semiotics: the study of the various codes and signs of comics and how they are understood.
- Computational semiotics: attempts to engineer the process of semiosis, in the study of and design for human–computer interaction or to mimic aspects of human cognition through artificial intelligence and knowledge representation.
- Cultural and literary semiotics: examines the literary world, the visual media, the mass media, and advertising in the work of writers such as Roland Barthes, Marcel Danesi, and Juri Lotman (e.g., Tartu–Moscow Semiotic School).
- Cybersemiotics: built on two already-generated interdisciplinary approaches: cybernetics and systems theory, including information theory and science; and Peircean semiotics, including phenomenology and pragmatic aspects of linguistics, attempts to make the two interdisciplinary paradigms—both going beyond mechanistic and pure constructivist ideas—complement each other in a common framework.
- Design semiotics or product semiotics: the study of the use of signs in the design of physical products; introduced by Martin Krampen and in a practitioner-oriented version by Rune Monö while teaching industrial design at the Institute of Design, Umeå University, Sweden.
- Ethnosemiotics: a disciplinary perspective which links semiotics concepts to ethnographic methods.
- Film semiotics: the study of the various codes and signs of film and how they are understood. Key figures include Christian Metz.
- Finite semiotics: an approach to the semiotics of technology developed by Cameron Shackell. It is used to both trace the effects of technology on human thought and to develop computational methods for performing semiotic analysis.
- Gregorian chant semiology: a current avenue of palaeographical research in Gregorian chant, which is revising the Solesmes school of interpretation.
- Hylosemiotics: an approach to semiotics that understands meaning as inference, which is developed through exploratory interaction with the physical world. It expands the concept of communication beyond a human-centered paradigm to include other sentient beings, such as animals, plants, bacteria, fungi, etc.
- Law and semiotics: one of the more accomplished publications in this field is the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law, published by International Association for the Semiotics of Law.
- Marketing semiotics (or commercial semiotics): an application of semiotic methods and semiotic thinking to the analysis and development of advertising and brand communications in cultural context. Key figures include Virginia Valentine, Malcolm Evans, Greg Rowland, Georgios Rossolatos. International annual conferences (Semiofest) have been held since 2012.
- Music semiology: the study of signs as they pertain to music on a variety of levels.
- Organisational semiotics: the study of semiotic processes in organizations (with strong ties to computational semiotics and human–computer interaction).
- Pictorial semiotics: an application of semiotic methods and semiotic thinking to art history.
- Semiotics of music videos: semiotics in popular music.
- Structuralism and post-structuralism in the work of Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Louis Hjelmslev, Roman Jakobson, Jacques Lacan, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Roland Barthes, etc.
- Theatre semiotics: an application of semiotic methods and semiotic thinking to theatre studies. Key figures include Keir Elam.
- Visual semiotics: analyses visual signs; prominent modern founders to this branch are Groupe μ and Göran Sonesson.
- Semiotics of photography: is the observation of symbolism used within photography.
- Artificial intelligence semiotics: the observation of visual symbols and the symbols' recognition by machine learning systems. The phrase was coined by Daniel Hoeg, founder of Semiotics Mobility, due to Semiotics Mobility's design and learning process for autonomous recognition and perception of symbols by neural networks. The phrase refers to machine learning and neural nets application of semiotic methods and semiotic machine learning to the analysis and development of robotics commands and instructions with subsystem communications in autonomous systems context.
- Semiotics of mathematics: the study of signs, symbols, sign systems and their structure, meaning and use in mathematics and mathematics education.
- Product semiotics - study of the use of signs in the design of physical products. Introduced by Rune Monö while teaching Industrial Design at the Institute of Design, Umeå University, Sweden.
- Literary semiotics - approach to literary criticism informed by the theory of signs or semiotics. Semiotics, tied closely to the structuralism pioneered by Ferdinand de Saussure, was extremely influential in the development of literary theory out of the formalist approaches of the early twentieth century.
- Semiotic engineering - views HCI as computer-mediated communication between designers and users at interaction time. The system speaks for its designers in various types of conversations specified at design time. These conversations communicate the designers' understanding of who the users are, what they know the users want or need to do, in which preferred ways, and why.
- Semiotic information theory - considers the information content of signs and expressions as it is conceived within the semiotic or sign-relational framework developed by Charles Sanders Peirce.
- Social semiotics - expands the interpretable semiotic landscape to include all cultural codes, such as in slang, fashion, and advertising. It considers social connotations, including meanings related to ideology and power structures, in addition to denotative meanings of signs.
- Urban semiotics - study of meaning in urban form as generated by signs, symbols, and their social connotations.[1] It focuses on material objects of the built environment, such as streets, squares, parks, and buildings, but also abstract cultural constructs such as building codes, planning documents, unbuilt designs, real estate advertising, and popular discourse about the city,[2] such as architectural criticism and real estate blogs.
- Phytosemiotics - the study of the sign processes in plants, or more broadly, the vegetative semiosis.
- Zoosemiotics - study of animal meaning-making and communication.
History of semiotics
Methods of semiotics
Semiotic analyses
General semiotics concepts
Semiotics organizations
Semiotics publications
Persons influential in semiotics
Cognitive semioticians
Literary semioticians
Social semioticians
See also
External links
Peircean focus
Journals, book series — associations, centers
- American Journal of Semiotics, Joseph Brent, Editor, & John Deely, Managing Editor—from the Semiotic Society of America.
- Applied Semiotics / Sémiotique appliquée (AS/SA), Peter G. Marteinson & Pascal G. Michelucci, Editors.
- Approaches to Applied Semiotics (2000–2009 book series), Thomas Sebeok et al., Editors.
- Approaches to Semiotics (1969–97 book series), Thomas A. Sebeok, Alain Rey, Roland Posner, et al., Editors.
- Biosemiotics, Marcello Barbieri, Editor-in-Chief—from the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies.
- Center for Semiotics, Aarhus University, Denmark.
- Cognitive Semiotics, Per Aage Brandt & Todd Oakley, Editors-in-Chief.
- Cybernetics and Human Knowing, Søren Brier, Chief Editor.
- International Journal of Signs and Semiotic Systems (IJSSS), Angelo Loula & João Queiroz, Editors.
- Open Semiotics Resource Center. Journals, lecture courses, etc.
- The Public Journal of Semiotics, Paul Bouissac, Editor in Chief; Alan Cienki, Associate Editor; René Jorna, Winfried Nöth.
- S.E.E.D. Journal (Semiotics, Evolution, Energy, and Development) (2001–7), Edwina Taborsky, Editor—from SEE.
- The Semiotic Review of Books, Gary Genosko, General Editor; Paul Bouissac, Founding Editor.
- Semiotica, Marcel Danesi, Chief Editor—from the International Association for Semiotic Studies.
- Semiotiche, Gian Paolo Caprettini, Managing Director; Andrea Valle & Miriam Visalli, Editors. Some articles in English. Home site seems gone from Web, old url https://web.archive.org/web/20181220192854/http://semiotiche.it/ no longer good, and Wayback Machine cannot retrieve.
- Semiotics, Communication and Cognition (book series), Paul Cobley & Kalevi Kull, Editors.
- SemiotiX New Series: A Global Information Bulletin, Paul Bouissac et al.
- Sign Systems Studies, Kalevi Kull, Kati Lindstrom, Mihhail Lotman, Timo Maran, Silvi Salupere, Peeter Torop, Editors—from the Dept. of Semiotics, U. of Tartu, Estonia.
- Signs and Society, Richard J. Parmentier, Editor.
- Signs: International Journal of Semiotics. Martin Thellefsen, Torkild Thellefsen, & Bent Sørensen, chief eds.
- Tartu Semiotics Library (book series), Peeter Torop, Kalevi Kull, Silvi Salupere, Editors.
- Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, Cornelis de Waal, Chief Editor—from The Charles S. Peirce Society.
- Versus: Quaderni di studi semiotici, founded by Umberto Eco.
Notes and References
- Keller, Suzanne . Review . Contemporary Sociology . 17 . 3 . 346–348 . 2069642. 1988 . 10.2307/2069642 .
- Gottdienier, M., and Lagopoulos, Alexandros, eds. The City and the Sign: An Introduction to Urban Semiotics, New York: Columbia University Press, 1986. p.5
