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semiotics Definition

se·mi·ot·ics (sē′mē ät′iks, sem′ē-)

noun

Philos. a general theory of signs and symbols; esp., the analysis of the nature and relationships of signs in language, usually including three branches, syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics

Etymology: Gr sēmeiōtikos < sēmeion, sign, akin to sēma: see semantic

semiotics Related Forms
se′·mi·ot′ic adjective or se′·mi·ot′i·cal se′·mio·ti′·cian (-ə tis̸h′ən) noun
semiotics Usage Examples

Preposition: of

  • mathematics: His analysis of the semiotics of mathematics is powerful and surprising.
  • language: There, we played pool and debated the semiotics of language.

Converse of object

  • include: This original work will interest students and scholars in many fields including semiotics, linguistics and philosophy.
  • use: Bath has surveyed the whole field with remarkable competence, and has used contemporary semiotics to good effect.
  • relate: Where appropriate, he relates classical semiotics thinking to the highly mediated, postmodern world of mass communication.
  • have: Since them we've had semiotics and structuralism and poststructuralism and God knows what else ism, and the disease seems to have spread.

Adjective modifier

  • structuralist: Structuralist semiotics seeks to look behind or beneath the surface of the observed in order to discover the underlying organization of phenomena.
  • legal: By way of conclusion, Chapter Seven discusses the place of legal semiotics in modern legal philosophy.
  • social: The roots of social semiotics can be traced to the early theorists.
  • modern: The Signs themselves Charles Sanders Peirce is an American philosopher recognized as the founder of modern semiotics.
  • organizational: Drawing upon concepts of Organizational Semiotics it will show a framework to inspect quality of communication in a software production organization.
  • contemporary: Bath has surveyed the whole field with remarkable competence, and has used contemporary semiotics to good effect.

Modifies a noun

  • theory: I apply the Organizational Semiotics theory to model domain knowledge and overcome semantic conflicts in order to support content sharing and reuse.
  • approach: The bibliography from Poetics Today includes unfamiliar material on semiotics approaches to culture.