Semiotics
Semiotics can be used in many forms and in many college classes when studying the meaning of various ideas within different contexts.
Semiotics is the study of signs in language, related to but different from linguistics and is generally divided into three branches:
- Semantics
- Syntactics
- Pragmatics
John Locke first introduced the term "semiotics" meaning the study of signs. Paper Masters can help you define semiotics and apply it in any context required in a research paper.
Semantics is the study of meaning and the relationship between signifiers (words, phrases and symbols) and their denotation, or what they mean. In popular terms, semantics often refers to word choice. Syntactics studies how sentences are constructed in various languages. Pragmatics explores the ways in which context contributes to meaning, or how language overcomes ambiguity.
Semiotics and Society
Semiotics will classify signs in relationship to how they are transmitted in society. Italian writer Umberto Eco (The Name of the Rose) is a modern proponent of semiotics and defines it as being concerned with everything that can be seen as a sign, including anything that stands for something else. Scholars who study semiotics look for how meaning is made.
Semiotics frequently looks for meaning in texts, not just books but in any medium. In this case the term "text" refers to any recorded message that is physically independent of both sender and receiver. However, even proponents of semiotics will disagree as to the exact definition of everything that semiotics involves. Ferdinand de Saussure is frequently cited as the father of semiotics.