What is semiotics?

Semiotics is the study of the possible conditions of meaning.


Semiotics is related to Semantics except that semantics (Coming from the Greek word "Semata" meaning sign) is the study of meaning, whereas semiotics is the study of the possible meaning of signs particularly within codes.

You might ask at this point: What is a sign?


Ferdinand de Saussure, one of the founders of Semiotics said:

"A sign is the basic unit of language (a given language at a given time). Every language is a complete system of signs."


A sign in it's simplest nature is anything that points to something else. "Something else" can be an image, an object, a time, a place, anything.

For example, the letters I'm using to write this are each signs, and those signs work together to form words (also signs), and these words (working within the system of signs or the "code" we call the English language) work together to communicate ideas.


To understand the nature of signs we have to understand which part of the sign we are talking about. To clarify we therefor divide signs into two categories:


Signifier -The sign itself, the thing that points.

Signified -The thing pointed to.


For example:
DOG -This word is a signifier, it points to something.

What does it point to? If you are reading this it probably brings up an image of a dog you've either had as a pet, or just the idea of "man's best friend". These images are what is signified.

But what if you were someone from a middle eastern country? First of all, you might not speak English, so the letters D-O-G might not mean anything to you. (The only thing you see signified are a bunch of squiggly lines)

Assuming you do speak English however, in the middle east dogs are culturally not considered to be man's best friend. (Perhaps the image brought to mind is a vicious street mongrel?)

So as you can see, the word "dog" does not have a universal meaning. Within different codes of understanding, "dog" can have many meanings.


Signification is not universal, things signified have a infinite number of signifiers to go with them.

Semiotics is the study of the link between signifier and signified, studying the codes of meaning we employ in order to communicate.