Semiotics/Semiology

“Semiotics” and “semiology” are terms used to refer to the general science of signs and signification. The term “semiology” is associated primarily with the work of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, while the term “semiotics” is often linked to the American philosopher and mathematician, Charles Sanders Peirce. In both cases, the thrust of semiological study is to explore how signs, understood as social constructs, are shaped by and through language. The study of signs has been taken up by academic disciplines such as linguistics, information theory, formal logic, and structural anthropology, though semiotic analysis is a common strategy across the spectrum of poststructuralist theories.