What is the Meaning of: Semiotics | Concept and Definition of: Semiotics
Semiotics is the general theory of signs. This science is interested in the study of signs in social life, in the image of semiology. These two concepts are considered synonyms by the Larousse dictionary online, although the experts establish some differences.
Some find that semiotics encompasses all other sciences devoted to study signs in some areas of knowledge. Semiotics, in this sense, appears as a science of the functioning of thought, to explain how humans interpret the entourage (environment), creates knowledge and sharing.
Other specialists designate semiology as the science that studies related to the analysis of signs in general, as well linguistic (associated with the semantics and writing) as semiotic (human signs and those of nature).
Means sign language the most important association in human communication. It is formed by a signifier (the sound image) and a signified (an idea that one has in mind regarding a word any). Charles Peirce (1839-1914), the sign is an entity composed by the signifier (hardware support), the signified (mental image) and the referent (the real or imaginary object to which the sign refers).
The essential characteristics of the linguistic sign are the arbitrariness, mutability, immutability, and linearity.
Then, in the context of medicine, semiotics is the area dedicated to treatment (symptoms) signs of diseases since the diagnosis and prognosis.