Semiology—A Study of Signs

Semiology, it must be said, is but one of a group of words used to denote the philosophical and scientific study of meaning from the viewpoint of its communicability. It is the study of the development and role of signs in society, from the Greek sema ("sign") and logos ("knowledge" or "account"). Semantics, semiotics, semology, semasiology and semiology are all formed from the various derivatives of the Greek verb semaino, "to mean" or "to signify". By and large they denote the same subject while claiming slivers of difference in emphasis or angle. Semantics, for example centers on the doctrine of linguistic meaning, while semiology denotes a broader field: the study of sign using behaviour in general. This would include words, images, gestures, objects, musical sounds and complex associations of all of these, to the extent that they constitute systems of signification. At the same time, since language is clearly the most powerful and elaborate of such systems, semiology looks to linguistics for its methodology and its terms of epistemology. Before exploring the theoretical foundations and analytical methods of linguistics, and by extension semiology, we may begin with a more casual look at the life of signs in society. Signs are everywhere. Their function is to communicate ideas by means of messages. Communication itself has a variety of functions. The referential function, for example is to denote, to convey true, objective information about something. Scientific codes fulfill this function to a maximum, by neutralising all variables and connotative values: the chemical formula NaCl is a message or sign so tightly coded that only