semiology

The study of the function of signs and symbols in human communication, both in language and by various nonlinguistic means. Beginning with the notion of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure that no word or other sign (signifier) is intrinsically linked with its meaning (signified), it was developed as a scientific discipline, especially by Claude Lévi-Strauss and Roland Barthes. Signs and symbols can also be used in design drawings such as electrical circuits or computer flowcharts.

Semiotics has combined with structuralism in order to explore the ‘production’ of meaning in language and other sign systems and has emphasized the conventional nature of this production.