Basic Terminology. People And Theories. Introduction to Semiotics / Signo. Follow us on Semiotics is the academic field dedicated to the study of signs.
A sign (for example, the word "ship") may be recognized by the presence of its constituent parts, which in semiotic theories based on Saussure's, at least, are the signifier (the container, or the sign's perceptible form: the letters s-h-i-p) and the signified (the meaning or content; the notion conveyed by the signifier: 'a vessel of considerable size for deepwater navigation'). With these concepts, general semiotics allows us to describe any system of signs: texts, images, performances, multimedia productions, traffic signals, fashion, daily life, etc.