Semiotics

The three branches of semiotics:

Semantics: Relation between signs and the things to which they refer; their denotata


Syntactics: Relation of signs to each other in formal structures

Pragmatics: Relation of signs to their impacts on those who use them

Semiotics is frequently seen as having important anthropological dimensions, for example Umberto Eco proposes that every cultural phenomenon can be studied as communication. However, some semioticians focus on the logical dimensions of the science. They examine areas belonging also to the natural sciences - such as how organisms make predictions about, and adapt to, their semiotic niche in the world (see semiosis). In general, semiotic theories take signs or sign systems as their object of study: the communication of information in living organisms is covered in biosemiotics or zoosemiosis.