Semiotics is study of signs and sign-systems—how meaning is created and communicated through symbols, language, images, and gestures.
Parallel development: Saussure (Europe) and Peirce (USA) early 20th century. Barthes applied to cultural analysis. Continues influential in media studies.
Charles Sanders Peirce, Ferdinand de Saussure, Roman Jakobson, Roland Barthes, Umberto Eco.
Sign: signifier and signified. Icon, index, symbol. Arbitrary relationship. Codes and conventions. Denotation versus connotation. Myth as second-order system.
Foundation of structuralism. Shaped media studies. Influenced literary criticism and film theory. Applied to advertising, fashion analysis. Essential to cultural studies.
