(treated as sing. or pl) the study and general theory of signs and symbols in artificial and natural languages with regard to their relationship to the things they represent, to each other, and to their use
In addition to philosophical interest in semiotics, the 20th cent. has seen the emergence of anthropological and linguistic dimensions to the subject. These view semiotic behaviour as patterned human communication in all modalities – sound, vision, touch, smell, taste. The techniques have applications in several domains (e.g. psychiatry, social psychology), and have been extended to the study of animal communication (zoosemiotics) — Professor David Crystal
semiotic adj
semiotician noun
[Greek sēmeiōtikos observant of signs, from sēmeiousthai to interpret signs, from sēmeion sign]