Semiotics

符号学

The scientific study of the properties of signaling systems, whether natural or artificial. In its oldest sense, it refers to the study within philosophy of sign and symbol systems in general. In this approach, linguistic, psychological, philosophical and sociological characteristics of communicative systems are studied together. The philosophers Charles Peirce (1834-1914), Charles Morris (1901-1979) and later Rudolf Carnap (1891-1970) saw the field as divisible into three areas: semantics, the study of the relations between linguistic expression and the objects in the world which they refer to or describe; syntactics, the study of the relation of these expressions to each other; and pragmatics, the study of the dependence of the meaning of these expressions on their users (including the social situation in which they are used). In the second part of the twentieth century, the term ‘semiotics’ came to be applied to the analysis of pattered human communication in all its sensory modes, i.e. hearing, sight, taste, touch and smell. The branch of the subject which has received most study is the vocal-auditory mode, primary through the subjects of phonetics and linguistics.

符号学是对信号系统（不管是自然的还是人造的）特性的科学研究。按其最古老的涵义，符号学指哲学内对一般符号和记号系统的研究。这种研究把信递系统的语言学、心理学、哲学、社会学等特性放在一起研究。哲学家查尔斯·皮尔斯（1834—1914）、查尔斯·莫里斯（生于1901）和后期的鲁道夫·卡纳鲁（1891—1970）都认为符号学可分为三个方面：语义学研究词语和其所指或描写的外界事物之间的关系；语形学研究词语和词语之间的关系；语用学研究词语的意义和词语的使用者（也包括使用的社会情境）之间的关系。二十世纪后期以来，符号学研究已逐渐应用于分析人类信递型式的各种感觉道，即听觉、视觉、味觉、触觉和嗅觉。研究得最多的方面是发声—听觉方式的信递，主要是语音学和语言学的研究内容。