The shortest definition that we can find of Semiotics is the study of signs and sign-using behavior. If you want to know the roots of the word then I can say to you that the term derives from the Greek sēmeiōtikos, (observant of signs), and the meaning of the word sēmeion, (a mark). The word has been taking shape for many years, it was used later in the XVII century by the English philosopher John Locke on his Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690).
A more complex idea of semiotics as an analytical and interdisciplinary mode for examining phenomena in different fields emerged between the XIX and early XX centuries with the work of Ferdinand de Saussure, who defined semiotics as the study of “the life of signs within society,” and of the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, who thought that "a sign... is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity". The semiotic tradition explores the study of signs and symbols as a significant part of communications. As different from linguistics, however, semiotics also studies non-linguistic sign systems.
For Umberto Eco, semiotics is a research technique that explains quite accurately how communication and meaning work. This vision of semiotics includes the study of signs and sign processes, indication, designation, likeness, rhetoric figures, symbolism, signification, and communication. This kinds of signs are likely to relate to that which we routinely refer to as “signs” in everyday life, such as road signs, pub signs, and star signs. But if you research harder you can find that it also includes words, sounds and “body language.”
On Tartu (Tartu-Moscow) Semiotic Yuri Lotman was the founding member of the Russian semiotic school. He developed a semiotic approach to the study of culture (semiotics of culture) and established a communication model for the study of text semiotics. He also introduced the concept of the semiosphere.
As you can see, semiotics has anthropological, linguistic and philosophical implications. Some semioticians focus on the logical dimensions of the science, others examine areas belonging also to the life sciences. In general, semiotic theories take signs or sign systems as their object of study. The development of semiotics has had a large number of researchers involved which little by little we will be reviewing.
