An Introduction

Definition:
"Semiotics - the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation."
-definition taken from oxforddictionaries.com


Semiotics is something that is used by everyone. We build up a knowledge of symbols and signs through upbringing, experience and cultural surroundings. For example, due to my upbringing, red kidney beans signify a sense of wrongdoing and fear.

This is because after hurting a friend at school, I waited at home for my father, who didn't say a word whilst he ate his dinner (consisting partly of kidney beans) until he stood up, asked me to retrieve my favourite video and bin it for my ill behaviour.
As this is a very personal experience, I doubt there are many people who consider this the case:
Signifier - Red Kidney Beans
Signification - Being in trouble, wrongdoing, loss of valued items.


That is semiotics at a very basic level; the item being the signifier and the signification being what is taken from it.
For others red kidney beans may mean-

• Delicious
• Chili 
• Disgusting
• Flatulence

The major signification that can be made is of course between the bean and the human kidney, the bean being named after the human organ due to it's shape. However, this relationship can only be made with an understanding of the human anatomy, only possible through autopsy and medical research. So before we knew what the human kidney looked like, what would the kidney bean have been called? The  medical breakthroughs that  have enabled us to gain knowledge mean now the kidney bean is a signifier of nature, much like a walnut is due to it's likeness to the human brain or how the veins of a leaf mirror our own veins.
Semiotics was the brain child of Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist whose work was never published. Instead, notes from his lectures were taken by students, written up and then published. He saw the invention of language as a system, and was interested in how things worked as signs and symbols.