Computational semiotics is an interdisciplinary field that applies, conducts, and draws on research in

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...

, mathematics, the

theory A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be s ...

and practice of

computation Computation is any type of arithmetic or non-arithmetic calculation that follows a well-defined model (e.g., an algorithm). Mechanical or electronic devices (or, historically, people) that perform computations are known as ''computers''. An esp ...

, formal and

natural Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

language studies, the cognitive sciences generally, and

semiotics Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes (semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something, ...

proper. The term encompasses both the application of semiotics to computer hardware and software design and, conversely, the use of computation for performing semiotic analysis. The former focuses on what semiotics can bring to computation; the latter on what computation can bring to semiotics.

Semiotics of computation

A common theme of this work is the adoption of a sign-theoretic perspective on issues of

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

and

knowledge representation Knowledge representation and reasoning (KRR, KR&R, KR²) is the field of artificial intelligence (AI) dedicated to representing information about the world in a form that a computer system can use to solve complex tasks such as diagnosing a medic ...

. Many of its applications lie in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) and fundamental devices of recognition. One part of this field, known as algebraic semiotics, combines aspects of

algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary a ...

ic specification and social semiotics, and has been applied to

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fr ...

design and to the representation of

mathematical proof A mathematical proof is an inferential argument for a mathematical statement, showing that the stated assumptions logically guarantee the conclusion. The argument may use other previously established statements, such as theorems; but every proo ...

Computational methods for semiotics

This strand involves formalizing semiotic methods of analysis and implementing them as

algorithms In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing c ...

on computers to process large digital data sets. These data sets are typically textual but semiotics opens the way for analysis of all manner of other data. Existing work provides methods for automated opposition analysis and generation of semiotic squares; metaphor identification; and image analysis. Shackell has suggested that a new field of Natural Semiotic Processing should emerge to extend

natural language processing Natural language processing (NLP) is an interdisciplinary subfield of linguistics, computer science, and artificial intelligence concerned with the interactions between computers and human language, in particular how to program computers to proc ...

into areas such as

persuasive technology Persuasive technology is broadly defined as technology that is designed to change attitudes or behaviors of the users through persuasion and social influence, but not necessarily through coercion. Such technologies are regularly used in sales, diplo ...

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to empha ...

and

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

analysis that have significant cultural or non-linguistic aspects. On the other side, Meunier argues that semiotics and computation are compatible and combining them provides more logical consistency in understanding forms of meaning.

References

* Meunier, J.G. (2021). ''Computational Semiotics'', Bloomsburry Academic''.'' * Andersen, P.B. (1991). ''A Theory of Computer Semiotics''
Cambridge University Press
* de Souza, C.S., ''The Semiotic Engineering of Human-Computer Interaction'', MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2005. * Tanaka-Ishii, K. (2010), "Semiotics of Programming"
Cambridge University Press
* Hugo, J. (2005), "The Semiotics of Control Room Situation Awareness", ''Fourth International Cyberspace Conference on Ergonomics'', Virtual Conference, 15 Sep – 15 Oct 2005.

* Gudwin, R.; Queiroz J. (eds) - ''Semiotics and Intelligent Systems Development'' - Idea Group Publishing, Hershey PA, USA (2006), (hardcover), 1-59904-064-6 (softcover), 1-59904-065-4 (e-book), 352 ps
Link to publisher
* Gudwin, R.; Queiroz, J. - ''Towards an Introduction to Computational Semiotics'' - Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Integration of Knowledge Intensive Multi-Agent Systems - KIMAS'05, 18–21 April 2005, Waltham, MA, USA, pp. 393–39
IEEExplore
* Mili, A., Desharnais, J., Mili, F., with Frappier, M., ''Computer Program Construction'', Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 1994. — Introduction to Tarskian relation theory and its applications within the relational programming paradigm. * Rieger, Burghard B.: ''Computing Granular Word Meanings. A fuzzy linguistic approach to Computational Semiotics'', in: Wang, Paul P. (ed.): Computing with Words. iley Series on Intelligent Systems 3 New York (John Wiley & Sons) 2001, pp. 147–208. * Rieger, Burghard B.: ''Computing Fuzzy Semantic Granules from Natural Language Texts. A computational semiotics approach to understanding word meanings'', in: Hamza, M.H. (ed.): Artificial Intelligence and Soft Computing, Proceedings of the IASTED International Conference, Anaheim/ Calgary/ Zürich (IASTED/ Acta Press) 1999, pp. 475–479. * Rieger, Burghard B.: ''A Systems Theoretical View on Computational Semiotics. Modeling text understanding as meaning constitution by SCIPS'', in: Proceedings of the Joint IEEE Conference on the Science and Technology of Intelligent Systems (ISIC/CIRA/ISAS-98), Piscataway, NJ (IEEE/Omnipress) 1998, pp. 840–845
IEEExplore
* {{cite journal, doi=10.3233/AAC-190467, title=Computational opposition analysis using word embeddings: A method for strategising resonant informal argument, journal=Argument & Computation, year=2019, last1=Shackell, first1=C., last2=Sitbon, first2=Laurianne, volume=10 , issue=3 , pages=301–317 , doi-access=free

External links

* Goguen, J.
Algebraic Semiotics
* Gudwin, R.R.
Computational Semiotics
* Gudwin, R.R.
List of Publications in Computational Semiotics and other fields

UNICAMP Computational Semiotics Group
Semiotics Theory of computation Cognitive science Computational fields of study

Semiotics of computation

Computational methods for semiotics

See also

References

Further reading

External links