Zoosemiotics is the

semiotic 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 ...

study of the use of signs among animals, more precisely the study of

semiosis Semiosis (, ), or sign process, is any form of activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, including the production of meaning. A sign is anything that communicates a meaning, that is not the sign itself, to the interpreter of the sign ...

among animals, i.e. the study of how something comes to function as a sign to some animal. It is the study of animal forms of knowing. Considered part of

biosemiotics Biosemiotics (from the Greek βίος ''bios'', "life" and σημειωτικός ''sēmeiōtikos'', "observant of signs") is a field of semiotics and biology that studies the prelinguistic meaning-making, biological interpretation processes, p ...

, zoosemiotics is related to the fields of

ethology Ethology is the scientific study of animal behaviour, usually with a focus on behaviour under natural conditions, and viewing behaviour as an evolutionarily adaptive trait. Behaviourism as a term also describes the scientific and objecti ...

and

animal communication Animal communication is the transfer of information from one or a group of animals (sender or senders) to one or more other animals (receiver or receivers) that affects the current or future behavior of the receivers. Information may be sent int ...

. It was developed by semiotician Thomas Sebeok based on the theories of German-Estonian biologist Jakob von Uexküll. The field is defined by having as its subject matter all of those semiotic processes that are shared by both animals and humans. The field also differs from the field of animal communication in that it also interprets signs that are not communicative in the traditional sense, such as camouflage,

mimicry In evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object, often an organism of another species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. Often, mimicry f ...

, courtship behavior etc. The field also studies cross-species communication, for example between humans and animals.Martinelli, Dario. "Zoosemiotics" in Semiotics Encyclopedia Online. E.J. Pratt Library - Victoria University.
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References

* Sebeok, Thomas A. 1972. ''Perspectives in Zoosemiotics''. Janua Linguarum. Series Minor 122. The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter. * Martinelli, Dario; Lehto, Otto (Eds.) 2009. Special issue: Zoosemiotics. '' Sign Systems Studies'' 37(3/4). (esp. G. Kaplan, Animals and music: Between cultural definitions and sensory evidence, 423–453; K. Kleisner, M. Stella, monsters we met, monsters we made: On the parallel emergence of phenotypic similarity under domestication 454–476; S. Pain, From biorhetorics to zoorhetorics, 498–508; K. Tüür, Bird sounds in nature writing: Human perspective on animal communication, 580–613; E. Vladimirova, Sign activity of mammals as means of ecological adaptation, 614–636; C. Brentari Konrad Lorenz’s epistemological criticism towards Jakob von Uexküll, 637–660). *Klopfer, P. (1974), Linguistics: Perspectives in Zoosemiotics. Thomas A. Sebeok. ''American Anthropologist'' 76: 939. *Felice Cimatti, 2002. ''Mente e linguaggio negli animali. Introduzione alla zoosemiotica cognitiva''. Roma, Carocci. *Remo Gramigna 2010. Augustine's legacy for the history of zoosemioitcs. ''Hortus Semioticus'' 6. * Kull, Kalevi 2003. Thomas A. Sebeok and biology: building biosemiotics. ''Cybernetics & Human Knowing'' 10(1): 47–60 *Martinelli, Dario 2007. ''Zoosemiotics. Proposal for a Handbook''. Helsinki: Acta Semiotica Fennica 26. Imatra: International Semiotics Institute at Imatra. *Martinelli, Dario 2010. ''A Critical Companion to Zoosemiotics: People, Paths, Ideas.'' Biosemiotics 5. Berlin: Springer *Schuler, Werner 2003. Zoosemiose. In: Roland Posner, Klaus Robering and Thomas Sebeok (eds.) 2003: ''Ein Handbuch zu den zeichentheoretischen Grundlagen von Natur und Kultur / A Handbook on the Signtheoretic Foundations of Nature and Culture.'' Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 522–531. *Sebeok, Thomas A. 1990. ''Essays in Zoosemiotics'' (= Monograph Series of the TSC 5). Toronto: Toronto Semiotic Circle; Victoria College in the University of Toronto. *Smith, W. John 1974. Zoosemiotics: ethology and the theory of signs. ''Current Trends in Linguistics'' 12: 561–626 * Turovski, Aleksei 2002. On the zoosemiotics of health and disease. '' Sign Systems Studies'' 30.1: 213–219. {{Zoology Animal communication

See also

References

Further reading