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similarity or a physical link between them. For
example, relationships between a flag and a coun-
try or a name and an object result from a convention.
Peirce developed a semiotic set of principles with
a triadic model of a sign consisting of the repre-
sentamen - the form (material or abstract) that the
sign takes; the interpretant - the sense made of the
sign; and the referent - the object to which the sign
stands for. Peirce (1931-1935/1958) considered
logic as formal semiotics, a study of signs that is
relevant to the universe, not only to linguistic stud-
ies. The semiotic triangle of Ogden and Richards
(1923/1989) became a well-known model of the
semiotic triangle that uses the concepts of: a sign
with physically existing sign vehicle; meaning as
a referent, the actual thing or event to which think-
ing or symbolization refers; a symbol and what it
stands for, or an artifact and what it expresses.
Later on, semioticians examined natural lan-
guage, communication with signs, symbols, icons,
codes, spoken and written communication tools,
and conventions that allow communication, mainly
in art and literature. They also studied semantic
relations between a sign and its denotation - its
primary meaning. According to a semiotician
Roland Posner, semiotics deals with sign processes
(semiosis) and involves the following factors:
ming or markup languages. Further implementation
to computer languages As stated by Tanaka-Ishii
(2010), studies on programming languages and
computer programs in terms of the semiotic discus-
sion of signs help to situate certain technological
phenomena within human networks and explain
the process of creating meaning by both comput-
ers and humans. Research on symbolic systems of
interconnected symbolic meanings (for example, at
the Stanford University, 2012) focuses on dynamic
relationships between symbols, human and machine
intelligence, and includes natural language, program-
ming languages, mathematical logic, and non-verbal
communication, such as through sign languages.
“The Meaning” (Figure 3) symbolizes the
language of gestures, which helps to impart, com-
municate, and convey what we want to say with
sign languages, pantomime, acting ballet, and other
means of non-verbal performance. A hand can tell
a lot about a person who can be aged, tired, weary,
exhausted, or fatigued. Hands may be well kept,
and may be skilled, and thus you can recognize
a good designer by the way they handle paper.
Signs
The semiotic content of visual design is important
for non-verbal communication applied to practice,
especially for visualizing knowledge or communi-
cating online. People use signs to communicate or
express something. For this purpose they assign
denotations to signs and words - fixed, relevant,
and logical meanings, and connotations - more
subjective and immaterial, context-dependent
meanings, all of them dependent on the anthro-
pological, social, cultural, and psychological fac-
tors. For example, to convey information about
somebody's heart people draw anatomical illustra-
tion and depict denotative meaning of the word.
When referring to the heart as an icon, they draw
a symbol of heart to evoke connotations typical of
their cultural group. According to Daniel Chandler
(2001), in photography denotation is foregrounded
at the expense of connotation.
There is a sender, who intends to convey a mes-
sage to an addressee and makes sure that he or
she is connected with him or her through a shared
channel. In preparing the intended message, the
sender chooses an appropriate code and selects
from it a signified (a meaning) that includes the
message. Since the signified is correlated through
the code with a corresponding signifier, the sender
then produces a sign that is a token of this signi-
fier. (Posner, 2009, pp. 10-11)
Application of semiotic studies to biosemiotics
and computer languages contributed to the forma-
tion of the formal language theory, the theoretical
framework of semiotics, and then played a part in
avoiding ambiguity and redundancy in program-
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