Editing Semiotics (section)

=== Syntactics<!--'Syntactics' redirects here--> ===
{{anchor|Syntactics|syntactics}}
Semiotics differs from [[linguistics]] in that it generalizes the definition of a sign to encompass signs in any medium or sensory modality. Thus it broadens the range of sign systems and sign relations, and extends the definition of language in what amounts to its widest analogical or metaphorical sense. The branch of semiotics that deals with such formal relations between signs or expressions in abstraction from their signification and their interpreters,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/syntactics |title=Definition of Syntactics by Merriam-Webster|publisher=Merriam-Webster Inc. |access-date=May 29, 2019}}</ref> or—more generally—with formal properties of symbol systems<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/syntactics |title=Syntactics definition and meaning|publisher=HarperCollins Publishers |access-date=May 29, 2019}}</ref> (specifically, with reference to linguistic signs, [[syntax]])<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/Syntactics |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807022533/https://www.lexico.com/definition/syntactics |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 7, 2020 |title=Syntactics |dictionary=[[Lexico]] UK English Dictionary |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref> is referred to as '''syntactics'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->.

Peirce's definition of the term ''semiotic'' as the study of necessary features of signs also has the effect of distinguishing the discipline from linguistics as the study of contingent features that the world's languages happen to have acquired in the course of their evolutions. From a subjective standpoint, perhaps more difficult is the distinction between semiotics and the [[philosophy of language]]. In a sense, the difference lies between separate traditions rather than subjects. Different authors have called themselves "philosopher of language" or "semiotician." This difference does ''not'' match the separation between [[analytic philosophy|analytic]] and [[continental philosophy]]. On a closer look, there may be found some differences regarding subjects. Philosophy of language pays more attention to [[natural language]]s or to languages in general, while semiotics is deeply concerned with non-linguistic signification. Philosophy of language also bears connections to linguistics, while semiotics might appear closer to some of the [[humanities]] (including [[literary theory]]) and to [[cultural anthropology]].