Abstract

The aims of this article are to outline the nature and scope of psychosemiotics and to highlight its foundations in the semiotic theory of Charles Sanders Peirce. Psychosemiotics, defined as the study of how humans learn, understand, and use signs, is grounded in the theory of the sign and semiosis as conceived by Peirce. Psychosemiotics addresses representation and meaning in seven signways: linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, social-personal, and naturalistic. Two other features of Peircean theory are emphasized: feeling and emotion as Firstness lie at the heart of every developing sign, and the theory offers a framework for understanding psychosemiotics as an evolutionary phenomenon that operates within particular biological possibilities and restraints.