Thomas Sebeok

Thomas Albert Sebeok (born November 9, 1920 in Budapest , † December 21, 2001 in Bloomington , Indiana) was an American professor of semiotics .

One of his main focuses was the investigation of the communication between non-human beings ( zoo semiotics ). He is also considered the founder of biosemiotics .

life and work

Sebeok left Hungary in 1936 and studied in Cambridge (UK) for a year . He then continued his studies at the University of Chicago (degrees: Bachelor 1941, Master 1943). He became a US citizen the following year. In 1945 he received his PhD from Princeton University . Since 1943, Sebeok taught at Indiana University .

Until 1956, Sebeok was professor of linguistics , after which he was professor of semiotics at the newly founded institute “Research Center for Language and Semiotic Studies”.

In the 1980s he was involved in an investigation that examined ways of warning posterity about the dangers of nuclear final storage sites ( atomic semiotics ).

Even after his retirement in 1991, Sebeok continued to be scientifically active. He was awarded honorary doctorates from five universities.

Works

Theory and History of Semiotics. (= Rowohlt's German Encyclopedia; Volume 389), Reinbek near Hamburg, 1979 ISBN 3-499-55389-9
“You know my method”: Charles S. Peirce and Sherlock Holmes. (= Edition Suhrkamp; Volume 1121 = NF, 121), Frankfurt am Main, 1982 ISBN 3-518-11121-3
(with Umberto Eco ): The Circle or In the Sign of the Three. Dupin - Holmes - Peirce. Fink Wilhelm, 1991 ISBN 3-770-52310-5
Nonverbal Communication. In: Paul Cobley (ed.): The Routledge Companion to Semiotics and Linguistics , London: Routledge 2001, ISBN 0-415-24313-0 , pp. 14-27

literature

Sren Brier (Ed.): Thomas Sebeok and the Biosemiotic Legacy. (Volume 10/1 of the journal Cybernetics & Human Knowing , 2003)
Kalevi Kull: The architect of biosemiotics: Thomas A. Sebeok and biology. In: Paul Cobley, John Deely, Kalevi Kull, Susan Petrilli (Eds.): Semiotics Continues to Astonish: Thomas A. Sebeok and the Doctrine of Signs. (= Semiotics, Communication and Cognition 7.). De Gruyter Mouton, Berlin 2011, pp. 223-250.

Individual evidence

↑ Juliet Lapidos: Atomic priest hoods, thorn landscapes, and Munchian pictograms. . Slate. November 16, 2009. Retrieved January 21, 2012.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Sebeok, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Sebeok, Thomas Albert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American semiotics, professor of semiotics
DATE OF BIRTH	November 9, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH	Budapest
DATE OF DEATH	December 21, 2001
Place of death	Bloomington (Indiana)

[1] Juliet Lapidos: Atomic priest hoods, thorn landscapes, and Munchian pictograms. . Slate. November 16, 2009. Retrieved January 21, 2012.