Its name was first coined in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Charles Morris is credited with first applying it, though it was Umberto Eco who popularized it.  
Julie Kristeva appropriated the name of this field for irrational effluxes of the infantile self.  Lev Vygotsky emphasized the pragmatic-instrumental character of the elements of communication central to it.  Its name was first coined in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Charles Morris is credited with first applying it, though it was Umberto Eco who popularized it.  Charles Sanders Peirce categorized the field's subject into three types: index, icon, and symbol.  Contrasted in its early context with semantics, FTP, identify this interdisciplinary field concerned with the use of signs.
Julie Kristeva appropriated the name of this field for irrational effluxes of the infantile self.  
semiotics