Sociosemiotic Frontiers. Achievements, Challenges, and Prospects of Converging Semiotic and Social

Abstract This article reviews the achievements and challenges that appear from attempts to integrate the studies of the semiotic and the social. Based on an analysis of the projects of Social Semiotics, semiotic sociology, and sociosemiotic approach to culture, it is suggested that the development of sociosemiotics could be represented (both retrospectively and prospectively) as trajectories of two frontiers. These are the frontier of sociosemiotic material and the frontier of sociosemiotic methodology. The frontier of sociosemiotic material represents how social semiotics progresses in broadening its scope by extending the set of materials which are considered as objects of sociosemiotic analysis. The frontier of sociosemiotic methodology describes how semiotic tools are integrated with other methodologies of social studies. The article shows what key steps have already been made to transcend the boundaries between social and semiotic research, and what directions are possible for further integration of social and semiotic sciences.