There is a kind of competition between the terms Semiotics and Semiology. The term Semiology (semiologie) is used mainly from the French semiotic schools of thought in an attempt to protect the traditions of the Saussurian terminology. Saussure chose to call it Semiology so that it follows the other scientific fields like Biology, Geology, Philology, etc.
According to some authors, the use of the term Semiology was limited prior to the spreading of the ideas of Ferdinand de Saussure. The term was used a lot by authors like Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida.
On the other hand, Anglo-Saxon, Italian, German, and Russian schools of thought do prefer the term, used by Charles Sander Peirce – Semiotics. (Semiotics, semiotika, semiotik, семиотика). More or less, Semiotics is now the preferred term worldwide. Even the contemporary French semioticians accept this term.
Although “Semiotics” is the term accepted as the “official” title of the science field, it is interchangeable with “Semiology”. The reason is that “semiology” has deep roots in France, as we’ve already mentioned.
Yet, to this day some authors are trying to eliminate the competition between the terms and remove the double naming of the field, by giving different meanings of the terms.
Rolan Barthes, for example, following Louis Hjelmslev, proposes for the general study of signs to be called Semiology, and the individual research to be called Semiotics.
Louis Hjelmslev on his part, has a significantly more complex view on the matter. He differentiates semiotics (a scientific sign system) and meta-semiotics (the studying of that sign system), on one hand, and semiology (meta-semiotics of a non-scientific sign system), and meta-semiology (the studying of semiology).
Therefore, to Louis Hjelmslev, semiotics is a verbal sign system, and semiology is a non-verbal sign system, and the sciences that study them are meta-semiotics, and meta-semiology, respectively.
There are other proposals as well, but neither is fully accepted in the semiotic field. The preferred terms are general and applied semiotics.
All the sign systems are considered equal.
