Semiosis refers to what process?

• A. The study of sounds
• B. The study of words' histories
• C. The process of forming sentences
• D. The process of relating signs to meanings

Answer: (D)

Semiosis is the process of relating signs to meanings. A sign can be a word, an image, or a gesture, and semiosis describes how that sign points to something else and how people interpret it to grasp its meaning. It’s about meaning-making through interpretation, not just about how language sounds, where words come from, or how sentences are formed. The other areas—study of sounds (phonology), word histories (etymology), and sentence construction (syntax)—address different aspects of language, while semiosis focuses on how signs carry and convey meaning through interpretation.