zoosemiotics, n.

zoosemiotics
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zoosemiotics_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2017

# zoosemioticsnoun

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zoosemiotics mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun zoosemiotics. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the noun zoosemiotics?

Fewer than 0.01occurrences per million words in modern written English

1960 | 0.0067
1970 | 0.0062
1980 | 0.006
1990 | 0.006
2000 | 0.0066
2010 | 0.006

### How is the noun zoosemiotics pronounced?

#### British English

/ˌzuːə(ʊ)sɛmiˈɒtɪks/
zoo-oh-sem-ee-OT-iks
/ˌzuːə(ʊ)siːmiˈɒtɪks/
zoo-oh-see-mee-OT-iks

#### U.S. English

/ˌzoʊəˌsimiˈɑdɪks/
zoh-uh-see-mee-AH-dicks
/ˌzoʊəˌsɛmiˈɑdɪks/
zoh-uh-sem-ee-AH-dicks

### Where does the noun zoosemiotics come from?

Earliest known use

1960s

The earliest known use of the noun zoosemiotics is in the 1960s.

OED's earliest evidence for zoosemiotics is from 1963, in the writing of T. A. Sebeok.

### Nearby entries

1. zooplankton, n. 1897–
2. zooplanktonic, adj. 1912–
3. zooplastic, adj. a1855–
4. zoopraxinoscope, n. 1889–
5. zoopraxiscope, n. 1881–
6. zoopraxography, n. 1891–
7. zoopsychology, n. 1847–
8. zooscopic, adj. 1817–
9. zooscopy, n. 1891–
10. zoosematic, adj. 1898–1909
11. zoosemiotics, n.1963–
12. zoosophy, n. 1662–1848
13. zoosperm, n. 1824–
14. zoospermatic, adj. 1845–79
15. zoosporangiophore, n. 1889–
16. zoosporangium, n. 1862–
17. zoospore, n. 1842–
18. zoosporic, adj. 1854–
19. zoosporous, adj. 1845–
20. zoot, n. 1942–
21. zootaxy, n. 1833–

## Meaning & use

1. 1963–
   (In plural with singular agreement) the study of communication through semiosis or the use of signs, within and across animal species.
   Zoosemiotics also includes non-verbal communication among humans but excludes language-derived semiotic systems such as sign language or Morse code.
   1. 1963

      > The term zoosemiotics—constructed in an exchange between Rulon Wells and me—is proposed for the discipline, within which the science of signs intersects with ethology, devoted to the scientific study of signaling behavior in and across animal species.

      T. A. Sebeok in Language vol. 39 465
   2. 1978

      > In a collection of papers written by various experts in the field of..‘zoosemiotics’—in other words, animal communication—each writer tries valiantly to define what he means by the term.

      New Yorker 17 April 78
   3. 2011

      > Zoosemiotics also studies the ways animals make sense of their environment and other animals.

      T. Maran et al., Readings in Zoosemiotics 1
   animals
   1. tetrapodology 1764–1860
      A treatise on quadrupeds; the branch of zoology concerned with quadrupeds.
   2. zoophysiology 1803–
      Animal physiology.
   3. animal science 1819–
      (Originally) the branch of natural science or biology dealing with the animal kingdom (= zoology, n. 1) (now rare); spec. (in later use) zoological…
   4. zoochemistry 1835–
      The biochemistry of animals.
   5. animal psychology 1838–
      The study of animal behaviour; ethology.
   6. marine zoology 1840–
      The study of animals living in the sea.
   7. palaeozoology 1843–
      The branch of zoology that deals with extinct and fossil animals.
   8. zoogeography 1851–
      The geographical distribution of animals; the branch of science dealing with this. Cf. biogeography, n., phytogeography, n.
   9. cainozoology 1861–
      (See quot.)
   10. zoography 1869–
       The geographical distribution of animals; the branch of science dealing with this; = zoogeography, n.
   11. ethology 1874–
       Zoology. Originally: the scientific study of the natural history or ecology of animals (now historical and rare). In later use: the scientific…
   12. zoophysics 1887–
       The scientific study of the physical structure of animals; comparative anatomy.
   13. animal behaviour 1888–
       The behaviour of animals; (in later use) esp. the study of this as a branch of zoology (cf. ethology, n. 4).
   14. neontology 1889–
       The branch of biology, esp. of zoology, concerned with extant or recently living organisms, as opposed to fossil or extinct forms. Often contrasted…
   15. zoopraxography 1891–
       a. The branch of knowledge that deals with animal motion. b. A series of photographs of a moving subject, esp. an animal, used to portray…
   16. ethnozoology 1899–
       The traditional knowledge and customs of a people concerning animals; the scientific study or description of this.
   17. behavioural scientist 1940–
       An expert in or student of one or more of the behavioural sciences.
   18. zoosemiotics 1963–
       (In plural with singular agreement) the study of communication through semiosis or the use of signs, within and across animal species.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˌzuːə(ʊ)sɛmiˈɒtɪks/
zoo-oh-sem-ee-OT-iks
/ˌzuːə(ʊ)siːmiˈɒtɪks/
zoo-oh-see-mee-OT-iks
/ˌzəʊə(ʊ)sɛmiˈɒtɪks/
zoh-oh-sem-ee-OT-iks
/ˌzəʊə(ʊ)siːmiˈɒtɪks/
zoh-oh-see-mee-OT-iks

### U.S. English

/ˌzoʊəˌsimiˈɑdɪks/
zoh-uh-see-mee-AH-dicks
/ˌzoʊəˌsɛmiˈɑdɪks/
zoh-uh-sem-ee-AH-dicks
/ˌzuəˌsimiˈɑdɪks/
zoo-uh-see-mee-AH-dicks
/ˌzuəˌsɛmiˈɑdɪks/
zoo-uh-sem-ee-AH-dicks

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- ɬrhingyll
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛtl/ but /ˈpɛtl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- iːfleece
- ihappy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- atrap, bath
- ɑːstart, palm, bath
- ɒlot
- ɔːthought, force
- ʌstrut
- ʊfoot
- uːgoose
- əletter
- əːnurse
- ɪənear
- ɛːsquare
- ʊəcure
- eɪface
- ʌɪpride
- aʊmouth
- əʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ãgratin
- ɒ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye*
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

* /d/ also represents a 'tapped' /t/ as in

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but /ˈpɛdl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- ifleece, happy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- ætrap, bath
- ɑlot, palm, cloth, thought
- ɑrstart
- ɔcloth, thought
- ɔrnorth, force
- ʊfoot
- ugoose
- əstrut, comma
- ərnurse, letter
- ɪ(ə)rnear
- ɛ(ə)rsquare
- ʊ(ə)rcure
- eɪface
- aɪpride
- aʊmouth
- oʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ɑ̃gratin
- æ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.S. English Simple Text Respell.

##### Consonants

b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and z have their standard English values

- gguy
- jjay
- yyore
- chchore
- khloch
- shshore
- ththaw
- dhthee
- zhbeige

##### Vowels

- atrap
- ahpalm
- airsquare
- arstart
- arrcarry (British only)
- awthought
- ayface
- a(ng)gratin
- edress
- eefleece
- eerdeer
- errmerry
- ikit
- ighpride
- irrmirror
- olot (British only)
- ohgoat
- oogoose
- oorcure
- orforce
- orrsorry (British only)
- owmouth
- oyvoice
- o(ng)salon
- ustrut
- uhletter
- urnurse
- urrhurry
- uufoot

## Frequency

zoosemiotics typically occurs fewer than 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.

zoosemiotics is in frequency band 2, which contains words occurring between 0.001 and 0.01 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands

Frequency data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

### Frequency of zoosemiotics, n., 1960–2010

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.

The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.

For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.

Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.

Decade | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
1960 | 0.0067
1970 | 0.0062
1980 | 0.006
1990 | 0.006
2000 | 0.0066
2010 | 0.006

Originally published as part of the entry for zoo-, comb. form

zoo-, comb. form was revised in June 2017.