Abstract:

The current paper aims to study Web ontologies from a semiotic perspective. On the one hand, the study of signs is constantly used lately in the analysis of the social life, of organisations and informational systems. On the other hand, Web ontologies may be seen as systems of signs, wishing to catch the reality of a certain field by identifying fundamental categories of identities and the relations between them. Their intention is to describe their significance as accurately as possible, so as to ensure the best communication between computing systems. Since any act of communication includes and involves signs and codes (Fiske, J., quoted in Borţun, 2006), in the current paper we bring to discussion the opportunity of using semiotics, as the science that studies signs, in the study of the Web ontologies.