The first obstacle that arises when one attempts to present an overview of the development of semiotics anywhere has to do with the definition of the field. As a matter of fact, just about any research in social science can be considered semiotic or having a direct bearing on people's creation and use of signs. This being so, and because this is not a theoretical paper but an informative one, we made an arbitrary decision and adopted the following criterion: An intellectual work or enterprise is semiotic when it approaches sign systems as such, that is to say, when there is an explicit awareness of having to do with systems of signification and an overt willingness to account for them in a systematic way. Along these lines, we have excluded those works that have a narrow professional relevance, even if they deal with a semiotic system.