Applying Sebeok’s Typology of Signs to the Study of Flags

Abstract

Raven, Vol. 19, 2012, pp. 57–98 ISSN 1071-0043 ©2012 NAVA The study of flags is sometimes dismissed as a useful bit of knowledge for protocol officers and the like; the Library of Congress classifies it as one of the “Auxiliary Sciences of History”. However, the broader truth is that flags are one of the primary means by which political identities are signified, and vexillology has much to offer the student of communications.