Methodology of zoosemiotics: concepts, categorisations, models
Methodology of zoosemiotics: concepts, categorisations, models

Summary/Abstract: Animals and human–animal relations are studied in a number of different research paradigms deriving from biology, medicine, sociology, philosophy, literary criticism, and others. Each and every one of them brings along its own methodological character and style of research – from the quantitative and strict approaches in anthrozoology and sociological research to the open and reflective reasoning of critical studies. In this array of different possible approaches, zoosemiotics and semiotic studies of animals try to hold a middle ground. The research objects of zoosemiotics are complex as a result of their individual character, of the biological and semiotic variety of animal species, and of the many possible human–animal interactions. This has resulted in a need for a well-forged methodology. Common methodological devices are a prerequisite for developing any systemic and comprehensive understanding of animal semiosis, since they make it possible to compare different species and case studies, and provide zoo semiotics with some capacity for prediction. At the same time, however, zoosemiotics is inclined toward qualitative methodologies and research methods. Quantitative methods and statistics-based analyses, commonly used in biology and other life sciences, may well form a background for zoosemiotic research, but asking qualitative questions is always in the foreground. Instead of rigid concepts, structural distinctions and categories, methodology in zoosemiotics is best understood as dynamical and adjustable.

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