Semiotics is the study of signs and sign systems. It examines how people understand phenomena and share that understanding through communication. There are three main branches of semiotics: semantics, which studies the relationship between signs and what they refer to; syntactics, which looks at relationships among signs in formal structures; and pragmatics, which considers the relationship between signs and their effects on people. Signs take on meaning through a three stage process of perception, interpretation, and response. They can also convey different values through detachment, dominance, or dependence.