Vexillosemiotics: Epistemological Foundations

Vexillosemiotics is the academic field dedicated to the semiotic analysis of flags and banners as complex signs. While vexillology has traditionally been the descriptive and classificatory study of flags—concerned with their design, history, and symbolism—vexillosemiotics examines how flags signify, perform, and transform meaning in sociocultural and political contexts. The term derives from vexillum, Latin for flag, and semiotics, the science of signs. It presupposes that a flag, much like a linguistic utterance, is structured through a visual grammar and engaged in a process of signification. This process is not neutral: it involves an interplay between expression and content, power and resistance, history and invention.