This essay briefly characterizes basic semiotic concepts and five basic approaches to signs: the logical, the structuralist, the phenomenological, the pragmatic, and the cultural approaches.The pragmatic aspect of theoretical semiotics was developed by the pragmatist founder of semiotics, the philosopher Charles S. Peirce, and further explored by Charles Morris (1901–1979). It is argued that pragmatic messages are part of the process of interpretation, which connects the signified of a given sign with the message assumed to have been intended in its production.