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{{Short description|American semiotician (1920–2001)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox academic
| honorific_prefix = 
| name = Thomas Sebeok
| honorific_suffix =
| image = SebeokinTartu_(cropped).jpg
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| caption = Sebeok giving a lecture in [[Tartu]]
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| birth_name = {{lang|hu|Sebők Tamás|italics=no}}
| birth_date = {{birth date|1920|11|9}}
| birth_place = [[Budapest]], [[Kingdom of Hungary]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|2001|12|21|1920|11|9}}
| death_place = [[Bloomington, Indiana]], U.S.
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| education = {{ubl|[[University of Chicago]]|[[Princeton University]]}}
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| workplaces = [[Indiana University]]
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| main_interests = {{ubl|[[Semiotics]] ([[biosemiotics]], [[zoosemiotics]])|[[Linguistics]]}}
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[[File:Dezső Sebeok and Vera Perlmann and their son Thomas Albert Sebeok (c1924).jpg|thumb|260px|Dezső Sebeok and Vera Perlmann and their son Thomas ({{c.|1924}})]]
{{Semiotics}}
'''Thomas Albert Sebeok''' ({{lang-hu|Sebők Tamás}}, {{IPA-hu|ˈʃɛbøːk ˈtɒmaːʃ|pron}}; November 9, 1920{{snd}}December 21, 2001) was a Hungarian-born American [[polymath]],<ref name=Cobley>Cobley, Paul; Deely, John; Kull, Kalevi; Petrilli, Susan (eds.) (2011). ''[https://www.academia.edu/31152875/Semiotics_Continues_to_Astonish Semiotics Continues to Astonish: Thomas A. Sebeok and the Doctrine of Signs]''. (Semiotics, Communication and Cognition 7.) Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.</ref> [[semiotics|semiotician]], and [[linguistics|linguist]].<ref>[[Jesper Hoffmeyer|Hoffmeyer, Jesper]] (2002). [https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=275596 Obituary: Thomas A. Sebeok.] ''[[Sign Systems Studies]]'' 30(1): 383–385.</ref><ref>McDowell, J. H. (2003). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4137759 Thomas A. Sebeok (1920-2001)]. ''Journal of American Folklore''.</ref><ref>Marcel Danesi and Albert Valdman (2004). [http://www.jstor.org/stable/4489665 Thomas A. Sebeok]. ''Language''. Vol. 80, No. 2, pp. 312-317</ref><ref>Brier S. (2003). [https://research.cbs.dk/en/publications/thomas-sebeok-mister-biosemiotics-an-obituary-for-thomas-a-sebeok Thomas Sebeok: Mister (Bio)semiotics. An obituary for Thomas A. Sebeok]. ''Cybernetics & Human Knowing'' 10(1): 102-105(4)</ref><ref>{{cite journal | url=https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2003.105.1.228 | doi=10.1525/aa.2003.105.1.228 | title=Thomas Albert Sebeok (1920-2001) | year=2003 | last1=Anderson | first1=Myrdene | journal=American Anthropologist | volume=105 | pages=228–231 }}</ref> As one of the founders of the [[biosemiotics]] field, he studied non-human and cross-species signaling and communication.<ref>[[Kull, Kalevi]] (2003). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233524594_Thomas_A_Sebeok_and_biology_Building_biosemiotics Thomas A. Sebeok and biology: Building biosemiotics]. ''Cybernetics and Human Knowing'' 10(1): 47–60.</ref> He is also known for his work in the development of [[long-time nuclear waste warning messages]], in which he worked with the [[Human Interference Task Force]] (established 1981) to create methods for keeping the inhabitants of Earth away from buried nuclear waste that will still be hazardous 10,000 or more years in the future.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mat.ucsb.edu/~g.legrady/academic/courses/01sp200a/students/enricaLovaglio/pandora/Pandora.html|title=Pandora's Box: How and Why to Communicate 10,000 Years into the Future|website=www.mat.ucsb.edu}}</ref>

== Early life and education ==
Thomas Sebeok was born on November 9, 1920, in [[Budapest]], [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungary]]. He attended secondary school at the famous [[Fasori Gimnázium]], which educated notables such as [[John von Neumann]] and [[Eugene Wigner]]. After a brief stint at Cambridge University (Magdalene College) in England, he moved to the United States at the age of 17 and became a [[naturalized citizen]] in 1944.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-jan-07-me-20890-story.html/|title=Thomas Sebeok, 81; Linguist Debunked Theory About Apes|website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=7 January 2002 |language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-12}}</ref>
Sebeok earned a bachelor's degree in 1941 at the [[University of Chicago]]. He earned a master's degree in [[anthropological linguistics]], under the external guidance of [[Roman Jakobson]], at [[Princeton University]] in 1943 and, in 1945, a doctorate at [[Princeton University]]; his dissertation was titled ''Finnish and Hungarian case systems: their form and function''.<ref name=IUarchive/>

== Academic work ==
In 1943, Sebeok started work at [[Indiana University]] in [[Bloomington, Indiana|Bloomington]], assisting the [[Native American studies|Amerindianist]] [[Charles F. Voegelin|Carl Voegelin]] in managing the country's largest Army Specialized Training Program in foreign languages. He then created the university's department of [[Uralic languages|Uralic]] and [[Altaic languages|Altaic]] Studies, covering the languages of Eastern Europe, Russia and Asia. He was also the chair of the university's Research Center for Language and Semiotic Studies.

As a professor at Indiana University, Sebeok studied both human and non-human systems of signaling and communication, as well as the [[philosophy of mind]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.semioticsocietyofamerica.org/index.php/sebeok-fellow-award/|title=Sebeok Fellow Award – Semiotic Society of America|language=en-US|access-date=2019-11-11}}</ref> He was among the founders of [[biosemiotics]], and coined the term "[[zoosemiotics]]" in 1963 to describe the development of signals and signs by non-human animal species.<ref>[[Kalevi Kull|Kull, Kalevi]] 2014. [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269759184_Zoosemiotics_is_the_study_of_animal_forms_of_knowing Zoosemiotics is the study of animal forms of knowing]. ''Semiotica'' 198: 47–60.</ref> He also continued his work as a linguist, publishing several articles and books analyzing aspects of the [[Mari language]] (referring to it by the name "Cheremis"). His transdisciplinary work and professional collaborations spanned the fields of anthropology, biology, folklore studies, linguistics, psychology, and semiotics.<ref name=":0" />

Sebeok was the editor-in-chief of the journal ''[[Semiotica]]'', the leading periodical in the field, from its establishing in 1969 until 2001.<ref>Watt, W. (2006). Thomas A. Sebeok: In memoriam Semiotica, Issue, 1-525. Retrieved 2 Mar. 2012, from {{doi|10.1515/semi.2003.091}}</ref> He was also the editor of several book series and encyclopedias, including ''Approaches to Semiotics'' (over 100 volumes), ''Current Trends in Linguistics'', and the ''Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics''.<ref name=":0" />

In the early 1980s, Sebeok composed a report for the US Office of Nuclear Waste Management titled ''Communication Measures To Bridge Ten Millennia'',<ref>{{cite book | author=Thomas A. Sebeok | title=Communication Measures to Bridge Ten Millennia | place=Columbus, Ohio | publisher=Battelle Memorial Institute, Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation | year=1984 | doi=10.2172/6705990 | osti=6705990 | url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1199078/ }}</ref> discussing solutions to the problem of [[nuclear semiotics]], a system of signs aimed at warning future civilizations from entering geographic areas contaminated by nuclear waste.<ref>{{cite book | author=Umberto Eco | author-link=Umberto Eco | title=The search for the perfect language | publisher=Wiley-Blackwell | year=1995 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/searchforperfect00ecou/page/176 176]–177 | isbn=0-631-17465-6 | url=https://archive.org/details/searchforperfect00ecou | url-access=registration }}</ref> The report proposed a "folkloric relay system" and the establishment of an "atomic priesthood" of physicists, anthropologists, and semioticians to create and preserve a common cultural narrative of the hazardous nature of nuclear waste sites.<ref>{{cite magazine | url = http://www.slate.com/id/2235504/pagenum/all/ | date = 2009-11-16 | last = Lapidos | first = Juliet | title = Atomic priesthoods, thorn landscapes, and Munchian pictograms. | magazine = Slate | access-date = 2009-09-19}}</ref>

In addition to his academic work, Sebeok organized hundreds of international conferences and institutes, held leadership roles in organizations such as the [[Linguistic Society of America]], [[International Association for Semiotic Studies]], [[Committee for Skeptical Inquiry]], and the [[Semiotic Society of America]], and supported the creation of linguistic and semiotics teaching programs and scholarly associations throughout the world.<ref name=Cobley/>

Sebeok's personal library on semiotics, comprising more than 4,000 volumes of books and 700 journals, is preserved at the Department of Semiotics at the [[University of Tartu]] in Estonia.<ref>[http://www.tartupostimees.ee/592972/semiootikakorufee-kink-rikastab-tartu-ulikooli/ Gift from an illustrious semiotician enriches Tartu University]. ''[[Postimees]]'', 10-10-2011. {{in lang|et}}</ref> His correspondence and research files are held by the Indiana University Archives.<ref name=IUarchive>{{Cite web|url=http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/findingaids/view?doc.view=entire_text&docId=InU-Ar-VAE0871|title=Thomas Sebeok papers, 1940-2001 and undated; A Guide to his Papers at the Indiana University Archives|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-12}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Sebeok married Mary Eleanor Lawton (1912–2005) in 1947. They had one child, Veronica C. Wald, and later divorced. Sebeok married Donna Jean Umiker (born 1946, now D. Jean Umiker-Sebeok), a fellow semiotic scholar and his frequent collaborator and co-author, in 1973, and they had two children, Jessica A. Sebeok and Erica L. Sebeok. Sebeok retired from Indiana University in 1991, but he contributed to the field of semiotics until his death in 2001.<ref name=IUarchive/>

== Sebeok Fellow Award ==
The Sebeok Fellow Award "recognizes outstanding contributions to the development of the doctrine of signs" and is the highest honor given by the [[Semiotic Society of America]]. It is awarded every 2 to 4 years. Recipients have included [[David Savan]] (1992), [[John Deely]] (1993), Paul Bouissac (1996), [[Jesper Hoffmeyer]] (2000), [[Kalevi Kull]] (2003), Floyd Merrell (2005), [[Susan Petrilli]] (2008), [[Irmengard Rauch]] (2011), Paul Cobley (2014), [[Vincent Colapietro]] (2018), Nathan Houser (2019), [[Marcel Danesi]] (2020).<ref name=":0" /><ref>[https://www.pdcnet.org/collection/show?id=ajs_2020_0036_0001_0001_0009&file_type=pdf 'Introducing the Tenth and Eleventh SSA Sebeok Fellows: Vincent Colapietro and Nathan Houser'], ''The American Journal of Semiotics'', Volume 36, Issue 1/2, 2020 (Sebeok Fellows Issue: Vincent Colapietro and Nathan Houser).</ref>

==Selected English publications==
*{{cite journal |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/409554|jstor=409554 |title=An Examination of the Austroasiatic Language Family |last1=Sebeok |first1=Thomas A. |journal=Language |year=1942 |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=206–217 |doi=10.2307/409554 }}
*{{cite journal |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/663436 |jstor=663436 |title=Linguistics and the Age and Area Hypothesis |last1=Bonfante |first1=G. |last2=Sebeok |first2=Thomas A. |journal=American Anthropologist |year=1944 |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=382–386 |doi=10.1525/aa.1944.46.3.02a00100 }}
*{{cite journal |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3628730 |jstor=3628730 |title=Work and Cult among the Hungarian Peasants |last1=Gunda |first1=Béla |last2=Sebeok |first2=Thomas A. |journal=Southwestern Journal of Anthropology |year=1947 |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=147–163 |doi=10.1086/soutjanth.3.2.3628730 |s2cid=147181353 }}
*{{cite journal |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/27649978 |jstor=27649978 |last1=Sebeok |first1=Thomas A. |last2=Baughman |first2=Ernest W. |title=A New Collection of Hungarian Folktales |journal=Hoosier Folklore |year=1949 |volume=8 |issue=2/3 |pages=50–66 }}
*{{cite journal |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/4204100 |jstor=4204100 |last1=Sebeok |first1=Thomas A. |last2=Lane |first2=Evelyn |title=The Cheremis Folksong: A Soviet Viewpoint |journal=The Slavonic and East European Review |year=1949 |volume=28 |issue=70 |pages=139–151 }}
*{{cite journal |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/40454330 |jstor=40454330 |title=Folksong Viewed as Code and Message. A Cheremis Sonnet |last1=Sebeok |first1=Thomas A. |journal=Anthropos |year=1959 |volume=54 |issue=1/2 |pages=141–153 }}
*Sebeok, Thomas A., ed. ''Style in Language.'' New York and London: The Technology Press of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, 1960. {{ISBN|9780262190077}}
*{{cite journal |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1715212 |jstor=1715212 |title=Animal Communication |last1=Sebeok |first1=Thomas A. |journal=Science |year=1965 |volume=147 |issue=3661 |pages=1006–1014 |doi=10.1126/science.147.3661.1006 |pmid=14245775 |bibcode=1965Sci...147.1006S |s2cid=22727597 }}
*{{cite journal |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/42574310 |jstor=42574310 |title=Aspects of Animal Communication: The Bees and Porpoises |last1=Sebeok |first1=Thomas A. |journal=Etc: A Review of General Semantics |year=1967 |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=59–83 }}
*{{cite journal |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/454548 |jstor=454548 |title="Zoosemiotics" |last1=Sebeok |first1=Thomas A. |journal=American Speech |year=1968 |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=142–144 |doi=10.2307/454548 }}
*{{cite journal |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/40460295 |jstor=40460295 |title=Clever Hans and Smart Simians: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy and Kindred Methodological Pitfalls |last1=Umiker-Sebeok |first1=Jean |last2=Sebeok |first2=Thomas A. |journal=Anthropos |year=1981 |volume=76 |issue=1/2 |pages=89–165 }}
*Sebeok, Thomas A, Donna J. Umiker-Sebeok, and Adam Kendon. ''Nonverbal Communication, Interaction, and Gesture: Selections from Semiotica''. The Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1981.
*{{cite book
| editor-last=Eco
| editor-first=Umberto
| editor-link=Umberto Eco
| editor2-last=Sebeok
| editor2-first=Thomas A.
| editor2-link=Thomas Sebeok
| date=1984
| title=The Sign of Three: Dupin, Holmes, Peirce
| publisher=History Workshop, Indiana University Press
| location=Bloomington, IN
| isbn=978-0-253-35235-4
}}, 236 pages. Ten essays on methods of abductive inference in [[Edgar Allan Poe|Poe]]'s [[C. Auguste Dupin|Dupin]], [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Doyle]]'s [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]], [[Charles Sanders Peirce|Peirce]] and many others.
*Sebeok, Thomas A, Marcia E. Erickson, Umberto Eco, V V. Ivanov, and Mônica Rector. ''Carnival!'' Berlin: Mouton Publishers, 1984.
*Sebeok, Thomas A, Donna J. Umiker-Sebeok, and Evan P. Young. ''The Semiotic Web'', 1989. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1990.
*Sebeok, Thomas A, and Marcel Danesi. ''The Forms of Meaning: Modeling Systems Theory and Semiotic Analysis'', 2000.
*Sebeok, Thomas A. ''Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics.'' Toronto, Ont: University of Toronto Press, 2001.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/findingaids/archives/InU-Ar-VAE0871 Thomas Sebeok papers, 1940-2001 and undated] at the Indiana University Archives.
*[http://www.slis.indiana.edu/news/story.php?story_id=364 Indiana University School of Library and Information Science Press Release: "Thomas A. Sebeok, Senior Fellow at SLIS, Passes On] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204072242/http://www.slis.indiana.edu/news/story.php?story_id=364 |date=2012-02-04 }}
*[http://www.ut.ee/SOSE/sss/articles/sebeok_26.htm "The Estonian Connection"] by Thomas A. Sebeok {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070610011251/http://www.ut.ee/SOSE/sss/articles/sebeok_26.htm |date=2007-06-10 }}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sebeok, Thomas}}
[[Category:Hungarian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:University of Chicago alumni]]
[[Category:Princeton University alumni]]
[[Category:American semioticians]]
[[Category:1920 births]]
[[Category:2001 deaths]]
[[Category:American skeptics]]
[[Category:Linguists of Muskogean languages]]
[[Category:Linguistic Society of America presidents]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Semiotic Society of America]]