Comparer des méthodes

	Analyse sémiotique basée sur le terrain	Analyse du discours	Ethnographie
Domaine	Qualitatif	Recherche qualitative	Qualitatif
Famille	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Année d'origine	1980s–1990s (systematic field application)	1989 (Fairclough); 1987 (Potter & Wetherell)	c. 1922 (Malinowski's Argonauts of the Western Pacific)
Auteur d'origine	Developed from Ferdinand de Saussure's semiology and Charles S. Peirce's semiotics; applied to fieldwork by Hodge & Kress (social semiotics) and later multimodal theorists	Norman Fairclough; Jonathan Potter and Margaret Wetherell	Bronisław Malinowski (modern ethnography); rooted in 19th-century anthropology
Type	Qualitative interpretive approach	Method	Qualitative fieldwork tradition
Source fondatrice	Hodge, R., & Kress, G. (1988). Social Semiotics. Polity Press. ISBN: 978-0745600635	Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. Longman.	Hammersley, M. & Atkinson, P. (2019). Ethnography: Principles in Practice (4th ed.). Routledge. ISBN: 978-1138504462
Alias	semiotic fieldwork, ethnographic semiotics, field semiotics, social semiotics in the field	DA, Critical Discourse Analysis, Discursive Analysis	Etnografi, participant observation, fieldwork, ethnographic research
Apparentées	4	2	5
Résumé	Field-based semiotic analysis is a qualitative approach that combines sustained fieldwork observation with systematic semiotic analysis of signs, symbols, and meaning-making practices encountered in a natural setting. Drawing on the social semiotic tradition of Hodge and Kress, the researcher enters a social field, records its multimodal sign systems — including visual, spatial, gestural, and textual elements — and interprets how participants use and negotiate signs to construct social meanings.	Discourse analysis is a qualitative research methodology that examines how language, communication, and power shape meaning, identity, and social reality. Developed across linguistics, sociology, and psychology (particularly by Norman Fairclough and Jonathan Potter), discourse analysis goes beyond content to analyze language use as a social practice that constitutes and reflects power relations, ideologies, and social structures.	Ethnography is a qualitative research tradition in which a researcher immerses themselves in a social group or community over an extended period — typically three to six months or longer — to study its culture, values, and behaviours in their natural setting. Originating in social and cultural anthropology, and consolidated as a rigorous method by Bronisław Malinowski in the early twentieth century, ethnography produces rich, contextualised accounts of how people live, work, and make meaning together.