With this paper we try to comprehend the phenomenon of creolized text as a semiotic complex existing in the unity of verbal and non-verbal components. Creolized texts, combining the verbal part with visual fragments, make up most of the texts that function in the media and virtual data. Therefore, scientific information that reveals the influence of the verbal and non-verbal parts of a creolized text on its semantic perception has pragmatic value. The term "creolized text" is analyzed in our work from the point of view of its inclusion in the paradigm of semantically close definitions: "linguo-visual complex", "polycode text", "complex semiotic whole". The main stages of the study of creolized text in world and Russian science are presented in a diachronic sequence. The basic parameters of perception of the creolized text are considered. The research is intended to acquaint the reader with the main milestones in the history of the study of this phenomenon and to provide its detailed terminological definition.