A Theory of Semiotics [Paperback]

... the greatest contribution to [semiotics] since the pioneering work of C. S. Peirce and Charles Morris. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

... draws on philosophy, linguistics, sociology, anthropology and aesthetics and refers to a wide range of scholarship... raises many fascinating questions. Language in Society

... a major contribution to the field of semiotic studies. Robert Scholes, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

... the most significant text on the subject published in the English language that I know of. Arthur Asa Berger, Journal of Communication

Ecos treatment demonstrates his mastery of the field of semiotics. It focuses on the twin problems of the doctrine of signscommunication and significationand offers a highly original theory of sign production, including a carefully wrought typology of signs and modes of production.

Foreword

Note on graphic conventions

0. IntroductionToward a Logic of Culture

0.1. Design for a semiotic theory
0.2. Semiotics: field or discipline?
0.3. Communication and/or signification
0.4. Political boundaries: the field
0.5. Natural boundaries: two definitions of semiotics
0.6. Natural boundaries: inference and signification
0.7. Natural boundaries; the lower threshold
0.8. Natural boundaries: the upper threshold
0.9. Epistemological boundaries

1. Signification and Communication

1.1. An elementary communicational model
1.2. Systems and codes
1.3. The s-code as structure
1.4. Information, communication, signification

2. Theory of Codes

2.1. The sign-function
2.2. Expression and content
2.3. Denotation and connotation
2.4. Message and text
2.5 Content and referent
2.6. Meaning as cultural unit
2.7. The interpretant
2.8. The semantic system
2.9. The semantic markers and the sememe
2.10. The KF model
2.11. A revised semantic model
2.12. The model Q
2.13. The formlQ