First published in 1982, this book looks at a wide variety of issues concerning the vast field of study that is ‘semiotics. It begins by tracing the beginnings of modern semiotics in the works two pioneering figures — Saussure and Peirce — in order to present fundamental assumptions, notions and distinctions which provide an essential background to the more recent developments. The author then goes on to look at Behavioural Semiotics, Luis Prieto’s idea of "l’Acte Semique", Austin’s theory of ‘Speech Acts’ and Searle’s elaborations, Barthes’ move away from philosophical and scientific approaches in his ideology of Socio-Cultural Signification, Functionalism and Axiomatic Functionalism, style as a form of communication, semiotics of the cinema, and communicative behaviour in non-human species.
Introduction; 1 A Background to Semiotics: Saussure and Peirce 2 Semiotics as a Behavioural Theory: Charles Morris 3 Semiotics as a Theory of "l’Acte Sémique": Luis Prieto 4 Semiotics as a Theory of "Speech Acts": Austin and Searle 5 Semiology as an Ideology of Socio-Cultural Signification: Roland Barthes 6 Semiology as a Theory of Semiological Systems and of Indices: Functionalism 7 An Integrated Theory of Semiotics: Axiomatic Functionalism 8 Semiotics as a Stylistic Theory: Bureau and Riffaterre 9 Semiotics of the Cinema: Chrisitan Metz 10 Zoo-Semiotics; References; Index
Biography
Sándor Hervey
