Semiotics: The Basics (4^th Ed.)
The Basics
The Basics Series

This fourth edition of the bestselling textbook, now available in print, eBook, and audiobook, has been fully updated, continuing to provide a concise introduction to the key concepts of semiotics in accessible and jargon-free language.

Demystifying what is a complex, highly interdisciplinary field, key questions covered include: what are signs and codes? What can semiotics teach us about representation and reality? What tools does it offer for analysing texts and cultural practices? The fourth edition of Semiotics: The Basics focuses in particular on its application to communication and cultural studies. It has been extensively revised and extended, with an entirely new section on cognitive semiotics, many more illustrations, and a new glossary.

With updates to theory, further examples, and suggestions for review and further reading, this must-have resource is both the ideal introductory text and an essential reference guide for students at all levels of language and communication, media, and cultural studies.

List of illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Definitions

Relation to philosophy and linguistics

Structuralism

Why study semiotics?

1 Models

The Saussurean model

Arbitrariness

The relational system

The Peircean model

Jakobson’s model

Sign relations

Symbolic relations

Iconic relations

Indexical relations

The case of photography

Mixed modes

Types and tokens

Rematerializing the sign

Hjelmslev’s model

Reflections

Further reading

2 Realities

Categorization

Language, thought, and reality

Referentiality

Referentiality

Modality

The word is not the thing

Empty signifiers

Reflections

Further reading

3 Structures

Horizontal and vertical axes

The paradigmatic dimension

The commutation test

Oppositions

Markedness

Deconstruction

Conceptual alignment

The semiotic square

The syntagmatic dimension

Spatial relations

Sequential relations

Structural reduction

Langue and parole

Reflections

Further reading

4 Codes

The language model

Digital and analogue codes

Typologies

Social codes

Textual codes

Genre

Aesthetic realisms

Invisible editing

Interpretive codes

Ways of reading

Codification

Limitations

Reflections

Further reading

5 Ways of meaning

Rhetorical tropes

Metaphor

Metonymy

Synecdoche

Irony

Master tropes

Denotation and connotation

Myth

Reflections

Further reading

6 Interactions

Models of communication

Context and relevance

Communicative functions

The positioning of the subject

Modes of address

Intertextuality

Problematizing authorship

No text is an island

Intratextuality

Textual framing

Reflections

Further reading

7 Perspectives

Structuralist semiotics

Poststructuralist semiotics

The return of Saussure

Social semiotics

Cognitive semiotics

Cartesian dualism

Semiotic stances

Mental representation

Embodiment

Methodologies

An ecological and multimodal approach

Reflections

Further reading

Going further

Glossary

References

Index

Daniel Chandler is an Emeritus faculty member at Aberystwyth University and a consultant in marketing semiotics. He is also the senior compiler of A Dictionary of Media and Communication (3rd edition, Oxford University Press, 2020) and A Dictionary of Social Media (Oxford University Press, 2016).