A Theory of Semiotics

by Eco, Umberto

• ISBN13: 9780253202178
• ISBN10: 0253202175
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1979-02-01
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

"... 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 CommunicationEco's treatment demonstrates his mastery of the field of semiotics. It focuses on the twin problems of the doctrine of signs -- communication and signification -- and offers a highly original theory of sign production, including a carefully wrought typology of signs and modes of production.

Author Biography

Umberto Eco is Professor of Semiotics in the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy at the University of Bologna

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vii
Note on graphic conventions	p. xi
Introduction--Toward a Logic of Culture	p. 3
Design for a semiotic theory	p. 3
'Semiotics': field or discipline?	p. 7
Communication and/or signification	p. 8
Political boundaries: the field	p. 9
Natural boundaries: two definitions of semiotics	p. 14
Natural boundaries: inference and signification	p. 16
Natural boundaries: the lower threshold	p. 19
Natural boundaries: the upper threshold	p. 21
Epistemological boundaries	p. 28
Signification and Communication	p. 32
An elementary communicational model	p. 32
Systems and codes	p. 36
The s-code as structure	p. 38
Information, communication, signification	p. 40
Theory of Codes	p. 48
The sign-function	p. 48
Expression and content	p. 50
Denotation and connotation	p. 54
Message and text	p. 57
Content and referent	p. 58
Meaning as cultural unit	p. 66
The interpretant	p. 68
The semantic system	p. 73
The semantic markers and the sememe	p. 84
The KF model	p. 96
A revised semantic model	p. 105
The model "Q"	p. 121
The format of the semantic space	p. 125
Overcoding and undercoding	p. 129
The interplay of codes and the message as an open form	p. 139
Theory of Sign Production	p. 151
A general survey	p. 151
Semiotic and factual statements	p. 158
Mentioning	p. 161
The problem of a typology of signs	p. 172
Critique of iconism	p. 191
A typology of modes of production	p. 217
The aesthetic text as invention	p. 261
The rhetorical labor	p. 276
Ideological code switching	p. 289
The Subject of Semiotics	p. 314
References	p. 319
Index of authors	p. 347
Index of subjects	p. 351
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