Semiotics (Anthropology)

Introduction

Semiotics is broadly concerned with how signs mediate meaningful relationships in human minds, in social interactions, and even in human interactions with animals and computers. Though it has its own widely cited central theorists, theoretical schools, and areas of study, it is not widely institutionalized as a formal discipline in academics. Perhaps for this reason, semiotic theory and practice extends across many distinct areas of social life, and there are significant areas of disagreement about both theory and method. Indeed, it is clear that not all those carrying out semiotic work are aware of other theorists and the applications and debates to which their work is tied. In this sense it is more of an area of interest, organized by a broad concern with the production and comprehension of sign-mediated meaning than an academic discipline with more clearly defined goals, methods, and debates. It can be summarized as a series of influences stemming from the analogical extensions and critical reactions to the work of its two founding theorists, Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles S. Peirce. These influences have carried semiotics from linguistics and philosophy into anthropology, literary studies, film studies, mass media studies, advertising, marketing, and visual studies. Intellectual movements such as modernism, post-structuralism, and postmodernism can be related to it as well.

General Overviews

Sources that attempt to give a general overview of semiotics are typically similar. Two very basic principles unite semiotics. One is a broad concern with sign-mediated meaning. The second is that semiotics begins with the work of Saussure and/or Peirce. Thus most overviews follow a similar plan. They introduce the central concepts of one or both of these authors and then discuss how their ideas have been utilized by other theorists. Finally, they review the ways in which these concepts have been applied analytically to different contexts of communication. Within this general framing, however, there are significant differences. Some are written in a simpler style and aimed at the general reader, whereas others are more challenging. Some focus more on particular semiotic applications at the expense of others. Chandler 2002 takes a social constructivist position in a book that is easy to read and aimed at a general reader. Cobley and Jansz 1999 is similar but focuses on philosophical questions. Deely 1990 problematizes the goals of semiotics in ways that will interest those new to this field of study. The book’s strength is to develop a philosophical answer to the question of what makes semiotics distinct from other approaches to meaning and human representation. Guiraud 1975 explores many of the distinct fields that semiotics is applied to, but it does so through the lens of the author’s own philosophical concepts. A classic text, Hodge and Kress 1988, takes semiotic analysis into contexts of social interaction and investigates the social power of signs in context. The text is by two key figures in contemporary semiotics, and they have done much to promote the semiotic analysis of social life. In addition, their work is key to understanding recent semiotic work on the mass media. Johansen and Larsen 2002 makes use of six basic semiotic concepts to introduce beginning students to the field. Nöth 1990 is considered to be among the best reference books in terms of its comprehensiveness and accuracy. In entries that are typically relatively brief, the author takes historical, conceptual, generic, and institutional perspectives on the field. Sebeok 2001 presents an introduction from the perspective of a leading American semiotician. As such, more so than the others, the book is an introduction to core semiotic concepts from a Peircean perspective.

Chandler, Daniel. 2002. Semiotics: The basics. London: Routledge.
DOI: 10.4324/9780203166277Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A thorough, easy-to-read introduction cited by many as an excellent place to start. Developed out of a course for beginning students. Available online, including updates and an extended list of references and a glossary.
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Cobley, Paul, and Litza Jansz. 1999. Introducing semiotics. Edited by Richard Appignanesi. Cambridge, UK: Icon.
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An introduction for beginning students. The book motivates a philosophical interest in the subject and is particularly strong in providing a thorough historical purview of those who have contributed to the field. It details basic concepts and applies them to a broad range of fields. Visual examples appear throughout.
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Deely, John. 1990. Basics of semiotics. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.
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A book written for graduate students who are particularly interested in a philosophical approach to the subject. Provides a good introduction to the philosophical traditions of realism and idealism as they relate to semiotics and the epistemological and ontological debates that emerge from its application. Not well suited for beginning students.
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Guiraud, Pierre. 1975. Semiology. Translated by George Gross. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
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Suited to those looking for concise sections on the concepts of form, function, and substance. It covers many of the social and aesthetic codes that are studied in various fields and relates them back to core founding concepts. One of the first introductions to cover semiotics and the mass media.
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Hodge, Robert, and Gunther Kress. 1988. Social semiotics. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
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This classic text moves semiotic analysis from abstract theoretical discussions about isolated signs and categorical systems of classification to contexts of social interaction. Extending the work of Voloshinov, the authors problematize how signs mediate power in social interactions by focusing on gender and class as they are mediated by ideology.
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Johansen, Jørgen Dines, and Svend Erik Larsen. 2002. Signs in use. Translated by Dinda L. Gorleé and John Irons. London: Routledge.
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Drawing on various traditions, the authors propose six basic semiotic concepts: code, sign, discourse, action, text, and culture. They are adapted here into a unifying synthesis proposed by the book and then applied in chapter after chapter to a very broad range of sign-using experiences. Written for the beginning student.
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Nöth, Winfried. 1990. Handbook of semiotics. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.
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Not a book to be read cover to cover. It will help readers see connections among different research traditions, theorists, and concepts. It is particularly useful as a resource on the pioneering theorists in the field. It also includes an extensive bibliography.
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Sebeok, Thomas A. 2001. Signs: An introduction to semiotics. 2d ed. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press.
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The author is a central figure in the history of semiotic thought. The book is not overly technical and includes a useful glossary. It is written for undergraduate and graduate students.
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Textbooks

Though there are textbooks in semiotics, they constitute a challenging genre for this field. Indeed, on the surface they are similar to what one would call a general overview. They, too, are organized by presentations of central theorists, explications of key concepts, and examples of applications. What differentiates a textbook here, however, is when at least two of the following three conditions are met: (1) the author designates the book as a textbook, (2) discussion questions or topics are proposed for class use, and (3) exercises are constructed in line with the material presented. Marcel Danesi is a very productive writer in semiotics. He is particularly productive in writing materials intended for introductory audiences. Danesi 1994 is an excellent, albeit conventional, introduction to semiotics. Central concepts and theorists are reviewed and their work is linked to particular exercises and discussion questions. This edition also includes chapters on modern technologies. Danesi 1999, however, begins by asking students thought-provoking questions about everyday life in order to lead them to see the benefits of semiotic methods and concepts. Semiotically speaking, for example, he asks students to consider why people would risk their health and smoke, or why women would wear painful high heels. He then uses semiotic concepts to unite various disciplines’ approaches to questions such as these. Leeds-Hurwitz 1993 is an introductory textbook that takes a social-interactional approach to semiotics. The author intends to get students to see how everyday interactions are constructed out of signs that one typically takes for granted. The strength of van Leeuwen 2005 is its reliance on examples from a diverse array of cultural examples. The book engages the beginning student precisely because it directs attention to such seemingly distinct examples, and to the realms of social life from which they come. Danesi and Perron 1999 is the most challenging textbook listed here, because it aims to review semiotic theories while at the same time proposing a new synthesis for understanding semiotics as it operates in human cultures. Hall 2012 is a unique approach to a semiotics textbook. It presents seventy-five key concepts by addressing each first through a particular image. Rather than lecture the reader from the start, the author challenges the reader to consider the image and the concept together. This approach helps the reader challenge assumptions implicit in “how they see” signs in the world, while at the same time learning key concepts by example. Finally, Sebeok and Danesi 2000 constitutes a different kind of textbook. It is one that teaches an analogical approach to systems theorizing, while at the same time investigating interactions between the cultural and natural worlds.

Danesi, Marcel. 1994. Messages and meanings: An introduction to semiotics. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
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This textbook includes a useful glossary along with biographical sketches of key figures. It is written in a very clear style and is clearly intended for undergraduates. Coming at meaning from the perspective of various disciplines, the book should interest students from many different disciplines.
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Danesi, Marcel. 1999. Of cigarettes, high heels, and other interesting things: An introduction to semiotics. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan.
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This introduction from Danesi is unique. It introduces semiotics by offering various kinds of questions as springboards for considering the usefulness of semiotics as an intellectual approach. He grounds his approach in a creative use of a fictional setting of a restaurant. Easy to read and intended for undergraduates.
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Danesi, Marcel, and Paul Perron. 1999. Analyzing cultures: An introduction and handbook. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.
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This textbook is more detailed than others. It presents a Peircean perspective. The authors introduce central concepts and then present a very comprehensive discussion of how they have been applied to all major disciplines. Written at the graduate-student level, the book concludes with a thought-provoking theory about semiotic synthesis.
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Hall, Sean. 2012. This means this, this means that: A user’s guide to semiotics. London: Laurence King.
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A unique and creative approach. A theoretical argument does not organize the book from above. Instead, concepts are presented through visual images. It is an interesting way for beginning students to approach the field. The book can be what many other introductions are not—fun to read.
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Leeds-Hurwitz, Wendy. 1993. Semiotics and communication: Signs, codes, cultures. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
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This is perhaps the most conventional example of a textbook selected here. As such it provides excellent examples across a wide array of applications while also providing related material for student discussions and exercises. The particular focus is on semiotic codes relating to food, clothing, and objects.
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Sebeok, Thomas A., and Marcel Danesi. 2000. The forms of meaning: Modeling systems theory and semiotic analysis. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
DOI: 10.1515/9783110816143Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This textbook is at the forefront of the biosemiotic movement. The book helps students see broad analogical similarities across different practices and species.
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van Leeuwen, Theo. 2005. Introducing social semiotics. New York: Routledge.
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The textbook provides detailed historical contexts in order to help students understand the material and ideological causes for the operation of certain multimodal signs.
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Anthologies

The anthologies listed here are classic, rich sources for articles (or selections) widely considered to be central to semiotics from one perspective or another. Stjernfelt and Bundgaard 2011 is a recent anthology that focuses on semiotics and language with impressive breadth. It is organized across readings in philosophy, linguistics, text and image, logic, anthropology and biology, and culture, which will help the reader organize concepts and issues and see connections across disciplines in revealing and informative ways. In contrast, Blonsky 1985 is a widely cited anthology that includes selections from well-known post-structuralist writers from only a few disciplines. Primarily, they come from areas linked to literary criticism. Bouissac 1998 is organized around key concepts in semiotics. The tendency here is to favor theorists working on cultural studies. That said, however, the volume includes over three hundred contributions from authors across a variety of related fields. Innis 1986 includes not only selections from founding thinkers but also central thinkers in the historical unfolding of the influence of semiotics.

Blonsky, Marshall, ed. 1985. On signs: A semiotics reader. Oxford: Blackwell.
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This is a classic collection that brings together many seminal thinkers in post-structuralist semiotics.
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Bouissac, Paul, ed. 1998. Encyclopedia of semiotics. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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Used selectively, the reader can uncover important information on key concepts, theorists, schools of thought, and the related issues and problems that they address. The encyclopedia is, however, dense and at times difficult to read. It is not a suitable place to start for students new to the subject.
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Innis, Robert E., ed. 1986. Semiotics: An introductory anthology. London: Hutchinson.
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Though squarely still in the era before more contemporary applications of semiotics to different types of human activity, the chapters constitute a solid set of introductory selections from a diverse set of thinkers.
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Stjernfelt, Frederik, and Peer F. Bundgaard. 2011. Semiotics: Critical concepts in language studies. 4 vols. London: Routledge.
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A very useful and thorough set of readings that would be found in a library and used selectively. The articles tend toward the technical and are thus demanding. They will serve best only those readers who know what they are looking for.
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Journals

First and foremost is the journal Semiotica, which was founded in 1969 by the International Association for Semiotic Studies. Though at times it has historically leaned toward philosophical issues, it stands alone as the journal most specifically dedicated to publishing semiotic research from many different perspectives. The American Journal of Semiotics is also significant, though it is less internationally oriented and more restricted to philosophical approaches than Semiotica. Semiotics as a subject, however, is not clearly institutionalized as its own discipline in academics. Its presence in other academic journals reflects this fact. In general, there are two types of journals relating to semiotic work. Some are devoted to publishing work in semiotics that has an affiliation with an intellectual organization that links them to the subject. Others are linked to particular disciplines but include semiotically influenced analyses among its other contributions—depending, of course, on each journal’s subject and history, as well as the flow of each particular editorial board. Among the former are the International Journal of Applied Semiotics and the Public Journal of Semiotics. Among the latter are the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, the International Journal of Marketing Semiotics, and Language in Society. A final source is an interesting webpage maintained by a rare Department of Semiotics, that at the University of Tartu in Estonia. It provides international sources of various types, and it is kept up to date.

American Journal of Semiotics. 1981–.
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‪A peer-reviewed journal published by the Semiotic Society of America. It comes closest to Semiotica in its focus on semiotics and its interest in all communication and culture from the perspective of codes of meaning. It also provides a relatively unique venue for unusually long manuscripts.
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International Journal of Applied Semiotics. 1999–.
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A peer-reviewed journal that focuses on the application of semiotic theory to education, clinical practices, learning, and other areas of social concern. It maintains an interest in contributions to general semiotic theory.
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International Journal of Marketing Semiotics.
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This journal is an open-source publication for academic research in the field of marketing semiotics. Though open source, it is particularly unique and interesting in that it publishes academic research together with case study reports from agencies making practical use of semiotic marketing techniques.
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Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. 1991–.
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This journal is a peer-reviewed publication of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology, which is a section of the American Anthropological Association. Semiotic approaches are often found among this journal’s publications in linguistic anthropology, particularly those relating to social interaction.
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Language in Society. 1972–.
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This is an international peer-reviewed journal of sociolinguistics concerned with language and discourse as aspects of social life. Research with semiotic influences can appear here in fields relating to linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, and discourse at all levels of analysis.
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Public Journal of Semiotics. 2007–.
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This journal belongs to a nonprofit organization and is available online free of charge. Its general aim is to publish original research articles in domains relating to semiotics. It leans toward theoretical contributions. While still peer-reviewed, the online forum creates a new and interesting outlet.
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Semiotica. 1969–.
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Arguably the central journal for published work in semiotics. It is peer reviewed, with international scope and relevance.
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University of Tartu, Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics, Department of Semiotics.
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The university website provides a very useful guide for journals and resources relating to semiotics.
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Peirce and Saussure

Though one can trace semiotics all the way back to its classical origins, arguably all contemporary semiotic thought stems in one way or another from the work of either Ferdinand de Saussure (b. 1857–d. 1913) or Charles S. Peirce (b. 1839–d. 1914). Their writings oppose each other in volume and content. Though considered to be the founder of structuralism, Saussure published very little. Indeed, his central text, Course in General Linguistics (Saussure 1974) was reconstructed from student notes and not even published by him directly. The course itself, upon which the book was based, was only taught a few times between 1907 and 1911. Nevertheless, this book represents a primary source for essentially all who are interested in semiotics, because structure becomes a central concept in the work of a majority of those who call themselves semioticians after him. Peirce, however, published often and wrote even more. His collected writings are coming out in what will amount to a twenty-two-volume set. The parts of Peirce’s work that have been adapted in contemporary semiotics borrow heavily from his classification of sign types and the process of semiosis through which they carry meaning (Peirce 1966). There are those who have set as their goal a clear representation of the methods, concepts, and goals of Saussure’s and Peirce’s work. They are significant here. Parmentier 1994 is one of the clearest attempts to make Peirce’s ideas clear to the beginning student. Parmentier’s work here on the basic sign types is crucial for a newcomer to semiotics. Parmentier 1985 goes further in defining clearly the central concepts that were relevant to Peirce’s notion of the process of semiosis, including the seemingly contradictory concepts revolving around the vectors of representation and determination. It also documents here how Peirce’s concepts developed over time, how they operated in their most mature form, and the general implications that they have today for semiotic analysis. Similarly, Merrell 1997 writes about the development of Peirce’s ideas. Merrell focuses more, however, on general themes and issues that emerge for those considering his work from a contemporary (rather than historical) perspective. Culler 1985 is a source well known for its fair, if largely uncritical, representation of Saussure’s ideas. Gordon and Lubell 1996 presents Saussure’s ideas fairly, and in fact surprisingly accurately, in a comic book format. It is a helpful source, much like Colapietro 1993, which identifies and tracks 487 key concepts across both classic and contemporary sources.

Colapietro, Vincent. 1993. Glossary of semiotics. New York: Paragon House.
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This is a useful reference source for tracking terminology as it emerged within classic sources, such as Saussure and Peirce, and then spread to other fields and applications.
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Culler, Jonathan. 1985. Saussure. London: Fontana.
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This is a fair attempt to describe Saussure’s ideas and place them in the historical context in which they emerged. Culler provides an accurate description and traces the influence of those ideas in other disciplines. Written clearly and for beginning students.
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Gordon, W. Terrence, and Abbe Lubell. 1996. Saussure for beginners. New York: Writers and Readers.
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Though this is part of a series of comic books aimed at explicating complicated social theorists, it is nonetheless informative. It manages to make complicated ideas clear in ways that are accurate. It does this partly by putting Saussure in (fictional) dialogue with other influential social thinkers.
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Merrell, Floyd. 1997. Peirce, signs, and meaning. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press.
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Merrell works to contextualize Peirce’s work in relation to other 20th-century philosophers working on language. In addition, he works to explore some of the more general themes that inform Peirce’s writings, and in so doing brings new perspectives to them.
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Parmentier, Richard J. 1985. Signs’ place in media res: Peirce’s concept of semiotic mediation. In Semiotic mediation: Sociocultural and psychological perspectives. Edited by Elizabeth Mertz and Richard J. Parmentier, 23–48. New York: Academic Press.
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Parmentier does an impressive job here of explicating the central concepts that were relevant to Peirce’s notion of the process of semiosis.
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Parmentier, Richard J. 1994. Peirce divested for nonintimates. In Signs in society: Studies in semiotic anthropology. By Richard J. Parmentier, 3–22. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.
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This is the clearest, most accurate introduction to Peirce’s basic terminology for sign types. Students at all levels should begin here before even starting to read Peirce.
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Peirce, Charles S. 1966. Selected writings: Values in a universe of chance. Edited by Philip P. Wiener. New York: Dover.
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Peirce’s writings are collected in many different editions organized around different topics found within his writings. This is arguably the best collection for those interested in his work on semiosis and his classification of signs types.
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Saussure, Ferdinand de. 1974. Course in general linguistics. Edited by Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye, in collaboration with Albert Riedlinger. Translated by Wade Baskin. London: Fontana.
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Arguably the classic text in semiotics. From most perspectives, and be it accepted or rejected, completely or in part, it all starts here.
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Critical Readings of Saussure

Harris 1987 addresses Saussure with a critical eye. Like Culler 1985 (cited under Peirce and Saussure), this work aims to make Saussure’s theories explicit. Harris goes on to argue, however, that these theories were flawed in significant ways from the start, and in any event have long been irrelevant for the practice of contemporary linguistics. Most significantly, perhaps, Harris warns of the extension of structuralism to other types of cultural meaning. Holdcroft 1991 is an important addition to the debate around the meaning of Saussure’s ideas. Holdcroft also provides a critical description of Saussure’s central ideas, but what he adds is an excellent historical discussion of the specific ways in which Saussurean ideas have influenced other disciplines. Thibault 1997 is similar in name and goal to Harris 1987. Instead of focusing on a critical reading, however, Thibault extrapolates Saussure’s interests with meaning making and explores the implications Saussure’s work has for other realms of human practice. The work of Benveniste, best represented in Benveniste 1971, influenced many semioticians. Benveniste theoretically explored the nature of the signifier and the signified, among other Saussurean distinctions, in ways that spurred on the development of both structuralist and post-structuralist schools of thought.

Benveniste, Émile. 1971. Problems in general linguistics. Coral Gables, FL: Univ. of Miami Press.
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This series of collected essays has influenced many semioticians belonging to very different schools of thought.
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Harris, Roy. 1987. Reading Saussure: A critical commentary on Cours de linguistique générale. London: Duckworth.
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This is an important text, but not one intended for introductory students. Some background in linguistics is needed to understand the arguments being put forward.
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Holdcroft, David. 1991. Saussure: Signs, systems, and arbitrariness. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511624599Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This book is similar in certain (critical) ways to Harris 1987, but it is an easier read.
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Thibault, Paul J. 1997. Re-reading Saussure: The dynamics of signs in social life. London: Routledge.
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In contrast to Harris 1987, Thibault returns to read Saussure (again). He urges the reader to see Saussure in a new light as a theorist generally concerned with the ways in which signs (of all kinds) created meanings.
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Secondary Theorists from Structuralism through Post-Structuralism

Most of the central theoretical responses to Peirce and (mostly) Saussure came from philosophers and literary critics. These authors had a significant influence on the ways in which Saussure’s structuralism was interpreted and incorporated into other disciplines. In 1927, Vladimir Propp performed a structural analysis on Russian folktales (Propp 1968). Propp proposed thirty-two narrative functions as the underlying structure of all folktales. His work marks an early attempt to create an analogy between the morphemes and syntax of a natural language and a specific genre of language use. Roland Barthes was a French semiotician who had a tremendous influence in this area. Barthes extended structuralist metaphors to other “systems” of cultural meaning outside of language (such as in clothing, food, cars, and furniture) in a general call for the broader study of semiology (Barthes 1967). Barthes 1957 analyzed objects of mass culture as signs that become naturalized for consumers. The author’s analyses claimed to uncover hidden (mythic) messages in the norms of everyday life. Barthes 1974 marked a significant shift in literary theory. The book analyzed Balzac’s story “Sarrasine” from multiple perspectives. The goal was to demonstrate that meaning emerged not from the fixed intent of the author, but rather from the interaction between the text and the readers’ interpretations. Given that openness of meaning, Barthes here began to move even more clearly into what many would call a post-structuralist position. Alongside Barthes, A. J. Greimas is often cited as the cofounder of the Paris school of semiotics. In Greimas 1987, the author proposed his concept of the semiotic square along with others that related to his structuralist approach to literature. Another semiotician whose work has had great influence is Umberto Eco. Like Barthes, Eco formulates his semiotics based on his reading of Saussure, and he also extends structuralist method beyond language to other realms of culture. In Eco 1976, he moves beyond Saussure in recognizing that meaning is not governed by structure alone. It is the result of an interactive process between the reader/interpreter and the text. In Eco 1984 the author takes on the question of the meaning by looking at how it has been defined within linguistics. Jameson 1972 is widely viewed as a highly influential introduction to structuralism as a movement, albeit with a focus on literary applications from a Marxist perspective. The very existence of structuralism’s interaction with Marxist theory demonstrates the scope of its intellectual significance.

Barthes, Roland. 1957. Mythologies. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.
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A wide variety of topics are interpreted as signs in this series of essays. Barthes interprets everyday objects and events as instances of modern-day myths. The reading of signs and social rituals as narrative texts finds its most influential beginnings here.
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Barthes, Roland. 1967. Elements of semiology. Translated by Annette Lavers and Colin Smith. New York: Atlantic.
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Barthes here returns to Saussure’s work and explores his distinction between langue (language) and parole (speaking) in the name of founding Saussure’s general study of signs, semiology. Additionally, his theoretical discussions about the terms found in Saussure’s theories went on to have profound influences on other thinkers.
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Barthes, Roland. 1974. S/Z. Translated by Richard Miller. London: Cape.
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Though the influences of structuralism are present discursively, analytically Barthes has seemingly rejected them by the close of the book. His desire to see endlessly repeating codes in the construction of texts of all kinds is challenged by his awareness of the openness of the text’s meaning.
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Eco, Umberto. 1976. A theory of semiotics. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.
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Requires a good deal of background knowledge of technical and foreign terms. Not intended for beginning students. General presentation of a doctrine and typology of signs that explores the intersection of signification and communication.
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Eco, Umberto. 1984. Semiotics and the philosophy of language. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.
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An important text for students of semiotics for the scope of the linguistic theories reviewed as well as the implications his work has for debates relating to grammatical theory and artificial intelligence. Not a book for introductory students.
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Greimas, Algirdas Julien. 1987. On meaning: Selected writings in semiotic theory. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.
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Written by a central structuralist semiotician in literary theory and a personal friend and colleague of Roland Barthes.
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Jameson, Fredric. 1972. The prison-house of language. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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A well-written and easy to understand overview of structuralism as a movement. Jameson manages to be fair to the material he covers while at the same time maintaining a personally critical stance.
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Propp, Vladimir. 1968. Morphology of the folktale. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.
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An early and classic application of structuralism applied to the particular literary genre of the folktale. Assuming the reader is unfamiliar with Russian folktales, however, it is an abstract argument that can be difficult to follow.
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Secondary Theorists and Deconstruction

Jonathan Culler is a scholar who has accurately summarized the work of others in this area, as well as proposing his own ideas on the relationship between structuralism, post-structuralism, and literary criticism. Culler 1975 introduced Americans to French structuralism. On the other hand, Culler 1981 warns against applying structuralist methods too directly to the analysis of literature. Deconstructionism, more specifically, is a movement associated with post-structuralism. It is demarcated from others falling under the more general heading of post-structuralism by a near absolute commitment to an unstructured, open-ended view of meaning. It is associated most commonly with the work of Jacques Derrida. Derrida’s work is complex and quite controversial. It is, however, constructed in opposition to many of the concepts that appear in Saussure’s work. In Derrida 1976, his goal is to provide a critique of linguistics. He attempts to undermine Saussure’s understanding of the sign as well as his focus on spoken language, and to demonstrate how meaning has no ultimate real endpoint but, as he argued elsewhere in a series of collected essays (Derrida 1978), it always defers to other signified meanings. In Lacan 2006 one finds a strange mix of structuralism and post-structuralism brought into psychoanalytic thought. Silverman 1983, influenced by Lacan, is yet another example of this trend, and it is ultimately another example of the power of the structuralist analogy, both positively and negatively, on intellectual movements of the late 20th century. Norris 1982 is a very helpful guide to deconstruction, both as practiced by Derrida and as it was adapted in the work of American critics as well. Moreover, it places the movement in its historical context and does much to separate its philosophical from its literary variant. Coming at deconstruction from a critical direction, Ellis 1989 presents what many consider to be the most rhetorically persuasive undermining of the deconstructionist project. Ellis responds to deconstructionist portrayals of Saussure’s work and argues that it has been widely simplified and misinterpreted.

Culler, Jonathan. 1975. Structuralist poetics: Structuralism, linguistics and the study of literature. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
DOI: 10.4324/9780203449769Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A classic introduction to the French structuralism that foresaw some of the influences that it would have on the American scene. A good place to start for beginning students.
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Culler, Jonathan. 1981. The pursuit of signs: Semiotics, literature, deconstruction. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
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A cautionary tale about the dangers of applying structuralist reasoning too literally to the understanding of the meanings of literary texts. Instead, Culler proposes the use of structuralism as one method among others to explore how to interpret literature.
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Derrida, Jacques. 1976. Of grammatology. Translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.
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The translator’s introduction in this edition is very helpful for those new to Derrida’s thought.
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Derrida, Jacques. 1978. Writing and difference. Translated by Alan Bass. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
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In a series of essays Derrida details the basics of deconstructionism as a method. It was in this book that he put forward his well-known concepts of writing and différence.
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Ellis, John M. 1989. Against deconstruction. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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An important text that counters many of the assertions upon which deconstructionism relies. A significant contribution to the debate.
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Lacan, Jacques. 2006. Écrits: The first complete edition in English. Translated by Bruce Fink. New York: Norton.
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The translator’s notes on some of Lacan’s more difficult concepts are very useful here for those new to Lacan’s thought.
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Norris, Christopher. 1982. Deconstruction: Theory and practice. London: Methuen.
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A very readable introduction to complicated systems of thought. This is the place to start for the beginning student. This edition also includes a very helpful list of recommended readings and one of the most thorough bibliographies on the subject.
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Silverman, Kaja. 1983. The subject of semiotics. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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An intriguing balance between an introduction to post-structuralist approaches to semiotics and their intersection with psychoanalytic thought. It is the history of thought here that will be of most use to the student interested in this subject.
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Analogical Extensions of Structuralism and Post-Structuralism to Other Disciplines

Almost always inspired in some form by Peirce, and more commonly by Saussure, many different disciplines applied structuralism and post-structuralism principles to their own fields of study by analogy. While literary criticism has been the most predominant, the intellectual influences have been widespread. This section isolates out significant representatives across a variety of these other disciplines.

Classic Anthropology

In classic anthropology, Claude Lévi-Strauss (b. 1908–d. 2009) is considered the father of the structuralist approach. Lévi-Strauss interpreted cultures as closed systems informed by binary oppositions. To him, cultures were structures produced by the underlying, invariant structure of the human mind. While Lévi-Strauss saw structure as a mental phenomenon, he found social and cultural evidence for his conclusions in societal institutions such as kinship, myth, and religion, to name but a few (Lévi-Strauss 1972). Leach 1970 is a helpful book here because it puts Lévi-Strauss’s work into its historical context and works through some of its major ideas.

Leach, Edmund. 1970. Lévi-Strauss. London: Fontana.
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A technical book that is not for the beginner, but a worthwhile commentary and aid to understanding Lévi-Strauss’s work.
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Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1972. Structural anthropology. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin.
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The central text in which Lévi-Strauss made clear his theory of structuralism as it applies to culture.
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Film and Image

Barthes 1977 was one of the first to apply structuralist principles to photographs, film, and music. Each of these applications has gone on to have an institutional life of its own. More recent applications of structuralism can be found in studies of popular culture and the mass media more specifically. Altman 1992 is an edited collection of essays on sound in film. Many have taken up the semiotics of sound in a unique, technical way. Lapsley and Westlake 2006, particularly in chapter 2, “Semiotics” (pp. 32–66), captures the ways in which semiotic, political, and psychoanalytic theory have converged in film theory. Christian Metz is certainly one of the most central, and yet most controversial, figures in film theory. In Metz 1974 one finds a collection of essays in which the author applies structuralism directly in order to uncover the language of film. As the grips of the structural analogy fade and dissipate based on other theoretical influences, the openness of interpretation as a philosophical point becomes increasingly interpreted from a political perspective. In Nichols 1981, semiotic theory is used in conjunction with others to understand the degree to which ideology informs the images in films, advertising, and other media. Stam, et al. 1992 is a valuable resource for those interested in semiotics and film. The authors provide a lexicon of over five hundred semiotic concepts that are critical for understanding the semiotics of film.

Altman, Rick, ed. 1992. Sound theory, sound practice. New York: Routledge.
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A rare collection that allows those with an interest in the semiotics of film to consider the importance of sound and the codes that influence its uses.
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Barthes, Roland. 1977. Image, music, text. Selected and translated by Stephen Heath. London: Fontana.
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Essays that further extend Barthes’s particular readings of Saussurean ideas to narratives. A resource of particular interest to those interested in structuralism as applied to film, photography, and art. An excellent introduction to Barthes’s thought as he explicates what he means by semiology, demonstrated with examples from the arts.
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Lapsley, Robert, and Michael Westlake. 2006. Semiotics. In Film theory: An introduction. By Robert Lapsley and Michael Westlake, 32–66. Manchester, UK: Manchester Univ. Press.
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Summarizes well the theoretical influences on film theory from the 1960s on, including semiotic theory.
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Metz, Christian. 1974. Film language: A semiotics of the cinema. Translated by Michael Taylor. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1515/9783110816044Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A much criticized classic. It is clear the author is a lover of films, however, and there are many fascinating insights running alongside the occasionally strained analogy between film and language. The author offers interesting semiotic analyses of classic Hollywood films. Not for the beginning student of the semiotics of film.
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Nichols, Bill. 1981. Ideology and the image: Social representation in the cinema and other media. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.
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This book is an example of a way in which semiotic theories begin to play a role in political theories about freedom and the degree to which individuals are manipulated by signs in films and mass media more generally.
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Stam, Robert, Robert Burgoyne, and Sandy Flitterman-Lewis. 1992. New vocabularies in film semiotics: Structuralism, post-structuralism, and beyond. London: Routledge.
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Key concepts are defined, and relevant examples from films are provided in many cases. Of particular note is the authors’ coverage of various notions of intertextuality in film. Tailored to the needs of advanced film students.
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Cultural Studies

The signs that constitute the mass media in the work cited here are no longer simply uncovered inside closed structures of meaning. Attention is now paid to the variable role of the interpreter and even to the context in which the interpretation takes place. There is thus a move to more of a general social-constructivist position on the meaning of all “signs” at whatever level of analysis. What vary are the goals of the analysts. Those who identify with (British) cultural studies read mass media texts in terms of the ideological values that they support and the ways in which those texts influence political inequalities among distinct sociological group identities. This school has a clear affiliation with Marxism. Hall 1980, the author of which was a leader of the movement, is an edited collection in which many of the key positions of the school were stated. Turner 1992 is an excellent introduction to this group. Thwaites, et al. 2002 is a textbook on cultural studies that is aimed at a more advanced student. It focuses on the study of popular culture and the media texts within it.

Hall, Stuart, ed. 1980. Culture, media, language: Working papers in cultural studies, 1972–79. London: Hutchinson.
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Not easily accessible at first. The beginning student is advised to start with one of the introductions.
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Thwaites, Tony, Lloyd Davis, and Warwick Mules. 2002. Introducing cultural and media studies: A semiotic approach. London: Palgrave.
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A practical guide to semiotic analysis that will be useful for intermediate students with some experience in cultural studies.
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Turner, Graeme. 1992. British cultural studies: An introduction. New York: Routledge.
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An introduction to the history, theoreticians, and methods of this school of thought.
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Mass Media and Communication Studies

Given ever-quickening technological changes in the world around us, there has been an increasing focus on the semiotics of mass media, and often on its influences on modern mediated genres of communication. Fiske 1982 is an excellent introduction to the related field of communication studies. Though in name a textbook, it does a wonderful job of introducing the reader to the various semiotic approaches that have developed for studying mass media (particularly the news media, advertising, and television). Bignell 1997 is more specifically an introduction to media semiotics, from a British perspective. In Hodge and Tripp 1986 one finds a classic study of animated cartoons for children. The authors managed to apply a post-structuralism approach that goes beyond both content analysis and any kind of limited structuralist approach. Multiple meanings of cartoons are allowed, and they are crossed with interview data from children, along with possible influences from the experimental context itself. Multimodality is a recent concept that has emerged in an attempt to theorize the complexity of media signs in a world saturated by mass media. Kress 2010 develops this concept. Tuchman 1980 is a classic example of a social-constructivist position on the making of the news. The author demonstrates that what is taken as “real” is in fact a semiotic construction aided, in this case, by the practices of journalism, both in how newspapers operate as institutions and in the genres through which news is constructed.

Bignell, Jonathan. 1997. Media semiotics: An introduction. Manchester, UK: Manchester Univ. Press.
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Accessible to introductory students but leaning more in content toward a British cultural studies approach.
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Fiske, John. 1982. Introduction to communication studies. London: Routledge.
DOI: 10.4324/9780203323212Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An introduction to communication studies and its conceptual approach to meaning through signs, codes, signification, and ideology. A good source for introductory students.
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Hodge, Robert, and David Tripp. 1986. Children and television: A semiotic approach. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
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Technical and detailed, but an important example of a semiotic method experimentally applied. This was an early model for later work on “media effects.”
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Kress, Gunther R. 2010. Multimodality: A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. London: Routledge.
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An attempt to pull together a unified theoretical explanation of the multimodal nature of modern signs in the mass media. Even if the synthesis is rejected, the book covers many distinct theoretical discourses in the contemporary semiotics of the mass media.
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Tuchman, Gaye. 1980. Making news: A study in the construction of reality. New York: Free Press.
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This is essentially a semiotic ethnography of the practice of news making. Accessible to all readers and theoretically important as well.
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Advertising

Advertising seems a natural application for semiotic theory, given the former’s attempt to persuade and the latter’s desire to make explicit the meanings of signs. Cook 1992 seeks to make explicit how advertisements work from a semiotic perspective. Cook asks about the semiotic techniques used to persuade. Beasley and Danesi 2002 have a similar goal. The book is particularly useful, however, for seeing the relations among culture and advertisements. It demonstrates the ways values and motifs from one cultural area are borrowed into advertising, and in so doing alter its original meaning. In contrast, Leiss, et al. 1990 takes a more political perspective on advertising. The authors see in advertisements the reproduction of the capitalist system of consumerism. Thus the authors read the advertisements for ideological values that support already existing forms of institutional authority. Williamson 1978 is a classic text that invites divisive opinions. This is in part because of the ideological nature of the author’s interpretations. It is nevertheless an important contribution to the history of advertising theory. Oswald 2012 combines a number of interesting semiotic perspectives. It uses structural semiotics to analyze the ways in which individuals identify with brands, but it then combines this analysis with an economic perspective. In fact, Oswald puts forward a perspective that a marketing company could sell to a firm. Indeed, her theoretical approach amounts to a marketing defense strategy against the forces of cultural and social change.

Beasley, Ron, and Marcel Danesi. 2002. Persuasive signs: The semiotics of advertising. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
DOI: 10.1515/9783110888003Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Though written for introductory students, it does a very effective job of providing the theory and examples they need to see how consumerism and its branded products are created and maintained. For the student interested in this area, the book also has a very helpful bibliography.
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Cook, Guy. 1992. The discourse of advertising. London: Routledge.
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Written for students at all levels, with a distinct approach to the semiotics of advertising. The focus is on the mechanisms of persuasion and not the politics implicit in them.
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Leiss, William, Stephen Kline, and Sut Jhally. 1990. Social communication in advertising: Persons, products and images of well-being. 2d ed. London: Routledge.
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A precursor to many critical studies of advertising. Includes a guide to the history of the codes of magazine advertising.
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Oswald, Laura. 2012. Marketing semiotics: Signs, strategies, and brand value. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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This is a rare meeting of defendable semiotic theory applied to the practical problems faced by an advertising firm. Case studies document how marketing companies are able to work the discourse of brands in ways that lead to a profit.
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Williamson, Judith. 1978. Decoding advertisements: Ideology and meaning in advertising. London: Boyars.
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The book is written for a general audience. It is a book that tends to polarize its readers, but it is one that many have read. The quality of the printed ads is unfortunately low in most reprints.
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The Peircean Legacy in Contemporary Linguistic Anthropology

There is work being done in some areas of contemporary linguistic anthropology that synthesizes the legacy of both Saussure and Peirce, while at the same time redirecting their distinct agendas to more contemporary goals. The relevant branch of linguistic anthropology is interested first and foremost in the semiotic mediation of contexts of social interaction. The question asked is how cultural values entail coherent social actions as they emerge from the overlapping functioning of structurally presupposed semantico-syntactic categories as well as indexical categories that both presuppose or create “real” social aspects of the context. This is a rich area of contemporary research.

The Road to Theoretical Synthesis

Despite Roman Jakobson’s successes as a structural linguist, he can be cited here as a central influence on contemporary semiotic approaches in linguistic anthropology. In Jakobson 1960, one finds an important theoretical recognition of the fact of functional overlap. Theorists of the Prague school, along with Gestalt theorists in other circles, theorized that perception at all levels took place against presupposed backgrounds. Conscious attention was alerted when their experience presented a foregrounding that opposed the formal, functional, and ideological expectations that, relatively speaking, informed cultural perception (Garvin 1964). Bachtin 1981 presents a Peircean idea with the author’s concepts of dialogism and voice. Bachtin recognizes that linguistic signs carry associations with all kinds of typical situations and stereotypes. It is Michael Silverstein, however, a student of Roman Jakobson’s, who has done the most significant theoretical work in this area. In Silverstein 1976, he demonstrates the value of semiotic concepts for the anthropological study of language and culture. Silverstein 1979 makes use of these insights when exploring the links between practice, awareness, and (linguistic) ideology. While ostensibly discussing Vygotsky’s views on child language development, Silverstein 1985 presents a functional hierarchy of linguistic signs that maps out the functional overlap that Jakobson first attempted to make explicit. In so doing, he accurately unites the insights of both Saussure and Peirce. Finally, the complex processes involved in the indexical life of language and the objects and ideas that it gets associated with are addressed in Silverstein 2003. A guide of sorts to Silverstein’s thought, albeit with theoretical achievements all its own, comes from Asif Agha, a student of Silverstein. Agha 2007 is a comprehensive critical review of much of the thought about language that ultimately led to the specific discipline being discussed here.

Agha, Asif. 2007. Language and social relations. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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While focusing on the role of language in models of action and social identity, Agha provides a critical review of much prior work relating to language that is consistent with the semiotic approach being discussed here. As such, though technical in places, it is an excellent reference.
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Bachtin, Mikhail. 1981. The dialogic imagination: Four essays. Edited by Michael Holquist. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.
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A very difficult read even for a student of literature. Nevertheless, Bachtin’s work has become very influential of late.
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Garvin, Paul L., ed. 1964. A Prague school reader on esthetics, literary structure and style. Washington, DC: Georgetown Univ. Press.
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A collected set of essays that include many other interesting essays by the Prague school beyond the focus here on foregrounding.
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Jakobson, Roman. 1960. Closing statement: Linguistics and poetics. In Style in language. Edited by T. A. Sebeok, 350–377. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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This is a frequently cited essay because of its theoretical focus on two key concepts: functional overlap and poetic function. Both play a key role in contemporary semiotic approaches in (linguistic) anthropology.
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Silverstein, Michael. 1976. Shifters, linguistic categories, and cultural description. In Meaning in anthropology. Edited by Keith H. Basso and Henry A. Selby, 11–55. Albuquerque: Univ. of New Mexico Press.
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A classic article that brings together many traditions to present new ways in which to conceptualize and study language, culture, and society.
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Silverstein, Michael. 1979. Language structure and linguistic ideology. In The elements: A parasession on linguistic units and levels: April 20–21, 1979: Including papers from the Conference on Non-Slavic Languages of the USSR, April 18, 1979. Edited by Paul Clyne, William F. Hanks, and Carol L. Hofbauer. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
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This article contains a fascinating demonstration of one of its central points in a discussion of the ideological movement for gender-neutral language.
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Silverstein, Michael. 1985. The functional stratification of language and ontogenesis. In Culture, communication, and cognition: Vygotskian perspectives. Edited by J. Wertsch, 205–235. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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For the reader interested in child language development, one finds here one of the most tenable contemporary theories, the benefits of which have largely been ignored.
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Silverstein, Michael. 2003. Indexical order and the dialectics of sociolinguistic life. Language and Communication 23:193–229.
DOI: 10.1016/S0271-5309(03)00013-2Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A complicated but fascinating discussion of the nature of indexical signs in speech and in social life. Silverstein explores how they interrelate and change in relation to each other as they co-figure each other in social life.
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Example Applications

In an interesting way, many areas of interest to semioticians, historically speaking, are finding their way into contemporary semiotically informed linguistic anthropology. Mertz 2007 is a good general introduction to this work, and thus to the ways in which semiotics can enrich cultural and linguistic analysis. Beyond that, only representative examples are listed here. The bibliographies found in each of these references will lead the reader down many other interesting paths. Silverstein and Urban 1996 presents a series of significant essays on the nature of discourse. These essays all explore, from different perspectives, the ways in which parts of language join together in groups and travel from one context to another as “ready-mades,” such as genres and expressions (to name but a few). They also explore how particularly unique combinations of these language types can suddenly emerge in a particular context. Agha 2005 theorizes the nature in which language coheres at the indexical intersection of types of language, ways of speaking, and relative interactional perspective. Bauman and Briggs 1990 focuses on the poetics of performance, and with it the complex (ritual) nature of social linguistic indexicality in action. Irvine and Gal 2000 explores semiotic processes through which ideologies that characterize languages spread to other social stereotypes and objects. Urciuoli 2009 captures the way in which a single term, diversity, can index different meanings to different audiences, and in so doing neutralize some of the political intent behind its use.

Agha, Asif. 2005. Voice, footing, enregisterment. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 15.1: 38–59.
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Demonstrates a semiotic approach to generalizing “ways of speaking” as they are attributed regularly to social types and ultimately to the individual.
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Bauman, Richard, and Charles L. Briggs. 1990. Poetics and performance as critical perspectives on language and social life. Annual Review of Anthropology 19:59–88.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev.an.19.100190.000423Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Emphasizes the study of the indexical life of language in actual cultural performances in order to enrich the ethnographic context, and with it the complexity of our understanding of the processes by which meaning emerges.
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Irvine, Judith T., and Susan Gal. 2000. Language ideology and linguistic differentiation. In Regimes of language: Ideologies, polities, and identities. Edited by Paul Kroskrity, 35–84. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press.
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Three cases of linguistic change are presented and the ideological processes are offered as explanatory models.
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Mertz, Elizabeth. 2007. Semiotic anthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology 36:337–353.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev.anthro.36.081406.094417Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A theoretical introduction and review of work that brings the study of language and culture within a semiotic framework.
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Silverstein, Michael, and Greg Urban, eds. 1996. Natural histories of discourse. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
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Explores the ways in which language can become moored and freed from contextual associations. The authors thus explore how language gets grouped into significant discursive parts when being interpreted in contexts of its use.
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Urciuoli, Bonnie. 2009. Talking/not talking about race: The enregisterments of culture in higher education discourses. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 19.1: 21–39.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1395.2009.01017.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Looks at how registers around the use of the work culture and diversity form and the prejudicial influences that this phenomenon has for social equality. At the same time, the author notes how it serves marketing interests.