- Signs in use: An introduction to semiotics by Jørgen Dines Johansen, Svend Erik Larsen
The authors intended to write a book introducing the reader to how humans create and exchange meanings through signs, to present the concepts related to this process, and to reveal semiotics as a specific theory developed in accordance with our understanding of human culture. They more than fulfilled their objectives. The book’s seven chapters begin with an ‘Introduction’ (1–6) outlining the field of semiotics and the objectives of the book. In Ch. 2 (7–23), the authors provide a semiotically relevant distinction between types of code and types of structure, enabling us to account for how codes and structures are integrated into reality. Ch. 3 (24–52) examines the basic features of a sign, its structure, components, and types. The authors’ typology of signs is based on Peircean semiotic theory distinguishing iconic, indexical, and symbolic signs with various subtypes. Ch. 4 (53–86) discusses the concept of discourse and analyzes the structuralist, phenomenological, and sociological approaches to discourse analysis. Ch. 5 (87–109) deals with narratology, that is, the semiotic study of action and plot that became very popular in the twentieth century (e.g. Vladimir Propp’s analysis of plot structures in Russian folktales; Algirdas Julien Greimas’s and Roland Barthes’s analyses of other epic texts; Claude Lévi-Strauss’s analyses of myths). The authors show that the concern with narrative structures already occupied an important part in Aristotle’s works. In Ch. 6 (110–49), the authors mainly look at the text as a process, as an expanding syntagm through dialogue, considering the text not as an isolated unit but as a part of the continuous ongoing production of meaning. Ch. 7 (150–98) investigates nature and culture from the semiotic point of view. The authors admit that there are no clear lines between nature and culture. Cultural semiotics had been traditionally considered a discipline dealing primarily with cultural objects, their meanings, and interconnections. However, the authors believe that the object of cultural semiotics should be redefined and that this discipline should be primarily concerned with the process that creates or constructs culture in relation to a natural basis. The book ends with a glossary of key concepts discussed in the text and with short biographies of important twentieth-century semioticians referred to in the book.
Signs in use is a useful book for introducing students to general semiotics. The basic concepts are explained using examples taken from literature, mythology, and day-to-day life, making the text very readable and interesting. The book is not only addressed to linguists and specialists on literature and cultural studies but also to those who work with understanding of all types of signs in use in human culture. However, the reader would be well-advised to look also at other material recommended in the bibliography for different approaches within the extremely diversified semiotic landscape.