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The Basics
Semiotics: The Basics
Using jargon-free language and lively, up-to-date examples, The Basics demystifies this highly interdisciplinary subject. Along the way, the reader will find
* What is a sign?
* Which codes do we take for granted?
* What is a text?
* How can semiotics be used in textual analysis?
* Who were Saussure, Peirce, Barthes and Jakobson - and why are they important?
Features include a glossary of key terms and realistic suggestions for further reading. There is also a highly-developed and long-established online version of the book www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B.
* What is a sign?
* Which codes do we take for granted?
* What is a text?
* How can semiotics be used in textual analysis?
* Who were Saussure, Peirce, Barthes and Jakobson - and why are they important?
Features include a glossary of key terms and realistic suggestions for further reading. There is also a highly-developed and long-established online version of the book www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B.
326 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
170 people are currently reading
1649 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Chandler
26 books23 followersDaniel Chandler (born 1952) is a British visual semiotician based (since 2001) at the department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at Aberystwyth University (where he has taught since 1989). His best-known publication is Semiotics: The Basics (Routledge: 1st edn 2002, 2nd edn 2007), which is frequently used as a basis for University courses in semiotics,and the online version 'Semiotics for Beginners' (online since 1995). He has a particular interest in the visual semiotics of gender and advertising.
Trained as a schoolteacher at Magdalene College, Cambridge, Chandler began his career teaching English in middle and high school classrooms in the 1970s and 1980s. He adopted a progressive, constructivist philosophy of education at a time when microcomputers were first introduced into the classroom. Resisting the hyped image of computing in education as a boon to instructional productivity, Chandler recognized the computer as a tool for learning, but he rejected a prevailing objectivism that considered data as information, and information as knowledge. He held a constructivist view that data is translated into information by human beings, not computers, and humans negotiate the meaning of information by means of dialog and discussion (Chandler, 1990a). The computer, for Chandler, was not a teaching machine, but a medium of expression for young learners. His early adoption of computers in the classroom led to the publication of several authored and edited texts related to computing in education. He left the classroom in 1981 and set up an independent consultancy, notably serving as a design consultant for Acornsoft on the development of educational software for use by the BBC.
In 1989, Chandler returned to academia, joining the Education department at Aberystwyth University. His initial role as a lecturer in educational technology soon shifted to that of a lecturer in media theory, and in 2001 he moved to the department of Theatre, Film, and Television Studies as a lecturer in Media and Communication Studies.
His (1993) dissertation on 'The Experience of Writing' focused on the phenomenology of writing. That work led to the (1995) text, 'The Act of Writing' which he posted freely on the World Wide Web. Where the tendency of most authors had been to withhold their work from online access for multiple reasons, Chandler was never so inhibited. Self publishing 'The Act of Writing' was one of multiple experiments that he launched in an exploration of the Web's possibilities as a medium for teaching. In 1994 he began placing lecture materials online for use by his own students. This practice of open access proved successful and rewarding. As the richness of this material evolved in the ensuing months, and as the population of Internet users exploded in the mid 1990s, Chandler's site quickly attracted an international audience of students, scholars, and mediaphiles hungry for rewarding academic content. The MCS Web offered tangible content that went beyond the typical outlines, bibliographies and promotional material hosted on most academic and commercial sites of the time. The Media and Communications Studies site established itself as a premier online academic resource for theoretical and educational material in the fields of Rhetoric, Communication Studies, Semiotics, Media, and Contemporary Philosophy.
Chandler's teaching has straddled the spectrum of communication studies, though a significant focus of his work has centered on contemporary philosophies of communication, and specifically on Semiotics. Chandler's initial frustration as a lecturer was the severe lack of lucid and cogent introductory texts on the subject (Chandler, 2002, p. xv). This led him to prepare a series of materials on semiotics, written in a language and style that would be comprehensible to his own undergraduate students. He placed these lectures on the World Wide Web to augment the already rich set of openly accessible materials that he had p
Trained as a schoolteacher at Magdalene College, Cambridge, Chandler began his career teaching English in middle and high school classrooms in the 1970s and 1980s. He adopted a progressive, constructivist philosophy of education at a time when microcomputers were first introduced into the classroom. Resisting the hyped image of computing in education as a boon to instructional productivity, Chandler recognized the computer as a tool for learning, but he rejected a prevailing objectivism that considered data as information, and information as knowledge. He held a constructivist view that data is translated into information by human beings, not computers, and humans negotiate the meaning of information by means of dialog and discussion (Chandler, 1990a). The computer, for Chandler, was not a teaching machine, but a medium of expression for young learners. His early adoption of computers in the classroom led to the publication of several authored and edited texts related to computing in education. He left the classroom in 1981 and set up an independent consultancy, notably serving as a design consultant for Acornsoft on the development of educational software for use by the BBC.
In 1989, Chandler returned to academia, joining the Education department at Aberystwyth University. His initial role as a lecturer in educational technology soon shifted to that of a lecturer in media theory, and in 2001 he moved to the department of Theatre, Film, and Television Studies as a lecturer in Media and Communication Studies.
His (1993) dissertation on 'The Experience of Writing' focused on the phenomenology of writing. That work led to the (1995) text, 'The Act of Writing' which he posted freely on the World Wide Web. Where the tendency of most authors had been to withhold their work from online access for multiple reasons, Chandler was never so inhibited. Self publishing 'The Act of Writing' was one of multiple experiments that he launched in an exploration of the Web's possibilities as a medium for teaching. In 1994 he began placing lecture materials online for use by his own students. This practice of open access proved successful and rewarding. As the richness of this material evolved in the ensuing months, and as the population of Internet users exploded in the mid 1990s, Chandler's site quickly attracted an international audience of students, scholars, and mediaphiles hungry for rewarding academic content. The MCS Web offered tangible content that went beyond the typical outlines, bibliographies and promotional material hosted on most academic and commercial sites of the time. The Media and Communications Studies site established itself as a premier online academic resource for theoretical and educational material in the fields of Rhetoric, Communication Studies, Semiotics, Media, and Contemporary Philosophy.
Chandler's teaching has straddled the spectrum of communication studies, though a significant focus of his work has centered on contemporary philosophies of communication, and specifically on Semiotics. Chandler's initial frustration as a lecturer was the severe lack of lucid and cogent introductory texts on the subject (Chandler, 2002, p. xv). This led him to prepare a series of materials on semiotics, written in a language and style that would be comprehensible to his own undergraduate students. He placed these lectures on the World Wide Web to augment the already rich set of openly accessible materials that he had p
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March 12, 2018
Although I was recommended ‘Semiotics: The Basics’ several years ago, my immediate impetus for reading it was the intense enjoyment I got from Binet’s novel The Seventh Function of Language. In retrospect, I should have read it before attempting any Barthes, Jameson, etc. In ironic and metatextual fashion, it read to me as an explanatory dictionary for a language I had struggled to translate. In fact, it’s a textbook and a particularly good one. While it demands that you pay attention, it explains an area of often opaque theory with truly impressive clarity. I now feel a great deal more confident with the concepts of semiotics and ready to read more of its theory. (I’m particularly interested in Barthes’ The Fashion System, which I’ve dipped into before via The Language of Fashion.)
Semiotics, essentially the study of signs, is an inherently interdisciplinary field and appeals to me as it provides some structuring and justification for over-analysing everyday life (which I do anyway). Chandler takes a pleasingly systematic approach to the key concepts and debates. Unusually for academic non-fiction, he deploys italics very well, for example: ‘Whereas iconicity is characterised by similarity, indexicality is characterised by contiguity.’ I read that sentence on a train at 10pm on a Friday night, and yet in context it made perfect sense. Chandler also manages to make sense of the accursed term ‘paradigm’: ‘Syntagms and paradigms provide a structural context within which signs make sense; they are the structural forms through which signs are organised into codes.’ On the other hand, he doesn't evangelise excessively for semiotics and admits its limitations and methodological weaknesses:
Particularly interesting to me were the discussions of metaphor, analogy, and irony. Barthes is quoted delightfully as follows: ‘no sooner is a form seen than it must resemble something: humanity seems doomed to analogy.’ Chandler then expands on this:
There follows a ‘semiotic square’ that locates metaphor and irony as opposites, something I hadn’t previously contemplated. The conceptual symmetry is pleasing. Other things I enjoyed learning about included the Gestalt psychologists’ principles of perceptual organisation, the six functions of language, and Eco’s concept of ‘abberant decoding’, which seems to describe fandom’s reinterpretation of canon. There is a convenient exemplarity to the fact that Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics, a key text in semiotics, is of unusually confused authorship. Not only did Saussure not write it, he never even read it; the text was assembled from student notes of his lectures.
This critique of realism is also worth a mention, as it reminded me of the preponderance of novels about straight white middle-aged men contemplating marital infidelity:
The edition I read was published in 2007 and there were certain points I felt have become more acutely relevant in the years since, particularly this commentary on intertextuality.
Isn’t this what’s happening as social media promotes politically polarised echo chambers? That strikes me as an area particularly amenable to semiotic analysis. As Chandler puts it: ‘Semiotics has an important synthesising function, seeking to study meaning-making and representation in cultural artifacts and practices of whatever kind on the basis of unified principles, at its best counteracting cultural chauvinism and bringing some coherence to communication theory and cultural studies’. I found this primer enlightening and invigorating. My only real criticism is the absence of Oxford commas.
Semiotics, essentially the study of signs, is an inherently interdisciplinary field and appeals to me as it provides some structuring and justification for over-analysing everyday life (which I do anyway). Chandler takes a pleasingly systematic approach to the key concepts and debates. Unusually for academic non-fiction, he deploys italics very well, for example: ‘Whereas iconicity is characterised by similarity, indexicality is characterised by contiguity.’ I read that sentence on a train at 10pm on a Friday night, and yet in context it made perfect sense. Chandler also manages to make sense of the accursed term ‘paradigm’: ‘Syntagms and paradigms provide a structural context within which signs make sense; they are the structural forms through which signs are organised into codes.’ On the other hand, he doesn't evangelise excessively for semiotics and admits its limitations and methodological weaknesses:
We may need to remind ourselves that any interpretive framework cuts up its material into manageable chunks; how appropriate this is can only be assessed in terms of whether it advances our understanding of the phenomenon in question. Nevertheless, useful as it may be to construct an orderly and manageable reality by slicing experience into mutually exclusive categories, cultural practices maintaining the conventional borders of what seem to be fundamental natural distinctions mask the permeability and fragility of the fabric of social reality.
Particularly interesting to me were the discussions of metaphor, analogy, and irony. Barthes is quoted delightfully as follows: ‘no sooner is a form seen than it must resemble something: humanity seems doomed to analogy.’ Chandler then expands on this:
Reality is framed within systems of analogy. Figures of speech enable us to see one thing in terms of another. A trope such as metaphor can be regarded as a new sign formed from the signifier of one sign and the signified of another.
There follows a ‘semiotic square’ that locates metaphor and irony as opposites, something I hadn’t previously contemplated. The conceptual symmetry is pleasing. Other things I enjoyed learning about included the Gestalt psychologists’ principles of perceptual organisation, the six functions of language, and Eco’s concept of ‘abberant decoding’, which seems to describe fandom’s reinterpretation of canon. There is a convenient exemplarity to the fact that Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics, a key text in semiotics, is of unusually confused authorship. Not only did Saussure not write it, he never even read it; the text was assembled from student notes of his lectures.
This critique of realism is also worth a mention, as it reminded me of the preponderance of novels about straight white middle-aged men contemplating marital infidelity:
Ironically, the ‘naturalness’ of realist texts comes not from their reflection of reality but from their uses of codes which are derived from other texts. The familiarity of particular semiotic practices renders their mediation invisible. Our recognition of the familiar in realist texts repeatedly confirms the ‘objectivity’ of our habitual ways of seeing.
The edition I read was published in 2007 and there were certain points I felt have become more acutely relevant in the years since, particularly this commentary on intertextuality.
Our behaviour is not determined by texts, but much of what we know about the world is derived from what we have read in books, newspapers and magazines, from what we have seen in the cinema and on television and from what we have heard on the radio. Life is thus lived through texts and framed by texts to a greater extent than we are normally aware of. [...] Intertextuality blurs the boundaries between not only between texts but between texts and the world of lived experience. Those who radically privilege code over context may argue that we know no pre-textual experience; the world we know is merely its current representation. On the other hand, members of an interpretive community whose everyday behaviour is guided by such a relativistic stance might have difficulty communicating with each other, still less with ‘unsuitable readers’...
Isn’t this what’s happening as social media promotes politically polarised echo chambers? That strikes me as an area particularly amenable to semiotic analysis. As Chandler puts it: ‘Semiotics has an important synthesising function, seeking to study meaning-making and representation in cultural artifacts and practices of whatever kind on the basis of unified principles, at its best counteracting cultural chauvinism and bringing some coherence to communication theory and cultural studies’. I found this primer enlightening and invigorating. My only real criticism is the absence of Oxford commas.
August 20, 2019
کتابی خوب با گسترهی موضوعی عالی در حوزهی نشانهشناسی، ولی با ترجمهای بد و متنی ناویراسته
September 10, 2013
I didn't read all of it, but this is the ultimate introductory guide for those who tend to feel slightly lost at times when reading the works of the classic instigators of semiotics like Saussure, Peirce, Lacan, Foucault, Eco, Derrida and Barthes.
June 4, 2016
بخشهایی از کتاب :
۱- صرفنظر کردن از مطالعهی نشانهها باعث میشود که به دیگران اجازه دهیم جهان معناهایی که ساکن آنیم را تحت کنترل خود بگیرند.
۲- واقعیت، حاصل مقایسهی محصولات فهم ما از یک کلیت با دیگری است و بر اساس یک قیاس یک به یک قرار ندارد.
۱- صرفنظر کردن از مطالعهی نشانهها باعث میشود که به دیگران اجازه دهیم جهان معناهایی که ساکن آنیم را تحت کنترل خود بگیرند.
۲- واقعیت، حاصل مقایسهی محصولات فهم ما از یک کلیت با دیگری است و بر اساس یک قیاس یک به یک قرار ندارد.
January 10, 2010
I started this book via an online version of Professor Chandler and got hooked, so I bought the book! He is so kind to put all his book on line for free! The online version even has links between each section! Anyway, I like the idea of being able to carry the book with me. It is heavy reading for people who is not in the field, though, even though the title says "The Basics." But it packs a volume for those who are serious about exploring more about semiotics because it tells you where you can look further. Beware if English is not your first language. Although I did my master's in the states and generally have no problem understanding English, this book REALLY slows me down. Semiotics is a relatively new field and it has so many new technical terms. Sometimes half way through a paragraph I start to wonder *why* I chose to use semiotics as the analytical approach for my Ph.D.? But if you are new to the field, get the book, by all means!
June 8, 2021
Pierwsze czytanie z wielu, bardzo solidny podręcznik.
February 4, 2010
برای درس نقد و تحلیل برنامه های رادیو و تلویزیون (استاد: دکتر حسن بشیر) (از دروس انتخابی کد84 مقطع کارشناسی رشته معارف اسلامی و فرهنگ و ارتباطات که برای اولین بار ارائه می شود.)یه کتاب تخصصی باید خلاصه می کردم که این متن بر اساس همون خلاصه نوشته شده.
چندلر، دانیل (1387) مبانی نشانه شناسی، ترجمه: مهدی پارسا، تهران، انتشارات سوره مهر (پژوهشکده فرهنگ و هنر اسلامی)، (چاپ دوم) تعداد صفحات:352. قیمت: 3500تومان.
همانگونه که از عنوان کتاب بر می آید، موضوع این کتاب آشنایی اجمالی و اولیه با مبانی، پایه ها و مفاهیم نشانه شناسی است. آشنایی با نظریه پردازان برجسته نشانه شناسی و نظریه آنها در زبانی ساده و قابل فهم که برای تازه علاقمندان نشانه شناسی هم قابل استفاده، فهم و کاربرد باشد، از ویژگی های اصلی این کتاب است. بنابراین این کتاب یک شروع مناسب در حوزه نشانه شناسی قلمداد می شود. ترجمه روان و ساده آقای پارسا علی رغم دشوار بودن ذاتی مباحث نشانه شناسی به دلپذیر کردن کتاب کمک شایانی کرده است. دو نکته مهمی که کتابهای مشابه نشانه شناسی ترجمه شده در نشانه شناسی از آن بهره مند نسیتند. لازم به تذکر است که در کتابشناسی کتابخانه ملی این کتاب، از آقای فرزان سجودی (که در زمینه نشانه شناسی صاحب اثرهستند.(نشانه شناسی کاربردی؛ نشر علم) ) نیز اسم برده شده که امر نظارت بر ترجمه و راهنمایی مترجم را بر عهده داشتند و این موضوع بر استواری متن کتاب می افزاید.
طراحی زیبا (فونتهای مناسب، رنگ بندی شکیل، اندازه و قطع مناسب کتاب) علاوه بر درج نمودارها، جداول و شکلها به تناسب محتوا بر غنای کتاب افزوده است و انگیزه های مطالعه کتاب را در خواننده می افزاید.
علاوه بر مقدمه عالمانه مترجم، پیشگفتار، تشکر و سپاسگذاری و مقدمه نویسنده، شامل هفت فصل می باشد که آرام آرام به مفاهیم و نظریه های مبنایی نشانه شناسی می پردازد. عناوین فصلها به ترتیب عبارتند از: الگوهای نشانه، نشانه ها و چیزها، تحلیل ساختارها، چالش های لفظی، رمزگان، برهم کنش های متنی و محدودیتها و قابلیت ها.
در پایان ضمن معرفی منابع مطالعه بیشتر، فهرستی از اصطلاحات مبنایی و دشوار نشانه شناسی را فهرست کرده و به تشریح و تبیین اجمالی آنها پرداخته است.
نکته عجیب در مورد این کتاب است که از فهرست تفصیلی منابع برخوردار نیست! به عبارتی ما تنها با نام نویسندگان و سال انتشار مواجهیم و اثری از اسم کتاب و انتشارات و ... نیست! اشتباه چاپی بزرگی که امید داریم، در چاپهای بعدی بر طرف شود. البته من تنها چاپ دوم کتاب را در اختیار داشتم.
یافتن کتاب مناسب در حوزه نشانه شناسی به خاطر وجود کتابهای تالیفی و ترجمه ای متعدد کاری دشوار می نمود. بالاخره با مشورتهای انجام شده، (به ویژه از مشاوره و کمک آقای حسین سرفراز تشکر می کنم.) کتاب فوق انتخاب گردید. مشکل مهمی که در ابتدای جستجوی منابع پیش آمد، عدم وجود کتابهای نشانه شناسی در کتابخانه دانشگاه امام صادق علیه السلام به تعداد مورد نیاز بود. (صرف نظر از این که کتاب چندلر علی رغم جدید الچاپ بودن اساسا موجود نبود! کتابهای موجود نیز در امانت بود.)
چندلر، دانیل (1387) مبانی نشانه شناسی، ترجمه: مهدی پارسا، تهران، انتشارات سوره مهر (پژوهشکده فرهنگ و هنر اسلامی)، (چاپ دوم) تعداد صفحات:352. قیمت: 3500تومان.
همانگونه که از عنوان کتاب بر می آید، موضوع این کتاب آشنایی اجمالی و اولیه با مبانی، پایه ها و مفاهیم نشانه شناسی است. آشنایی با نظریه پردازان برجسته نشانه شناسی و نظریه آنها در زبانی ساده و قابل فهم که برای تازه علاقمندان نشانه شناسی هم قابل استفاده، فهم و کاربرد باشد، از ویژگی های اصلی این کتاب است. بنابراین این کتاب یک شروع مناسب در حوزه نشانه شناسی قلمداد می شود. ترجمه روان و ساده آقای پارسا علی رغم دشوار بودن ذاتی مباحث نشانه شناسی به دلپذیر کردن کتاب کمک شایانی کرده است. دو نکته مهمی که کتابهای مشابه نشانه شناسی ترجمه شده در نشانه شناسی از آن بهره مند نسیتند. لازم به تذکر است که در کتابشناسی کتابخانه ملی این کتاب، از آقای فرزان سجودی (که در زمینه نشانه شناسی صاحب اثرهستند.(نشانه شناسی کاربردی؛ نشر علم) ) نیز اسم برده شده که امر نظارت بر ترجمه و راهنمایی مترجم را بر عهده داشتند و این موضوع بر استواری متن کتاب می افزاید.
طراحی زیبا (فونتهای مناسب، رنگ بندی شکیل، اندازه و قطع مناسب کتاب) علاوه بر درج نمودارها، جداول و شکلها به تناسب محتوا بر غنای کتاب افزوده است و انگیزه های مطالعه کتاب را در خواننده می افزاید.
علاوه بر مقدمه عالمانه مترجم، پیشگفتار، تشکر و سپاسگذاری و مقدمه نویسنده، شامل هفت فصل می باشد که آرام آرام به مفاهیم و نظریه های مبنایی نشانه شناسی می پردازد. عناوین فصلها به ترتیب عبارتند از: الگوهای نشانه، نشانه ها و چیزها، تحلیل ساختارها، چالش های لفظی، رمزگان، برهم کنش های متنی و محدودیتها و قابلیت ها.
در پایان ضمن معرفی منابع مطالعه بیشتر، فهرستی از اصطلاحات مبنایی و دشوار نشانه شناسی را فهرست کرده و به تشریح و تبیین اجمالی آنها پرداخته است.
نکته عجیب در مورد این کتاب است که از فهرست تفصیلی منابع برخوردار نیست! به عبارتی ما تنها با نام نویسندگان و سال انتشار مواجهیم و اثری از اسم کتاب و انتشارات و ... نیست! اشتباه چاپی بزرگی که امید داریم، در چاپهای بعدی بر طرف شود. البته من تنها چاپ دوم کتاب را در اختیار داشتم.
یافتن کتاب مناسب در حوزه نشانه شناسی به خاطر وجود کتابهای تالیفی و ترجمه ای متعدد کاری دشوار می نمود. بالاخره با مشورتهای انجام شده، (به ویژه از مشاوره و کمک آقای حسین سرفراز تشکر می کنم.) کتاب فوق انتخاب گردید. مشکل مهمی که در ابتدای جستجوی منابع پیش آمد، عدم وجود کتابهای نشانه شناسی در کتابخانه دانشگاه امام صادق علیه السلام به تعداد مورد نیاز بود. (صرف نظر از این که کتاب چندلر علی رغم جدید الچاپ بودن اساسا موجود نبود! کتابهای موجود نیز در امانت بود.)
April 24, 2025
4,5 stars; excellent primer on the subject; all the greats make their appearance; Peirce, Barthes, De Saussure, Eco and the lot. For more on the subject be sure to check out: The Sign of Three: Dupin, Holmes, Peirce, in which the meaning and mechanism of signification is fleshed out more deeply, including an extensive contemplation on the inferential mode of abduction (retroduction or hypothesis).
February 3, 2011
I used this in an upper-division undergrad course on "Digital Writing" to introduce students to the idea of semiotics. I had them read the "Introduction" "Signs" and "Modality and Representation" sections.
I appreciated Chandler's coverage of multiple schools of thought w/in semiotics, though I think students found it a bit overwhelming. I think it gelled for them after we met in class and discussed it, but they did express frustration with the text. Of course, they may just be unaccustomed to reading theory in any form...
I appreciated Chandler's coverage of multiple schools of thought w/in semiotics, though I think students found it a bit overwhelming. I think it gelled for them after we met in class and discussed it, but they did express frustration with the text. Of course, they may just be unaccustomed to reading theory in any form...
Read
July 5, 2014Reading this book before I saw the Magritte show at the Art Institute in Chicago was a nice bit of dumb luck. This is not a light reading book, which is the mistake I made. It really needs some reflection and maybe a reading buddy to help hash through the ideas.
As always, I'm glad he identified academic Marxism as Marxism. It gives me something to disagree with.
As always, I'm glad he identified academic Marxism as Marxism. It gives me something to disagree with.
November 29, 2020
This book is super important and very well written, and a must for any student of cultural studies. If you’re academically involved in any of the subjects discussed, I’d recommend rereading it over and over as it’s not very easy to grasp the basics of semiotics, and the subject is relevant to so many different theories and studies.
April 14, 2023
I think the various semiotic frameworks have a way of seeming obvious (natural) when described and difficult only when considering the diversity and nuance of the terms used in their descriptions, which fits (as form) the topic perfectly.
August 20, 2022
I appreciated the focus on structuralist semiotics, since my research this year concerns itself with structuralism and cultural materialism.
I also enjoyed the poststructuralist critiques of the former tradition. I did feel as though Chandler did not focus too much on the current state of semiotics, especially the prevailing schools of structuralist semiotics.
This will definitely be a foundational text in informing my theoretical framing this year.
I also enjoyed the poststructuralist critiques of the former tradition. I did feel as though Chandler did not focus too much on the current state of semiotics, especially the prevailing schools of structuralist semiotics.
This will definitely be a foundational text in informing my theoretical framing this year.
November 13, 2018
Best introduction to semiotics--I have a friend who is doing his bachelor's thesis based on the works of famous semioticians (including Eco, Lacan, Althusser, etc.) and he recommended me to read this. I was vaguely aware of the influence of Saussure on certain philosophical traditions like Lacanianism but I never committed myself to a study of semiotics.
It's one of the few books to well and truly expand my horizons. It is quite true that many of the concepts that were mentioned in the book I was already acquainted with through High School English classes (i.e who doesn't know about metaphor or irony?), but what really intrigued me was its relation to social/critical theory and cinema--two of my favourite interests. In some ways I feel it has shown me a world 'beneath' the world in which I live--it provides effective and illuminating examples of critical semiotic analysis of popular culture and the world around us that encourages the reader to partake in their own analytic practices. In the last section to the book Chandler mentions that in a world that is increasing full of signs, a knowledge of semiotics is becoming more and more necessary for the thinker. Hugely helpful introduction--will probably move onto actually reading Saussure next.
Part I, the Models of the Sign discusses some famous early semiologists/semioticians, including Saussure, Hjelmslev and Peirce--it mostly focuses on the concepts from Peirce and is a rather straightforward introduction to what semiotics is all about. I would have really loved an expanded section on Hjemslev, though--he was covered in (if I recall correctly), barely under five pages despite how much his theory interested me.
Part II, Signs and Things is a relatively short section that refers to certain important concepts such as 'modality' or 'referentiality', in talking about the relationship between a semiotic system and the 'actual world'. Easy to follow section but there wasn't any groundbreaking information contained here for me.
Part III, Analysing Structures is a highly engaging section. A lot of it is dedicated to talking about analyses of structures in culture and society (i.e films, literature, advertisements), and with a robust amount of examples from various semioticians like Greimas or Barthes it provides a fascinating discussion of the pervasiveness of signs within our daily lives.
Part IV, Challenging the Literal mostly goes over some concepts from literature and literary theory, like irony, synecdoche, or denotation/connotation. I'm sure to someone who's interested in literature they would find this section extremely intriguing, but for me it felt rather boring and a repetition of the same ideas that I had already learnt in English class.
Part V, Codes move onto the discussion of certain norms or conventions in utilising signs, referred to as 'codes'. It can sometimes be a rather abstract discussion but there's plenty of examples and applications that Chandler mentions that you can get an easy grasp on the ideas. Especially the section on invisible editing in cinema and television I found to be quite eye-catching.
Part VI, Interactions discusses the models of communication between people or texts with one another. There's a couple unhelpful diagrams of communicative models but the text itself is presented quite lucidly. In the second half of the section it delves into the theories of intertextuality and intratextuality which is a much more absorbing discussion (perhaps also because I've never considered the notion of intratextuality before).
Part VII, Prospects goes over some recent developments in semiotics and emphasises again why it is an important area of study. Nothing really particular here.
Anyways, in general I'd recommend it to pretty much everyone--it's not written in a highly academic manner and is accessible to all, and a lot of the analytic skills provided by the rather short introduction would be extremely valuable to anyone living in today's media-saturated 'semiotic landscape'.
It's one of the few books to well and truly expand my horizons. It is quite true that many of the concepts that were mentioned in the book I was already acquainted with through High School English classes (i.e who doesn't know about metaphor or irony?), but what really intrigued me was its relation to social/critical theory and cinema--two of my favourite interests. In some ways I feel it has shown me a world 'beneath' the world in which I live--it provides effective and illuminating examples of critical semiotic analysis of popular culture and the world around us that encourages the reader to partake in their own analytic practices. In the last section to the book Chandler mentions that in a world that is increasing full of signs, a knowledge of semiotics is becoming more and more necessary for the thinker. Hugely helpful introduction--will probably move onto actually reading Saussure next.
Part I, the Models of the Sign discusses some famous early semiologists/semioticians, including Saussure, Hjelmslev and Peirce--it mostly focuses on the concepts from Peirce and is a rather straightforward introduction to what semiotics is all about. I would have really loved an expanded section on Hjemslev, though--he was covered in (if I recall correctly), barely under five pages despite how much his theory interested me.
Part II, Signs and Things is a relatively short section that refers to certain important concepts such as 'modality' or 'referentiality', in talking about the relationship between a semiotic system and the 'actual world'. Easy to follow section but there wasn't any groundbreaking information contained here for me.
Part III, Analysing Structures is a highly engaging section. A lot of it is dedicated to talking about analyses of structures in culture and society (i.e films, literature, advertisements), and with a robust amount of examples from various semioticians like Greimas or Barthes it provides a fascinating discussion of the pervasiveness of signs within our daily lives.
Part IV, Challenging the Literal mostly goes over some concepts from literature and literary theory, like irony, synecdoche, or denotation/connotation. I'm sure to someone who's interested in literature they would find this section extremely intriguing, but for me it felt rather boring and a repetition of the same ideas that I had already learnt in English class.
Part V, Codes move onto the discussion of certain norms or conventions in utilising signs, referred to as 'codes'. It can sometimes be a rather abstract discussion but there's plenty of examples and applications that Chandler mentions that you can get an easy grasp on the ideas. Especially the section on invisible editing in cinema and television I found to be quite eye-catching.
Part VI, Interactions discusses the models of communication between people or texts with one another. There's a couple unhelpful diagrams of communicative models but the text itself is presented quite lucidly. In the second half of the section it delves into the theories of intertextuality and intratextuality which is a much more absorbing discussion (perhaps also because I've never considered the notion of intratextuality before).
Part VII, Prospects goes over some recent developments in semiotics and emphasises again why it is an important area of study. Nothing really particular here.
Anyways, in general I'd recommend it to pretty much everyone--it's not written in a highly academic manner and is accessible to all, and a lot of the analytic skills provided by the rather short introduction would be extremely valuable to anyone living in today's media-saturated 'semiotic landscape'.
April 9, 2014
"An irreverent journey into meaning and meaning making. A must read for those of us who like to over analyze everything. Seriously, this book is a nice readable story about a subject that's not supposed to be for us "non-phylosophers."
May 16, 2014
Good for undergraduate students in semiotics. It presents, compare and contrast most of the theories and views that construct the field of semiotics in all the modes of representation.
November 19, 2019
As someone who is deeply interested in communication, I found this book to be deeply interesting, largely because the author managed to (perhaps unintentionally) reveal how it is that a society that takes communication so deadly seriously as our own can be so consistently bad at it. This has always greatly puzzled me that the interest in and supposed knowledge of communication and how it worked should be so disconnected from its practical importance, and this book did a good job in explaining how it came to be. By and large, the author expresses an understanding of semiotics that tends to view it as both something with a very long set of traditions but a very short formal existence, and a great deal of arguments over what aspects of communication are in existence and whether or not the external reality has any importance in understanding communications. Given this sort of debating and the lack of consistency between a great deal of the theorizing about technology that exists and the actual communication that happens, to say nothing of the actual existence that we live, it makes sense that a field that struggles to grasp reality would fail to have a practical benefit in terms of mastering communication.
This book is a bit more than 200 pages and is divided into seven chapters. The author begins with a list of illustrations, preface, and acknowledgments. After that there is an introduction that provides definitions and an answer to the question of why one would want to study semiotics. After that the author discusses various models of the sign, focusing on the Saussurean and Piercean models and discussing modes of understanding signs that are not types because more than one can simultaneously apply (1). After that the author discusses the troublesome relationship in semoitics between signs and things (2) as well as the way that structures in communication are analyzed in semiotics (3). There is a chapter on how the ironic reader challenges the literal (4) and seeks to understand the variety of codes that are used in various genres (5). After that there are chapters on textual interactions and positions of reading (6) as well as the question of prospect and retrospect (7), after which the book ends with an appendix that features key figures and schools of semiotics as well as suggestions for further reading, and a glossary, bibliography, and index.
In few fields to the extent of semiotics is there such a wide gulf between the sort of patting oneself on the back that occurs by credentialed members of the field and the actual understanding of one's chosen field that would be exhibited by understanding and being able to apply that understanding regarding communication. There are so many areas where semiotics as a field fails to provide genuine insight about communication, such as when textual criticism is at such a primitive level as exists, and when the multi-layered nature of many texts is so often disregarded, not when the perspective of readers (many of whom are not very knowledgeable or proficient in the task) is privileged over the people who actually created the texts in the first place, and where even the existence of an external reality that influences communication and how it is to be evaluated is considered to be problematic. And so it is that this book ends up providing the basics about semiotics and a reminder why it is that we should all strive to be better at communicating than those who fancy themselves to be expert in the task of understanding signs and how they are to be interpreted. For few fields have so many blind guides as does semiotics, and in our world full of woebegone experts, that is saying something truly impressive.
This book is a bit more than 200 pages and is divided into seven chapters. The author begins with a list of illustrations, preface, and acknowledgments. After that there is an introduction that provides definitions and an answer to the question of why one would want to study semiotics. After that the author discusses various models of the sign, focusing on the Saussurean and Piercean models and discussing modes of understanding signs that are not types because more than one can simultaneously apply (1). After that the author discusses the troublesome relationship in semoitics between signs and things (2) as well as the way that structures in communication are analyzed in semiotics (3). There is a chapter on how the ironic reader challenges the literal (4) and seeks to understand the variety of codes that are used in various genres (5). After that there are chapters on textual interactions and positions of reading (6) as well as the question of prospect and retrospect (7), after which the book ends with an appendix that features key figures and schools of semiotics as well as suggestions for further reading, and a glossary, bibliography, and index.
In few fields to the extent of semiotics is there such a wide gulf between the sort of patting oneself on the back that occurs by credentialed members of the field and the actual understanding of one's chosen field that would be exhibited by understanding and being able to apply that understanding regarding communication. There are so many areas where semiotics as a field fails to provide genuine insight about communication, such as when textual criticism is at such a primitive level as exists, and when the multi-layered nature of many texts is so often disregarded, not when the perspective of readers (many of whom are not very knowledgeable or proficient in the task) is privileged over the people who actually created the texts in the first place, and where even the existence of an external reality that influences communication and how it is to be evaluated is considered to be problematic. And so it is that this book ends up providing the basics about semiotics and a reminder why it is that we should all strive to be better at communicating than those who fancy themselves to be expert in the task of understanding signs and how they are to be interpreted. For few fields have so many blind guides as does semiotics, and in our world full of woebegone experts, that is saying something truly impressive.
October 21, 2024
Towards the end of this lengthy survey of the various semiotic systems and theories we read: "Semiotics has not become widely institutionalized as a formal academic discipline and it has not (yet) achieved the status of (social) science which Saussure anticipated. There is little sense of a unified enterprise building on cumulative research findings." A little further on: "Few semioticians seem to feel much need to provide empirical evidence for particular interpretations, and much semiotic analysis is loosely impressionistic and highly unsystematic (or alternatively, generates elaborate taxonomies with little evident practical application). Elsewhere: "Few semioticians make their analytical strategy sufficiently explicit for others to apply it..."
I only wish the author had expressed these caveats in the introduction rather than the conclusion. That way I think we might be more inclined to read the terminological and theoretical minutiae with the appropriate pinches of salt. As it is, I find this book is heavy on the neat abstract systems of wheels within wheels but very light on plausible applications.
I only wish the author had expressed these caveats in the introduction rather than the conclusion. That way I think we might be more inclined to read the terminological and theoretical minutiae with the appropriate pinches of salt. As it is, I find this book is heavy on the neat abstract systems of wheels within wheels but very light on plausible applications.
February 6, 2019
A little technical for a first book on Semiotics, but a very good overview of the field of semiotics and he clearly has read the core authors down to the second and third tier and understands their place in the story. He at times assumes a little much about whether you have read some authors, but overall he does a good job of laying out their genealogy, similarities and differences without requiring you to have too much background. He provides a fair and objective discussion of Peirce, Derrida and some others, which is more than I can say about some other writers on this topic. He also does a good job of showing the relationship between structuralism and semiotics. I would recommend it to someone who has gotten interested in semiotics and has read something by a few of the key folks (e.g. Saussure, Levi-Strauss, et al). I would also recommend for folks interested in Barthes and Derrida, or trying to figure out how Saussure and Peirce differ.
October 14, 2024
A very clearly written book and seemingly very thorough introduction to the field of semiotics. As the author notes, it has never quite become a formal academic discipline, but has been very influential and offers a lot of concepts for understanding the many signs and symbols that infuse our world with different meanings.
I could not see many other books on the market introducing semiotics and so appreciated the author's efforts to put this resource together. In my opinion, it does a very helpful job explaining difficult ideas clearly for a wide readership.
The tone is careful and balanced, and the book notes some of the debates, limitations, and inconsistencies of the field with care.
There is also a note of passion in places about the importance of semiotics for understanding culture and influence. I found it interesting and appealing, not least because it can be applied to so many different media and phenomena - language, film, photography, poetry, ideology, and more.
I could not see many other books on the market introducing semiotics and so appreciated the author's efforts to put this resource together. In my opinion, it does a very helpful job explaining difficult ideas clearly for a wide readership.
The tone is careful and balanced, and the book notes some of the debates, limitations, and inconsistencies of the field with care.
There is also a note of passion in places about the importance of semiotics for understanding culture and influence. I found it interesting and appealing, not least because it can be applied to so many different media and phenomena - language, film, photography, poetry, ideology, and more.
July 26, 2017
Its a good introduction to semiotics; although it is not comprehensive. The book mostly focuses on structural approach to semiotics and more approaches like functional approach is not considered at all. If you are an starter or newcomer, so be it! fancy the fluent language of the writer and get acquitance with semiotics, specially, Saussurian. It will base your knowledge of semiotics and power up your words in this realm. I highly recomend this book.
April 24, 2021
An excellent book for someone who really wants to be quickly brought up to speed with the subject. Difficult for me to say whether it's thorough as I'm new to it, but I found each chapter brought something new and went through it well. I'm going to reread it though as it was tough going. It's very dense on content for someone picking up terms and meanings as they go along.
January 22, 2019
Excellent and concise overview of structuralist and poststructuralist theory, with helpful historical context.
Excellent introduction to, and primer for, many linguistic, philosophical and psychological theories
Excellent introduction to, and primer for, many linguistic, philosophical and psychological theories
November 28, 2019
This one is an excellent resource, and a bit more in-depth than expected. There is a huge bibliography and tons of cross-references that will surely aid anyone in getting farther along the Semiotic road.
September 23, 2021
A very good introduction. Occasionally reads like a slightly more openly opinionated than most text book but provides a useful overview of a lot of key figures and ideas. In a sense, this felt like it could have been part of a series called A Very Medium-Sized Introduction.
September 9, 2017
Probably the most direct and easy to understand intro to the study of semiotics I've seen. It's both a gateway and a sufficient foundation to understanding the use of semiotics in any field.
October 15, 2017
A treasure trove of usefulness. Beautifully well explained and accessible.
September 5, 2018
Perfect book for those who want to know a bit of semiology.
Very good book for beginners.
August 9, 2019
An invaluable resource on the titular subject. I've learned a great deal from this book in a relatively short amount of time. Highly recommended for students of philosophy and language!
September 5, 2019
read « ninnies, pedants, tyrants &other academics » from NYTimes & u’ll feel me
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