A new semiotics : an introductory guide for students / David Sless, Ruth Shrensky.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface-- Acknowledgements -- Reading this book -- 1 Introduction: What is semiotics? -- 2 Semantics, syntactics, pragmatics, and rules -- 3 Perception and perceiving -- 4 Affordances -- 5 Projecting and meaning -- 6 The Stand-for relation-Letness -- 7 Letness and metaphors -- Interlude 1: The Journey so far Chapters 1-7 -- 8 The Boundary of communication: the reader's position -- 9 Controlling meaning -- 10 Controlling meaning? -- 11 Authortext, readertext (these are not misprints!) --Interlude 2: The Journey continues Chapters 8-11 -- 12 Communication landscapes -- 13 The Author's position -- 14 The Significance of position -- 15 Letness, chaos, and communicating -- 16 Beyond babel.

"A New Semiotics is an introductory guide to the field of semiotics. Assuming no prior knowledge of semiotics, this accessible text takes a fresh look at semiotics and suggests that many of the forebears and many contemporary contributors to semiotics have misconstrued the nature of their work. The authors start off by asking 'What is semiotics?' and go on to outline a journey towards a new semiotics. It offers a clearer way forward out of the prison of complexity invented by the fathers of contemporary semiotics-Peirce and Saussure. Each chapter ends with a summary, exercises and discussion points for students, and further reading. This is the ideal text for introductory courses in semiotics within linguistics, communication studies, visual arts and related areas"-- Provided by publisher.