Semiotics: The Basics

by Daniel Chandler

Overview

Following the success of the first edition, Semiotics: the Basics has been revised to include new material on the development of semiotics from Saussure to contemporary socio-semiotics. This second edition is fully updated with an extended index, glossary and further reading section, Using jargon-free language and lively up-to-date examples, this book demystifies this highly interdisciplinary subject and addresses questions such as: What is a sign? Which codes do we take for granted? What is a text? How can semiotics be used in textual analysis? Who are Saussure, Peirce, Barthes and Jakobson - and why are they important? The new edition of Semiotics: the Basics provides an interesting and accessible introduction to this field of study, and is a must-have for anyone coming to semiotics for the first time.

About the Author:
Daniel Chandler is a Lecturer in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781040382202
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/08/2025
Series:	The Basics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	418
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Daniel Chandler is an emeritus faculty member at Aberystwyth University, UK, and a consultant in marketing semiotics. He is also the senior compiler of A Dictionary of Media and Communication (3rd edition, Oxford University Press, 2020) and A Dictionary of Social Media (Oxford University Press, 2016).

Table of Contents

List of illustrations     xi
Preface     xiii
Acknowledgements     xvii
Introduction     1
Definitions     2
Relation to linguistics     5
Langue and parole     8
Why study semiotics?     10
Models of the sign     13
The Saussurean model     14
Two sides of a page     17
The relational system     18
Arbitrariness     22
The Peircean model     29
Relativity     35
Symbolic mode     38
Iconic mode     40
Indexical mode     42
Modes not types     44
Changing relations     45
Digital and analogue     47
Types and tokens     49
Rematerializing the sign     51
Hjelmslev's framework     56
Signs and things     59
Naming things     60
Referentiality     62
Modality     64
The word is not the thing     69
Empty signifiers     78
Analysing structures     83
Horizontal and vertical axes     83
The paradigmaticdimension     87
The commutation test     88
Oppositions     90
Markedness     93
Deconstruction     99
Alignment     100
The semiotic square     106
The syntagmatic dimension     109
Spatial relations     110
Sequential relations     114
Structural reduction     115
Challenging the literal     123
Rhetorical tropes     123
Metaphor     126
Metonymy     129
Synecdoche     132
Irony     134
Master tropes     136
Denotation and connotation     137
Myth     143
Codes     147
Types of codes     148
Perceptual codes     151
Social codes     153
Textual codes     157
Codes of realism     160
Invisible editing     165
Broadcast and narrowcast codes     170
Interaction of textual codes     171
Codification     171
Textual interactions     175
Models of communication     175
The positioning of the subject      186
Modes of address     190
Reading positions     194
Intertextuality     197
Problematizing authorship     198
Reading as rewriting     200
No text is an island     201
Intratextuality     203
Bricolage     205
Types and degrees of intertextuality     206
Prospect and retrospect     211
Structuralist semiotics     212
Poststructuralist semiotics     217
Methodologies     221
An ecological and multimodal approach     223
Appendix: key figures and schools     227
Going further     235
Glossary     243
Bibliography     265
Index     293

Editorial Reviews

This is the best introduction to semiotics I have read. Comprehensive, accessible and interesting, it is an invaluable resource for both beginners and more advanced students.

Guy Cook

It is no small task to present semiotics in a manner that makes it accessible to the beginning student, and Chandler achieves this, describing difficult concepts clearly and thoroughly.

Donald J. Cunningham

This book introduces a growing area of investigation with humor and insight. Eclectic rather than dogmatic, this is a book students should know about.

Tony Thwaites