Systemic Semiotics

Against the background of often esoteric literature in semiotics, this book offers a fresh and rigorous new interpretation of how to approach the study of communication, signs and meaning. Grounded in a deductive theory of interacting systems, Piotr Sadowski's book provides an accessible account of the hierarchy of communication. Divided into two parts, this book argues in the first section that a deductive semiotic theory generates communication situations of increasing complexity, from contiguous communication to indirect, referential forms based on indexical, iconic, and symbolic signs. Within this system, Sadowski explains how key concepts of the semiotic model such as information, parainformation and metainformation can account for degrees of cognitive complexity of communication processes, including the perception and interpretation of signs on literal and figurative levels. After this clear, step-by-step exposition of the theory of interacting systems, Systemic Semiotics then explores various applications of this theory, providing new insights into problems subsumed under communication studies, cultural theory, literary and film studies, and psychology.

"This book assembles semiotics and artificial intelligence techniques in order to design new kinds of intelligence systems; it changes the research field of artificial intelligence by incorporating the study of meaning processes (semiosis), from the perspective of formal sciences, linguistics, and philosophy"--Provided by publisher.

Organizational Semiotics: Evolving a Science of Information Systems covers such issues as: -Fundamental concepts such as 'information', 'data', 'message', 'communication', 'knowledge', 'organization', 'system' and so on; -Properties of signs vital to organizational functioning, such as their meanings, the intentions they express and the valuable social consequences they produce; -'Architecture' of organizations when they are viewed as information systems, based on their semiotics features; -Understanding language in organizational contexts, for example, the limitations on the language used to conduct business affairs; -The empirical study of communications for requirements elicitation; -Applying semiotic categories (e.g. physical, empiric, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, social) to various problems; -Organizational knowledge representation; -Business process re-engineering methods and the design of e-commerce systems.

Literary Semiotics brings much needed revitalization to the conservatism of modern semiotic theory. Scott Simpkins' revisionist work scrutinizes the conflicting views on sign theory to identify new areas of development in semiotic thought and practice, particularly in relation to literary theory. Focusing on the idea of semiotics as a "conversation" about sign theory and practice, Simpkins principally looks at the work of Umberto Eco, while giving secondary attention to some of semiotics' most influential commentators: including Deleuze and Guattari, Lyotard, Foucault, Barthes, Kristeva, and Derrida. As an engaged interrogation of the restraints on the practice of semiotics, Literary Semiotics is a provocative study for semioticians, literary theorists, and scholars of cultural studies and a resource for students seeking a probing examination of the theory of signs.

Exploring the relationship between theory and practice in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), this volume offers a state-of-the-art overview of Appliable Linguistics. Featuring both internationally-renowned scholars and rising stars from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, Indonesia, New Zealand, Singapore and the USA, Appliable Linguistics and Social Semiotics examines the theoretical insights, questions, and developments that have emerged from the application of Systemic Functional theory to a range of fields. Beyond simply reporting on the application of SFL to particular sites of communication, both linguistic and semiotic, this volume demonstrates how SFL has critiqued, developed and transformed theory and practice and foregrounds the implications of application for Systemic Functional theory itself. Covering established fields for application, such as education, medicine and media, to relatively uncharted areas, such as software design and extremist propaganda, this volume provides an overview of recent linguistic and semiotic innovations informed by SFL and examines the advances that have been made from many years of productive dialogue between theory and practice.

This volume presents an overview of new developments and applications of social semiotic theory. Pioneered by M.A.K. Halliday, social semiotic theory sees meaning as created through the interaction of texts (including writing, images, sound and space) within a given context. Divided into five sections, the contributors use social semiotic theory to analyse a range of contexts, including the classroom, the museum and cinema. The case studies show the range and scope of this method of analysis, and include: the school curriculum; literacy; print media; online resources; film; and advertising. Multimodal Semiotics will be of interest to academics researching social semiotic theory, systemic functional linguistics and applied linguistics.