Old Masters

Abstract

In 1984 Fawcett, in The Semiotics of Culture and Language (Vol. 2), introduced the assembled writers’ project in these terms:

Semiotics, which I take to be the study of sign systems and their use, is not a subject that has many practitioners who … call themselves ‘semioticians’ (or ‘semiologists’ to use the term favoured in the mainland European tradition). On the other hand it could well be argued that the world is full of applied semioticians, in that semiotic issues are inherently involved whenever a language is taught and learned … whenever a psychologist studies gaze or proxemic behaviour, and whenever a student of art or music or literature is at work. But … the student of semiotics is also concerned with the general principles of signs and sign systems. [S]emiotics … is crucial to an understanding of human nature — both social and psychological. For it is the sign systems that we use for interaction with other living beings that determine our potential for thought and social action. (p. xiii)