de la Fuente, Eduardo (1998) Book review of "Semiotic Investigations: towards an effective semiotics" by Alec McHoul, Lincoln, NE, USA, University of Nebraska Press, 1997. Journal of Sociology, 34 (3). pp. 328-329.

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Abstract

[Extract] Semiotic approaches to social and cultural life have for some time been under a cloud. There has been a discernible shift in sociology, cultural and media studies away from the notion that meanings are contained in texts, to a focus on the way texts are used in 'everyday contexts'. Alec McHoul's Semiotic I1westigations recognises this mood swing and pursues the argument that signs have meaning by virtue of their actual uses. If semiotics had in the past been conceived as the science of signs-with a heritage stretching back to Charles Sanders Pierce and Ferdinand de Saussure-then for McHoul the semiotic is inherently undecidable. His 'effective semiotics', that is a semiotics grounded in actual sign-use, is not able to answer the question 'What is semiosis?'; instead, he suggests 'we have to ask the question separately when we begin each new semiotic investigation' (p. vii). The uses of signs therefore occur in concrete media such as history, everyday life, language, fiction, film, talk, art, mathematics or photography.

Item ID:	40483
Item Type:	Article (Book Review)
ISSN:	1741-2978
Keywords:	semiotics
Date Deposited:	25 Sep 2015 05:18
FoR Codes:	20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 2002 Cultural Studies > 200299 Cultural Studies not elsewhere classified @ 50% 20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 2002 Cultural Studies > 200203 Consumption and Everyday Life @ 50%
SEO Codes:	97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970116 Expanding Knowledge through Studies of Human Society @ 100%
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