Semiotic Insights

'Semiotic Insights is a veritable vade mecum on semiotic method that brings together the insights of the expert analyst and the writing style of a master teacher.' -- Marcel Danesi, Professor of Semiotics, University of Toronto 'Rauch's is a rich and original work which represents a lifetime of reflection upon the fields of semiotics and linguistics, and their synergy. This book will conquer the public through its erudition, its strategic escalation and variety of topics, and its style.' -- Alain J.-J. Cohen, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of California, San Diego

This collection of articles by Irmengard Rauch provides a lucid narrative on the nature of semiotics and linguistics, revealing their symbiotic relationship through concrete, data-based application.

This collection of articles by Irmengard Rauch, a widely known and respected scholar of semiotics and linguistics, provides a lucid narrative on the nature of both subjects, revealing their symbiotic relationship through concrete, data-based application.

Rauch shows, with many practical examples, how to conduct semiotic analyses of language, narrative, texts, and discourse. In Part One, Semiotic Insights, she introduces the reader to the fundamental tenets and metatheory of the fields of linguistics and semiotics. She explores the multifaceted cooperation and tension between them, their shared threads and subthemes, the role of language in both, the tools of each discipline, and their relationship to other disciplines, especially biology and medicine. In Part Two, The Data Do the Talking, hard linguistic data are exposed and analysed within the semiotic paradigm. Using well-proven linguistic tools, Rauch's semiotic method lends insight into the dynamics of how language changes and grows.