" -Thomas Sebeok"Nöth's handbook is an outstanding encyclopedia that provides first-rate information on many facets of sign-related studies, research results, and applications." -Social Sciences in General

History and Classics of Modern SemioticsSign and MeaningSign - Meaning, Sense, and Reference - Semantics and Semiotics - Topology of Signs: Sign, Signal, Index - Symbol - Icon and Iconicity - Metaphor - InformationSemiosis, Code, and the Semiotic FieldZoosemiotics, Ethology, and Semiogenesis - Communication and Semiosis - Function - Magic - Structure - System - Code - TeachingLanguage and Language-Based CodesVerbal Communication: Introduction - Language in a Semiotic Frame - Arbitrariness and Motivation: The Language Sign - Paralanguage - Writing - Universal Language - Sign Language - Language SubstitutesFrom Structuralism to Text Semiotics: Schools and Major FiguresIntroduction - Structuralism, Poststructuralism, and Neostructuralism - Russian Formalism, Prague School, Soviet Semiotics - Barthes's Text Semiotics - Greimas"s Structural Semantics and Text Semiotic Project - Kristeva's Semanalysis - EcoText Semiotics: The FieldText Semiotics: Introduction - Hermeneutics and Exegesis - Rhetoric and Stylistics - Literature - Poetry and Poeticalness - Theater and Drama - Narrative - Myth - Ideology - TheologyNonverbal CommunicationNonverbal Communication: Introduction - Gesture, "Body Language," and Kinesics - Facial Signs - Gaze - Tactile Communication - Proxemics: The Semiotics of Space - Chronemics: The Semiotics of TimeAesthetics and Visual CommunicationAesthetics - Music - Architecture - Objects - Image - Painting - Photography - Film - Comics - Advertising