Signos: Una introducción a la Semiótica

by Thomas Albert Sebeok

Este libro no sólo es una perfecta síntesis del pensamiento de Sebeok sobre los hechos elementales de la semiosis, sino que además reúne algunos de sus más importantes ensayos sobre los temas fundamentales de la semiótica contemporánea. En cierto modo, el texto trata del estudio de la humanidad y de su capacidad innata para producir signos, de tal manera que Sebeok documenta las manifestaciones semióticas en especies muy diferentes (desde las termitas hasta los humanos) y nos lleva a la conclusión de que la habilidad del cerebro en este menester es una estrategia de supervivencia básica en todas las formas de vida. A partir de ahí, Sebeok acaba transformando la semiótica en una ciencia de la vida, devolviendo sus raíces a la biología médica. En otras palabras, la arranca del terreno filosófico, lingüístico y hermenéutico, en el que se había cultivado durante siglos, y la traslada al dominio de la biología, de donde procedía originalmente. El resultado es un programa para el estudio de la semiosis humana entendida como capacidad biológica que transforma las respuestas sensoriales básicas y las motivadas afectivamente en un universo de modelos mentales. Todo ello, por supuesto, en un texto ameno y de fácil lectura, que nos enseña de qué manera se une el cuerpo con la mente para producir signos, mensajes, pensamientos y, por último, una conducta cultural.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Semiotics, Language, Theory, Linguistics

168 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1994

About the author

Thomas Albert Sebeok or Sebők was a prominent linguist and semiotician, and editor-in-chief of the leading periodical in the field, Semiotica, from its 1969 founding until 2001. He earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1945. He is counted among the originators of the field of biosemiotics, and was highly influential in the study of non-human signaling and communication systems.

Sebeok was survived by his wife (and frequent co-author), Jean Umiker-Sebeok

Reviews

[Valeriu Gherghel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unul dintre cei mai importanți semioticieni din secolul trecut.

Cartea cuprinde o clasificare a semnelor, inspirată de triada lui Charles Sanders Peirce (simbol, icon, index). Trihotomia semnelor propusă de filosoful american a jucat un rol decisiv în filosofia limbajului. Cu toate acestea, clasificarea semnelor propusă de Peirce rămîne evident incompletă.

Thomas A. Sebeok (1920 - 2001) crede că o clasificare mai potrivită ar fi una hexadică. Ea ar cuprinde următoarele tipuri de semne (exemplele îmi aparțin):

(a) semnalul (pocnetul pistolului într-o cursă atletică, sunetul clopotului din turla unei biserici care îi cheamă pe creștini la slujbă, soneria / clopoțelul într-o școală, claxonul...),
(b) simptomul (hrana medicilor: tensiunea arterială, paloarea, temperatura etc.),
(c) iconul (portretul Giocondei, harta geografică a Europei, globul pămîntesc la ora de Geografie, astrolabul),
(d) indexul, indicele (urma lui Vineri pe nisip, amprenta care îl dă de gol pe odiosul criminal etc.),
(e) simbolul (crucea, termenul „cruce”, semiluna etc.),
(f) numele proprii (Veronica, Mihai, Adonis, Cleopatra, Caesar).

[Duarte Cabral]

Reads more like a collection of class transcriptions, filled to the brim with detours and turnarounds without giving you any chance of asking the teacher to please dear god shut up and just focus on the object at hand!!!, than a proper theoretical deep-diving book on semiotics.

Still, there's quite a bit of interesting ideas and factoids here, so it wasn't a total waste.

[Alejandro Brand · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Semiotics is not about the real world at all, but about complementary or alternative actual models of it - and as Leibniz thought - about an infinite number of anthropologically conceivable worlds" T. Sebeok

This comment has not a high degree of expertise or pretends to be an academic opinion or review. On the contrary, it is the impression of someone who has just started to read about semiotics without any preview knowledge about it.

The book consists of 8 chapters. It covers the basic concepts(signs and its main types and semiotic models), the history and beginning of semiotics, the two main approaches stablished by Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Sanders Pierce. And a full chapter dedicated to the fetish as a sign. Most of the topics are carefully treated and detailed.

In a loose appreciation, I think this is a valuable detailed introductory book. It is well structured with a logical order, contains lots of examples that help to grasp better the concepts and ideas. It also has hundreds of references and quotes from authors of different sciences(philosophy, biology, physics, etc).

[Oscar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise and interesting introduction to a field I don't know much about.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I liked this book more, parts were super interesting but there were also parts that I found rather tedious due to the writing. Not too shabby for in intro to semiotics but definitely not something I would read for fun

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential reading for studying semiotics. Sebeok comments on the various avenues of semiotic study of his contemporaries and breaks down the different approaches of Charles S. Peirce and Ferdinand de Saussure.

[Mark Holm · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent primer on semiotics, though not as robust as Eco would do in A Theory of Semiotics or Semiotics and the philosophy of language. Perhaps that's for the better if you're you need a text or introduction to the field.

[David Withun · Rating 4 out of 5]

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