ABSTRACT
Semiotics is probably best known as an approach to textual analysis, and in this form it is characterized by a concern with structural analysis. Structuralist analysis focuses on the structural relations which are functional in the signifying system at a particular moment in history. It involves identifying the constituent units in a semiotic system (such as a text or socio-cultural practice), the structural relationships between them (oppositions, correlations and logical relations) and the relation of the parts to the whole. This is not an empty exercise since ‘relations are important for what they can explain: meaningful contrasts and permitted or forbidden combinations’ (Culler 1975, 14).
