ABSTRACT
Semiotics seeks to define what all forms of communication have in common. It is not a science. It is a point of view. Ironically, although profoundly concerned with communication, semiotics texts are often complex and bewildering. We ask, ‘what is the simplest and humblest set of ideas that can sustain semiotic inquiry?’, with Occam’s Razor a major principle. We reject grand schemes as misguided and hubristic—as if an imperialist researcher can invade and colonise well-established fields of human activity with no acknowledgement—or knowledge—of traditional crafts and know-how. This is particularly the case in the practical semiotic fields of communication and information design, which have been colonised by ‘scientific’ invaders. But individuals, communities, and their crafts matter. We recognise the real inhabitants of the semiotic universe, the people who make and read signs. Semioticians (including us) construct fictions; but the fictions must be related to experienced life. Semiotic texts merely assume the existence of people, but the position of people is crucial and must be explicit. We will remove the persistent ways of thinking about semiotics—the dominant paradigms, metaphors, and assumptions that interfere with a clearer view of semiotics—and introduce new ones.
