Introduction

Dialogues between Continental Semiotics and Linguistic Anthropology

Abstract

In this introduction, we elaborate on the theme of this issue and its aim: to provide a bridge between the semiotic traditions of North American linguistic anthropology and European continental semiotics. We provide a brief overview of these different, heterogeneous traditions, noting their points of convergence and divergence. While each shares a sustained critical engagement with and movement beyond linguistic structuralism, and thus a number of common bases dating to the mid-century, the two traditions have been in little to no contact for the last half-century, each independently developing its own unique theoretical discourse and approach to semiosis and signification. Despite their differences, however, linguistic anthropology and continental semiotics are built on shared foundations. They continue to be concerned with similar issues, and, in various areas, have developed convergent solutions. To demonstrate this, we identify a cluster of points of contact (among many others, to be sure): enunciation and entextualization; enunciative praxis and enregisterment; embodiment, qualia, and affect/passions; semiosphere, cultures of circulation, and emanation; and the semiotics of practice, interaction, and actantial theory. We conclude with discussion of the larger project from which this issue arose.