Le développement des filières professionnalisantes de l'enseignement supérieur et des actions de formation d'adultes a favorisé l'extension des Techniques d'Expression et de Communication. Une multiplicité de pratiques s'y rattachent, reflet d'une évolution liée à celle de la demande sociale. Aujourd'hui se pose le problème du statut de ce nouveau champ dans le système éducatif et dans celui de la formation d'adultes.

" . . . the greatest contribution to [semiotics] since the pioneering work of C. S. Peirce and Charles Morris." —Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism " . . . draws on philosophy, linguistics, sociology, anthropology and aesthetics and refers to a wide range of scholarship . . . raises many fascinating questions." —Language in Society " . . . a major contribution to the field of semiotic studies." —Robert Scholes, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism " . . . the most significant text on the subject published in the English language that I know of." —Arthur Asa Berger, Journal of Communication Eco's treatment demonstrates his mastery of the field of semiotics. It focuses on the twin problems of the doctrine of signs—communication and signification—and offers a highly original theory of sign production, including a carefully wrought typology of signs and modes of production.

An important interdisciplinary study, that establishes a general theory that accounts for the varieties of body language encountered in literary narrative, based on a general history of the phenomenon in the English language.