Semiotics is probably best know an an approach to textual analysis, and in this form it is characterised 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) and the structural relationships between them (oppositions, correlations and logical relations). This is not an empty exercise since 'relations are important for what they can explain: meangingful contrasts and permitted or forbidden combinations'
Jonathan Culler 1975
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