Includes bibliographical references and index.

Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language comprehends the entire tradition of the doctrine of signs, threading its way through the symbolic and allegorical readings of the Holy Scriptures, the varying insights of the fields of philosophy and rhetoric, and into (and out of) the various positions of modern literary criticism. Individual chapters are devoted to the nature of signs; the theory of definition; the cognitive function of metaphors and symbols; mirror images, painting, film, and television; and the role of inference in the interpretation of texts.