This volume differs from the volume, Semiotics 1980, in that it is no longer an experimental product, but the result of a permanent commitment of the Semiotic Society of America to publish each year henceforward those papers presented at its Annual Meeting which are submitted to the Secretariat in timely and proper form. Thus Semiotics 1981 marks the beginning, following upon the experimental Semiotics 1980 volume, of an indefinite series of volumes presenting the cross-fertilization of styles, topics, methodologies, and traditions "in which new ideas vie for survival and experiment is at a premium." It is this cross­ fertilization which is at the heart of the vitality and integration and redistribution of the world of knowledge. The historical value of such a record is obvious. But the more immediate objective of these volumes of annual proceedings is to promote participation in the work of "semioticizing" traditional perspectives and disciplines by providing a forum in which young scholars can meet regularly and find an outlet for their efforts at interdisciplinary thinking which are not always welcome in the journals and proceedings devoted to the promotion only of traditionally specialized perspectives.

I. Theoretical and Methodological Issues.- Figurative versus Objective Semiosis: An Epistemological Crossroads.- Hypersemiosis: Mixed Metaphors as Semiotic Overloading.- Cognition from a Semiotic Point of View.- Icon and Symbol: A Reappraisal of the Resemblance Debate.- Précis of Merleau-Ponty on Metajournalism.- "Worldiness" and the Analytic Truth.- The Rheme/Dicent/Argument Distinction.- The Sign-Status of Specular Reflections.- Semiotic Phenomenology and Peirce.- II. Semiotics Of Communication.- Contexts for Language Learning: Semiotic Perspectives.- The Semiotic Function of Audience.- III. Approaches to Gesture.- Exophoric Reference as an Interactive Resource.- Searching for a Word as an Interactive Activity.- Sly Moves: A Semiotic Analysis of Movement in Marshallese Culture.- The Study of Gesture: Some Remarks on Its History.- IV. Neglected Figures in the History of Semiotic Inquiry.- Francis Lieber and the Semiotics of Law.- The Logic of History as a Semiotic Process of Question and Answer in the Thought of R.G. Collingwood.- V. Semiotics and Linguistics.- The Semiotic Paradigm and Language Change.- What's in a Word?.- VI. Literary and Artistic Semiotics.- Functions of the Index in Narrative: An Outline.- Symbiosis and Dichotomy in the Names of Anna Axmatova.- Representation and Subjectivity in Modern Literature.- Aesthetic Semiosis of the Visual Object.- Indexicality in Esthetic Signs and the Art of Dante Gabriel Rosetti.- Subjects and Objects: Quick Notes on the State of Art History.- Kitsch: A Semiotic Approach.- Talent and Technique in Theatre: A Semiotics of Performing.- The Semiotics of Godot Compared with those of the Russian Icon.- The Teller and the Tale: Sources of Credibility in the Short Story.- The Guinea Pigs of Ludvik Vaculik: Interrelationof Areas of Reference.- VII. Fourth Annual Symposium on Empirical Semiotics.- Why Think About a Cognitive Psychosemiotic Theory?.- The Tell-the-Tale Detail.- The Semiotic Crisis in Contemporary Hospitals.- VIII. Psychology, Sociology, and Semiotics.- Who Apes English?.- Culture and Mind in Peircean Semiotics: One Aspect.- Sociology and Semiotics: Two Sciences of the Human.- Semiotic Theory and Language Learning.- IX. Architectural Semiotics.- Architectural Semiotic Analysis: A Demonstration.- "Musement on the Whole"...An Attitude Toward Space.- X. Peirce Special Session.- Mathematics as a Semiotic Factor in the Thought of C.S. Peirce.- An Outline of the Foundations of Modern Semiotic: Charles Peirce and Charles Morris.- XI. Semiotics of Culture.- A Comparative Study of Selected Semiotic Elements of Different Branches of Fortune Telling.- Icon as Index: A Theory of Middle Byzantine Imagery.- A Critique of Lévi-Strauss' Theory of Myth and the Elements of a Semiotic Alternative.- The Civilization of Illiteracy.- Myth and Symbol in Vico and the "Romantik": Some Remarks.- Social Symbols and Cultural Identity.- XII. Foundations of Old Testament Structure and Meaning.- Matrilineal Background of Genealogies in Genesis.- Judges 11:12-28: Constructive and Deconstructive Analysis.- Story Structure and Social Structure in Genesis: Circles and Cycles.- Author index.