Foreword by M. A. K. Halliday

This book engages with the current dialogue between the human and life sciences to ask questions about the relationship between the physical, biological aspects of a human being, and the sociocultural framework in which a human being exists.

Paul J. Thibault argues that we need to understand both the semiotic, discursive nature of meaning-making, and the physical context in which this activity takes place. The two are inseparable, and hence the only way we can understand our subjective experience of our environment and our perceptions of our inner states of mind is by giving equal weight to both frameworks. This 'ecosocial semiotic' theory engages with linguistics, semiotics, activity theory, biology and psychology. In so doing, the book produces a new way of looking at how a human being makes sense of his or her environment, but also how this environment shapes such meanings.

This cutting-edge study of linguistic theory by one of the world's leading authors in the field of semiotics will be of interest to academics and postgraduates researching applied linguistics and advanced semiotics. In his foreword M. A. K. Halliday explains the importance of Paul Thibault's work to linguistics.