Part of a series that offers mainly linguistic and anthropological research and teaching/learning material on a region of great cultural and strategic interest and importance in the post-Soviet era.

Part of a series that offers mainly linguistic and anthropological research and teaching/learning material on a region of great cultural and strategic interest and importance in the post-Soviet era.

The publishing history of the eleven chapters that comprise the contents of this second volume of Native Languages of the Americas is rather different from that of the thirteen that appeared in Volume I of this twin set late last year. Original ver sions of five articles, respectively, by Barthel, Grimes, Longacre, Mayers, and Suarez, were first published in Part II of Current Trends in Linguistics, Vol. 4, subtitled lbero-A merican and Caribbean Linguistics (1968), having been com missioned by the undersigned in his capacity as editor of the fourteen volume series which was distributed in twenty-one tomes between 1963 and 1976. McClaran's article is reprinted from Part III of Vol. 10. Linguistics in North America (1973) and the two by Kaufman and Rensch were in Part I I of Vol. 11, Diachronic, A real. and Typological Linguistics (1973 ). There are three contributions by Landar: earlier versions of two appeared in Vol. 10 ("North American Indian Languages. " accompanied by William Sorsby's maps of tribal groups of North and Central America), and in Vol. 13, Historiography of Linguistics (1975); however, his checklist of South and Central American Indian languages was freshly compiled for this book. Generous financial support for preparing the materials included in this project came from several agencies of the United States government, to wit: the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation, for Vols. 10 and 13, and the Office of Education, for Vols. 4 and 11; in addition."

Thirteen of the chapters that comprise the contents of this first volume of Native Languages of the A mericas were originally commissioned by the undersigned in his capacity as Editor of the fourteen volume series (1963-1976), Current Trends in Linguistics. All appeared, in 1973, under Part Three of the quadripartite Vol. 10, subtitled Linguistics in North America. Two additional chaplers are being held over for the volume to follow shortly, devoted to Central and South American lan guages and linguistics, where they more appropriately belong. A fourteenth chapter, on the" Historiography of native North A merican linguistics," was written similarly by invitation, for Vol. 13, subtitled Historiography of Linguistics, published in 1975. Both Volumes 10 and 13 were jointly financed by the United States National Science Foundation and National Endowment for the Humanities, with an enhancing contribution to the former by the Canada Council. The generosity of these funding agencies was, of course, previously acknowledged in my respective Editor's Introductions to the two books mentioned, but cannot be repeated too often: without their welcome and timely assistance, the global project could scarcely have been realized on so comprehensive a scale. The Current Trends in Linguistics series was a long-term venture of Mouton Publishers, of The Hague, under the imaginative in-house direction of Peter de Rid der. Various spin-offs were foreseen, and some of them happily realized."

The interpretive science of semiotics offers powerful analytical tools for the application of many disciplines to the study of perception. Semiotics is the study of signs, and as such, is of relevance to a wide spectrum of scholars and professionals, including social scientists, psychologists, artists, graphic designers, and students of literature. Semiosis - the production and interpretation of linguistic and visual signs - is innate to human beings of all societies. From the simplest of hand gestures to the most complex diagrams and charts, the sign is key to the communication of ideas. Thomas A. Sebeok examines, in an engaging, readable style, how the sign mediates between bodily experience and abstract thought.

This updated second edition of Signs combines some of Sebeok's most important essays with a new general introduction, introductory passages at the outset of each chapter, a glossary, and brief biographies of the major semioticians. From an overview of the discipline to a more detailed exploration of sign categories, the author powerfully demonstrates the co-dependency of verbal and non-verbal communication.

Aimed primarily at undergraduate and graduate students, this engaging book also has plenty to offer any general reader who is interested in exploring and analyzing the complex sign systems we so often take for granted.