Catherine Tihanyi Georges Mounin, an important figure in contemporary
French intellec- tual life, has made significant and original
contributions in semiotics, I semantics, poetics, the linguistic theory
and practice of translation, and the study of the history of
linguistics. He is noted as well for several dec- ades of literary
criticism in support of poets who were often unknown at the time. Though
some of his work has been translated into German, Ital- ian, and
Spanish, only a few articles have been available so far in English
(Mounin 1974, 1976, 1980, 1981); thus the present collection is the
first full-length volume of Mounin's works to be translated into
English. The contents of Semiotic Praxis reflect Mounin's life-long
concern to apply semiotic theory to concrete objects. In so doing, he
has attempted to demonstrate the usefulness of semiotics, to test and
clarify its theoretical constructs and modify them accordingly, and to
help lay down its scientific foundations and map its boundaries as a
discipline.