Conventionally, semiotics is defined as the study of signs, and a sign is defined as something that stands for something else. These definitions are scant clues to the origins and motivations of semiotics as a characteristic intellectual movement of the twentieth century. Elements of Semiotics offers a unified foundation for semiotics understood as a comparative perspective of the artifacts of mental life.

It is arranged to be useful to the novice, presenting a new theory in the context of classical sources and identifying signs with consciousness. David Lidov establishes a sub-study of comparative articulation that builds on the work of Hjelmslev, Martinet, Goodman, and Troubetskoy. His concept of the "elaborated sign" allows a reconciliation of structural and pragmatistic insights, in which the observation that structure and reference may develop antithetically is a key principle.

The task of working out a consistent, systematized semiotics is nowhere near finished, and perhaps ultimately impossible, but this volume provides a crucial introductory step in navigating through the ideas behind semiotics.