Linguistic Signification: A Classical and Semiotic Course in Grammar & Composition Paperback – July 1, 2025

This book intends to serve one principal end: instructing students, of sufficiently mature mind, how to compose thoughtful and insightful essays in the English language. Accomplishing this rather specific end, however, requires a broad range of study: a study much broader than that comprised by a simple question of “how to write”. That is, we cannot write well unless we understand the instruments whereby writing is accomplished; or, to employ one of those instruments—the metaphor—the fruits of composition are nourished best through growing deep the roots of grammar. As we will see, this linguistic growth requires some knowledge also of logic and rhetoric: for although this book intends an introduction into the first study of the liberal arts, all three arts of the Trivium are nevertheless inseparably convergent in the flourishing of our natural human ability for linguistic signification.This second edition is considerably expanded, including one new chapter, several additional sections, expanded footnotes, resources, improved homework assignments, deepened readings of The Aeneid, and with numerous corrections to errors. Read more