Any attempt to compile a "handbook of semiotics' is a capricious undertaking at best, and perhaps even impulsive, or at worst "whimsical", in making decisions about what to include and exclude from a tome that claims to engage the breadth of a burgeoning field of inquiry. The chapters of this "international semiotic handbook" span a multiplicity of epistemologies, methods, and areas of inquiry that constitute a sustained global dialogue among scholars of divers disciplines.