Linguistics

Argument (complex analysis)

Philosophy

Geopolitics

Communication

Variety (cybernetics)

Semiotics

Biochemistry

Computer science

Circulation (fluid dynamics)

Thermodynamics

Physics

Politics

Political science

Epistemology

Sociology

Artificial intelligence

Semiosis

Chemistry

Affect (linguistics)

Social Semiotics

This introductory article lays some theoretical ground that stimulated this special issue: first, the argument that affect is not “in”, or indeed “outside of” the individual or the social, but relates to the circulation of emotion between different sites, objects or bodies; and, second, that how this circulation of emotion works, in and through discourse, has not been sufficiently taken up and explored by semioticians, linguists and (critical) discourse analysts. Through adopting a range of theoretical and analytic insights, applied to a wide variety of discursive/empirical materials generated, produced and consumed in diverse geopolitical contexts, the articles in his special issue make a significant contribution to our understanding of the ways that affect “circulates” through semiosis.

Discourse and affect