摘要：This issue of Sign Systems Studies includes twelve papers on semiotics of resemblance. Readers competent in semiotics may argue that there is no such field as semiotics of resemblance and they would indeed be right. In this case, resemblance should be considered to be an umbrella term that covers various concepts, such as iconicity, iconic signs, similarity, analogy, categorization, metaphors, mimesis, mimicry, onomatopoeia, and others. These terms are used in different fields within and outside of semiotics. Accordingly, semiotics of resemblance should be treated as a possibility for establishing commonalities between different paradigms, from aesthetics to evolutionary biology and from theoretical semiotics to literary studies. We find that this property of resemblance that links together various approaches in cultural semiotics as well as biosemiotics, is highly beneficial and a major motivation for compiling this special issue. The members of this family of concepts of resemblance appear to refer to primitive and intuitively graspable phenomena in different fields that are, at the same time, essential for the functioning and understanding of more complex semiotic processes. This also relates to the capacity of resemblance to be effective in crossing semiotic borders between different cultures, discourses and species, as is apparent, for instance, in mimicry relations between species and in imitation in postcolonial cultures.
