City as a text
Streszczenie
The present paper concerns the semiotics of a city expressed via language texts scattered around city space. The author focuses on a dynamic relation existing between the human being and space, viewing city space as a social place moulded by the human being. A city is a product of culture which is interpreted as a form of communication. The author treats city space as a context for language usage. Urban space is believed to contain texts which consist of complex elements of language together with a vivid visual code or of mobile carriers. However, only a conflation of the three levels of communication makes a text. Such a text results from a conscious and intentional choice made by a message sender concerning the means and place of communication. The analysis of city texts presented in other publications by the author has encouraged her to postulate that city texts should be first classified and, as a consequence, a methodology of research into city texts can be proposed.