Professional discourse: the verbal and visual semiosis interplay
Professional discourse has become one of the most researched types of discourse in modern cross-disciplinary studies. Being widely represented in linguistic studies, it still has received unfairly tenuous attention in semiotic studies. Some areas of professional discourse such as popular science discourse have been out of focus of linguo-semiotic studies so far. The goal of this paper is to identify the dominating semiotic system in the formation of meaning and knowledge transfer in popular science discourse. The authors have carried out the semiotic analysis of verbal-visual relations in journal articles headlines belonging to the sphere of popular science, their correlation in the process of semiosis, representation of scientific knowledge in popular science discourse. Data obtained in the result of the conducted research support a new trend in semiotic research that visual system is no longer viewed as subordinate as it is capable of shifting the emphasis in the process of semiosis. Based on the previous body of research relating to word-image interdependencies, the authors develop their own approach to determine the dominance of one semiotic system over the other in certain contextual environments. While departing from a traditional approach of defining the nature of relations between two major components – the verbal and the visual, the authors propose to include an “intermediary” element to form a triad consisting of heading, sub-heading and photograph. The analysis of the relations among the three elements gives the results which sometimes reflect contradictory tendencies in verbal-visual relations present in single (heading-sub-heading) or multimodal (heading-photograph) systems. The authors determine three models of interaction of verbal and visual components – complementarity, neutrality, controversy, though under the influence of the “intermediary” component the models may significantly change. The results contribute to deeper understanding of professional language picture among specialists, as well as familiarizing non-specialists with professional language picture. The results also may be employed as guidelines in the academic courses of texts composition, writing popular science articles, and as a teaching tool in disciplines focused on text analysis.
Litvishko, O. M., Shiryaeva, T. A., Tikhonova, E. V. and Kosycheva, M. A. (2022). Professional discourse: the verbal and visual semiosis interplay, Research Result. Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, 8 (1), 19-40. DOI: 10.18413/2313-8912-2022-8-1-0-2
While nobody left any comments to this publication.
You can be first.
Agar, M. (1985). Institutional discourse, Text, 5, 147-168. (In English)
Arnold-Murray, K. (2021). Multimodally constructed dialogue in political campaign commercials, Journal of Pragmatics, 173, 15-27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2020.11.014(In English)
Bargiela-Chiappini, F., Nickerson, C. and Planken, B. (2013). Business discourse, Palgrave Macmillan, London, UK. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137024930(In English)
Bargiella-Chiappini, F. and Nickerson, C. (1999). Writing business: genre, media, discourse, Longman, London, UK. (In English)
Barthes, R. (1972). Critical essays, Northwestern University Press, Evanston, USA. (In English)
Berger, A. A. (2016) Signs: Fashion, Applied Discourse Analysis, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 51-60. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47181-5_7(In English)
Blasch, L. (2021). Indexing authenticity in visual political (social media) communication: a metapragmatics-based analysis of two visual registers of the authentic, Multimodal Communication, 10(1), 37-53. https://doi-org.proxylibrary.hse.ru/10.1515/mc-2020-0019(In English)
Bobek, E. and Tversky, B. (2016). Creating visual explanations improves learning, Cognitive research: principles and implications, 1(1), 27. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-016-0031-6(In English)
Bremner, S. (2017). Analysing professional discourse in a changing workplace: The case of academia, Poc. 21st Conference on Language for Specific Purposes, Bergen, Norway. (In English)
Cobley, P. and Kull, L. (eds.) (2017). Semiotics, communication and cognition, DeGruyter, Berlin, Germany. (In English)
Curtin, B. (2007). Semiotics and visual representation, The Academic Journal of the Faculty of Architecture of Chulalongkorn Universtiy, 01-2551, 52-62. (In English)
Dahl, T. and Fløttum, K. (2017). Verbal-visual harmony or dissonance? A news values analysis of multimodal news texts on climate change, Discourse, Context, Media, 20, 124-131. (In English)
Dan, V., Grabe, M. and Hale, B. (2020). Testing three measures of verbal-visual frame interplay in German news coverage of refugees and asylum seekers, International Journal of Communication, 14, 3843-3865. (In English)
Degaetano-Ortlieb, S. and Teich, E. (2019). Toward an optimal code for communication: The case of scientific English, Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1515/cllt-2018-0088(In English)
Doran, Y. J. (2017). The discourse of physics: building knowledge through language, mathematics and image, Routledge, London, UK. (In English)
Drăgan, N. S. (2019). Semiotic practices in TV debates, in Olteanu, A., Stables, A. and Borţun, D. (eds), Meanings & Co.Numanities-Arts and Humanities in Progress, Springer, Cham, Switzerland, 6, 193-211. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91986-7_12(In English)
Drew, P. and Heritage, H. (1992). Talk at work: interaction in institutional settings, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. (In English)
Eco, U. (1986). Semiotics and the philosophy of language, Indiana University Press, Bloomingdale, USA. (In English)
Ferguson, D. and Greere, C. (2017). Visualizing a non-visual medium through social media: the semiotics of radio station posts on Instagram, International Journal on Media Management, 19 (4), 282-297. https://doi.org/10.1080/14241277.2017.1383255(In English)
Garzone, G. (ed.) (2017). Specialized and professional discourse across media and genres, Ledizioni, Milan, Italy. (In English)
Gotti, M. (2008). Investigating specialized discourse, Peter Lang, Bern, Switzerland. (In English)
Gross, A. G. (2007). The verbal and the visual in science: a Heideggerian perspective, Science in Context, 19 (4), 443-474. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0269889706001037(In English)
Gunnarsson, B. L., Linell, P. and Nordberg, B. (2014). The construction of professional discourse, Routledge, London, UK. (In English)
Hood, R. (2016). How professionals talk about complex cases: a critical discourse analysis, Child & Family Social Work, 21, 125–135. https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12122(In English)
Irimiea, S. B. (2017). Professional discourse as social practice, European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 9 (1), 108-119. (In English)
Johansen, J. D., Larsen, S. E. (2002). Signs in use: an introduction to semiotics, Routledge, London, UK. (In English)
Kettemann, B. (2013). Semiotics of advertising and the discourse of consumption, Arbeiten Aus Anglistik Und Amerikanistik, 38 (1), 53-67. (In English)
Kisak, P. F. (ed.) (2016). Semiotics: sign and sign processes in communication, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, Scotts Valley, USA. (In English)
Koester, A. (2010). Workplace discourse, Continuum, London, New York, UK, USA. (In English)
Kohrs, K. (2021). The language of luxury fashion advertising: technology of the self and spectacle, Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 25(2), 257-273. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFMM-02-2020-0029(In English)
Kong, K. (2014). Professional discourse, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. (In English)
Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality. A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication, Routledge, Abington, UK. (In English)
Leeds-Hurwitz, V. (1993). Semiotics and communication: signs, codes, cultures, Routledge, London, UK. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203821909(In English)
Linell, P. (1998). Approaching dialogue: talk, interaction and context in dialogical perspectives, John Benjamins, Amsterdam, Netherlands. (In English)
Menchik, D. and Xiaoli, T. (2008). Putting social context into text: the semiotics of e‐mail interaction, American Journal of Sociology, 114 (2). https://doi.org/10.1086/590650(In English)
Meyer, R., Jancsary, D., Höllerer, M. A. and Boxenbaum, E. (2018). The Role of Verbal and Visual Text in the Process of Institutionalization, Academy of Management Review, 43(3), 392-418. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2014.0301(In English)
Nöth, W. (1990). Handbook of semiotics, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN. (In English)
Nöth, W. (2014) Human communication from the semiotic perspective, in Ibekwe-San Juan F. and Dousa T. (eds), Theories of Information, Communication and Knowledge. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Springer, Dordrecht, Netherlands, 34, 97-119. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6973-1_5(In English)
O’Hagan, L. A. (2021). Blinded by science? Constructing truth and authority in early twentieth-century Virol advertisements, History of Retailing and Consumption, 7(2), 162-192. https://doi.org/10.1080/2373518X.2021.1983343(In English)
Olteanu, A., Stables, A. and Borţun, D. (2019). Meanings & Co., Springer, Cham, Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91986-7(In English)
Pagano, A. S., de Paula, F. F. and Ferreguetti, K. (2018). Verbal and verbal-visual logico-semantic relations in picturebooks: an English-Brazilian Portuguese parallel corpus study, Ilha do Desterro, 71 (1). https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2018v71n1p53(In English)
Peluso, M. (2021). The functional approach, semiotics and professional discourse, Training, Language and Culture, 5(2), 62-72. https://doi.org/10.22363/2521-442X-2021-5-2-62-72(In English)
Queiroz, J. (2013). Sign processes in the emergence of communication, CogSci2013-Cooperative Minds: social interaction and group dynamics, 1, 2932-2937. (In English)
Qui, Q. (2019). A multimodal analysis of the interplay between visual and verbal semiotics in creating messages in Chinese picture books, Studies in Literature and Language, 19 (3), 44-50. http://doi.or/10.3968/11444(In English)
Reilly, J., Flurie, M. and Peelle, J. E. (2020). The English lexicon mirrors functional brain activation for a sensory hierarchy dominated by vision and audition: Point-counterpoint, Journal of Neurolinguistics, 55, 100895, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2020.100895(In English)
Schäfer, M. S., Kessler, S. H. and Fähnrich, B. (2019). Analyzing science communication through the lens of communication science: Reviewing the empirical evidence, in Leßmöllmann, A., Dascal, M. and Gloning, Th. (eds.), Science Communication, De Gruyter Mouton, Berlin/Boston, 77-104. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110255522-004(In English)
Solík, M. (2014). Semiotic approach to analysis of advertising, European Journal of Science and Theology, 10(1), 207-217. (In English)
Sykioti, E. (2016). The semiotics of a ‘different’ advertisement: a preliminary study for the use of paper trivets as advertising message, Language and Semiotic Studies, 2 (3), 125-139. (In English)
Vestergaard, T. and Schrøder, K. (1985). The language of advertising, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, UK. (In English)
Ylänne, V. (2021). UK magazine advertising portrayals of older adults: a longitudinal, content analytic, and a social semiotic lens, International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 15(1), 7–38. https://doi.org/10.3384/ijal.1652-8670.1700(In English)
Zantides, E. (2019). Semiotics and visual communication III: cultures of branding, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. (In English)
Zhang, H, Feng, J., Wei, Y. and Xia, J. (2021). The Construction of Interpersonal Meanings in the iPhone 1 Product Launch Presentation: Integrating Verbal and Visual Semiotics, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 64(1), 3-22. https://doi.org/10.1109/TPC.2021.3058032(In English)
Zlatev, J. (2015) Cognitive Semiotics, in Trifonas, P. (ed.), International Handbook of Semiotics, Springer, Dordrecht, Netherlands, 1043-1067. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9404-6_47(In English)
Corpus Materials
Conover, E. (2020). Fundamental constants place a new speed limit on sound, Science News [Online], available at: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/sound-new-speed-limit-physics-fundamental-constants-earth (Accessed 27 November 2021).
Grossman, L. (2020). Coronavirus and technical issues delay a Mars mission’s launch, Science News [Online], available at: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/mars-rover-exomars-coronavirus-technical-issues-delay (Accessed 27 November 2021).
Horaczek, S. (2021). Hyundai’s walking concept car promises to go where other vehicles can’t, Popular Science [Online], available at: https://www.popsci.com/story/technology/hyundai-tiger-walking-car-rover/ (Accessed 27 November 2021).
Tamming, M. (2020). A new artificial eye mimics and may outperform human eyes, Science News [Online], available at: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/new-artificial-eye-mimics-may-outperform-human-eyes (Accessed 27 November 2021).
Temming, M. (2020). Bubble-blowing drones may one day aid artificial pollination, Science News [Online], available at: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/bubble-blowing-drones-may-one-day-aid-artificial-pollination (Accessed 27 November 2021).
Temming, M. (2020). What will astronauts need to survive the dangerous journey to Mars, Science News [Online], available at: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/astronauts-mars-space-health-survival (Accessed 27 November 2021).
Wood, Ch. (2019). SpaceX and Boeing are one big step closer to launching astronauts into space, Popular Science [Online], available at: https://www.popsci.com/boeing-spacex-launching-astronauts-into-space-orbit/ (Accessed 27 November 2021).