Social Semiotics

Toxic substances, semiotic forms: Towards a socio- and textual analysis of altered senses

by Gianfranco Marrone

Managing multimodal simplicity.

by Christian Mosbæk Johannessen

In press. To appear in: Andersen, T. & M. Boeriis, Ed. (2012) "Socialsemiotik i Norden". Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark

The paper discusses the seemingly contradictory fact, that - from a Multimodal Social Semiotic (MSS) perspective - the... more The paper discusses the seemingly contradictory fact, that - from a Multimodal Social Semiotic (MSS) perspective - the structurally simplest graphic artifacts (texts) such as letterforms and trademarks are typically the hardest ones to grasp analytically. The paper suggests that the preference in MSS for a level of observation, at which elements from discrete modalities are structured into wholes using grammars, is a likely cause of this. This focus in MSS on the content strata of multimodal texts has caused the expression plane of semiotic resources other than language to have undergone insufficient scrutiny thus leaving us with an descriptively and explanatorily inadequate readiness for something like graphic form. The article seeks to remedy this shortcoming by presenting a simple inventory of structural dichotomies at a general level of delicacy which allows for exhaustive description of graphic shape. When this descriptive scheme is applied on graphic shape in concert with an scalar hierarchical (cf. Salthe 1985) analysis of the shape as a range of traces of micro-scale sub-events on different time- and spatial scales in the articulation event, a nuanced image of the expression plane emerges. In order to demonstrate the proposed method the article presents a comparative analysis of trademarks for two Scandinavian oil companies, Statoil and Preem.

This paper is available in Danish only. An English translation is on the drawing board.

“Dude! You mean you’ve never eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?!?” Nut allergy as stigma in comic books

by Simon Weaver

with Sarah McNicol, Health Communication, Online 10th May 2012

This article examines the representation of nut allergy in comics aimed at children and young people. It maps the... more This article examines the representation of nut allergy in comics aimed at children and young people. It maps the signification and stigma of nut allergy in comics, and includes an outline of the imagery, stereotypes, and connotations that are created on this condition. Three texts are examined: first, Allergic, a semi-autobiographical story by Adrian Tomine aimed at young adults; second, What's Up With Paulina? from the Medikidz series of comic books that aim to help a pre-teenage audience learn about medical conditions; and third, Peanut, a forthcoming comic book by Ayun Halliday aimed at those in their early to mid teenage years. Using textual analysis, we focus on three principal areas of the texts. First, we consider the way in which the allergic character is represented in relation to examples of felt stigma, typified by feelings of shame and rejection, and compare this representation to common stereotypes of disability. Second, we look at the representation of other characters, drawing attention to the way in which stigma is enacted, highlighting acts of overt discrimination. Last, we examine the way in which the event of an allergic reaction is portrayed, considering how this might be used to help children and young people better understand nut allergy and combat the stigma attached to it. Throughout the article we compare the representation of stigma in comics with that depicted in empirical research on children living with nut allergies.

Symbol, Thought, Action: A Semiotic Approach to the Deterritorialization of Uyghur Resistance

by Michael Caster

Social Semiotics and Fieldwork: Method and Analytics

by Phillip Vannini

Published in Qualitative Inquiry, 2007

Drawing from recent analytical developments in semiotics and postmodern
ethnography, this article exposes and... more Drawing from recent analytical developments in semiotics and postmodern
ethnography, this article exposes and assesses the combination of social
semiotics and fieldwork as a form of qualitative inquiry. Approaches to semiotics
and fieldwork are not new—structural ethnographers in cultural anthropology
and structural interactionists in sociology and communication studies
have previously laid the foundations for the integration of formal methods of
analysis and inductive approaches to data collection—yet, as this article
argues, structuralism’s limitations have hampered the growth of semiotics
within qualitative inquiry. By presenting social semiotics as a viable alternative
to structural semiotics, by describing in clear pedagogical fashion how
social semiotics can be used as a research strategy, and by exposing its potential
for applicability, this article attempts to bring sociosemiotic ethnography
to the forefront of contemporary qualitative inquiry.

Images Matter: A Semiological Content Analysis of Gender Positioning in Contemporary English-learning Software Applications

by Zahra Kordjazi

A semiological content analysis of gender positioning in two English-learning software programs (Tell Me More and... more A semiological content analysis of gender positioning in two English-learning software programs (Tell Me More and English at Home) demonstrates the usefulness of this approach for investigating semiotic resources which situate gender unfairly in visual discourse. Dimensions identified in Goffman’s Gender Advertisements (1979) were mapped onto the image categories developed by Kress and van Leeuwen in Reading Images (2006) to form the following resources: active participant, gaze direction, visual techniques, modality, and body display. The results showed that males appeared as active, competent, dominant, and powerful. Females appeared as reactive, objects of the male gaze, intimate, subordinate, and powerless even in modern technology-based media. Accordingly, this study discusses the translatability of Goffman’s content analysis.

Superdiverse repertoires and the individual

by Jan Blommaert

Using a Social Semiotic Approach to Multimodality: Researching Learning in Schools, Museums and Hospitals

by Jeff Bezemer

Jeff Bezemer, Sophia Diamantopoulou, Carey Jewitt, Gunther Kress and Diane Mavers.
MODE WORKING PAPER 1, MARCH 2012

The aim of this paper is to show how a substantive area of social research –learning– can be investigated using a... more The aim of this paper is to show how a substantive area of social research –learning– can be investigated using a multimodal social semiotic approach. We apply the approach to three different institutions – a school, a museum and a hospital, illustrating key concepts and addressing issues around pedagogy and technology in contemporary society. We sketch out a theoretical lens, a social semiotic ‘gaze’, introducing key concepts and using data excerpts taken from a number of different research projects. The paper illustrates how a social semiotic perspective on multimodality can illuminate learning by attending to multimodal designs for learning, to multimodal signs of learning, and to social and technological changes and their effects on pedagogy and curriculum.

Culture as accent (Blommaert & Varis)

by Jan Blommaert

Lookalike language (column 'English Today', 2012)

by Jan Blommaert

Decoding the real: A Multimodal Social Semiotic Analysis of Reality in Animated Documentary

by Javad Khajavi

Animation Studies

Using a vast spectrum of highly hybridized forms of contemporary filmmaking, animated documentary – an increasingly... more Using a vast spectrum of highly hybridized forms of contemporary filmmaking, animated documentary – an increasingly ubiquitous mode of representation – examines different aspects of representing reality. Likewise in academia, it keeps receiving scholarly attention from the side of different disciplines and fields of study. In spite of all these interests and attentions, this mode of filmmaking inquires more in-depth scrutiny not only because studies on animated documentary may result in more conscious utilization of the mode, but also as Ward suggests it may “potentially provide answers to some of the more troubling questions asked of documentary as a field.” (2005, p. 99). One of the obstacles which slows down in-depth studies of animated documentary is the complexity of reality representation processes in such films. Therefore, it would be a helpful practice to set up (a) framework(s) that make(s) it possible to discuss the intricate processes in animated documentary. The present study is the first stage to propose such a model. To this end, drawing on the principles of Kress and van Leeuwen’s visual grammar (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006), the study embarks on an initial framework for analyzing animated documentary. As a work-in-progress, the proposed framework will then be adopted for studying animated documentaries based on Paul Wells’ typology (Wells, 1997).

The "Coop Pharmacy Corner": A Semiotic Analysis

by Gianluca Ferrentino

This paper is just a part of my Master's Degree Thesis, for further information please contact me at glucaferrentino@gmail.com

My thesis focused on the application of the space semiotic theory to the physical organization of an health and beauty... more My thesis focused on the application of the space semiotic theory to the physical organization of an health and beauty retailer and its integration within a bigger store.
This article focusues on  the importance of a strategic use of semiotic theories both in advertising and in the "shopping experience" offered to the customers.

The 'other' Europeans: the semiotic imperative of style in Euro Visions by Magnum Photos

by Giorgia Aiello

Visual Communication, 11(1), pp. 49-77.

In this article, the author examines Euro Visions, the exhibition created by Magnum Photos to portray the new... more In this article, the author examines Euro Visions, the exhibition created by Magnum Photos to portray the new countries that joined the European Union in 2004 and 2007. She begins by observing that this project’s deviations from the world-leading agency’s trademark humanist style of photography were discursively ascribed to Euro Visions photographers’ authorial style. In this regard, she identifies two key semiotic resources – typing and juxtaposition – that were mobilized as markers of individual style. She then argues that both typing and juxtaposition should instead be seen as generic semiotic resources rooted in corporate styles of visual communication, which contribute to othering the ‘new’ Europeans. She also argues that in Euro Visions, the notion of ‘distinctive’ authorial style was deployed as symbolic currency for a global(ist) market that rewards cultural production and, broadly, aestheticization. She finally posits that, in projects like Euro Visions, what is mostly (generic) design may get passed off as (specific) representation, and that this aestheticization of styles and identities may be mystified as the substantial honouring of difference and diversity.

Theoretical Advances in Critical Visual Analysis: Perception, Ideology, Mythologies, and Social Semiotics

by Giorgia Aiello

Qalāwūnid discourse, elite communication and the Mamluk cultural matrix: interpreting a 14th-century panegyric

by Jo Van Steenbergen

Journal of Arabic Literature 43/1 (2012): 1-28

This article analyses a brief panegyric text from mid-14th-century Egypt, authored by the court scribe Ibrāhīm b. al-... more This article analyses a brief panegyric text from mid-14th-century Egypt, authored by the court scribe Ibrāhīm b. al- Qaysarānī (d. 1352) and dedicated to the Qalāwūnid Mamluk sultan al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Ismāʿīl (r. 1342-5). It challenges this panegyric’s standard treatment as a work of history and as a product of court propaganda and connects it to wider issues of Mamluk literary production and social organisation. In doing so, a new understanding of this panegyric emerges within a specific context of Mamluk elite communication and social performance, demonstrating at the same time how such a social semiotic reading of Mamluk cultural expressions generates further insights into the symbiotic interactions between Mamluk culture and society.

Ritual, Politics and the City in Mamluk Cairo. The Bayna l-Qasrayn as a Dynamic 'lieu de mémoire'. 1250-1382

by Jo Van Steenbergen

in Court Ceremonies and Ritual of Power in the Medieval Mediterranean, eds. Alexander Beihammer et al. [in publication]

Just as is true for any other pre-modern polity, rituals of power were a defining feature of the political culture of... more Just as is true for any other pre-modern polity, rituals of power were a defining feature of the political culture of the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt and Syria (1250-1517). Firmly dominating the eastern-Mediterranean-to-Red-Sea area from its capital Cairo, this great power of the late medieval world experienced the public representation of power, status and identity at various social levels through the varied and complex prism of protocol and ceremonial. This chapter discusses one particular set of such Mamluk rituals that was performed in the 13th and 14th centuries, the investiture of new members of the political elites, reconstructing in particular its spatial and semiotic frameworks as a revelatory mnemonic process connecting Cairo’s city centre of the Bayna l-Qasrayn with Mamluk ideas of legitimate kingship.

Cans and Canines. On likelihood of confusion and perception of trademarks.

by Christian Mosbæk Johannessen

Published in 'Nordisk Immateriellt Rättsskydd' No. 2, 2009.

Reading News Images in Japan (Ch1-3)

by Scott Koga-Browes

as submitted

Multimodal analysis: Key issues

by Jeff Bezemer

Jeff Bezemer and Carey Jewitt

This chapter discusses multimodal approaches to the study of linguistics, and of representation and communication more... more This chapter discusses multimodal approaches to the study of linguistics, and of representation and communication more generally. It draws attention to the range of different modes that people use to make meaning beyond language –such as speech, gesture, gaze, image and writing – and in doing so, offers new ways of analysing language. The chapter addresses two key questions. First, how can all these modes be handled theoretically? What are ‘modes’? How do people use them? Second, how can all these modes be handled analytically? What are the methodological implications if one or more modes are excluded from the analysis? The chapter fi rst highlights the ways in which multimodality is taken up in social linguistic research. It then describes a social semiotic approach to multimodality. The steps taken in such an approach are described and exemplified with case studies of classroom interaction and textbooks. It concludes with a discussion of the potentials and constraints of multimodal analysis.

Writing in a multimodal world of representation

by Jeff Bezemer

Gunther Kress and Jeff Bezemer

The contemporary multimodal communicational world poses sharp questions about the likely future development of... more The contemporary multimodal communicational world poses sharp questions about the likely future development of writing. Increasingly writing is one of several modes of representation used in modally complex texts and in many such texts it is not the central means for making meaning. When we compare a textbook from 1935 with a contemporary one, we note that there tends to be less writing and the writing that there is differs from the writing of seventy years ago, syntactically, and textually. Although images were present on the pages of textbooks ‘then’, there are more images ‘now’; images ‘now’ look and function differently from those found before. Writing and image also interact in ways that were not conceived of in seminal comments by Roland Barthes on that subject, even in the 1960ties (Barthes 1973). Curricular content is represented differently; and the manner in which the materials are laid out on the page points to social and epistemological changes which cannot be explained by a focus on representational practices alone. The page is used differently to the way it had been: it now has a different semiotic function. It has become a site of display with quite specific social and semiotic potentials. If, going one step further, we compare a contemporary textbook with ‘pages’ on the web dealing with the ‘same’ issues, we see that modes of representation other than image and writing – moving image and speech for instance – have found their way into the design and shaping of texts, with significant effects on writing.