Multimodal discourse analysis

[Penrod, Diane]

I think you'd have to look at a number of elements within the image, Ian. Is the person dressed in business attire? That might suggest training toward a goal. If the person is dressed as a student, then he/she may be read as an actor.
 
Could it be possible that within a multimodal text some images may have dual readings; that is, for some viewers, the image represents an actor and for others, the image represents a goal.
 
Without seeing the specific ad in question, it's sort of difficult to be specific. Hope this helps.
 
Cheers,
 
Diane
 
Diane Penrod, PhD
Professor, Writing Arts
Site Director, National Writing Project at Rowan University
Graduate Program Advisor, MA in Writing
Rowan University
Glassboro NJ 08028
penrod at rowan.edu
856-256-4330
 
"Leap and the net will appear."
             -- Zen proverb
 
"Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult..."
           -- Anonymous student evaluation

________________________________

From: TheDiscourseStudiesList on behalf of Ian Roderick
Sent: Wed 10/4/2006 2:11 PM
To: DISCOURS at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Subject: Multimodal discourse analysis



Is there anyone who is working with multimodal texts using Kress and van Leeuwen's 'grammar of visual design' that might have a moment?

I am working with a small collection of magazine ads and I am wondering if the human figure in the image might function as an non-transactional actor at the 'level' of the image but at the multimodal level function instead as the goal? The verbal text refers only to a training system (and what it can do for the nonspecific 'student') of which the human figure is presumably the product of such training and thus, at a multimodal level, be in fact the 'goal'. Or is it simply the case that understood as a multimodal text, the figure in the ad does indeed function as a goal and not an actor.

If anyone can help clarify this for me, it would be most appreciated. Monomodality was so much easier...

Ian Roderick
Communication Studies
Wilfrid Laurier University


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/discours/attachments/20061004/c802727a/attachment.htm>