25.2394, Diss: Text/Corpus Ling: Hiippala: 'Modelling the Structure of a Multimodal Artefact'

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-25-2394. Mon Jun 02 2014. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 25.2394, Diss: Text/Corpus Ling: Hiippala: 'Modelling the Structure of a Multimodal Artefact'

Moderators: Damir Cavar, Eastern Michigan U <damir at linguistlist.org>
            Malgorzata E. Cavar, Eastern Michigan U <gosia at linguistlist.org>

Reviews: reviews at linguistlist.org
Anthony Aristar <aristar at linguistlist.org>
Helen Aristar-Dry <hdry at linguistlist.org>
Mateja Schuck, U of Wisconsin Madison

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Do you want to donate to LINGUIST without spending an extra penny? Bookmark
the Amazon link for your country below; then use it whenever you buy from
Amazon!

USA: http://www.amazon.com/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-20
Britain: http://www.amazon.co.uk/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-21
Germany: http://www.amazon.de/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistd-21
Japan: http://www.amazon.co.jp/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-22
Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistc-20
France: http://www.amazon.fr/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistf-21

For more information on the LINGUIST Amazon store please visit our
FAQ at http://linguistlist.org/amazon-faq.cfm.

Editor for this issue: Danuta  Allen <danuta at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  


Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2014 16:28:16
From: Tuomo Hiippala [tuomo.hiippala at gmail.com]
Subject: Modelling the Structure of a Multimodal Artefact

E-mail this message to a friend:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/emailmessage/verification.cfm?iss=25-2394.html&submissionid=33538594&topicid=14&msgnumber=1
 
Institution: University of Helsinki 
Program: Department of Modern Languages 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2014 

Author: Tuomo Hiippala

Dissertation Title: Modelling the Structure of a Multimodal Artefact 

Dissertation URL:  https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/41736

Linguistic Field(s): Text/Corpus Linguistics


Dissertation Director(s):
Eija Ventola

Dissertation Abstract:

This dissertation studied the structure of multimodal artefacts, or how
language, image and other semiotic modes combine and interact in documents.
This places the study within the emerging field of multimodal research, which
uses linguistic methods to study the interaction of multiple semiotic modes.
Despite the growing amount of multimodal research, the structure of multimodal
artefacts has not received the attention it warrants. Previous studies have
been either very detailed or exceedingly abstract, leaving a significant gap
between data and theory, which this dissertation attempted to bridge. To do
so, the dissertation adopted a data-driven approach to multimodal analysis,
addressing the structure of multimodal artefacts, the factors that shape the
artefact structure, and the role of structure in the recognition and
interpretation of the artifacts. The data consisted of tourist brochures
produced by the city of Helsinki between 1967 and 2008, which allowed a
longitudinal perspective to their multimodal structure. A total of 58
double-pages were annotated for their content, visual appearance, layout and
rhetorical organisation, and compiled into an XML-based multimodal corpus. To
study the corpus, the dissertation developed visualization methods that
combined information from multiple analytical layers of the corpus to
represent the multimodal structures in the data. The study revealed the
functional motivation behind the structure of the tourist brochures,
identifying patterns in their hierarchical and rhetorical organisation, which
were used to fulfil specific communicative tasks. The configuration of these
patterns, in turn, signalled how the brochure was to be interpreted. The
results also showed that after the year 1985, which marked the introduction of
desktop publishing software, the organising principles of the tourist
brochures have shifted towards a more fragmented and non-linear structure.







----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-25-2394	
----------------------------------------------------------