EDITOR: Nicholas Bannan
TITLE: Music, Language, and Human Evolution
PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press
YEAR: 2012
REVIEWER: Jody L Barnes, (personal interest – not currently working at a university)
SUMMARY
“Music, Language, and Human” Evolution, edited by Nicholas Bannan, is a
collection devoted to the role evolution has played in the development of the
two faculties of language and music. The book grew from a conference held at
the University of Reading in 2004. Each chapter has its own references, and in
one case, a discography of examples. Also included are a key to abbreviations,
a glossary, and index, as well as a DVD of supplemental video material.
Part I is an introduction, Bannan’s own “Music, Language, and Human
Evolution.” Bannan gives a brief history of the literature on music’s
relationship with language, from Rousseau through Darwin to more recent
scholars like John Blacking. He explains the need for a new investigation into
these abilities following the rise of such fields as biolinguistics and
zoomusicology.
Following the introduction, the articles are grouped into sections according
to the academic disciplines on which the authors focus their research. Part
II: “Perspectives from Anthropology and Archaeology,” begins with Chapter 2,
“Music and Mosaics: The Evolution of Human Abilities” by Robert Foley. This
chapter concerns the biological history of humanity’s predecessors,
concentrating on those evolutionary developments which allowed for the
emergence of language and music. The developments of an upright stance, as
well as greater breath control are the most important of these. He then
investigates the standard hypotheses explaining the evolution of music,
including sexual selection, group cohesion, or as a means of information
transfer (like language).
Chapter 3, “The Evolution of the Human Vocal Tract: Specialized for Speech?”
by Margaret Clegg, traces the evolution of the vocal tract from our earliest
ancestors through modern homo sapiens. Clegg challenges the traditional belief
that because Neanderthals had a higher laryngeal position, they had lacked the
capacity for speech. She notes that up to the 19th century, researchers had
trouble determining why chimpanzees couldn’t speak, noting that their vocal
tracts were extremely similar to those of modern humans. The majority of the
chapter is taken up with critiquing traditional assumptions on pre-human
linguistic ability based upon the available evidence, finally determining that
the descent of the larynx was not due to the requirements of speech
production, but rather due to other factors, such as “bipedalism, brain
expansion, and facial reduction,” (73). Chapter 4, “When the Words Dry Up:
Music and Material Metaphors Half a Million Years ago” by Clive Gamble, closes
Part II by discussing performance spaces as being of primary importance for
musical activities. Focusing his attention on locations of musical ritual in
villages in northern Namibia and West Sussex, England, he concludes that
“music has always been a part of hominin social life, but . . . during
evolution it was co-opted to enhance positive emotions at hominin gatherings”
(81).
Part III, entitled “Perspectives on the evolutionary prerequisites for musical
behaviour” leads off with Iain Morley’s “Hominin Physiological Evolution and
the Emergence of Musical Capacities,” an attempt to determine the evolutionary
functions behind man’s musical abilities. Morley focuses on the lowering of
the human larynx, larger cervical vertebrae (allowing increased control over
sound production), and an enlarged Broca’s area.
This is followed by Chapter 6, “Vocal Traditions of the World: Towards an
Evolutionary Account of Voice Production in Music” by Tran Quang Hai and
Bannan. It begins with a brief survey of various theories on the evolution of
human voice, from Darwin to the present. The meat of the chapter, however, is
made up of a survey of different types of vocal production found in musics
throughout the world. This follows from Lomax’s earlier taxonomy, which he
termed cantometrics (1968, 1982), as well as Von Horbostel and Sachs’s
taxonomy of musical instruments (1914). The authors propose ten separate
categories based upon “the specific ways in which the phonatory/articulatory
apparatus is employed” (153), with descriptions, examples, and references to a
discography for each. Chapter 7, “Found Objects in the Musical Practices of
Hunter-Gatherers: Implications for the Evolution of Instrumental Music,” is
listed as co-authored by Pedro Espi-Sanchis and Bannan but was written solely
by Bannan, based upon Espi-Sanchis’s presentation at the aforementioned
University of Reading conference. The text discusses the relatively recently
emerging fields of biomusicology and archaeomusicology, and their respective
attempts to explain the origins of music, followed by discussion of the role
of human kinetic movement in the development of musical rhythm. Finally,
Espi-Sanchis discusses a simple flute which can play the overtone series, and
explains a group musical performance found on the accompanying DVD (see
below).
Part IV , “Perspectives from Social and Cognitive Psychology,” begins with
Chapter 8, Robin Dunbar’s essay “On the Evolutionary Function of Song and
Dance,” which seeks to answer the question of what advantages these two
cultural universals (201) may have had for human survival. Miller’s sexual
selection hypothesis (1999, 2000) is considered, as Dunbar notes that males
are generally more musical than females. Also investigated is “Multilevel
Selection Theory,” which focuses on the difference between group selection
(which is focused on an individual’s genes) as opposed to social selection
(which focuses on the group as a whole.) Ultimately, Dunbar concludes that
music predated the emergence of language, allowing humans to become more
group-oriented, facilitating living and surviving in groups.
Chapter 9, by Björn Merker, is entitled “The Vocal Learning Constellation:
Imitation, Ritual Culture, Encephalization.” It focuses on humans’ ability to
reproduce sounds by ear using their voice — a feat rare among mammals and
found in no other primates. Merker examines the concept of “vocal
emancipation”, “the full range of devices by which vocal production is
released from its inner constraints” to form wholly new patterns (222), by
comparing human vocal ability with birdsong, noting the relation between brain
size and vocal ability. This is followed by an examination of the vocal
learning mechanism, the most common method of learning songs in both humans
and birds. He finds, interestingly, that the biomechanics of song are more
demanding than those of speech, adding weight to the theory that singing
developed in humans before language — also noting that while many primates
can be said to have the ability to sing, humans are the only primates with the
capacity for language. Merker concludes that while the ability for learned
song appeared with human ancestors’ “first major advance in brain size,” the
capacity for language emerged with the second such leap and the emergence of
Homo sapiens.
The final section, Part V, “Perspectives from Musicology” begins with Chapter
10, “Music as an Emergent Exaptation” by Ian Cross. This chapter examines why
music has developed if it confers no immediate evolutionary advantage. He
views it as an “exaptation,” an evolutionary advance that has been repurposed.
Cross investigates the similarities between music and language — specifically
the view of music as expressing meaning in the form of emotion. He also
discusses competing theories of meaning in general, particularly information
theory as opposed to ostensive-inferential theory. Cross concludes that the
“floating intentionality” of music. That is, “its potential for its meaning .
. . to be transposed from one situation to another” (270) suggests music was
an adaptation allowing humans to integrate information across different
domains, though he also voices support for the theory that music was a means
of strengthening social bonds.
Chapter 11, “Musicians’ Performance Prosody” by Johan Sundberg, investigates
prosody in both music and language. Sundberg theorizes that there are three
types of performance rules in music, grouping, differentiation, and emphasis,
which are also found in language. While he finds parallels between these rules
in music and speech, the rules themselves aren’t necessary for language, as
borne out by experiments. He determines that music performance is similar in
many ways to other forms of human communication.
Chapter 12, by Nicholas Bannan, is “Harmony and its Role in Human Evolution”,
an investigation into the ways in which harmony may have developed in music.
Noting that monophony, two identical notes played in unison, is the only
musical universal related to harmony, he proposes that the intonation of a
singer in a large room or other enclosed space with a long reverb time may
have led to experiments with self-harmony,, a singer basically harmonizing
with him or herself. He then discusses the ways in which harmony emphasizes
vowel formants. He concludes by noting three areas in which song production
could “confer survival advantages”: the ability of singing to comfort, the
flexibility of the voice in response to “social and environmental stimuli,”
and simultaneous vocalization eliciting emotions in a group setting (327).
Included with the book is a DVD of supplemental material, organized in eight
sections. The first, “Vocal Production,” is an extensive presentation by Tran
on the taxonomy of vocal production, featuring spectrographic analysis of each
form discussed. This allows the viewer to see the frequencies highlighted by
each form. Following this is “Nogoqokos Singing,” a short clip of Nogcinile
Yekani, a female Ngoqoko singer, as an example of singing harmonics over a
drone. “Instrumental Production” is next, with Pedro Espi-Sanchez creating a
flute out of a piece of kale found on the beach at Cape Town. Following this
is a clip from the aforementioned conference in which each participant is
given one note to play as they perform a collective improvisation. Finally,
there are clips of various pipe ensembles from Botswana and South Africa. The
fourth clip is again Nogcinile Yekani, this time performing a song on a bow,
blowing through a hole in the tip like a flute, while accompanying herself by
bowing the bowstring. The fifth clip is Espi-Sanchez performing on the kale
flute fashioned in clip three. This is followed by a clip of Bannan and his
students performing various vocal techniques which emphasize vocal harmonics,
followed by another clip of a vuvuzela orchestra, and a cantor singing in a
hall which emphasizes vowel overtones. The final clip is simply the same clip
of the cantor again, (presumably a production error.)
EVALUATION
While this collection covers a wide variety of approaches to understanding
music and language in terms of human evolution, this detracts from its value
as a whole.. That is, avenues that one may expect the authors to explore tend
to fall by the wayside if they’re not part of the background of the author of
a given article. A clear example is that throughout the collection of pieces
on music and language, there’s very little discussion of semantics or syntax
in music, with the vast majority of the text being concerned instead with the
fields of anatomy and anthropology. As language isn’t language if it conveys
no information, one would expect more attention to this essential aspect of
its evolution, and the parallel problem of meaning in music.
A recurring problem one finds throughout the text is that many of the articles
simply don’t pay off in terms of conclusions. This is most apparent in the
final two chapters of the text. Sundberg’s “Musicians’ Performance Prosody”
discusses computer-generated music and evolutionary linguistics, but while
purporting to answer questions about the relationship between music and
speech, can only go as far as to say that there are “similarities” between
singing and speaking. Interestingly, in one case where the expected
similarities do not appear — that of humans’ footstep frequency while walking
paralleling note frequency in musical works — serves as counter-evidence to
Mark Changizi’s hypothesis in “Harnessed”, which avers that musical movement
is explicitly derived from human kinetic movement — specifically, walking
(see Changizi 2011: chapter 4). Changizi’s text isn’t mentioned in Cross’s
chapter, presumably due to not yet being published when Cross’s paper was
written. The final chapter, “Harmony and its Role in Human Evolution,” doesn’t
really deal with evolution at all, providing more a history of the development
of harmony in general.
Aside from these issues, the book is a well put-together introduction to the
various problems involved with evolutionary linguistics and musicology, as
well as fields concerned with its study. While not every chapter will be of
use to those in every field which may have an interest in language and
evolution, there is still much of value to anyone studying the relationship
between music and language or language and evolution. In short, this is a
useful volume, especially as a starting point for those investigating the
various ways in which evolutionary theory intersects with the disciplines of
linguistics and musicology.
REFERENCES
Blacking, John. 1973. How musical is Man? Seattle: University of Washington
Press.
Changizi, Mark. 2011. Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and
Transformed Ape into Man. Dallas, TX: Benbella Books.
Darwin, Charles. 1871. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex.
London: John Murray.
Gould, Stephen Jay, and Elizabeth S. Vrba. 1982. Exaptation — a Missing Term
in the Science of Form. Paleobiology 8. 4-15.
Hornbostel, E. von and C. Sachs. 1914. Systematik der Musikinstrumente: Ein
Versuch. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 46. 553-590.
Lomax, Alan. 1968. Folk Song Style and Culture. Washington, DC: American
Association for the Advancement of Science.
Lomax, Alan. 1982. Brief Progress Report: Cantometrics-Choreometrics Projects.
Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council 4. 142-145.
Miller, Geoffrey. 1999. Sexual Selection for Cultural Displays. In R. Dunbar,
C. Knight, and C. Power, eds., The Evolution of Culture. Edinburgh, Edinburgh
University Press.
Miller, Geoffrey. 2000. The Mating Mind. London: Heinemann.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1781/1817. Essai sur l’origine des langues. Où il est
parlé de la Mélodie et de l’Imitation musicale. Paris: A. Berlin.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
J. L. Barnes is a philosophy and linguistics graduate currently residing in
the Louisville, KY area. Areas of interest include semantics, philosophy of
language, semiotics, and the relationship between music and language.
Title: A Buddhist Theory of Semiotics
Subtitle: Signs, Ontology, and Salvation in Japanese Esoteric Buddhism
Series Title: Bloomsbury Advances in Semiotics
Publication Year: 2013
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing (formerly The Continuum International Publishing Group)
http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/
One of the first attempts ever to present in a systematic way a non-western
semiotic system. This book looks at Japanese esoteric Buddhism and is based
around original texts, informed by explicit and rigorous semiotic categories.
It is a unique introduction to important aspects of the thought and rituals of
the Japanese Shingon tradition.
Semiotic concerns are deeply ingrained in the Buddhist intellectual and
religious discourse, beginning with the idea that the world is not what it
appears to be, which calls for a more accurate understanding of the self and
reality. This in turn results in sustained discussions on the status of
language and representations, and on the possibility and methods to know
reality beyond delusion; such peculiar knowledge is explicitly defined as
enlightenment. Thus, for Buddhism, semiotics is directly relevant to
salvation; this is a key point that is often ignored even by Buddhologists.
This book discusses in depth the main elements of Buddhist semiotics as based
primarily on original Japanese pre-modern sources. It is a crucial publication
in the fields of semiotics and religious studies.
AUTHOR: Clare Painter
AUTHOR: James R. Martin
AUTHOR: Len Unsworth
TITLE: Reading Visual Narratives
SUBTITLE: Image Analysis of Children’s Picture Books
SERIES TITLE: Functional Linguistics
PUBLISHER: Equinox Publishing Ltd
YEAR: 2013
REVIEWER: Daniel Lees Fryer, University of Gothenburg
SUMMARY
Children’s picture books may be designed to delight and entertain young
readers (and adults), but they are also a key site for apprenticeship into and
sensitization to literacy, literature, and social values. In ‘Reading Visual
Narratives: Image Analysis of Children’s Picture Books,’ Claire Painter, J. R.
Martin, and Len Unsworth explore, through the lens of social semiotics, how
such books construct meanings and help scaffold learning through combinations
of visual and verbal resources.
‘Reading Visual Narratives’ is divided into five main chapters, and includes a
Preface, an acknowledgments section, a reference list, a picture-books
bibliography, and an index. Chapter 1, “Reading the Visual in Children’s
Picture Books,” starts by discussing the pedagogic and social significance of
these books. Painter et al. argue that developing analytic tools for
understanding the visual and verbal meaning-making resources in children’s
picture books will provide valuable insights for “literacy educators and
children’s literature specialists” (p. 2).
The book takes a social-semiotic and multimodal discourse analysis (MDA)
approach based on systemic-functional theory, with the dual aim of: 1)
understanding how individual picture books make meaning; and 2) extending
current social-semiotic accounts of the visual mode, both intra- and
intersemiotically. The authors note, in this introductory chapter, how their
work draws upon and extends that of Kress and van Leeuwen (1996, 2006),
particularly in terms of visual narrative and visual resources for negotiating
emotional engagement with the reader.
Additionally, Chapter 1 includes a review of previous work on children’s
picture books, from a variety of theoretical and educationally oriented
perspectives, including Nodelman’s (1988) ‘Words about Pictures.’ The chapter
also includes a short introduction to systemic-functional theory. This
introduction is based on Halliday (1978), Halliday and Matthiessen (2004),
Martin and Rose (2007), and Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), among others. Within
this theoretical framework, Painter et al. highlight ideational,
interpersonal, and textual meanings, the systemic-functional notion of system,
and the visualization of system networks.
The final section of Chapter 1 describes the material for the study, a corpus
of 73 “critically well-regarded” (p. 11) children’s picture books. The books
have varying proportions of words (verbiage) to images, and are aimed at a
wide range of age groups and reading abilities. All of the books are
English-language editions, and they span a publication period from 1902 (the
1902 edition of Beatrix Potter’s ‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit’) to 2008 (Anthony
Browne’s ‘Little Beauty’). Examples from many of these picture books are
reproduced throughout the book.
Chapter 2, “Enacting Social Relations,” examines the visual encoding of
interpersonal meanings in children’s picture books. The chapter begins by
briefly presenting Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) proposed systems for
construing relations between readers/viewers and represented participants or
other visual elements, i.e., the systems of SOCIAL DISTANCE, INVOLVEMENT,
POWER, CONTACT, and MODALITY (Systems are represented by small caps in Painter
et al., standard notation in many systemic-functional works; block caps are
used for the purposes of this review. Note also that square brackets are used
here and in Painter et al. to indicate options or features within a system.).
The authors then propose a number of complementary or alternative systems to
account for the interpersonal visual meanings relevant to children’s picture
books. These include FOCALIZATION, AFFECT, PATHOS, AMBIENCE, and GRADUATION.
FOCALIZATION considers point of view, and whether viewers are positioned as
having [contact] with represented participants (usually through the outward
gaze of a character in a book) or whether viewers take on an observer role
([observe], minus the gaze) (cf. Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) ‘demand’ and
‘offer’). Further simultaneous options concern how the reader’s point of view
is managed as either [mediated], i.e., as seen vicariously through the eyes of
a character, or as [unmediated], i.e., without being positioned as a
character. More delicate options are available that include variations in the
types of gaze ([direct] or [invited]) and mediation ([inscribed] or
[inferred]). The system of AFFECT, i.e., the depiction of characters’
feelings, is based on three basic styles of character depiction: minimalist,
generic, and naturalistic. These drawing styles engender varying levels of
reader engagement (or PATHOS), from [appreciative] (minimalist) and [empathic]
(generic) to [personalizing] (naturalistic), allowing different feelings or
affect to be read through a combination of facial expressions and bodily
postures. AMBIENCE accounts for the emotional mood created by the use of
color. Of particular note here are the simultaneous subsystems of VIBRANCY,
WARMTH, and FAMILIARITY, which provide various options for differing levels of
saturation, the graded use of [warm] and [cool] colors, and the degree to
which color differentiation encodes what is naturalistic or somehow [removed]
from reality. For GRADUATION, i.e., the upscaling or downscaling of evaluative
meanings (p. 44), the authors emphasize the need for further investigation,
but tentatively discuss how [quantification] can be scaled [up] or [down]
according to [number], [mass/amount], and/or [extent].
The chapter concludes with a visual interpersonal analysis of Raymond Briggs’s
(1994) ‘The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman.’ The authors
provide a descriptive analysis (pp. 46-49) and a table that summarizes,
page-by-page and system-by-system, the various interpersonal instantiations
and their realizations (pp. 50-52).
Chapter 3, “Construing Representations,” explores visual ideational meanings
in children’s picture books. Based on Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006)
categories of represented participants, processes, and circumstances, Painter
et al. investigate visual ideational meanings through the proposed systems of
CHARACTER MANIFESTATION and APPEARANCE, CHARACTER RELATIONS, and INTER-EVENT
and INTER-CIRCUMSTANCE relations, in order to account for narrative sequences
in children’s picture books. CHARACTER MANIFESTATION and APPEARANCE deal with
the ways in which characters (or participants) are introduced into and tracked
across visual narratives, and the ways in which variations in character
attributes, such as [descriptive detail], [symbolic attributes], and clothing
and accessories ([garment/accessory]), are accounted for. The system of
CHARACTER RELATIONS deals with how images invite various comparisons of
characters and their attributes, for example, through the juxtaposition of two
or more similarly shaped or similarly sized characters ([comparison:
configurational] or [co-classification]). INTER-EVENT relations account for
how narrative events relate to each other in successive or simultaneous images
as “activity sequences” (Barthes 1977, in Painter et al., p. 73) through
expansion ([unfolding]) and [projection], including options such as
[projection: real/imagined], or [unfolding: succession: +/-cause] and
[+/-fulfilled]. The system also accounts for how the pace of a narrative is
maintained or varied at different points according to differing lengths of
activity sequences. INTER-CIRCUMSTANCE deals with variations in context, by
either maintaining or varying the degree of contextualization in a sequence of
images. The [change context] option, for example, “generally serves to help
stage the story” (p. 82), and Painter et al. note the importance in children’s
picture books of the [change context: home] option as providing a safe and
familiar location ([home: in]) on the one hand, and a space for greater
insecurity and potential excitement ([home: out]) on the other (cf. Nodelman
and Reimer 2003).
The chapter concludes with an analysis of the visual ideational meanings in
Gary Crew and Gregory Rogers’s (1992) ‘Lucy’s Bay.’ As in the previous
chapter, Painter et al. discuss selected instantiations and realizations, and
provide a page-by-page, system-by-system summary of the visual ideational
choices made in this picture book. Several images from ‘Lucy’s Bay’ are
included as examples.
Chapter 4, “Composing Visual Space,” deals with visual textual meanings in
children’s picture books, i.e., the ways in which ideational and interpersonal
meanings relate to each other. The chapter examines visual textual meanings
through three systems: INTERMODAL INTEGRATION, FRAMING, and FOCUS. INTERMODAL
INTEGRATION, as the term suggests, deals with the arrangement and location of
both visual and verbal components. The verbiage here, however, is treated
“purely as a visual unit” (p. 92; cf. Chapter 5), and its relation to the
image is categorized as either [integrated] or [complementary]. Suboptions of
[complementary] include issues of axis ([facing] or [descending]), weight (a
continuum between [image privileged] and [verbiage privileged]), and placement
([adjacent] or [interpolating: verbiage medial/image medial]). Similarly, for
[integrated], the main suboptions are [projected] and [expanded], each of
which is an entry condition to further levels of delicacy, such as [projected:
meaning: locution/idea], realized by verbiage appearing in speech or thought
bubbles, respectively. The basic choices for FRAMING are [bound] or [unbound]
images, with further suboptions available for each. For example, [bound:
framed: experiential frame] is realized by a framing device that is also an
experiential part of the image, such as a climbing frame in Anthony Browne’s
(1998) ‘Voices in the Park’ (Painter et al., p. 108); [unbound:
decontextualized: individuated/localized] distinguishes between an image with
participants and no depicted context (i.e. a white-space background;
[individuated]) and one with minimal setting or symbolic attributes
([localized]). For the FOCUS system, Painter et al. introduce the concept of
“focus group” to define visual elements that constitute “a pulse of
information” (p. 109). They further state that “any picture book layout,
framed by the page edges, constitutes a major focus group with a particular
compositional pattern,” which “may itself encompass further focus groups of
varying prominence” (p. 109-110). The FOCUS system attempts to account for
these different levels of compositional patterns by basically treating them as
either [iterating] or [centrifocal], i.e., as repeated [scattered/aligned] or
balanced on or around an occupied or unoccupied center point. Further
suboptions of [centrifocal] are available, i.e., [centered] and [polarized],
both of which are entry conditions to suboptions of increasing delicacy.
Chapter 4 ends with an analysis of the visual textual meanings in ‘Possum
Magic’ by Mem Fox and Julie Vivas (1989/2004 editions). Painter et al. provide
a descriptive analysis of selected instantiations and realizations, noting
shifts in textual meanings at different generic stages of the story. The
section also includes a table that summarizes and compares the main FOCUS
choices in the two editions of the book. Several schematic diagrams
illustrating these choices are provided.
Chapter 5, “Intermodality: Image and Verbiage,” proposes ways in which the
image analyses of the previous chapters might fruitfully be combined with
verbal analyses in order to study the contributions and interplay of the two
semiotics in children’s picture books. Painter et al. compare their
descriptions of visual meaning systems with the verbal meaning systems
provided by Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) and Martin and Rose (2007),
proposing “commitment” (i.e. the degree of meaning contributed by specific
choices) and “coupling” (i.e. the co-patterning of realizations from two or
more systems) as ways of facilitating comparison of the two semiotics.
The penultimate section of the chapter provides an analysis of verbal-visual
instantiation in Libby Hathorn and Gregory Rogers’s (1994) ‘Way Home.’
Examples are given of the ways in which certain visual and verbal
interpersonal, ideational, and textual meanings converge and diverge
throughout the book, and of how these convergences and divergences invite
readers “to empathise with Shane’s [the homeless protagonist’s] situation
while simultaneously [keeping them] at a safe distance from it” (p. 149).
The authors conclude by reiterating that children’s picture books “are not
only enjoyable for young readers, but offer a very important ‘training’ in
becoming sensitised in how to read narrative texts (including monomodal ones)
in ways that are educationally valued” (p. 156).
EVALUATION
Painter et al.’s systemic-functional approach to describing the meaning-making
resources of children’s picture books is interesting and impressive. Much of
their work builds on ‘Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design’ (Kress and
van Leeuwen 2006), and the authors carefully construct their arguments around
those of Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), variously adopting, adapting, and
challenging key concepts from that book, while adding new insights relevant to
the study of visual-verbal narratives.
Painter et al.’s analyses are so rich that a book review of this kind may not
do justice to the concepts and examples they discuss. The visual detail and
descriptive power of system networks, for example, cannot be easily captured
in such a “verbal” review, and their carefully constructed systems, along with
example instantiations and realizations, are undoubtedly one of the book’s
major strengths. In each chapter, the reader is introduced to a series of
meaning systems and then guided through the various levels of delicacy within
each system, with the description of each new feature or option accompanied by
varied examples of its realization. Indeed, these system networks reveal some
potentially interesting theoretical insights, one of which is support for the
general observation that non-verbal semiotics may have more fluid categories
than language (p. 10). Although this may be a matter of representation (cf.
discussion of MODALITY: VALUE as scaled or categorical in Martin & White 2005:
15-16), visual interpersonal meaning systems in particular, e.g., AMBIENCE and
PATHOS, are frequently scaled rather than categorical, and quantification
features and certain CHARACTER APPEARANCE features are presented, by double
brackets, as both alternative and simultaneous options.
With regard to system networks, there seem to be some minor discrepancies in
notation. In the CHARACTER APPEARANCE system (p. 64), for example, the
potentially simultaneous options of [descriptive detail], [symbolic
attribute], and [garment/accessory] have been marked as categorical
alternatives, where only one of the three can be selected. Similarly, some
instantiations have been marked with slashes rather than colons, and vice
versa, where I suspect it was not intended, e.g., in Table 3.7 (pp. 88-89),
where [reappear/immediate: …] suggests that [reappear] and [immediate] are two
simultaneous options at the same level of delicacy (I assume a colon should
have been used). However, these are minor points. Of greater concern, perhaps,
is the fact that all the figures in Painter et al. are in black and white (or
graytone), at least in the edition I have reviewed. This is a drawback in
general, since the use of colors in picture books is referred to at various
points throughout the book, but is most unfortunate in the section on
AMBIENCE. I hope this can be rectified in future editions, or in an e-book
edition, if one is planned.
The back cover notes that this book should be of interest to researchers in
MDA, systemic-functional theory, and children’s literature and literacy. I
agree, while also adding that, despite the book’s focus on children’s picture
books, many of the insights provided in ‘Reading Visual Narratives’ could be
applied to similar visual-verbal narrative forms, such as comics and graphic
novels, magazines, and webpages, to name a few. Researchers and educators
interested in these and similar visual-verbal narratives would be well advised
to read Painter et al.’s book. The integrated approach of Chapter 5 is
particularly useful in this regard, with its discussion of commitment and
coupling, and its identification of key narrative domains. Indeed, the latter
may also be relevant for examining intersemiosis with other semiotic modes,
e.g., sound (see van Leeuwen 1999).
Overall, ‘Reading Visual Narratives’ is an important contribution to the field
of social semiotics, in general, and to the study of visual-verbal narratives
in children’s picture books, in particular. Painter et al. have produced a
work that is (almost) as fascinating as the material upon which it is based.
REFERENCES
Halliday, M. A. K. 1978. Language as social semiotic: the social
interpretation of language and meaning. London: Arnold.
Halliday, M. A. K. and C. M. I. M. Matthiessen. 2004. Introduction to
functional grammar. 3rd edition. London: Arnold.
Kress, Gunther and Theo van Leeuwen. 1996/2006. Reading images: the grammar of
visual design. 1st/2nd edition. Abingdon: Routledge.
Martin, J. R. & David Rose. 2007. Working with discourse: meaning beyond the
clause. 2nd edition. London: Continuum.
Martin, J. R. & P. R. R. White. 2005. The language of evaluation: appraisal in
English. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Nodelman, Perry and Mavis Reimer. 2003. The pleasures of children’s
literature. 3rd edition. Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon.
Leeuwen, Theo van. 1999. Speech, music, sound. London: Macmillan.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Daniel Lees Fryer is a PhD researcher at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden,
and an assistant professor at Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied
Sciences (HiOA), Norway. His research interests include systemic-functional
grammar and social semiotics, academic literacies, and scientific discourse.
He holds courses and workshops in academic writing for staff and students at
HiOA and at the University of Oslo, Norway, and occasional courses in
systemic-functional theory.
Marc Smith –
Director, Social Media Research Foundation
marc@smrfoundation.org Tweets by marc_smith
http://twitter.com/smr_foundation –
introduces some recent resources offered by the NodeXL project.
..with some references after…
[i’ve not made the URLs clickable, so if you want to follow up any of the links, you’ll need to copy and paste meantime]
Hello!
I hope you will be interested in the following NodeXL [1] project updates from the Social Media Research Foundation [2]!
NodeXL is the free and open add-in for Excel that supports network overview, discovery and exploration.
The code and application can be found at http://www.codeplex.com/nodexl.
Technical questions can be asked on our discussion boards on our Codeplex site [3]. Join us for office hours each Thursday at 10AM Pacific Time in a Google hangout: check Twitter for details prior to each session.
NodeXL has been downloaded more than 190,000 times and is becoming the easiest path to getting insights from network data. If you can make a pie chart in a spreadsheet, you can now make a network visualization.
We recently added a new data source provider for importing networks stored within Exchange servers and Facebook into NodeXL.
Message board data sets can be analyzed with ThreadMill, the social accounting engine for conversations on the web. ThreadMill generates networks created when people reply, comment, and communicate.
See: https://github.com/SMRFoundation/ThreadMill
Content analysis features have also been recently integrated. An example of the analysis of content within sub-groups in the social media networks can be seen in this slide deck:
A collection of social media network maps created with NodeXL is on the web [4].
[image.png]
NodeXL Visualizations and data sets can be found here:
https://nodexlgraphgallery.org/Pages/Default.aspx
[20111210-NodeXL-GraphGallery Home.png]
For background and resources related to our project, please have a look at:
* NodeXLGraphGallery: A collection of social media network visualizations, descriptions, and data sets for download:
http://nodexlgraphgallery.org/Pages/Default.aspx
* Connected Action Blog about social media, sociology, information visualization, and networks:
http://www.connectedaction.net
* Download and support site for “NodeXL” – the network overview, discovery and exploration add-in for Excel. If you can make a pie chart, you can now make a social media network map.
http://nodexl.codeplex.com
* The Social Media Research Foundation creates NodeXL and fosters the creation of open tools, open data, and open scholarship:
NodeXL supports the exploration of social media with import features that pull data from personal email indexes on the desktop, Twitter, Flickr, Youtube, Facebook and WWW hyper-links.
NodeXL allows non-programmers to quickly generate useful network statistics and metrics and create visualizations of network graphs. Filtering and display attributes can be used to highlight important structures in the network. Innovative automated layouts make creating quality network visualizations simple and quick:
[image.png]
General NodeXL news can often be found on the Connected Action blog [5] and a recent video and slide deck describing the application of NodeXL to generate social media maps is also available [6].
A video tutorial for NodeXL [7] a manuscript tutorial guide to NodeXL created at the University of Maryland, College of Information Studies [8] along with supporting data sets [9]
A book Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL: Insights from a connected world is available from Morgan-Kaufmann [10].
[2010-NodeXL-Book-Cover.jpg]
Recent slide decks describe NodeXL [11] [12] along with a video from the PDF2010 conference [13].
NodeXL allows for the import of network data in the form of edge lists, matrices, graphML, UCINet, and Pajek files along with CSV and other workbooks.
Recent features added to NodeXL include faster metrics calculation, automated graph processing, larger data sets, new layouts, scales, axes, and legends. NodeXL can perform scheduled data collection for standing queries from a desktop server that can be triggered from Windows Scheduler. Scheduled data collections can start automated data processing of collected networks. NodeXL lets users set their configurations once and apply those sets of steps to hundreds of other graphs with a few clicks.
Recent NodeXL Topics and Features:
> Graph Process Automation
> Collect nodes into groups
> Group metrics
> Groups collapse/expand
> Group by cluster, connected components, and manual
> Group layout creates innovative visualizations
> Scheduled collection/desktop server
> Map data to display attributes easily with “Autofill columns”
> Better edge label control, conditional labels
> Shapes and images
> Background images: Fake geo-maps
> Filter by dates
> Bug fixes: Twitter, setup, multiple users, settings, locked down machines
In partnership with the Uberlink corporation [14], the VOSON data collector component has recently been integrated into NodeXL to enable web hyperlink network extraction.
NodeXL requires Office 2007. Other versions of Excel (like 2008 on Mac, or the older 2003) do not work with NodeXL (sorry!). NodeXL works with the new Office 2010 version of Excel.
NodeXL is a project from the Social Media Research Foundation and receives generous support from its users! Contributors to NodeXL include the Microsoft Research External Projects Group [15], Natasa Milic-Frayling [16] from Microsoft Research [17], Eduarda Mendes Rodrigues [18] from the University of Porto [19], Ben Shneiderman [20], Derek Hansen [21], Cody Dunne [22] and others at the University of Maryland [23], Marc Smith [24] at Connected Action Consulting [25] , Jure Leskovec [26] at Stanford University [27], Vladimir Barash [28] and Scott Golder [29] at Cornell [30], Bernie Hogan [31] at Oxford University [32], and Libby Hemphill [33] at the Illinois Institute of Technology [34]. Recent additions to the Social Media Research Foundation include Han Woo Park from Yeungnam University, GiHong Yi from Hallym University, John Kelly from Morningside Analytics, Itai Himelboim from the University of Georgia, and Alfredo Ferro from the University of Catania.
The Social Media Research Foundation is dedicated to Open Tools, Open Data, and Open Scholarship.
Social media is the term for all the ways people connect to people through computation. Mobile devices, social networks, micro-blogging and location sharing are just a few of the ways people engage in computer-mediated collective action.
Mapping, measuring and understanding the landscape of social media is our mission. We support tool projects that enable the collection, analysis and visualization of social media data. We host data sets that are relevant to social media research. And we will support graduate students studying and building research related to social media.
Today, in addition to NodeXL we are expanding to include data collection tools for additional social media sources, better support for exploring the changes in networks over time, and web based applications to expand access to network analysis services and insights.
Please help us support the continued development of NodeXL with your donation! Your contribution will sustain the creation of open tools, open data, and open scholarship!
——————————————————————————————————————-
Social Media Research Related Publications
——————————————————————————————————————-
Group-in-a-box Layout for Multi-faceted Analysis of Communities [35]
Eduarda Mendes Rodrigues, Natasa Milic-Frayling, Marc Smith, Ben Shneiderman, Derek Hansen
IEEE Third International Conference on Social Computing, October 9-11, 2011.
Boston, MA
Abstract: Communities in social networks emerge from interactions among individuals and can be analyzed through a combination of clustering and graph layout algorithms. These approaches result in 2D or 3D visualizations of clustered graphs, with groups of vertices representing individuals that form a community. However, in many instances the vertices have attributes that divide individuals into distinct categories such as gender, profession, geographic location, and similar. It is often important to investigate what categories of individuals comprise each community and vice-versa, how the community structures associate the individuals from the same category. Currently, there are no effective methods for analyzing both the community structure and the category-based partitions of social graphs. We propose Group-In-a-Box (GIB), a metalayout for clustered graphs that enables multi-faceted analysis of networks. It uses the treemap space filling technique to display each graph cluster or category group within its own box, sized according to the number of vertices therein. GIB optimizes visualization of the network sub-graphs, providing a semantic substrate for category-based and cluster-based partitions of social graphs. We illustrate the application of GIB to multi-faceted analysis of real social networks and discuss desirable properties of GIB using synthetic datasets.
——————————————————————————————————————-
EventGraphs: charting collections of conference connections [36]
Hansen, D., Smith, M., Shneiderman, B.
Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Forty-Forth Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). January 4-7, 2011. Kauai, Hawaii.
Abstract: EventGraphs are social media network diagrams constructed from content selected by its association with time-bounded events, such as conferences. Many conferences now communicate a common “hashtag” or keyword to identify messages related to the event. EventGraphs help make sense of the collections of connections that form when people follow, reply or mention one another and a keyword. This paper defines EventGraphs, characterizes different types, and shows how the social media network analysis add-in NodeXL supports their creation and analysis. The paper also identifies the structural and conversational patterns to look for and highlight in EventGraphs and provides design ideas for their improvement.
——————————————————————————————————————-
Visualizing the Signatures of Social Roles in Online Discussion Groups [37]
Welser, Howard T., Eric Gleave, Danyel Fisher, and Marc Smith.
Journal of Social Structure, Vol 8. 2007.
Abstract: Social roles in online discussion forums can be described by patterned characteristics of communication between network members which we conceive of as ‘structural signatures.’ This paper uses visualization methods to reveal these structural signatures and regression analysis to confirm the relationship between these signatures and their associated roles in Usenet newsgroups. Our analysis focuses on distinguishing the signatures of one role from others, the role of “answer people.” Answer people are individuals whose dominant behavior is to respond to questions posed by other users. We found that answer people predominantly contribute one or a few messages to discussions initiated by others, are disproportionately tied to relative isolates, have few intense ties and have few triangles in their local networks. OLS regression shows that these signatures are strongly correlated with role behavior and, in combination, provide a strongly predictive model for identifying role behavior (R2=.72). To conclude, we consider strategies for further improving the identification of role behavior in online discussion settings and consider how the development of a taxonomy of author types could be extended to a taxonomy of newsgroups in particular and discussion systems in general.
——————————————————————————————————————-
Discussion catalysts in online political discussions: Content importers and conversation starters [38]
Himelboim, Itai, Eric Gleave, and Marc Smith. 2009
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Vol. 14 (JCMC)
Abstract: This study addresses 3 research questions in the context of online political discussions: What is the distribution of successful topic starting practices, what characterizes the content of large thread-starting messages, and what is the source of that content? A 6-month analysis of almost 40,000 authors in 20 political Usenet newsgroups identified authors who received a disproportionate number of replies. We labeled these authors ‘‘discussion catalysts.’’ Content analysis revealed that 95 percent of discussion catalysts’ messages contained content imported from elsewhere on the web, about 2/3 from traditional news organizations. We conclude that the flow of information from the content creators to the readers and writers continues to be mediated by a few individuals who act as filters and amplifiers.
——————————————————————————————————————-
Analyzing (Social Media) Networks with NodeXL [39]
Smith, M., Shneiderman, B., Milic-Frayling, N., Rodrigues, E.M., Barash, V., Dunne, C., Capone, T., Perer, A. & Gleave, E. (2009)
C&T ’09: Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Communities and Technologies. Springer.
Abstract: In this paper we present NodeXL, an extendible toolkit for network data analysis and visualization, implemented as an add-in to the Microsoft Excel 2007 spreadsheet software. We demonstrate NodeXL features through analysis of a data sample drawn from an enterprise intranet social network, discussion, and wiki. Through a sequence of steps we show how NodeXL leverages and extends the broadly used spreadsheet paradigm to support common operations in network analysis. This ranges from data import to computation of network statistics and refinement of network visualization through a selection of ready-to-use sorting, filtering, and clustering functions.
——————————————————————————————————————-
Whither the experts: Social affordances and the cultivation of experts in community Q&A systems [40]
SIN ’09: Proc. international symposium on Social Intelligence and Networking. IEEE Computer Society Press.
Howard Welser, Eric Gleave, Marc Smith, Vladimir Barash, Jessica Meckes.
Abstract: Community based Question and Answer systems have been promoted as web 2.0 solutions to the problem of finding expert knowledge. This promise depends on systems’ capacity to attract and sustain experts capable of offering high quality, factual answers. Content analysis of dedicated contributors’ messages in the Live QnA system found: (1) few contributors who focused on providing technical answers (2) a preponderance of attention paid to opinion and discussion, especially in non-technical threads. This paucity of experts raises an important general question: how do the social affordances of a site alter the ecology of roles found there? Using insights from recent research in online community, we generate a series of expectations about how social affordances are likely to alter the role ecology of online systems.
——————————————————————————————————————-
First steps to NetViz Nirvana: evaluating social network analysis with NodeXL [41]
SIN ’09: Proc. international symposium on Social Intelligence and Networking. IEEE Computer Society Press.
Bonsignore, E.M., Dunne, C., Rotman, D., Smith, M., Capone, T., Hansen, D.L. & Shneiderman, B. (2009)
Abstract: Social Network Analysis (SNA) has evolved as a popular, standard method for modeling meaningful, often hidden structural relationships in communities. Existing SNA tools often involve extensive pre-processing or intensive programming skills that can challenge practitioners and students alike. NodeXL, an open-source template for Microsoft Excel, integrates a library of common network metrics and graph layout algorithms within the familiar spreadsheet format, offering a potentially low-barrier to-entry framework for teaching and learning SNA. We present the preliminary findings of 2 user studies of 21 graduate students who engaged in SNA using NodeXL. The majority of students, while information professionals, had little technical background or experience with SNA techniques. Six of the participants had more technical backgrounds and were chosen specifically for their experience with graph drawing and information visualization. Our primary objectives were (1) to evaluate NodeXL as an SNA tool for a broad base of users and (2) to explore methods for teaching SNA. Our complementary dual case-study format demonstrates the usability of NodeXL for a diverse set of users, and significantly, the power of a tightly integrated metrics/visualization tool to spark insight and facilitate sensemaking for students of SNA.
——————————————————————————————————————-
Do You Know the Way to SNA?: A Process Model for Analyzing and Visualizing Social Media Data [42]
Hansen, D., Rotman, D., Bonsignore, E., Milic-Frayling, N., Rodrigues, E., Smith, M., Shneiderman, B. (July 2009)
University of Maryland Tech Report: HCIL-2009-17
Abstract: Voluminous online activity data from users of social media can shed light on individual behavior, social relationships, and community efficacy. However, tools and processes to analyze this data are just beginning to evolve. We studied 15 graduate students who were taught to use NodeXL to analyze social media data sets. Based on these observations, we present a process model of social network analysis (SNA) and visualization, then use it to identify stages where intervention from peers, experts, and computational aids are most useful. We offer implications for designers of SNA tools, educators, and community & organizational analysts.
——————————————————————————————————————-
References:
[1] NodeXL: http://www.codeplex.com/nodexl
[2] Social Media Research Foundation: http://www.smrfoundation.org/
[3] NodeXL Tech Support: http://nodexl.codeplex.com/Thread/List.aspx
[4] NodeXL Image Gallery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marc_smith/sets/72157622437066929/
[5] NodeXL News and Blog: http://www.connectedaction.net/
[6] NodeXL: Talk: http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/06/04/june-3-and-4-2010-personal-democracy-forum-2010-nyc/
[7] NodeXL Video: http://www.connectedaction.net/2009/11/11/video-using-nodexl-to-map-the-digg-mentioning-twitter-population/
[8] NodeXL Tutorial: http://casci.umd.edu/images/4/46/NodeXL_tutorial_draft.pdf
[9] UMD CASCI: http://casci.umd.edu/NodeXL_Teaching
[10] NodeXL Book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0123822297?ie=UTF8&tag=conneactio-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0123822297
[11] NodeXL Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/Marc_A_Smith/2009-december-nodexl-overview
[12] NodeXL Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/Marc_A_Smith/2010-june-personal-democracy-forum-marc-smith-mapping-political-social-media-crowds
[13] NodeXL Video: http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/06/04/june-3-and-4-2010-personal-democracy-forum-2010-nyc/
[14] Uberlink’s NodeXL + VOSON: http://www.uberlink.com.au/
[15] Microsoft Research Connections: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/collaboration/
[16] Natasa Milic-Frayling: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/natasamf/
[17] Microsoft Research: http://research.microsoft.com/
[18] Eduarda Mendes Rodrigues: http://www.fe.up.pt/si_uk/FUNCIONARIOS_GERAL.FORMVIEW?p_codigo=466635
[19] University of Porto: http://www.fe.up.pt/
[20] Ben Shneiderman: http://www.cs.umd.edu/~ben/
[21] Derek Hansen: http://ischool.umd.edu/people/hansen/
[22] Cody Dunne: http://www.cs.umd.edu/~cdunne/
[23] University of Maryland: http://www.umd.edu/
[24] Marc Smith: http://www.connectedaction.net/marc-smith/
[25] Connected Action: http://www.connectedaction.net/
[26] Jure Leskovec: http://cs.stanford.edu/people/jure/
[27] Stanford University: http://cs.stanford.edu/
[28] Vladimir Barash: http://www.vlad43210.com/
[29] Scott Golder: http://www.redlog.net/
[30] Cornell University: http://www.cornell.edu/
[31] Bernie Hogan: http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/?id=140
[32] Oxford Internet Institute: http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/
[33] Libby Hemphill: http://www.libbyh.com/
[34] Illinois Institute of Technology: http://www.iit.edu/
[35] Group-in-a-box: http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/10/october-9-11-2011-ieee-2011-social-computing-boston-nodexl-paper-on-group-in-a-box-layouts/
[36] EventGraphs: http://www.cs.umd.edu/localphp/hcil/tech-reports-search.php?number=2010-13
[37] Visualizing Signatures: http://www.cmu.edu/joss/content/articles/volume8/Welser/
[38] Discussion catalysts: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/ at http://ping.fm/7NF5T
[39] Analyzing (social media) networks: http://www.connectedaction.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/2009-CT-NodeXL-and-Social-Queries-a-social-media-network-analysis-toolkit.pdf
[40] Whither the Experts: http://www.connectedaction.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/2009-Social-Computing-Whither-the-Experts.pdf
[41] NetViz Nirvana: http://www.cs.umd.edu/~cdunne/pubs/Bonsignore09Firststepsto.pdf
[42] The way to SNA: http://hcil.cs.umd.edu/trs/2009-17/2009-17.pdf
Title: Silence and Concealment in Political Discourse
Series Title: Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 48
Publication Year: 2013
Publisher: John Benjamins
http://www.benjamins.com/
Book URL: http://benjamins.com/catalog/dapsac.48
Author: Melani Schröter
Electronic: ISBN: 9789027272102 Pages: Price: U.S. $ 135.00
Electronic: ISBN: 9789027272102 Pages: Price: Europe EURO 90.00
Electronic: ISBN: 9789027272102 Pages: Price: U.K. £ 76.00
Hardback: ISBN: 9789027206398 Pages: Price: Europe EURO 95.40
Hardback: ISBN: 9789027206398 Pages: Price: U.K. £ 76.00
Hardback: ISBN: 9789027206398 Pages: Price: U.S. $ 135.00
Abstract:
This book constitutes a significant contribution to political discourse analysis and to the study of silence, both from the point of view of discourse analysis as well as pragmatics, and it is also relevant for those interested in politics and
media studies. It promotes the empirical study of silence by analysing metadiscourse about politicians’ silence and by systematically conceptualising the communicativeness of silence in the interplay between intention (to be silent), expectation (of speech) and relevance (of the unsaid). Three cases of sustained metadiscourse about silent politicians from Germany are analysed to exemplify this approach, based on media texts and protocols of parliamentary inquiries. Ideals of political transparency and communicative openness are identified as a basis for (disappointed) expectations of speech which trigger and determine metadiscourse about politicians’ silences. Finally, the book deals
critically with the role of those who act as advocates of ‘the public’s’ demand to speak out.
Hardback: ISBN: 9781107016422 Pages: 192 Price: U.S. $ 90.00
Paperback: ISBN: 9781107602434 Pages: 192 Price: U.S. $ 27.99
Abstract:
How does writing relate to speech? What impact does it have on social
organisation and development? How do unwritten languages differ from those
that have a written form and tradition? This book is a general account of the
place of writing in society. Drawing on contemporary and historical examples,
from clay tablets to touchscreen displays, the book explores the functions of
writing and written language, analysing its consequences for language,
society, economy and politics. It examines the social causes of illiteracy,
demonstrating that institutions of central importance to modern society are
built upon writing and written texts, and are characterised by specific forms
of communication. It explores the social dimensions of spelling and writing
reform, as well as of digital literacy, a new mode of expression and
communication posing novel challenges to the student of language in society.
Title: Health and Risk Communication
Subtitle: An Applied Linguistic Perspective
Publication Year: 2013
Publisher: Routledge (Taylor and Francis)
http://www.routledge.com/
Book URL: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415672603/
Health and Risk Communication provides a critical and comprehensive overview
of the core issues surrounding health and risk communication from the
perspective of applied linguistics. It outlines the ways applied linguistics
differs from other methods of understanding health and risk communication,
assesses the benefits and limitations of the approaches used by different
scholars in the field, and offers an innovative framework for consolidating
past research and charting new directions.
CLAVIER (http://www.clavier.unimore.it/site/home.html) is a research group based in Modena and including a network of Italian universities (Bergamo, Florence, Milan State, Rome ‘La Sapienza’, Siena and Trieste) with an interest in combining two complementary strands of linguistic investigation – corpus analysis and discourse analysis – for a quantitative and qualitative study of language variation in English in terms of diachronic, geographic and socio-cultural dimensions. Within this research framework, CLAVIER is pleased to announce its 2013 International Conference:
CLAVIER 13
Discourse in and through the Media. Recontextualizing and Reconceptualizing Expert Discourse.
Modena, 6-8 November 2013
Recontextualizing and reconceptualizing expert discourse has become increasingly important in modern society. Yet although Knowledge Dissemination (KD) is now receiving increasing attention, the discursive strategies and the pragmatics of KD in and through the media have not received serious consideration. Knowledge dissemination can be seen as a form of ‘asymmetric’ communication between experts and lay-people, or ‘mediation’ of knowledge and intercultural and ‘inter-discourse communication’ (Scollon, Scollon 1995) between members of different cultures, discourse communities and communities of practice. This amounts to re-contextualization (Calsamiglia, Van Dijk 2004) and inclusion of types of ‘intralinguistic’ translations. Here, simplification, explicitation, reformulation (Mauranen 2006), reconceptualization of terms in the subject field ‘translate’ exclusive expertise into ‘comprehensible’ knowledge, suitable to the background of the addressee.
In this context, the aim of the conference is to stimulate the debate on a variety of aspects related to the representation of specialised discourse in and through the media, e.g. voice and point of view, argumentative practices, knowledge construction, multimodality, re-contextualization and re-conceptualization of knowledge, and peer-to-peer communication within genres aimed at knowledge dissemination and popularization. The conference is intended to encourage cross-generic and cross-disciplinary investigations, in an attempt to advocate integrated approaches to the study of media discourse with a view to both theoretical background and practical applications. More specifically, the key-issues of the conference include (but are by no means limited to) the following:
– Web genres and web-mediated knowledge dissemination
– Register variation and knowledge representation across media
– Re-contextualizing knowledge in and through the media
– Genres of knowledge dissemination, from both a synchronic and a diachronic point of view
The following plenary speakers have confirmed their participation:
Colleen Cotter, Queen Mary University of London
Anna Mauranen, University of Helsinki
Cornelius Puschmann, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Oxford
Members of the scientific committee will also be presenting their current research.
The conference will start early in the afternoon on the first day and close around lunchtime on the third day, with a roundtable in which participants and invited speakers will discuss theoretical and methodological issues emerged from the papers presented in the previous sessions.
Please send your anonymous abstract totalling no more than 300 words (including references) by July 15, 2013 to the following address: clavier13@unimore.it. Please do not include any self-identifying information on the abstract; indicate only the title and the abstract itself. On a separate cover sheet include:
Title:
Format: (paper/ poster)
Author(s):
Affiliation(s):
Postal mailing address:
Email:
Important Dates:
July 15, 2013: Deadline for receipt of abstracts
July 31, 2013: Notification of acceptance/rejection
September 10, 2013: Programme
September 1 – September 30, 2013: Early-bird registration
October 1 – October 31, 2013: Standard registration
For any additional information, please contact us at clavier13@unimore.it or visit us at http://www.clavier.dslc.unimore.it/site/home.html.
Scientific Committee:
Marina Bondi (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)
Nicholas Brownlees (University of Florence)
Marina Dossena (University of Bergamo)
Giuliana Garzone (State University of Milan)
Giuseppe Palumbo (University of Trieste)
Rita Salvi (Sapienza University of Rome)
Elena Tognini Bonelli (University of Siena)
Silvia Cacchiani (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)
Davide Mazzi (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)
Interaction is a prominent part of our everyday life and experience; daily
reality is constructed within the interactions that individuals establish with
those around them, with whom they share experiences in a concrete context.
Objects, phenomena and individuals permanently influence each other through
this dynamic process. The authors of this volume engage in an on-going
interpretative process of defining this influence, giving considerable
attention to the way participants to interaction try to understand each other,
to interpret each other’s activity and prove this in an explicit or implicit
way through a variety of semiotic codes (verbal, nonverbal or paraverbal). The
authors, implicitly, address the question: how do social actors (in their
quality of translators, writers, painters or teachers) see the world around
and the interactions between its constituent parts/activities/processes?
The primary goal of Perspectives on Interaction is to bring together concerns,
approaches, interpretations and analyses on the proposed topic. The authors,
members of a young research group (“Cultural Spaces”), have examined various
aspects through which interaction manifests itself in social practices,
linguistics, translation studies, didactics and literary discourse. This has
made possible the gathering of the material under four headings which
constitute the chapters of the book: Translation as Interaction; Aspects of
Social Interaction; Texts and Representations in Interaction; Interactive
Practices in Literary Discourse. Ideas have been organized around some
important key points: communication, action, interaction, competence,
performance, linguistic and nonlinguistic signs.
The volume will appeal to researchers and students working within the fields
of translation, education, arts, discourse and literature, and offers
inspiring topics and relevant research.
Title: The Communicative Mind. A Linguistic Exploration of Conceptual Integration and Meaning Construction
Author: Line Brandt
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Date of publication: June 2013
Audience: College/higher education, Professional & scholarly, Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly, Professional & Vocational
Type of publication: Monograph (pp. 636)
Format: Hardback
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-4144-3
Isbn: 1-4438-4144-7
E-book expected September 2013
Advancing a research approach to meaning construction connecting linguistics, philosophy, literary studies, neurophenomenology, cognitive science and semiotics, The Communicative Mind presents an interdisciplinary exploration of the various ways in which the intersubjectivity of communicating interactants manifests itself in language. The book supports its view of the mind as highly conditioned by the domain of interpersonal communication by an extensive range of empirical linguistic data from fiction, poetry and everyday discourse. Among recent theoretical advances in what Brandt refers to as thecognitive humanities is Fauconnier and Turner’s theory of conceptual integration which, offering a bridge between pragmatics and semantics, has proved widely influential in Cognitive Poetics and Linguistics. With its constructive criticism of Fauconnier and Turner’s “general mechanism” hypothesis, according to which “blending” can explain everything from
the origin of language to binding in perception, Brandt’s book brings the scope and applicability of Conceptual Integration Theory into the arena of scientific debate.
The Communicative Mind takes on a host of interrelated theories in cognitive linguistics and based on its in-depth critique of the examined ideas proposes a multifaceted outlook on how language is shaped by the intersubjectivity of interacting cognizers:
* semantics & pragmatics: the grounding of language in a context of dialogue
* fictive interaction in rhetoric and grammar
* fictive motion & change
* the concept of mental spaces in relation to philosophy, neural binding, metaphor, syntax
* a typology of conceptual integration
* the notion of relevance in meaning construction
* cognitive approaches to literary studies
RSS
Recent Comments