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English Pages 252 Seiten Illustrationen [261] Year 2006
Multirnodal Discourse Analysis Systemic-Functional Perspectives
Open Linguistics Series Series Editor Robin Fawcett, Cardiff University The series is 'open' in two related ways. First, it is not confined to works associated with any one school of linguistics. For almost two decades the series has played a significant role in establishing and maintaining the present climate of 'openness' in linguistics, and we intend to maintain this tradition. However, we particularly welcome works which explore the nature and use of language through modelling its potential for use in social contexts, or through a cognitive model of language - or indeed a combination of the two. The series is also 'open' in the sense that it welcomes works that open out 'core' linguistics in various ways: to give a central place to the description of natural texts and the use of corpora; to encompass discourse 'above the sentence'; to relate language to other semiotic systems; to apply linguistics in fields such as education, language pathology and law; and to explore the areas that lie between linguistics and its neighbouring disciplines such as semiotics, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and cultural and literary studies. Continuum also publishes a series that offers a forum for primarily functional descriptions of languages or parts of languages — Functional Descriptions of Language. Relations between linguistics and computing are covered in the Communication in Artificial Intelligence series, two series, Advances in Applied Linguistics and Communication in Public Life, publish books in applied linguistics and the series Modern Pragmatics in Theory and Practice publishes both social and cognitive perspectives on the making of meaning in language use. We also publish a range of introductory textbooks on topics in linguistics, semiotics and deaf studies. Recent titles in this series Classroom Discourse Analysis: A Functional Perspective, Frances Christie Construing Experience through Meaning: A Language-based Approach to Cognition, M. A. K. Halliday and Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen Culturally Speaking: Managing Rapport through Talk across Cultures, Helen Spencer-Oatey (ed.) Educating Eve: The 'Language Instinct' Debate, Geoffrey Sampson Empirical Linguistics, Geoffrey Sampson Genre and Institutions: Social Processes in the Workplace and School, Frances Christie and J. R. Martin (eds) The Intonation Systems of English, Paul Tench Language Policy in Britain and France: The Processes of Policy, Dennis Ager Language Relations across Bering Strait: Reappraising the Archaeological and Linguistic Evidence, Michael Fortescue Learning through Language in Early Childhood, Clare Painter Pedagogy and the Shaping of Consciousness: Linguistic and Social Processes, Frances Christie (ed.) Register Analysis: Theory and Practice, Mohsen Ghadessy (ed.) Relations and Functions within and around Language, Peter H. Fries, Michael Cummings, David Lockwood and William Spruiell (eds) Researching Language in Schools and Communities: Functional Linguistic Perspectives, Len Unsworth (ed.) Summary Justice: Judges Address Juries, Paul Robertshaw Syntactic Analysis and Description: A Constructional Approach, David G. Lockwood Thematic Developments in English Texts, Mohsen Ghadessy (ed.) Ways of Saying: Ways of Meaning. Selected Papers of Ruqaiya Hasan. Carmen Cloran, David Butt and Geoffrey Williams (eds) Words, Meaning and Vocabulary: An Introduction to Modern English Lexicology, Howard Jackson and Etienne Zé Amvela Working with Discourse: Meaning beyond the Clause, J. R. Martin and David Rose
Multimodal Discourse Analysis Systemic-Functional Perspectives
Edited by Kay L. O'Halloran
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© Kay L. O'Halloran 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 0-8264-7256-7 Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall
Contents
Introduction
1
Kay L. O'Hallomn Part I Three-dimensional material objects in space 1
Opera Ludentes: the Sydney Opera House at work and play Michael O'Toole
2 Making history in From Colony to Nation: a multimodal analysis of a museum exhibition in Singapore
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28
Alfred Pang Kah Meng
3 A semiotic study of Singapore's Orchard Road and Marriott Hotel
55
Safeyaton Alias
Part II Electronic media and film 4 Phase and transition, type and instance: patterns in media texts as seen through a multimodal concordancer
83
Anthony P. Baldry
5 Visual semiosis in film
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Kay L. O'Halloran
6 Multisemiotic mediation in hypertext
131
Arthur Kok Kum Chiew Part III Print media
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The construal of Ideational meaning in print advertisements Cheong Tin Yuen
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vi
CONTENTS
8 Multimodality in a biology textbook
196
Libo Guo
9 Developing an integrative multi-semiotic model
220
Victor Lim Fei
Index
247
This book is dedicated to my mother, Janet O'Halloran
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Introduction Kay L. O'Halloran
Multi-modal Discourse Analysis is a collection of research papers in the field of multimodality. These papers are concerned with developing the theory and practice of the analysis of discourse and sites which make use of multiple semiotic resources; for example, language, visual images, space and architecture. New social semiotic frameworks are presented for the analysis of a range of discourse genres in print media, dynamic and static electronic media and three-dimensional objects in space. The theoretical approach informing these research efforts is Michael Halliday's (1994) systemicfunctional theory of language which is extended to other semiotic resources. These frameworks, many of which are inspired by Michael O'Toole's (1994) approach in The Language of Displayed Art, are also used to investigate meaning arising from the integrated use of semiotic resources. The research presented here represents the early stages in a shift of focus in linguistic enquiry where language use is no longer theorized as an isolated phenomenon (see, for example, Baldry, 2000; Kress, 2003; Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996, 2001; ledema, 2003; Ventola et al., forthcoming). The analysis and interpretation of language use is contextualized in conjunction with other semiotic resources which are simultaneously used for the construction of meaning. For example, in addition to linguistic choices and their typographical instantiation on the printed page,1 multimodal analysis takes into account the functions and meaning of the visual images, together with the meaning arising from the integrated use of the two semiotic resources. To date, the majority of research endeavours in linguistics have tended to concentrate solely on language while ignoring, or at least downplaying, the contributions of other meaning-making resources. This has resulted in rather an impoverished view of functions and meaning of discourse. Language studies are thus undergoing a major shift to account fully for meaning-making practices as evidenced by recent research in multimodality (for example, Baldry, 2000; Callaghan and McDonald, 2002; ledema, 2001; Jewitt, 2002; Martin, forthcoming; Kress, 2000, 2003; Kress et al., 2001: Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996, 2001; Lemke, 1998, 2002, 2003; O'Halloran, 1999a, 2000, 2003a, 2003b; Royce, 2002; Thibault, 2000; Unsworth, 2001; Ventola et al., forthcoming; Zammit and Callow, 1998). Multimodal Discourse Analysis contains an invited paper by Michael
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INTRODUCTION
O'Toole, a founding scholar in the extension of systemic-functional theory to semiotic resources other than language. The collection also features an invited contribution from Anthony Baldry, a forerunner in the use of information technology for the development of multimodal theory and practice. The remaining seven research papers have been completed by Kay O'Halloran and her postgraduate students in the Semiotics Research Group (SRG) in the Department of English Language and Literature at the National University of Singapore. The SRG has been actively involved in research in systemic-functional approaches to multimodality over the period 1999-2003. The papers are organized into sections according to the medium of the discourse: Part I which is concerned with three-dimensional material objects in space, Part II which deals with electronic media and film and Part III which contains investigations into print media. The theoretical advances presented in this volume are illustrated through the analysis of a range of multimodal discourses and sites, some of which are Singaporean. These contributions represent a critical yet sensitive interpretation of everyday discourses in Singapore. Thus, like all discourse, they are grounded in local knowledge, but due to the universality of the semiotic model being used, they are applicable to similar texts in any culture. A brief synopsis of each paper in this collection is given below. In Michael O'Toole's opening paper in Part I, 'Opera Ludentes: the Sydney Opera House at work and play', a systemic-functional analysis of architecture (O'Toole, 1990, 1994) is used to consider in turn the Experiential, Interpersonal and Textual functions ofJ0rn Utzon's (1957-73) Sydney Opera House and its parts, both internally and in relation to its physical and social context. In this paper, the usual definition of 'functionalism' in architecture is significantly extended. Like language, the building embodies an Experiential function: its practical purposes, the 'lexical content' of its components (theatre, stage, seats, lights, and so forth) and the relations of who does what to whom, and when and where. It also embodies a 'stance' vis-avis the viewer and user (its facade, height, transparency, resemblance to other buildings or objects) which also reflects the power relations between groups of users. That is, it embodies an Interpersonal function like language. The Sydney Opera House also embodies a Textual function: its parts connect with each other and combine to make a coherent 'text', and it relates meaningfully to its surrounding context of streets, quays, harbour, nearby buildings and cityscape, and by 'meaningful' here we include deliberate dramatic contrast as well as harmonious blending in. In the analysis, certain features are discovered to be multifunctional, marking 'hot spots' of meaning in the total building complex. In terms of all three functions, the Opera House emerges as a playful building: Opera Ludentes. Utzon's building started its life as a focus of architectural and political controversy and most discourses about the building are still preoccupied with the politics of its conception, competition, controversies and completion by different architects. A semiotic rereading of the building can relate its structure and design
INTRODUCTION
3
to the 'social semiotic' of both Sydney in the 1960s and to the international community of its users today. The museum is located as the next site for semiotic study in Alfred Pang's 'Making history in From Colony to Nation: a multimodal analysis of a museum exhibition in Singapore'. Pang discusses how systemic-functional theory is productive in fashioning an interpretative framework that facilitates a multimodal analysis of a museum exhibition. The usefulness of this framework is exemplified in the critical analyses of particular displays in From Colony to Nation, an exhibition at the Singapore History Museum (SHM) that displays Singapore's political constitutional history. From this analysis, Pang explains how the museum as a discursive site powerfully constitutes and maintains particular social structures through the primary composite medium of an exhibition. Of interest is the relationship between the museum, nation and history and how the multimodal representation of history in From Colony to Nation ideologically positions the visitor to a particular style of imagining a 'nation' (Anderson, 1991). Safeyaton Alias investigates the semiotic makeup of the city in 'A semiotic study of Singapore's Orchard Road and Marriott Hotel'. Like a written text, the city stores information and 'presents particular transformations and embeddings of a culture's knowledge of itself and of the world' (Preziosi, 1984: 50-51). In this paper, a rank-scale framework for the functions and systems in the three-dimensional multi-semiotic city is proposed. The focus in this paper, however, is the analysis of the built forms of Orchard Road and the Marriott Hotel. Safeyaton discusses how these built forms transmit messages which are articulated through choices in a range of metafunctionally based systems. This paper discusses the intertextuality and the discourses that construct Singapore as a city that survives on consumerism and capitalism. In Part II on electronic media and film, Anthony Baldry's opening paper, 'Phase and transition, type and instance: patterns in media texts as seen through a multimodal concordancer', explores the use of computer technology for capturing 'the slippery eel-like' (to quote Baldry) dynamics of semiosis. Baldry demonstrates that the online multimodal concordancer, the Multimodal Corpus Authoring (MCA) system, provides new possibilities for the analysis and comparison of film and videotexts. This type of concordancing transcends in vitro approaches by preserving the dynamic text, insofar as this is ever possible, in its original form. The relational properties of the multimodal concordancer also allow a researcher to embark on a quest for patterns and types. Taking the crucial semiotic units of phase and transition as its starting point, Baldry shows that, when examining the semiotic and structural units that make up a video, a multimodal concordancer far outstrips multimodal transcription in the quest for typical patterns. Kay O'Halloran further explores the use of computer technology for the semiotic analysis of dynamic images in 'Visual semiosis in film'. A systemic-functional model which incorporates the visual imagery and the soundtrack for the analysis of film is introduced. Inspired by O'Toole's (1999) representation of systemic choices in paintings in the interactive
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INTRODUCTION
CD-ROM Engaging with Art., O'Halloran uses video-editing software Adobe Premiere 6.0 to discuss the analysis of the temporal unfolding of semiotic choices in the visual images for two short extracts from Roman Polanski's (1974) film Chinatown. While film narrative involves staged and directed behaviour to achieve particular effects, the analysis of film is at least a first step to understanding semiosis in everyday life. The analysis demonstrates the difficulty of capturing and interpreting the complexity of dynamic semiotic activity. Attention turns to hypertext in Arthur Kok's 'Multisemiotic mediation in hypertext'. In this paper, Kok explores how hypertext (re)presents reality and engages the user, and how instantiations of different semiotic resources are arranged and co-deployed for this purpose. This paper formulates a working definition and a theoretical model of hypertext which contains different orders of abstraction. As with many papers in this collection, the semiotic analysis is employed through extending previously developed systemicfunctional frameworks (Halliday, 1994; Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996; O'Toole, 1994). Via an examination of the semiotic choices made in Singapore's Ministry of Education (MOE) homepage, this analysis seeks to understand how the objectives of an institution become translated, transmitted and received through the hypertext medium. In the process, an account of the highly elusive process of intersemiosis, the interaction of meanings across different semiotic instantiations, is given. In Part III on print media, in the first paper, 'The construal of ideational meaning in print advertisements', Cheong Yin Yuen proposes a generic structure potential for print advertisements which incorporates visual and verbal components. Cheong also investigates lexicogrammatical strategies for the expansion of ideational meaning which occur through the interaction of the linguistic text and visual images. Through the analysis of five advertisements, Cheong develops a new vocabulary to discuss the strategies which account for semantic expansions of ideational meaning in these texts; namely, the Bi-directional Investment of Meaning, Contextual Propensity, Interpretative Space, Semantic Effervescence and Visual Metaphor. Moving to the field of education, Guo Libo investigates the multi-semiotic nature of introductory biology textbooks in 'Multimodality in a biology textbook'. These books invariably contain words and visual images: for example, diagrams, photographs, and mathematical and statistical graphs. Drawing upon the work of sociological studies of biology texts and following O'Toole (1994), Lemke (1998) and O'Halloran (1999b), this paper proposes social semiotic frameworks for the analysis of schematic drawings and mathematical or statistical graphs in biology. The frameworks are used to analyse how the various semiotic resources interact with each other to make meaning in selected pages from the biology textbook Essential Cell Biology (Alberts et al., 1998). The article concludes by reiterating Johns's (1998: 194) claim that in teaching English for Academic Purposes to science and engineering students, due attention must be given to the visual as well as the linguistic meaning in what is termed Visual/Textual interactivity' (ibid.: 186).
INTRODUCTION
5
Lastly, in order to further theorize the meaning made in texts containing language and visual images, Victor Lim proposes a meta-model in 'Developing an integrative multi-semiotic model'. This model allows for an integrative approach to the interpretation of texts where the simultaneous co-deployment of choices from various systems contextualize each other at each instance of the meaning-making process. It takes into account the independent meanings made by each semiotic resource and, further to this, theorizes a space of interaction and integration where inter-semiotic processes for the expansion of meaning (for example, 'homospatiality' and 'semiotic metaphor') take place. The model also accounts for systems of Typography and Graphics that operate on the Expression plane. Building on the pioneering work done in this field (for example, Baldry, 2000; Baldry and Thibault, forthcoming; Lemke, 1998; O'Halloran, 1999a; Thibault, 2000), as with each paper in this collection, the model is conceived in the tradition of the systemic-functional theory. Michael Halliday has always been ready to extend and enrich his linguistic theory when particular types of text demanded it. The contributors to this volume may be seen to be attempting to extend productively these categories for multimodal analysis.
Note Regrettably it has not been possible to reproduce coloured plates in this publication. However, as will become evident in what follows, the contributors in this volume recognize that colour is a significant resource for meaning (see also Kress and van Leeuwen, 2002). While the papers have been somewhat comprised by the black and white reproductions, every possible effort has been made to ensure that the analysis refers to the original colour of the texts.
References Alberts, B., Bray, D., Johnson, A., Lewis, J., Raff, M., Roberts, K. and Walter, P. (1998) Essential Cell Biology: An Introduction to the Molecular Biology of the Cell. New York: Garland. Anderson, B. (1991) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (revised edn). London: Verso. Baldry, A. P. (ed.) (2000) Multimodality and Multimediality in the Distance Learning Age. Gampobasso, Italy: Palladino Editore. Baldry, A. P. and Thibault, P. (forthcoming) Multimodal Transcription and Text. London: Equinox. Gallaghan, J. and McDonald, E. (2002) Expression, content and meaning in language and music: an integrated semiotic analysis. In P. McKevitt, S. O'Nuallain and C. Mulvihill (eds), Language, Vision and Music. Selected papers from the 8th International Workshop on the Cognitive Science of Natural Language Processing, Galway, Ireland, 1999. Advances in Consciousness Research, Volume 35. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 205-220.
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Halliday, M. A. K. (1994) An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd edn). London: Edward Arnold. ledema, R. (2001) Analysing film and television: a social semiotic account of hospital: an unhealthy business. In T. van. Leeuwen and C. Jewitt (eds), Handbook of Visual Analysis. London: Sage, 183—204. ledema, R. (2003) Multimodality, resemioticization: extending the analysis of discourse as a multi-semiotic practice. Visual Communication 2(1): 29—57. Jewitt, C. (2002) The move from page to screen: the multimodal reshaping of school English. Visual Communication 1(2): 171—195. Johns, A. (1998) The visual and the verbal: a case study in macroeconomics. English for Specific Purposes 17(2): 183-197. Kress, G. (2000) Multimodality. In B. Cope and M. Kalantzis (eds), Multiliteracies: Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures. London: Routledge, 182—202. Kress, G. (2003) Literacy in the New Media Age. London: Routledge. Kress, G, Jewitt, G., Ogborn, J. and Tsatsarelis, C. (2001) Multimodal Teaching and Learning: The Rhetorics of the Science Classroom. London: Continuum. Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. (1996) Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge. Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. (2001) Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication. London: Arnold. Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. (2002) Colour as a semiotic mode: notes for a grammar of colour. Visual Communication 1(3): 343-368. Lemke, J. L. (1998) Multiplying meaning: visual and verbal semiotics in scientific text. InJ. R. Martin and R. Veel (eds), Reading Science: Critical and Functional Perspectives on Discourses of Science. London: Routledge, 87—113. Lemke, J. L. (2002) Travels in hypermodality. Visual Communication 1(3): 299—325. Lemke, J. L. (2003) Mathematics in the middle: measure, picture, gesture, sign and word. In M. Anderson, A. Saenz-Ludlow, S. Zellweger and V Cifarelli (eds), Educational Perspectives on Mathematics as Semiosis: From Thinking to Interpreting to Knowing. Ottawa: Legas Publishing, 215-234. Martin, J. R. (forthcoming) Sense and sensibility: texturing evaluation. InJ. Foley (ed.), Mew Perspectives on Education and Discourse. London: Continuum. O'Halloran, K. L. (1999a) Interdependence, interaction and metaphor in multisemiotic texts. Social Semiotics 9(3): 317—354. O'Halloran, K. L. (1999b) Towards a systemic-functional analysis of multi-semiotic mathematics texts. Semiotica (124-1/2): 1-29. O'Halloran, K. L. (2000) Classroom discourse in mathematics: a multi-semiotic analysis. Linguistics and Education 10(3): 359—388. O'Halloran, K. L. (2003a) Educational implications of mathematics as a multisemiotic discourse. In M. Anderson, A. Saenz-Ludlow, S. Zellweger, and V V Cifarelli (eds), Educational Perspectives on Mathematics as Semiosis: From Thinking to Interpreting to Knowing. Ottawa: Legas Publishing, 185-214 O'Halloran, K. L. (2003b) Intersemiosis in mathematics and science: grammatical metaphor and semiotic metaphor. In A.-M. Simon-Vandenbergen, M. Taverniers, and L. Ravelli (eds), Grammatical Metaphor: Views from Systemic Functional Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 337—365. O'Toole, M. (1990) A systemic-functional semiotics of art. Semiotica (82—3/4): 185-209. O'Toole, M. (1994) The Language of Displayed Art. London: Leicester University Press. O'Toole, M. (1999) Engaging with Art [CD-ROM]. Perth: Murdoch University.
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Preziosi, D. (1984) Relations between environmental and linguistic structure. In R. P. Fawcett, M. A. K. Halliday, S. M. Lamb and A. Makkai (eds), The Semiotics of Culture and Language Volume 2. Language and Other Semiotic Systems of Culture. Dover, NH: Frances Pinter, 47-67. Royce, T. (2002) Multimodality in the TESOL classroom: exploring visual—verbal synergy. TESOL Quarterly 36(2): 191-205. Thibault, P. J. (2000) The multimodal transcription of a television advertisement: theory and practice. In A. P. Baldry (ed.), Multimodality and Multimediality in the Distance Learning Age. Gampobasso, Italy: Palladino Editore, 311—385. Unsworth, L. (2001) Teaching Multiliteracies across the Curriculum: Changing Contexts of Text and Image in Classroom Practice. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. Ventola, E., Charles, C. and Kaltenbacher, M. (eds) (forthcoming) Perspectives on Multimodality. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Zammit, K. and Callow, J. (1998) Ideology and technology: visual and textual analysis of two popular CD-ROM programs. Linguistics and Education 10(1): 89-105.
Acknowledgements The research presented here is only made possible through the foundational work of Michael Halliday and Michael O'Toole. I am also indebted to Jay Lemke for originally pointing me in this direction many years ago, and for his continued support since that time. I also thank Joe Foley, Eija Ventola, Frances Christie and Anthony Baldry for their friendship, advice and active support over the years. My special thanks also to Michael O'Toole for his invaluable reading of the first draft of the manuscript. His comments, corrections and suggestions have contributed to the final form of this volume, although of course any errors of interpretation are mine. I am also most grateful to Guo Libo for his careful proof-reading and corrections to the manuscript. My sincere thanks to my talented group of postgraduate research students for their enthusiasm, dedication and commitment to push the boundaries of multimodal analysis. This volume would not be possible without their contributions. And special thanks to my past and present colleagues in the Department of English Language and Literature at the National University of Singapore (NUS), especially Linda Thompson, Chris Stroud, Ed McDonald and Desmond Allison for their continued friendship and support. I would also like to thank Anne Pakir and the Faculty Research Committee (FRC) in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at NUS for providing the research grant (R-103-000-014-107/112) in 2000 to establish the Laboratory for Research in Semiotics (LRS) in the Department of English Language and Literature. The research grant has directly supported the research presented in this publication.
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Parti Three-dimensional material objects in space
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1
Opera Ludentes: the Sydney Opera House at work and play
Michael O'Toole Murdoch University, Western Australia Here the trick was to get people up. When you go up the steps you see no buildings. You see the sky and you get separated from being between houses. I like procession very much: sky — foyer — windows — sea. It takes you to another world. That's what you want for an audience: to separate themselves from their daily life. (J0rnUtzon, 1998)1
Clearly, for the architect of Sydney Opera House (Plate 1.1) 'Interpersonal' meanings are very important: the building's height and orientation to its visitors; the play of vistas as one approaches the entrance; the stress on architecture as theatre; constructing an audience; a working building at play. In a systemic-functional semiotic model of architecture2 (O'Toole, 1994; Table 1.1) these kinds of meaning are analogous to the Interpersonal semantic functions in language: Mood constructing the roles to be played in a verbal interaction; Modality constructing a hinge between the real and the hypothetical; Attitudinal Modifiers and Intensifiers expressing the speaker's position and influencing the response of the hearer. If you look out here [at Utzon's home in Helebek, Denmark], you see a field with flowers and a small bush and small trees and big trees. They all consist of small elements. And if you take them up and put them on the table it's a number of elements. Together they make this. In architecture you have a floor, your walls, you have windows, doors, and you have a lot of materials. And you select them. You must have in mind that they make a whole or an expression of some kind. (J0rnUtzon, 1998)3
Here Utzon's focus is on 'Textual' meanings: the way distinct architectural components are combined to make a coherent whole, that is to say, an important dimension of the meaning ('an expression of some kind') is in the composition.4 As in language, the Collocational potential of architectural elements - their Conjunction in rooms and floors and buildings, their Reference to each other and to their environment - is what makes them into coherent and usable 'texts'.
Table 1.1 Functions and systems in architecture (reproduced from O'Toole 1994: 86) Units/ Experiential Functions Building
Practical function: Public/Private; Industrial/Commercial/Agricultural/ Governmental/Educational/Medical/ Cultural/Religious/Residential; Domestic/ Utility Orientation to light Orientation to wind Orientation to earth Orientation to service (water/sewage/ power)
Floor
Sub-functions:
Access: Working Selling Administration Storing Waking Sleeping Parking
Interpersonal
Texture
Size Orientation to neighbours Verticality Orientation to road Chthonicity Orientation to entrant Fagade Intertextuality Gladding reference Colour mimicry contrast Modernity Exoticism
Relation to city Relation to road Relation to adjacent buildings Proportions Rhythms: contrasting shapes, angles Textures: rough/smooth Roof/ wall relation Reflectivity Opacity
Height Sites of power Spaciousness Separation of groups Accessibility Openness of vista View Hard/ soft texture Colour
Relation to other floors Relation to outer world Relation to connectors; stairs/lift escalator (external cohesion) Relation of landing/corridor/ foyer/room (internal cohesion) Degree of partition Permanence of partition
Units/ Functions
Experiential
Room
Specific functions: Access Study Entry Toilet Living room Laundry Family room Gamesroom Kitchen Retreat Bathroom Bedroom
Element
Foyer Restaurant Kitchen Bar
Bedroom Ensuite Servery
Light: window, lamp, curtains, blinds Air: window, fan, conditioner Heating: central, fire, stove "dining Sound: carpet, rugs, coffee partitions acoustic, occasional treatment desk function Seating Unity in Diversity
the Communists. Any act of violence which might have been committed by the police then is from the start tolerated and legitimized as control. Moving into space The spatialization of information is a central feature in the threedimensional text of an exhibition. As Bennett (1995: 6) remarks, 'an exhibitionary space . . . is a place for "organized walking" in which an intended message is communicated in the form of a (more or less) directed itinerary'. The framework here conceives this 'organized' walking as the system of Circulation Path under the Interpersonal function. There are two aspects to Circulation Path: Traffic Flow which concerns the routing through a series of spaces within an exhibition, and Flow Rate which relates to how a visitor is paced along the circulation route throughout a gallery and within an area of an exhibition. The system of Circulation Path is visually represented in Figure 2.1. Apart from the application of Circulation Path, I also examine in this section the operation of semiotic metaphor in the spatial rerepresentation of the meanings constructed in the linguistic text panel.
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Figure 2.1 System of Circulation Path (adapted from Royal Ontario Museum 1999)
FoUowing O'Halloran (1996, 1999, 2003a, 2003b), semiotic metaphor relates to the semantic shift that takes place inter-semiotically, during which the function of an element may be receded and new functional elements may be introduced in the movement from one semiotic resource to another. In her investigation on secondary school history, Coffin (1997: 202) notes the linguistic construal of external and internal time in organizing the past. The linguistic text panel sets up a chronological template in which external time unfolds categorically through marked Circumstances (in bold): (03) In 1948, it failed in an armed uprising during the emergency (19) On 13 May 1954, students and police clashed (20) In May 1955, the pro-communists incited students to join the Hock Lee Bus workers in a strike. Internal time is deployed to build up an explanation about the past and this is linguistically construed in the text panel via logical links of Cause. Now, the spatial semiotic also affords the capacity to realize external and internal time, but perhaps in ways less differentiated than language. The three-dimensional spatialization of external time can be seen to involve parallel semiotic metaphor. The events dynamically recounted along a chronological timeline of marked Circumstances in the linguistic text are physically bounded in a more or less rectangular enclosure with exhibits displayed along the two longer walls (see Plate 2.2). The left wall consists of
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Table 2.3
Main text panel: schematic organization and attitude
Thesis
Elaboration
Summary
Exemplify I Recount of May 13th Incident
Communist United Front The Malayan Communist Party's (MCP) fundamental [Appreciation: -valuation] aim was the establishment of a communist state in Malaya (including Singapore) by revolutionary violence [token, Affect: insecurity: disquiet —> token, Judgement on MCP: -propriety] In 1948, it failed Judgement on MCP: -capacity] in an (03) armed uprising during the Emergency [token, Judgement on MCP: -propriety] (04) and went underground [token, Judgement on MCP: -propriety]. (05) It then changed its tactics (06) to form a communist-controlled united front [token, Judgement on MCP: -veracity / propriety] (07) by infiltrating Judgement on MCP: -propriety] into legal organizations such as trade unions, students' unions, farmer's associations, Women's Federation, cultural groups and political parties (08) to exploit Judgement on MCP: -propriety] grievances [Affect: unhappiness: antipathy], (09) expand their influence [token, Judgement on MCP: -propriety] (10) and eventually gain control of these organizations, [token, Judgement on MCP: -propriety] (11) The MCP through the communist united front exploited Judgement on MCP: -propriety] anti-colonial feelings [Affect: unhappiness: antipathy], concern about Chinese education [Affect: insecurity: disquiet], feelings of social frustration and economic injustice [Affect: dissatisfaction: displeasure]. (12) When the British announced (13) that 2,500 youths would be drafted under the National Service Ordinance, (14) the pro-communists fanned discontent [token, Judgement: -propriety] (15) by claiming Judgement: -veracity] (16) that locals were used (17) to further colonial rule [token, Judgement on the British: -propriety]. (18) Mass student protest demonstrations were staged [token, Judgement on student demonstrators: -propriety —> token, Judgement on pro-Communists (agent ellipsed): -propriety] (19) On 13 May 1954, students and police clashed (20) and 48 students were arrested [token, Judgement on students: -propriety —> token, Judgement on proCommunists: -capacity; token, Judgement on police: +capacity].
(01) (02)
THREE-DIMENSIONAL MATERIAL OBJECTS IN SPACE Exemplify II Recount of Hock Bus Riots
(21)
(22) (23)
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In May 1955, the pro-communists incited [Judgement: veracity] students to join the Hock Lee Bus workers in a strike [token, Judgement on pro-Communists: -propriety]. Violence broke out [token, Affect: insecurity: disquiet —» token, Judgement on pro-Communists: -propriety], resulting in 4 people dead and 31 injured [token, Affect: insecurity: disquiet —» token, Judgement on procommunists: -capacity].
items that relate to the May 13th Incident in 1954, while the right wall exhibits items associated with the Hock Lee Bus Riots in 1955. There appears to be a shift from the linguistic construal of time as Circumstance to its spatial experience in the exhibition as a physical material Thing. It is this semantic shift that enables the further compression of these events into a period, negatively appraised in its sub-thematic classification as 'Colony in Chaos'. The semantic shift is parallel in the sense that no new functional entities are introduced in this reconstrual although there is an overlay of meaning enabled by the system of Circulation Path in the spatial semiotic. The sight of space simultaneously invites its traversal. The continuous material process of'organized walking' (Bennett, 1995: 6) now topologically enacts the dynamic unfolding of time (external and internal) in space. The system thus activated is that of the Circulation Path. From the perspective of Traffic Flow, this display on the Communists is situated relatively early in an Arterial pattern (see Plate 2.1) from left to right. This left-right directional flow is explicitly insisted upon by the instruction on the Exit Door: 'Please enter exhibition via door on the left'. Interpersonally, the Arterial pattern promotes a didactic stance in that the visitor is given little choice in choosing her/his pathway through an exhibition. This textures the importance of this display since a visitor is made to walk through it anyhow. Now, I focus on the Flow Rate, which is affected by the arrangement of walls. In this Area, the two longer walls run parallel to each other and are conjoined by a straight path through. Movement through this pathway enacts a conjunctive relation in the Interplay of Walls. This conjunction is not merely an additive of two external timeframes (referenced as 1954 and 1955 from the linguistic text panel), but also expresses their internal relation as examples of Communist-instigated violence. More significantiy, this spatial design, by its relatively low Degree of Partition, affects a Flow Rate that tends not to be crowd stopping. Furthermore, following Arnheim (1982: 61), the two longer walls of the rectangular enclosure tend to emphasize an axial symmetry, which propels the Ideal Visitor to move forward and ahead of the Area, towards the portrait painting of Lee Kuan Yew being sworn in as Prime Minister in 1959. This coloured oil painting, enshrined in a gold frame, stands out in contrast to the black walls and the black-and-white photographs used. According to Bal (1999: 176), the portrait is
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MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS [a] genre that bestows authority upon its subject. Its history is bound up with that of capitalism, individualism, bourgeois culture . . . portraits are made to honor power.
Thus, apart from visual contrast in the display design, the intertextual allusion to such generic conventions about the portrait marks the painting as a focal point, which indexes the starting-point within the Narrative Design of how the elected PAP Government (represented metonymically and authoritatively by the figure of Lee) would overcome all odds to build Singapore into what it is today. From the perspective of Flow Rate, then, the relative prominence of the Topic 'Communist United Front' is downplayed. It is not that the Topic has become less important or significant. Rather, what seems to be enacted by the continuous Flow Rate is perhaps a channelling of that significance to an appropriateness of distancing oneself from Communism towards the promise of social prosperity that the PAP Government has come to stand for. This gesture of distancing is furthermore directed to reinforce the negative desirability of Communist activism in general. Photographic images I examine the collection of thirteen photographs placed immediately after the text panel along the left Wall (see Plate 2.3). What probably arrests a visitor's attention to this collection of photographs is the wired fence. The significance of this wired fence, other than its role as a focal point that draws a visitor's Gaze to the photographs, is discussed later in this section. For now, I concentrate my analysis on some of the photographic images displayed. For the specific analysis of the meanings constructed in each photograph, I apply eclectically the SF interpretative frameworks formulated in O'Toole (1994) and Kress and van Leeuwen (1996). The analyst's situation is, however, further complicated in the medium of a museum exhibition, where how any single photographic image can mean is as much mediated by its dissemination alongside other photographs through display practices, two of which are discussed here: museum labelling and setting. In relation to the exposition set out by the linguistic text panel, these photographs serve as artefactual evidence that testify to the 'truth' of the May 13th Incident recounted in clauses 12-20. Following O'Toole (1994), the Representational content expressed (at the rank of Work) in the thirteen photographs consists of Scenes of police control and arrest, crowd dispersion and injury, all of which illustrate the non-productive consequences of the May 13th Incident. In addition, photographs in black-and-white and particularly sepia not only evoke a sense of the past, but also hark back to the traditional genre of documentary. As Price (2000: 75) writes of documentary photography, one implicit claim that underlies its historical development is that 'it offers us a disinterested and true picture of the world'. It is precisely this naturalistic coding orientation (Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996; Thibault, 2000) that underpins the evidential value of each photographic image.
image a
Plate 2.3
Display of photographs on the May 13th Incident (left Wall)
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There is, in other words, the social assumption that photography realistically captures 'an immediate and transparent identity between image and referent' (Phillips, 1998: 155). However, as Ryan (1993, cited in Price, 2000: 69) argues: Despite claims for its accuracy and trustworthiness, however, photography did not so much record the real as signify and construct it. Tagg (1988: 187, emphasis mine) similarly reminds us that [t]he photographer turns his or her camera on a world of objects already constructed as a world of uses, values and meanings, though in the perceptual process these may not appear as such but only as qualities discerned in a 'natural' recognition of'what is there'. Thus, rather than imputing an ontological status to realism, what is underscored so far is its discursive constitution that invests the photographic image with an authority to authenticate. The photographs exhibited on this wall are themselves social semiotic constructions whose perceived naturalistic coding orientation is worked through the genre of documentary to reify the facticity of the linguistic recount of the May 13th Incident. The photographs displayed are reproductions rather than 'originals'. It follows from this reproducibility that photographic images are 'transmutable objects . . . involved in endless, complex acts of circulation and exchange' (Price, 2000: 111). That is to say, '[t]he photograph is not a magical "emanation" but a material product of a material apparatus set to work in specific contexts, by specific forces, for more or less defined purposes' (Tagg, 1988: 3). The key principle here is the recontextualization (Thibault, 2000: 364—365) of photography in relation to other social practices configured within particular institutional spaces. In this display, the practice of museum labelling recontextualizes photographs as archival knowledge. The photographs are minimally labelled as '1954 Student Riots; National Archives Singapore'. Such a form of labelling generalizes two reference points: first, it reductively identifies what the photographs are about under a general classification '1954 Student Riots'; second, it specifies the source ('National Archives Singapore') from which these images are retrieved and reproduced. Now, Smith (1989: 12) has argued that museum labelling 'conceals a complex history' of artefacts on display. In this instance, however, labels do not simply hide but recreate the historical significance of the photographs as an archive. As Sekula observes of photographic archives, 'they heap together images of very different kinds and impose upon them a homogeneity that is a product of their very existence within an archive' (Price and Wells, 2000: 59). This thrust towards homogeneity is also directed strategically to achieve particular social purposes. That is, archival knowledge is never created for its own sake but for its appropriation to serve some (dominant) social impulse to recollect and review past times. The larger point
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imprinted is that the significance of photographs as material artefacts is as much shaped within institutionalized relations of their select use. I move on to probe deeper into the inter-semiotic mechanisms between language and visual imagery in this display practice of labelling. It is interesting to observe how labelling photographs in terms of their source may be analogous to the rhetorical technique of Attribution, where the content 'cited' is now construed by the visual semiotic. Attribution here is also significant in enacting the 'network of intertextual connections' (Lemke, 1995: 11) between SHM and the National Archives of Singapore (NAS). Further complicating the discourse on heritage and history, then, is the collaboration of social practices between different memory institutions. In this instance, the institutional authority of NAS as a 'resource centre for the research and dissemination of information on the history of Singapore' (NHB 2000: 4) is evoked to authenticate the documentary value of the photographs exhibited. The institutional status of these photographs as official evidence in turn determines the credibility of the propositions in the text panel. It is in this respect that the heteroglossic space of the discourse on Communism tends towards constriction. The Arrangement of photographs on this wall further positions the visitor to sympathize with the police as riot victim. Of the thirteen photographs, the only visual representation of injury is that of a policeman with a bandaged head (see Image A). Image A, in its portrait formatting, seems visually salient as a pivotal centre balancing the flanked Arrangement of photographs. Interpersonally, Image A is also prominent as the only photograph that directly addresses the visitor through the direct outward Gaze of the wounded policeman. The frontal angle of the shot, coupled with the near central positioning of the injured policeman with his head slightly tilted, encourages viewer involvement and amplifies sympathy. Noteworthy in Image A is the observation that the injured policeman is non-Chinese (most probably Malay). In fact, most of the policemen captured in the photographs are non-Chinese. The student demonstrators are, on the other hand, predominantly Chinese. To recall, historical research (for example, Lee, 1996; Wee, 1999) has reported how the Communist movement in Singapore during the 1950s and 1960s developed in relation to its capacity to garner and mobilize support from the world of Chinesespeaking Chinese. As sociologist PuruShotam (1998: 55) also notes, 'The equation according to which language equals culture equals race mirrored the perceptions of students, supporters and sympathizers of the cause of Chinese education'. In this light, the Communists' alignment with the Chinese-educated may be seen as provoking Chinese Communalism against colonialism. However, aside from the brief mention in the text panel of the MCP exploiting 'concern about Chinese education' (clause 11), the racial dimension of the Communist conflict in Singapore remains relatively unelaborated in the exhibition. Racialization is also only covertly implied through skin colour in the photographs. In sum, within the institutional context of the museum, the photographs acquire a documentary value that
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not only objectifies the negative appraisal of the Communists and their activities, but also layers it with the delicate complexity of race. What probably arrests a visitor's attention to this collection of photographs is the hapticity7 of the wired fence. The wired fence is used here as an object prop to 'fabricate' the Setting of a prison. It is within this Setting of imprisonment that the photographs come to be interpreted as ideational tokens of negative Judgement on riotous behaviour. The visitor walking through the floor of this area is simultaneously locked in and out from the Scenes captured in the photographs. This physical barrier serves as a 'safety net' that 'protects' the visitor from acts of violence. In preventing the visitor from having any direct tactile contact with the photographs, the wired fence enacts a form of metaphorical distancing from a riotous past. Even one's visual interactivity with these images is 'intervened' by the criss-cross of wire, as if dictating that these riots in the past should not be allowed to repeat themselves in present time. What may be implied in this construction is the importance in preserving the 'safety net' that the PAP Government has thus far spun for the peaceful progress of Singapore as a nation-state. The wired fence thus amplifies the scale of the undesirability of the Communist movement. In addition, the perceived risk of physical pain evoked by the barbed wiring at the top disciplines the visitor into accepting police control as a necessary and legitimate deterrent against Communism lest Singapore becomes a totalitarian state. For some, there may seem to be a dash of irony here since police surveillance is as instrumental in enforcing a sense of totalitarianism. Yet, any force wielded by police power remains hidden and naturalized behind a legalistic frame of social order presently articulated to criminalize the Communist movement during the 1950s. Ideological motivation The exhibition, which displays a dominant 'progressivist national narrative' that stages 'a transition from a colonial society to a modern capitalist one' (Wee, 1999: 169, 172, emphasis original), suppresses any formative role the Communists played in the 'nation-ising' of Singapore. The collective multimodal definition of the Communists as a dangerous riotous Other is filtered through the dominant lens of communitarian ideology (Chua, 1995) presently held by the PAP Government. Communitarian ideology is most recently articulated and instituted in the Government's 1991 White Paper on Shared Values.8 Two of these Shared Values are transmitted through this display. First, the non-legitimate place of revolutionary violence emphasizes PAP's order of politics, which is one founded on constitutional consensus rather than conflict; this echoes the Shared Value Consensus instead of contention. Second, downplaying the racial script in this display also aligns the exhibition with the Shared Value of Racial harmony. As Wee (1999: 170) writes of the delicate racial communal tension that underlay the mobilization of Communism in Singapore's 'stage of nationalist polities':
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The problem was that if the Chinese-speaking of various linguistic stripes (Mandarin, Hokkien etc.) were the politicized masses who could be mobilized, they also represented a problem for the imagining of a multiethnic or multicultural 'national' community. In Singapore, a clear-cut national entity could not be created, as there was not one single 'nation' on which to build the nation-state — a common enough problem for a former colonial state.
The representation of the 'Communist United Front', in precluding the historical view that the PAP initially rode on the force of Chinese communalism as a source of anti-colonial resistance in nationalist politics, preserves the party's dominant ideal of multiracialism. This emphasis on multiracialism is in line with the museum's mission of 'preserving and interpreting the nation's history and material culture in the context of its multicultural origins' (NHB 2000: 5, emphasis mine). 'Closing' the tour In this paper I have tried to exemplify how the SF theory may be extended to articulate systematically the complex dimensions of meanings construed in From Colony to Nation. A major emphasis is the collaboration between these dimensions in co-evaluating the spectacle of history in particular ways. Through the analysis I hope to have extended evaluation (or Appraisal theory in SF context) as a discursive end realized by the interaction of various semiotic systems. This extension of Appraisal theory into the multimodal terrain of the museum exhibition has also led us to appreciate evaluative dynamics as essentially multi-levelled. Cortazzi and Jin (2000: 119) have actually conceived of this multi-level complexity from three perspectives: evaluation in, through and of narrative. These three perspectives may be extended to social semiotic practices in general. At the close of this paper, it might be worthwhile to tease out more clearly for the reader the operation of these three evaluative levels, which have remained implicit in my preceding analysis of the exhibition. On the first level, there is evaluation in the exhibition's Narrative Design where the co-evaluative relations between multiple semiotic resources assess the historical representations of Communist and communal unrest in specific ways. It is worth emphasizing that, even at this level, evaluation is shown to be simultaneously implicated and complicated in the Interplay of Genres configured within particular institutional formations. As reflected in the analysis, the period of Communist insurgency ('Communist United Front') is evaluated within the Narrative Design as traumatic. Perhaps, as Antze and Lambek (1996: xii) have observed, 'memory worth talking about — worth remembering — is memory of trauma'. More importantly, foregrounding the traumatic nature of any incident here is also pointing to its control. As Neal (1998: 5) conceives: A national trauma involves sufficient damage to the social system that discourse throughout the nation is directed toward the repair work that needs to be done.
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This 'repair work' to recover from the trauma of Communist and communal violence allows the reinstatement of the communitarian ideology espoused by the ruling PAP Government. Herein lies the second evaluative level, where through the Narrative Design, the national 'self of Singapore is positioned as vulnerable; this vulnerability includes especially the delicate problem of difference posed by race. In this light, communitarianism is posed as a form of social discipline cultivated to prevent a relapse into a traumatic past. This social discipline is hardly resisted primarily because of its pragmatic effectiveness in sustaining Singapore's material progress. The body politic of Singapore thus risks trauma if there should be a lapse from this progress. Underscored in all these is also the discursive positioning of the museum (SHM) as a State apparatus that plays a political role in reproducing PAP's ideals of a Singapore citizenry. Such politicization resides precisely in their capacity to structure knowledge. Finally, on the third level, evaluation of the Narrative Design engages the researcher's subjectivity in her/his analysis. That is, the interpretative analysis I present in this paper is as evaluative, positioning you to view the exhibition in a particular light. The interpretative stance I adopt towards the analysis undertaken here aims to trace how From Colony to Nation naturalizes dominant conceptions of social 'reality'. It is necessary, though, to add the qualification that the point here is not to denounce the credibility of the past represented in the exhibition. Indeed, the emphasis on history as an ideological (re)construction throughout this paper does not mean that those past events recounted did not happen. Nor should it be easily conflated with a claim of historical falsity. In fact, if one takes the social constructivist view of history seriously, notions of 'truth' and 'falsity' appear to be in flux since the crux of the matter now is how any single interpretation of the past becomes (de)legitimized, by whom and for what purposes. Further, it is the act of evaluating that is directive of one's sensibilities to the past. Herein lies the disciplining act of history, whose representation in the museum is a form of directed remembering. The flipside of this selective remembering is, of course, a disciplined forgetting motivated by the ideologies of the dominant in society. Museums are then strategically placed in history making. The SF framework formulated here endeavours to be useful as some form of 'meta-language' that enables visitors to 'talk' systematically about how the exhibition as a primary composite medium construes ideology. Yet, not just 'talking' about, but also potentially 'talking' back to particular unequal representations displayed in exhibitions. In the final analysis, the museum represents a heterogeneous zone that differentially engages multiple social players in negotiating (or mutually disciplining) the discursive forces of social change. It is perhaps for this reason that the museum continues to stand as a site worth (re)visiting.
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Notes 1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8
Foucault (1977, 1980) conceptualizes the mutual constitution of power and knowledge in social practices. As Foucault (1977: 194) has argued in Discipline and Punish: 'In fact, power . . . produces domains of objects and rituals of truth'. For a more detailed consideration of the theoretical basis for extending SF theory into the domain of multimodality, see Pang (2001: 38-54). Harris (2000) first conceived the term integrational semiology to understand the multimodal character of writing. Under integrational semiology, Harris (2000: 69, emphasis original) explains that 'signs . . . are not invariants: their semiological value depends on the circumstances and activities in which, in any particular instance, they fulfil an integrational function'. Though insightful, Harris remains vague on the what and how of this integrational function. This paper suggests that: (1) the metafunctional hypothesis and (2) the realizational dialectic between text and social context in SF theory help elucidate more concretely the shape of this integrational semiology. Results of the survey are also reported in The Straits Times, 16 September 1996. For a sample of some of the questions asked in this survey, see The Straits Times, 15 September 1996. I refer to the guide here, not for an exhaustive multimodal analysis of it, but to distil the exhibition's classificatory scheme (see Table 2.2). According to Fairclough (2001): 'An (interaction may involve a "chain" of different, interconnected texts which manifest a chain of different genres'. Following O'Toole (1994: 35), hapticity refers to that three-dimensional quality in sculpture which 'engages our whole body in an identification with [its] mass and rhythms'. For a detailed discussion on the promulgation of Shared Values as a National Ideology, see Hill and Lian (1995: 210—219). There are principally five components in this National Ideology: (1) nation before community and society above self; (2) family as the basic unit of society; (3) regard and community support for the individual; (4) consensus instead of contention; and (5) racial and religious harmony.
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Objects in Contemporary Perspectives. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 155-179. Price, D. (2000) Surveyors and surveyed: photography out and about. In L. Wells (ed.), Photography: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge, 65-115. Price, D. and Wells, L. (2000) Thinking about photography: debates, historically and now. In L. Wells (ed.), Photography: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge, 9—63. PuruShotam, N. S. (1998) Negotiating Language, Constructing Race: Disciplining Difference in Singapore. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Ravelli, L. J. (1997) Making meaning: how, what and why? Paper presented at the conference Museum Making Meanings — Communication by Design?, Australian National Maritime Museum. Ravelli, L. J. (2000) Beyond shopping: constructing the Sydney Olympics in threedimensional text. Text 20(4): 489-515. Royal Ontario Museum (1999) Spatial considerations. In E. Hooper-Greenhill (ed.), The Educational Role of the Museum (2nd edition). London: Routledge, 178-190. (First appeared in Communicating with the Museum Visitor (1976).) Smith, C. S. (1989) Museums, artefacts and meanings. In P. Vergo (ed.), The New Museology. London: Routledge, 6-21. Tagg, J. (1988) The Burden of Representation: Essays on Photographies and Histories. London: Macmillan. The Straits Times (15 September 1996) Many students ignorant of Singapore history. The Straits Times (16 September 1996) Students know little of Singapore history: survey. Thibault, P. J. (1997) Re-reading Saussure: The Dynamics of Signs in Social Life. London: Routledge. Thibault, P. J. (2000) The multimodal transcription of a television advertisement: theory and practice. In A. P. Baldry (ed.), Multimodality and Multimediality in the Distance Learning Age. Campobasso, Italy: Palladino Editore, 311—385. Vergo, P. (1989) The reticent object. In P. Vergo (ed.), The New Museology. London: Reaktion Books, 41-59. Wee, C. J. W-L. (1998) The need for National Education in Singapore. In Business Times, 30-31 May 1998. Wee, C. J. W-L. (1999) The vanquished: Lim Chin Siong and a progressivist national narrative. In Lam Peng Er and Kelvin YL Tan (eds), Lee's Lieutenants: Singapore's Old Guard. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 169-244.
3 A semiotic study of Singapore's Orchard Road and Marriott Hotel Safeyaton Alias National University of Singapore
Introduction Cities are more than a place to live, to work or to play in. As people observe the city while they move through it (Lynch, 1996), the city serves as a political and social statement, and in some cases, symbolizes and encompasses the achievement and political prowess of the country's ruling elite. This is especially true in the case of Singapore where the city becomes a showcase of what has been politically and economically achieved by the People's Action Party (PAP) over the years since independence in 1965. Within a span of thirty-five years, for instance, the country has achieved one of the highest living standards in Asia, which has led some economists to proclaim it a modern miracle. Lacking in natural resources and having to rely on its human resources, it was suggested that for Singapore 'the capitalist road was [perhaps] the only one open' (Chua, 1995: 59). The number of buildings and shops in Orchard Road stands as testimony to the realization of Raffles's vision of a 'bustling emporium' (Jayapal, 1992: 67). A city is therefore 'man's single most impressive and visible achievement' (Pike, 1996: 243) while remaining nonetheless a 'social institution' (Mumford, 1996: 184). A city or a 'built world, like a written text, stores information' and 'presents particular transformations and embeddings of a culture's knowledge of itself and of the world' (Preziosi, 1984: 50-51). The built world is an exhibit of the culture of a given society, which in some ways reflects the ideologies that operate within that society. Buildings, for example, 'are not just functional machines; they have signs of their practical functions written all over them: they signify their function as use' (O'Toole, 1994: 85); that is, 'buildings are designed to mean something' (Stern, 1994: 47). Architecture is part of a society's culture which affirms and re-establishes its values and ideals; it is the representation of power (Betsky, 1994; Stern, 1994) and, whether positive or negative, the city or the built world is the image of the community (Pike, 1996). This paper therefore sets out to investigate the nature and manifestation of the prevailing ideologies within the society of Singapore. To achieve this purpose Singapore is treated as a text and indeed, it is a discourse worth
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investigating, analyzing and interpreting. Like a text, Singapore has been structurally organized but with a difference: the country is threedimensional and multimodal. Like a text, it too leaves itself open to interpretation but how it is interpreted depends on one's theoretical perspective. The interpretation of a text requires the application of theory and, in the case of a city, involves the interpretation of the integration of the various meaning-making resources. Although part of a larger research project (Safeyaton, 2001), due to space constraints the focus of the analysis and discussion in this paper is restricted to Orchard Road, that significant part of Singapore popularly known as the 'town'. It is here, and more specifically the Marriott Hotel, where it is commonly believed that East meets West. The theoretical approach underlying these analyses is Michael Halliday's (1994) social semiotic theory of language, which has been extended to visual images and architecture (O'Toole, 1994). From this perspective, language, visual images and architecture are viewed as social semiotic resources which are metafunctional; that is, they simultaneously realize Textual, Interpersonal and Experiential meaning. The systemic-functional frameworks used in the analyses are discussed in more detail below. The semiotics of Singapore As a city, Singapore is not static; it grows and reinvents itself according to the changing needs and demands of its society (Tan, 1999). The physical features of a city such as Singapore, where there is constant development and redevelopment, are therefore not permanent. Changes to Singapore are deemed necessary as it continues to aspire to be a 'model city', that is, a city that is livable, attractive, business-friendly and accessible (URA Annual Report 1998/1999). While national objectives must be met, the planning of a city needs also to consider the needs of the people who must be assured that housing is 'affordable and comfortable', that there are 'enough public spaces to provide [them with] urban relief, that there are the 'necessary telecommunications and fiscal infrastructure' and that there is an efficient and affordable public transport (ibid.: 31). People should be able to move easily from one designated area to another, for purposes of work or recreation. This freedom to move about permits the city dwellers to be in touch with the environment. As a result, a person develops a relationship with his or her surroundings and that relationship is physical, emotional, mental, cultural and even religious. The making and planning of modern-day Singapore, however, has been an intensive and prolonged enterprise. Its urbanization planning began with the formulation of the Island Concept Plan, also known as the Singapore Concept Plan and later as the Master Plan, on 1 January 1952. The Master Plan was aimed at regulating the development of land through plot zoning and plot/ density controls. Since its implementation, and as required by legislation, the Master Plan has undergone several reviews involving various additions and alterations. After Singapore's separation from Malaysia in 1965, the
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plan was reviewed and renamed the Concept Plan in 1971 by an appointed local authority. The Central Area Plans came to fruition between 1974—1989 only to be renamed the Revised Concept Plan in 1991. In 1998 the latest revision of the Concept Plan was presented (Dale, 1993; Fong, 1973; Master Plan Written Statement, 1993; Tan, J. H., 1972; Tan, S., 1999; URA Annual Report, 1997/98). Part of the Concept Plan's objectives is to meet what the authorities perceive as 'the new wants and needs of [the] people' (Dale, 1993: 42). This is accomplished by improving the living environment and by offering, or rather prescribing, a better quality of life. This includes a policy of decentralizing commercial activities to avoid overcrowding in any one area, specifically the Central Area of which Orchard Road is a part (Dale, 1993). But the ideas and the benefits outlined in the Concept Plan can only be successfully implemented with a healthy economic growth. This becomes a platform through which the authorities can justify their actions and decisions both politically and in terms of the development practices. On the business front, for example, one aim of the Concept Plan is to provide 12,000 hectares of land for industrial needs (Keung, 1991). In addition, 'judicious' investments in the leisure industry will be welcomed because such investments mean 'good business' and will 'enhance [the Singaporeans'] quality of life' (Liu, 1991: 4). In an effort to add 'life and character' to the streets as well as making them 'more exciting and lively' (URA Annual Report, 1997/98: 28), the regulations for the setting up of outdoor refreshment areas and outdoor kiosks along the pedestrian malls in the city were relaxed in July 1996. Previously, these outlets could occupy only 10 per cent of the total building length but this is now 25 per cent, resulting in more outlets being set up along pedestrian malls, especially along Orchard Road. These outlets bring in additional income for the authority in the form of 'payment of development charges or different premiums' (ibid.}. Hence, every metre of unoccupied space in, around, below and above Singapore has potential for extra revenue. This provides a boost to the economy with the Singaporeans themselves helping to sustain that economy; the system and the people depend on each other. A visitor to Singapore, however, is likely to have little knowledge of how the country has been transformed historically although he or she may have seen where the locals live, how they travel, where they eat, work, play, shop or seek medical attention. The visitor sees how the country 'operates' but he or she may not be able to explain how this is possible because, more likely than not, the visitor is not equipped with the knowledge or the tools to explain what he or she sees or feels. For the uninitiated, Singapore 'explains' its operations very well because every part of the country, be it a designated area, its roads, the open spaces or the buildings, transmits explicit messages. Each of these 'speaks' to or 'addresses' the visitor directly. While part of the Singapore city has its specific functions or purposes, linguistically there is also a physical and Textual representation which transmits messages.
Table 3.1
Functions and systems in Singapore
Units/ Functions
Area (Rank 1)
Roads/MRT (Rank 2.1)
Experiential
Zone: north, north-east, central, west, south District: CBD, non-CBD Location: mainland, offshore islands Theme: business, cultural, educational, entertainment, medical, recreational, religious, residential Portrayals: cultural, social, religious Interplay between each theme Focal: business, cultural, social, religious Self-containment Specific functions:
Expressways (ERP/non-ERP) Roads Flyovers Tunnels MRT tracks (aboveground/ underground)
Interpersonal
Textual
Size Orientation to general amenities Orientation to members of the public: accessibility, affordability Characterization: Oriental, occidental Sites of power Message
Relation to outer areas Relation to MRT stations, bus terminals Rhythms: contrasting themes, building shapes Relation to prestige Coherence and cohesion: repetition of themes, new and old buildings (preserved and conserved)
Travelling hours: peak/nonpeak period Size and spaciousness: main road, minor road, slip road, one-way/two-way traffic, two/three lanes Orientation to entrant: user friendliness, accessibility to public transport (bus lanes), general public, fire-fighters, paramedics
Relation to other roads, MRT stations Relation to other areas Relation to buildings Relation to safety External cohesion: relation to connectors, escalators
Units/ Functions
Experiential
Interpersonal
Textual
Orientation to buildings Characterization: MRT stations, bus-stops, street lights, road names, road signs, signboards Lighting Openness Soft/hard texture: concrete, asphalt, dirt track Open Space (Rank 2.2)
Specific functions:
Road dividers, islands Road shoulders Pavements/Footpaths Parking space Grass verge/Green belt Open field: recreational, business Burial grounds Public space Private space
Spaciousness Openness Orientation to entrant: accessibility View Relevance Comfort: sheltered/ unsheltered walk-ways, shades, benches Lighting: natural, artificial Hard/soft textures: concrete, asphalt, grass Colour
Relation to bus-stops, taxi stands, roads, MRT stations Relation to area/theme Relation to buildings Relation to safety Relation to power and prestige Degree of visibility Degree of partition External cohesion: relation to connectors, stairs, overhead bridges, pedestrian crossings, underground passage Permanence of open space Permanence of partition
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To help 'explain' Singapore, that is, to analyse and interpret the city, which is three-dimensional and multi-semiotic, a framework featuring a rank-scale for the functions and systems is proposed (Table 3.1). The multiplicity of the framework means that the city can be read 'backwards or forwards, upwards or downwards, and inside to outside' (Preziosi, 1984: 55). The framework may be used to analyse from the whole to the smallest unit in the city. This means that the semiotic analysis of the city of Singapore begins with the unit Area at Rank 1, followed by the units Roads/MRT at Rank 2.1 and the unit Open Space at Rank 2.2 (Table 3.1). The analysis of the smallest unit in a city, that is, Elements contained in a room or on a floor in a Building at Rank 2.3 in Table 3.2, completes the semiotic analysis. Alternatively, because the city is three-dimensional and multimodal, it is possible to perform the analysis from the lowest rank to the highest, that is, from the unit Element in a Building (Rank 2.3) upwards to the unit Area (Rank 1). Although beyond the scope of this paper, Singapore could be conceived as the total sum of these Areas. As buildings constitute an essential part of a city, O'Toole's (1994: 86) chart for architecture has been incorporated into Table 3.2. Although the chart has been amended to suit the Singapore context because 'the existence of built form is not universal in all cultures' (Preziosi, 1984: 52), the change is minimal. Elements such as the characterization of a building, that is, whether it is occidental or Oriental, for example, or how it is oriented towards the MRT station, have been incorporated into the framework. As most buildings in Singapore are designed to be either self-contained (for example, a hotel) or interdependent (for example, a market), they are treated as individual episodes that help to contribute to or to complement the design of the whole area. In other words, there is interaction or 'interplay' between these Episodes. Functions and systems in Singapore The built world has functions that are wittingly or unwittingly designated or prescribed. In land-scarce Singapore, the 'spatial products' or 'the built forms' are likely to be designed to be multi-functional, that is, the practical functions of a product very often overlap (Preziosi, 1984). A 'rank' or a 'unit' links each of these built forms to the other. Major roads link one area or a 'unit' to another (see Table 3.1). Within an area, there are roads and open spaces, which will eventually lead to buildings where there may be different levels or storeys, with different rooms for different functions. Depending on its function, each room may have a different layout or decor. While the practical functions of an area or a building are considered to realize Experiential meaning, the relationship between these practical functions and its design or planning are Textual. The consistency and the repetition of a specific theme in a particular area in Singapore means that textually it has been designed to 'blend' and to 'fit' and construct the culture of the people. Each unit operates or functions in relation to another, usually a neighbour-
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ing one, and to its general surroundings or environment. At the same time in the built world, the 'built forms' (Preziosi, 1984) will direcdy or indirecdy command the people's involvement and interaction; our senses respond in specific ways to our natural environment (Kress, 2000). The framework in Table 3.1 lists the systems which function Interpersonally to engage us with our environment. In what follows, I analyse and interpret the built forms of the Orchard Road and the Marriott Hotel. These analyses reveal how specific ideologies are manifested in the city of Singapore. A semiotic analysis of Orchard Road
Commercial developments in Orchard Road began in the early 1900s when stores were established to provide residents with fresh produce and food supplies. In the 1950s, when the late C. K. Tang opened a department store, it marked the beginning of rapid commercial development within the area. Entertainment centres and hotels were soon built to cater to the demands of the locals as well as the buoyant tourist industry. The construction of Orchard and Somerset MRT stations and their locations within the Central Business District reaffirmed Orchard Road's importance and its status as a 'dynamic activity corridor' (Orchard Planning Area, 1994: 9). Orchard Road, a seven-lane and one-way-traffic road, stretches from Delfi Orchard to Plaza Singapura and is an area where open parking spaces for cars are limited. Most of these parking spaces are found within the confines of hotels or shopping malls where parking fees are high. Textually, this demonstrates the area's 'relation to prestige' and Orchard Road is indeed a prestigious area where public Housing Development Board (HDB) flats are not found. Building heights reach their maximum in the vicinity of Orchard MRT station where buildings reach thirty storeys high. The height tapers to ten storeys towards the Singaporean Presidential Palace or Istana and twenty storeys towards the Tanglin zone (Orchard Planning Area, 1994) (Plate 3.1). We may note that the Size and Verticality of a building is an indication of its importance and status (O'Toole, 1994). Metaphorically, the value of commercial or cultural activities reaches their peak at the junction of Scotts Road and Orchard Road where the Marriott Hotel is located. Suffice to say the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) begins at this junction. Indeed, the lack of parking spaces means people are encouraged to use 'the efficient and affordable' public transport (URA Annual Report, 1998/1999: 31) to reduce traffic congestion and to solve parking problems. On both sides of the road, Open Spaces such as the wide pedestrian walkways facilitate smooth pedestrian flow but people are not induced to visit or to walk along these Open Spaces if there is no place to sit (Whyte, 1996). Therefore practical Interpersonal elements such as benches, which are made of durable and maintenance-free concrete or granite or wrought iron, are selectively provided. People are socially engineered 'to get into new habits' (Whyte, 1996: 111) such as walking rather than driving because of the lack and excess of particular types of Open Spaces along Orchard Road. The
Table 3.2 Units/ Functions Building (Rank 2.3)
Floor
Functions and systems in a building (adapted from O'Toole 1994: 86) Experiential
Practical Function: Business, Cultural, Educational, Entertainment, Governmental, Medical, Private/Public, Recreational, Religious, Residential Orientation to light Orientation to wind Orientation to earth Orientation to service (water, power) Episode: self-contained, interdependent Interplay of episodes
Sub-functions:
Access Working Selling Administration Storing Waking Sleeping Parking
Interpersonal
Textual
Size (relation to area and setting) Orientation to neighbours, adjacent buildings Orientation to road, MRT tracks and stations Orientation to entrant Facade Modernity Colour Cladding Characterization Colour Intertextuality: reference, mimicry, colour Exoticism
Proportion (height/breadth/ length) Relation to external area Relation to road/MRT station Relation to adjacent buildings Relation to permanence: old, new, preservation, conservation Rhythms: contrasting shapes, angles, colours Textures: rough/smooth Roof/wall relation Opacity Reflectivity Cohesion: interplay of episodes
Height Spaciousness Accessibility Openness View Hard/soft texture Colour Sites of power Separation of groups
Relation to other floors Relation to outer world Relation to connectors, stairs, lifts, escalators (external cohesion) Relation of landing/corridor/ room/foyer/room (internal cohesion) Degree of partition Permanance of partition
Units/ Functions
Experiential
Room
Specific functions: Access Entry Lobby Dining Bedroom suites Bathroom/toilet Fitness centre /gamesroom Restaurants, bar, lounge Kitchen Ensuite Servery Foyer Laundry Retreat
Element
Lighting: windows, lamps, curtains, blinds Air: window, fan, conditioner Sound: carpet, rugs, partitions, acoustic, treatment Seating: function, comfort Table: buffet, dining, coffee, computer Counter: cash, reception, bar
Interpersonal
Textual
Comfort Lighting Modernity Sound Opulence Welcome Style: rustic, pioneer, colonial, suburban, 'Dallas', working class, tenement, slum Foregrounding of functions
Scale Lighting Sound Relation to outside world Relation to other rooms Connectors: doors, windows, hatches, intercom Focus (e.g. hearth, dais, altar, desk)
Relevance Functionality: convention/ surprise Texture: rough/smooth Newness Decorativeness Stance Stylistic coherence Projection
Texture Positioning: to light, other elements Finish
Plate 3.1
The shopping map from This Week Singapore
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area appears to rely on the concept of'supply creates demand' (ibid.); that is, the restricted nature of parking spaces and the open spaces create the demand for public transport. The built forms in Orchard Road place a great emphasis on Interpersonal metafunction. Commercial developments along the pedestrian routes are encouraged to 'have activity-generating uses on the [ground floor]' (Orchard Planning Area, 1994: 20) and as a result, shops and restaurants open directly to the mall, beckoning pedestrians as well as supporting street activities. The open spaces are planned so that people instinctively walk into the airconditioned interiors of the shopping malls to escape the humidity of the outdoors. The 'progression from street to interior is critical' (Whyte, 1996: 117) and Orchard Road has been planned such that it is hard to tell when one transition ends and when the other begins. Pedestrians also have visual access to the products on sale at the ground floor shops, which are encased behind glass panels. Window displays are usually used to attract the attention of the female pedestrians and cater first to what are perceived as the primary needs of women: cosmetics, fine jewellery, clothing as well as their coordinated accessories while condoms at the Lucky Plaza shops are arranged to resemble a bouquet of flowers. A major part of the business strategy is to capture the female eye first. Seen textually, sex implicitly becomes the selling point in Orchard Road in what largely remains a patriarchal society. The presence of overseas investors in Orchard Road is ubiquitous and thus there is a reinforcement of the culture of consumerism. For example, at the time of writing, twenty-five outdoor refreshment outlets (OROs) are located along Orchard Road. Located on both sides of the road, these outlets serve coffee and tea and food such as burgers and fries; that is, foreign imports from the West. It is common to see several oudets promoting the same items but under different trade names. Patronizing these oudets has become a way of life. These OROs have built a 'new constituency' (Whyte, 1996: 111) where people are subconsciously trained to adopt new habits such as having alfresco lunches. These outlets also act as an avenue for the people to see and be seen and this has given rise to a new street culture that is readily embraced. As competition among the various investors intensifies, 'campaigns' are launched to remind consumers, particularly the young, of the products' existence, which are readily accessible and available to them. Hence, these OROs are located a few hundred metres away from one another. While these outlets operate textually because they contribute to the thematic 'consistency' of Orchard Road, they have what O'Toole describes as 'powerful [and serious] Interpersonal implications' (O'Toole, 1994: 103). The 'repetition of themes' ensures that people would not miss or forget these products. To invest in the young and impressionable is therefore to invest in the future of Singapore. Such investments guarantee the survival of these products and the continuous Western presence. Equally important, these OROs continue to draw revenues for the authorities. Ironically though, while these OROs are located at strategic and prime locations, that is, they are in the Open Space and visible from the road, outlets
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serving local Singaporean fare are usually confined within a building, often at the basement or the back of the building or at a side road and away from the main road. Although the nature of Asian cooking is highly suitable for the outdoors, it does not or rather is not allowed to fit into the context of Orchard Road. Textually, a conscious effort has been made to ensure Orchard Road projects and reinforces the sophisticatedly developed clean and green image that has become synonymous with the image of Singapore. The fact that ideas for these outlets were imported from overseas (URA Annual Report, 1998/99) and are expected to 'make our streets more exciting and lively' while 'adding life and character to our streetscape' (URA Annual Report., 1997/98: 28) suggests the relative value of Asian culture. The hotels may not necessarily cater solely to European tourists, but nevertheless, a foreign culture is foregrounded while its Asian counterpart is backgrounded. The message is clear: anything foreign, imported and specifically Western excites and sells readily. Unlike Geylang or Serangoon Road in Singapore, there is a conspicuous absence of religious symbols along Orchard Road even though a prayer hall for the Muslims is located off the main street in Bideford Road. The vicinity is thus constructed to be secular, but not necessarily apolitical. California Fitness Centres and Planet Hollywood have made their presence felt in Orchard Road along with Singtel and the Safra Town Club. Unlike these vibrant institutions whose open concept invites pedestrians to browse, the Thai Embassy appears inaccessible behind its iron gates and thick foliage. As the lowest building there, the embassy does not fit into the concept of Orchard Road because it does not generate sales or draw in the crowds. It mars the overall outiook and thematic concept of Orchard Road and we interpret it as 'failing' textually. In contrast, the Singaporean Presidential Palace or the Istana, situated at the end of Orchard Road and not visible from the main road, is designed to attract attention. The changing-of-theguards ceremony has found favour with both the locals and the visitors. This appeal can be translated as a desirable Interpersonal relation. Officially closed to the public throughout the year, however, the grounds are opened on designated public holidays. Streetscapes such as road signs, street lights and bus shelters appear to be neutral, but closer inspection reveals a different scenario. While the street signs are in English, the ethnic group whose presence is strongly represented is Chinese. The architecture of the Marriott Hotel is an example of how that presence is reinforced and preserved. Such buildings serve to remind Singaporeans of their cultural heritage. The one reminder of a multi-racial society is the mural wall located next to the entrance to Orchard MRT station where foreigners, especially the Filipinos, congregate on Sundays. This mural wall depicts the cultural activities and the various landmarks associated with the four main ethnic groups in Singapore. Discotheques and pubs are discreetly placed in various corners of buildings and roads, away from the public eye during the day. However, at night, these entertainment centres spring to life, while out in the street the action continues. Orchard
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Road has fulfilled the expectations and has realized the vision of the authorities to create 'a modern and vibrant commercial corridor alive with day and night activities' (Orchard Planning Area, 1994: 14). Hence, it is immaterial whether the people are indoors or outdoors. In Orchard Road, people are constantly on the move and wherever they may be, there are ATM machines for them to withdraw their money and at the same time, an outlet for them to spend it. Every visitor to Orchard Road is a potential customer. Regardless of the time of day, one can be assured that there are cash transactions in Orchard Road. Textually then, the retail industry has been successfully turned into one of the cultures of Orchard Road. Except for Ngee Ann City, no other shopping mall has been prominently featured in postcards, the one form of communication that 'personally' connects Singapore and its visitors to the other parts of the world. Examination of the postcards available in the local shops reveals that a postcard of Orchard Road often includes Tang Plaza and the Singapore Marriott Hotel, usually photographed from various angles and at different times of day. This inevitably enhances the hotel's status but most importantly, it transforms the hotel into the landmark of Orchard Road. A semiotic analysis of the Tang Plaza A landmark is observed externally and serves as a point of reference or a clue of identity. The choice of a landmark, according to Lynch (1996: 102), is 'more easily identifiable' if it is 'significant', has 'a clear form', 'contrast[s] with the background' and 'if there is some prominence of spatial location'. Hence, I have chosen to investigate the Tang Plaza/Marriott Hotel (henceforth known as 'the complex') as a landmark. Built in 1982, the 33-storey Singapore Marriott Hotel was formerly known as the Dynasty Hotel. Acquired by the Marriott Group in 1995, it underwent extensive interior redecoration and renovation and has since operated under its present name (The Straits Times, 4 September 2000: 42). Its strategic location ensures that every vehicle or commuter travelling down from Tanglin, Scotts and Paterson Roads passes by it. It is situated at a location where the ERP begins and where vehicles stop at the traffic lights, the first of the four traffic junctions along Orchard Road. An underground passageway links the Plaza to the Orchard MRT station and the other buildings across from the hotel, namely Shaw House and Wheelock Place. Hence, no matter what mode of transportation one uses, the complex is highly accessible and visible to the public. Its prominent location, that is, its Orientation to the people and its Relation to the road and MRT station, which are Interpersonal and Textual functions respectively (Table 3.2 above), have been translated into a form of visual and massive advertisement that gives the complex an exposure not accorded to any other shopping centre or hotel along the road. Additionally, its Size and Verticality acts as a 'clear indication of [its] status' in the vicinity (O'Toole, 1994: 102).
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What make the complex more significant are its colours and its pagodalike architecture. Using the framework for architecture in Table 3.2, choices from systems for Interpersonal meanings feature strongly in the design of the hotel. For example, as an illustration of the functions of the units Modernity and Colour, its former owners had deliberately chosen its present design to reflect their racial and cultural heritage and, although only eighteen years old, its design is representative of the days of ancient China. As far as Colour is concerned, the dominant colours in the vicinity of Orchard Road are blue and brown, as in the Forum the Shopping Mall, Wisma Atria and Ngee Ann City, but, at the complex, the traditional Chinese colours, green and red, dominate both the roof tiles and columns of the building. Unlike the other hotels, which were designed to resemble vertical rectangular blocks that occupy extra lateral space, the Marriott Hotel is octagonal in shape and is a tall and lean building with a distinctive Fa£ade, which is a conical top and upturned roof-ends that point towards the sky (see Figure 3.2). The contrast in building shape and colour is grouped under the category of the unit Rhythms that operates textually In addition, the appearance of the complex has been likened to 'a decent Oriental gentleman' and conferred as 'a trustworthy place' (Gwee, 1991: 62—63). We note that the number 'eight' and the colour 'red' are considered lucky and symbolize prosperity within the Chinese community. Such beliefs or practices are related to a community's social semiotic, which operates Interpersonally. However, because of its pagoda-like structure and octagonal shape, the design of Tang Plaza and Marriott Hotel is not consistent with the overall environmental and architectural structure of Orchard Road. In other words, the complex does not 'exhibit some kind of "fit" with their neighbours and neighbourhood' (O'Toole, 1994: 87). Although this is apparently deliberate, textually the inconsistency could be said to 'fail' or be 'undesirable'. This Textual failing means, of course, that Interpersonally the building attracts attention. The shape of the Marriott Hotel is only prominent from an aerial view (see Figure 3.2). At eye-level, due to its orientation, distance to and accessibility from the main road, the Tang Plaza is more distinct (see Figure 3.1). This disparity may be partly due to proportionality in Size, a system that operates interpersonally. The hotel seems to be sitting on a base that is too broad for it (see Figure 3.2) and unlike the Tang Plaza, the Marriott Hotel is backgrounded. The hotel proper is built in the centre of the Plaza, which means that it is actually distanced from the main road. From the environmental point of view, and both interpersonally and textually, this location acts as a buffer to the noise generated by the traffic. Nevertheless, the hotel draws attention to itself due to its unique roof design. One needs to raise one's head to view the hotel, and what is first seen at ground level is the red and green roof (see Figure 3.1). In sum, the Intertextuality or the difference in overall design, mismatch in size and the colour scheme gives the building its Oriental character, one that provides that significant 'contrast with the background' (Lynch, 1996:102) which is Orchard Road. These differences have naturally proven to be advantageous
THREE-DIMENSIONAL MATERIAL OBJECTS IN SPACE
Figure 3.1 Front view of the Marriott Hotel
69
70
Figure 3.2
MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
Three-dimensional view of Tang Plaza
because these are the features that are constandy highlighted in various postcards and travelling brochures. The complex is a building with a hotel and the four-storey Tangs Superstore built as a whole unit. Experientially, there are two Episodes operating simultaneously at the Tang Plaza. One Episode is that of a hotel and the other, a shopping centre. Each is a different entity but one which has been integrated and superimposed over the other. Each Episode serves its own function: the hotel provides lodging, food and entertainment, while the shopping centre is part of an industry that is responsible for shaping Singapore into the commonly perceived shoppers' paradise. Both cater to the needs of the foreigners as well as the locals and fit into the concept of 'under one roof; that is, shopping, dining, entertainment and lodging within the same building. This provides the Textual Cohesion in the Episodes. This
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Cohesion is also responsible for the great interplay and interaction between the two Episodes because, seen experientially, for the uninitiated at least, it is hard to predict where the shopping centre ends and where the hotel begins. Textually, the foregrounding and the prominence given to Tangs Superstore ensure that the complex fits into the overall thematic concept of Orchard Road. Unlike the thematic Malay Village in Singapore, which was designed to promote the Malay culture as a form of tourist attraction, the Tang complex has proven to be a successful social, cultural and economic venture. Even though the complex is located at the junction of Scotts and Orchard Roads, vehicle access or the Interpersonal salient Orientation to entrant to the complex is only from Scotts Road. A slip road branching out from Scotts Road leads to the hotel main entrance and subsequently to the main entrance of Tangs Superstore. For those using public transport, a bus stop and an underpass to Orchard MRT station are conveniently located opposite the entrance of Tangs Superstore giving commuters, who are also prospective customers, direct access to the shopping centre. The whole complex is slightly elevated from the main road, which metaphorically puts it in a position of power or superiority. The protruding roof of the Tang complex provides a much-needed shelter from both sun and rain while its red columns act as advertisement boards. The width of the pedestrian walkway skirting the complex indicates that a heavy human traffic flow is anticipated. Therefore, the open spaces around the complex are put to efficient use. Benches are provided while OROs, such as Mrs Fields' and Juice & Java, provide quick snacks and drinks. Textually, unlike in most parts of Singapore, there is a sloping ramp that caters to the needs of the physically handicapped or those who are wheelchair-bound. And in case pedestrians forget that the hotel is an octagonal-shaped building, this has been permanently imprinted on the non-slip tiles of the walkway skirting the complex, while an octagon circumscribes each column of the complex on the roof. Like the built form of Orchard Road, there is an overwhelming emphasis on the Interpersonal function at the complex. Textually, in keeping with the green image of the area, low-lying shrubs and palm trees signifying 'a tropical island' line the perimeter of the complex. The hotel entrance, however, has the thickest shrubs. Interpersonally, other than complementing the colours of the hotel and enhancing its landscape, these plants shield the hotel guests from the main road, providing a little privacy. The names of the complex's main tenants, that is, 'Marriott' flanked by 'Tang' on either side, are mounted on the wall facing Scotts Road, giving the impression that each is vying for the attention of the onlookers. If one were to miss the hotel's name, the situation has been rectified through a concrete signboard. This signboard 'announces' its presence in the vicinity as it is erected directly opposite the hotel entrance and thus faces towards the junction of Scotts/Orchard/Paterson Roads. Such a signboard, one that is not part of a hotel proper and located in an open space, is the only one found in the area. Others, if available, are usually located within the hotel's premises.
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A semiotic analysis of the Singapore Marriott Hotel Upon arrival at the steps of the hotel entrance, what first attracts the attention of a guest are the open-air sidewalk cafes on the left and on the right and the side entrance to Tangs Superstore (see Figure 3.3). In other words, the hotel's outdoors scenery and the activities generated from and around it function to distract the guest from his or her intended destination. This can be attributed to two factors. First, at the unit of Floor - colour for Interpersonal function, yellowish marble tiles are used for the floor at the hotel entrance and black and grey tiles for the walls. While the tiles may add a touch of class or sophistication and facilitate maintenance, the colours pale against the eye-catching colours of the sidewalk cafes and the OROs where red dominates. Second, and more importantly, there is a considerable distance between the complex's driveway and the hotel main entrance. Although it is directly facing the driveway, the entrance or the Access to the hotel appears hidden from the view of the guest. Flanking the passageway leading to the hotel's main entrance are smallscale water fountains, which extend into the hotel. Fengshui, the art of comprehending how the natural energy of life affects us in our daily life (Gwee, 1991; Noble, 1994), seems to have played a role in the layout of the hotel's ground floor. However, depending on one's social and cultural background, it could also be argued that these fountains are for aesthetic reasons. Though O'Toole (1994: 90) has expressed uncertainty of its actual place within the framework of his chart for architecture, fengshui, I feel, should be categorized as Interpersonal. As O'Toole has clearly stated, however, it depends greatly on one's social semiotic. Noting this, water, being one of the five elements of nature, the others being earth, wood, fire and metal, symbolizes wealth in the Chinese culture and its employment is intended to promote fortune (Gwee, 1991; Noble, 1994). Contextually, however, the fountains could mean different things to different people. For children, they are a source of entertainment because they may find pleasure in dipping their hands into the water. To the hotel, the stream of water brings the hope that success and prosperity continue to flow towards it. This is reinforced by the motifs on its floor tiles. Here, the two unbroken concentric circles, which could signify smoothness in perhaps business dealings and continuous prosperity, are divided into four segments, presumably representing the four corners of the world where the Marriott Group operates. The circles, however, could also be a representation of the Luo Pan Compass that is used in fengshui to determine the siting and building dynamics (Gwee, 1991; Noble, 1994). This circular pattern is also repeated on the false ceiling. Seen experientially and at the rank of Element, this false ceiling and the fountain conceal the light bulbs at the entrance where the lighting remains soft and warm. Interpersonally, this provides Warmth and Comfort to the guests. Finally, orchids are used to brighten the passageway and to offset the dullness of the walls and floor. On the whole therefore, the entrance of the hotel, which acts as the introduction to the hotel, employs various
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Figure 3.3
Floor plan of ground floor of Marriott Hotel
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Interpersonal features or strategies to provide the guests with what are perceived as the necessary comforts. Guests are expected to respond visually, auditorily, mentally as well as emotionally to their immediate surroundings (Kress, 2000), and, in this case, to the soft lighting, to the orchids and to the soothing sounds of the flowing water from the fountains. The layout of the Foyer of the Marriott Hotel is unique because it does not conform to the standards adopted by the various hotels in the vicinity. At the rank of Element and for the Experiential function, for instance, the Foyer opens to the sky and, as described in its promotional brochure, is 'illuminated by a three-storey skylight' thereby reducing the reliance on artificial lightings while at the same time giving the air-conditioned lobby an airy atmosphere and good ventilation. No chandeliers are needed, just wallmounted lamps and table lamps placed at strategic locations. The warm and soft lightings are easy on the eyes. The walls and floor are bare as carpets and ornaments or decorations such as paintings are kept to a minimum. Instead both the floor and the walls are fully tiled and of similar shades. Though this means easy maintenance, as the cleaning and mopping process is easier, the Foyer exudes coldness and appears businesslike. Interpersonal functions or considerations such as Warmth and Comfort appear to have been backgrounded. At the Foyer, guests are not greeted by the traditional Sites of power, that function interpersonally at the rank of Floor. This is usually the reception counter where the initial scrutiny of a guest takes place. Instead guests are 'greeted' by an escalator or a 'connector' leading to the second floor of the hotel where the banquet rooms and restaurants are located. Signboards displaying the names of the banquet rooms and restaurants are placed at the foot of the escalator. Thus, guests need not seek directions, thereby alleviating labour costs. Inevitably this reduces the human interaction between guests and hotel staff. For an establishment that deals with the service industry, Interpersonally, this is interpreted as another setback. The distance between guests and hotel is further widened by the location of the reception counter, which is located at the far end of the lobby and sandwiched between its side entrance and its emergency exit. Guests either approach the counter by walking across the Foyer (Path 'A' in Figure 3.3) or by passing the jewellery, pastry and cigar shops along the passageway on the right (Path 'B' in Figure 3.3). Initially the location of the counter, which is part of the hotel's welcoming team and the human face of the establishment, appears inconvenient to the guests but this apparent inconvenience is negated because of the close proximity of the lifts that would eventually lead the guests to their rooms. What can be deduced here is that at the Foyer, the foregrounding of Textual functions such as the Relation of the lifts to the reception counter and the Relation of escalator to signboards, far outweighs the Interpersonal functions such as Comfort, Welcome, and human contact with hotel staff. This also functions to make surveillance and the official scrutiny of the guests implicit rather than explicit.
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The vertical as well as the horizontal space or the Spaciousness of the Foyer, which is a system for Interpersonal meaning, is striking and the absence of physical or permanent Partition in this area suggests an openconcept approach to business. This openness allows guests to move and interact freely around the Foyer. Guests arriving on the first day, for example, are free to view the food and beverage menus at the cafe's reservation counter. Simultaneously though, these guests become easy targets of scrutiny by the hotel's security personnel or even by other guests. If there were partitions on the ground floor of the hotel, this would not so readily occur. Except for the Marriott Cafe, which is slightly elevated, the Separation of groups is achieved by utilizing the square or circular columns around the perimeter of the Foyer. These columns help to distinguish between one group of specific activity from another, such as the bar counter from the Lobby Lounge and the Lobby Lounge from the reception lobby. Seen textually, the only Permanent Partition at the Foyer is the hotel lifts, which are hidden behind four square columns. These columns and lifts act as markers to indicate the end of general public activities, such as drinking and dining. They shield one's view from the most unpleasant sights or spaces on the ground floor but the ones that cater to a guest's more personal needs, that is, the passage to the parking lots and the restrooms. Understandably, there is a need for the hotel to put forward its best 'face' to the public and this has been done overtly. There is a distinct separation between public and private needs or spaces with the former usually foregrounded. Judging from the location of the Business Centre, a guest's professional needs seem to fall within his or her private domain; it is located next to the emergency exit and adjacent to the lifts. On the priority scale, the size of the Centre suggests that 'business' or 'work' should constitute a major part of a guest's private life but at the Marriott Hotel, it retreats to the background. The main physical attraction or distraction at the Foyer (depending on how one chooses to see it) is the nine preserved palm trees placed almost in the middle of the Foyer. As a Textual element, these trees serve as the 'focus' in the area known as the Lobby Lounge. The theme of a 'tropical island' is thus brought into the interior of the hotel. Hence there is continuity or a constant repetition of themes in and around the hotel. The preserved palm trees in the Lobby Lounge are encircled by four semi-circular flower troughs where, once again, orchids are the choice plants. An artificial garden city or island is thus created within the hotel's premises. An aerial view of the Lobby Lounge suggests that it is the physical representation or the built form of the motifs found on the floor tiles at the hotel entrance. The open spaces under the palm trees and around the flower troughs are also fully utilized. These are used as a dining area where diners are served drinks from the bar counter, food from the Marriott Cafe and cakes and pastries from the Pastry Shop. In fact, there is an overwhelming emphasis on the food and beverage business at the hotel. The consumption of alcohol also seems to be widely promoted and encouraged. There are bar counters located at the Foyer, at the sidewalk cafe and at the underground pub, Bar None. Guests are
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continuously confronted and surrounded by food and drinks and if that is not enough, the open-concept kitchen at the Marriott Cafe gives them a view of how food is prepared for consumption. At the same time, the glass panels at the Cafe allow patrons to view what the other diners at the Crossroad Cafe are having and vice versa. The change in hotel management in 1995 did not affect the Marriott Hotel physically or structurally, because it remains culturally Chinese. The former Dynasty Hotel, as its name suggested, had created an image of the existence of Chinese imperialism and a dynasty of Chinese culture and tradition within the Orchard Road vicinity. This is the image that is captured in postcards and promotional brochures to represent, ironically, a multiracial and a multicultural society, a fact that has often been stressed by the government. The interior of the hotel, however, does not reflect its cultural heritage and dominance, as it is more occidental than Oriental. The layout of its ground floor unwittingly reveals the hotel's business philosophy and demonstrates how it chooses to construct itself in the context of Singapore. Initially, there is seemingly a lack of customer service in the hotel because, like the reception counter, the concierge and tour desks are pushed towards the recesses in the walls of the Foyer. This reduces obstruction and creates a clear passageway but at the same time it pushes customer service to the background. But 'reducing obstruction' or eliminating 'tripping hazards' such as carpets is a 'service' in itself and this aspect of service belongs to the all-important department in every industry, that is, safety. Unfavourable Interpersonal functions such as the Orientation to entrant, which is the distance between the hotel entrance and the reception counter, are often negated by other Experiential and Textual functions such as the Relation to connectors, that is, the close proximity between the reception counter and the lifts. From a popular point of view, a big part of the success of the hotel appears to be its understanding and its knowledge of what the public wants and by giving and capitalizing on those wants. There is an impression that there is something for everyone. There is day and night entertainment, jewellery and chocolates for the women, cigars for the men and food for everyone. The Lobby Lounge in particular has captured the constructed spirit and image of Singapore and what is being projected is an image of an ideal tropical island where palm trees flourish under the warm sun. Singapore is constructed as a city where food is in abundance and seen as a passion, and where eating is perceived to be a favourite pastime. But because of its open concept and the lack of permanent partition, another side of the hotel becomes invisible to the public eye. Women especially are vulnerable to the male gaze. While soliciting is an offence that is punishable by law and is an activity usually and wrongfully associated with women, the locations of the hotel side entrance, its emergency exit and the corridor that leads to the lifts provide the discreet routes (Path 'B' in Figure 3.3) for the guests who wish to bring in additional company. Similarly, the escalator to the hotel's second floor does not only connect guests to the restaurants and banquet
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rooms but also to the lifts on that level. In the same manner too, the cigar shop and the underground pub are sites for discreet soliciting. These are, however, located away from public viewing. What is further implied is that seeking pleasures and entertainment is the prerogative of the male. The open concept in the hotel, which symbolizes one's public image, reflects a closure to reality or to one's private life; it demands discretion because there still remains the Asian obsession with the subject efface'. Conclusion While the analysis of Orchard Road entails the construction of a framework that features a rank-scale with the functions and systems through which Singapore is constructed, the analysis of the Marriott Hotel requires the application of O'Toole's (1994: 86) framework for architecture. Through the integration of both frameworks, the analyses of both Orchard Road and Marriott Hotel reveal how spaces in and around Singapore are carefully organized to meet the sociopolitical and socio-economic demands of the authorities. Every available space is found to be potentially economically viable. In general, the analyses reveal how Singapore is constructed as a shopper's paradise, a tropical island and a food haven. What is presented, however, is a constructed image of a country and a hotel that both the authorities and the management want the public and the world to see and to believe. How this is done requires, to a certain degree, the use of women as commodities. The general perception in Orchard Road and the Marriott Hotel is that sex sells, thus reflecting the values of a patriarchal society. Orchard Road demonstrates how foreign cultures, specifically those from the West, are foregrounded and how the cultures of Singapore's multi-racial societies are backgrounded. This is perhaps part of a strategy to cater to the influx of 'foreign talents' and tourists to the country. Business concepts such as the outdoor refreshment areas, for example, are imported from overseas in an effort to make the streets 'more exciting and lively' (URA Annual Report, 1997/98: 28). The concepts of excitement and liveliness are therefore denned by the authorities and Singaporeans are socially engineered to subscribe to these prescribed concepts. These oudets as well as the abundance of shopping centres in the vicinity are in reality revenue-generating machines. Profit-making is the key word; the culture of consumerism dominates the area and capitalism is seen as the answer for a land reliant on human resources. The presence of the Marriott Hotel, however, serves to remind the people, whether locals or foreigners, of Singapore's cultural heritage. The building is a potent social and cultural symbol and a reminder of the prominence of the Chinese community in the country. Amidst the chaotic cultural scene in Orchard Road, Singaporeans must be reminded of their cultural heritage and to meet those expectations, a system is implemented and a lifestyle prescribed. The system and the people depend on one another.
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Acknowledgements
The map (Plate 3.1) is provided courtesy of This Week Singapore. References Betsky, A. (1994) James Gamble Rogers and the pragmatics of architectural representation. In W. J. Lillyman, M. E Moriarty and D. J. Neuman (eds), Critical Architecture and Contemporary Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 64—84. Chua, B. H. (1995) Communitarian Ideology and Democracy in Singapore. London: Routledge. Dale, O. J. (1993) The Singapore Concept Plan: historical context/current assessment. PLANEWS. Journal of the Singapore Institute of Planners 14(1): 41-46. Singapore: Straits Printers Pte. Ltd. Fong, T W. (1973) Industrial complexes and the garden city — can they co-exist? In Chua Peng Chye (ed.), Planning In Singapore - Selected Aspects and Issues. Singapore: Chopmen Enterprises, 16-21. Gwee, P. K. W. (1991) Fengshui: The Geomancy and Economy of Singapore. Singapore: Shing Lee Publishers Pte Ltd. Halliday M. A. K. (1994) An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd edition). London: Arnold. Jayapal, M. (1992) Old Singapore. New York: Oxford University Press. Keung, J. (1991) Overview on the Concept Plan. Living the Next Lap —Blueprintsfor Business. Singapore: Urban Redevelopment Authority. Kress, G. (2000) Multimodality. In B. Cope and M. Kalantzis (eds), Multiliteracies: Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures. South Yarra: Macmillan Publishers Australia Pty Ltd, 182-202. Liu, T. K. (1991) Press Release on Living the Next Lap — Blueprints for Business. Singapore: Urban Redevelopment Authority, 1—5. Lynch, K. (1996) The city image and its elements (first published 1960). In R. T. LeGates and E Stout (eds), The City Reader. London: Routledge, 98-102. Master Plan. Report of Survey Volume 1. (1955) Singapore: E S. Horslin, Government Printer. Master Plan Written Statement 1993. The Planning Act (Cap 232, revised edn 1990). Republic of Singapore. Singapore: Ministry of National Development. Mumford, L. (1996) What is a city? (first published 1937). In R. T. LeGates and E Stout (eds), The City Reader. London: Routiedge, 183-188. Noble, S. (1994) Feng Shui in Singapore. Singapore: Graham Brash (Pte) Ltd. Orchard Planning Area: Planning Report 1994. Singapore: Urban Redevelopment Authority. O'Toole, M. (1994) The Language of Displayed Art. London: Leicester University Press. Pike, B. (1996) The city as image (first published 1981). In R. T. LeGates and E Stout (eds), The City Reader. London: Routledge, 242-249. Preziosi, D. (1984) Relations between environmental and linguistic structure. In R. P. Fawcett, M. A. K. Halliday, S. M. Lamb and A. Makkai (eds), The Semiotics of Culture and Language Volume 2. Language and Other Semiotic Systems of Culture. Dover, New Hampshire: Frances Pinter, 47-67. Safeyaton, A. (2001) The Lion City as a text - a semiotic study of Singapore's Orchard Road and Marriott Hotel. Unpublished MA dissertation. The National University of Singapore.
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Stern, R. A. M. (1994) The postmodern continuum. In W. J. Lillyman, M. E Moriarty and D. J. Neuman (eds), Critical Architecture and Contemporary Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 46—63. Straits Times, The, 4 September 2000, 42. Tan, J. H. (1972) Urbanization Planning and National Development Planning in Singapore. SEADAG Papers On Problems of Development in Southeast Asia. New York: the Asia Society-SEADAG. Tan, S. (1999) Home. Work. Play. Singapore: Urban Redevelopment Authority. URA Annual Report 1997/98. Singapore: Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore. URA Annual Report 1998/99. Singapore: Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore. Week Singapore, This, 18-24 December 1999. Singapore: Miller Freeman Pte. Ltd. Whyte, W. (1996) The design of spaces (first published 1988). In R. T LeGates and E Stout (eds), The City Reader. London: Routledge, 109-117.
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Part II Electronic media and film
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4
Phase and transition, type and instance: patterns in media texts as seen through a multimodal concordancer
Anthony P. Baldry University of Pavia
Introduction How can we go about analyzing a TV advertisement? Despite the long tradition of analysis of printed advertisements, the prevailing view, until quite recently, has been that it is impossible, for technical reasons, to analyse TV adverts in such a way that the interplay of visual and verbal resources can be reconstructed. Cook (1992: 37-38, see also 2001: 42-44), for example, states that: Any analysis of the language of adverts immediately encounters the paradox that it both must and cannot take the musical and pictorial modes into account as well [. . .] This problem is more serious with tv than with printed ads, for on paper pictures stand still (and can even be reproduced), and there is no sound [. . .] In considering tv ads, where pictures move, music plays, and language comes in changing combinations of speech, song and writing, reproduction is virtually impossible, and a video, to be watched while reading, would transform a written analysis even more than companion illustrations. Many analyses of advertising solve this problem by ignoring it.
Cook's statement is, in fact, a testimony to the revolution that has taken place in a decade vis-a-vis film texts and their analysis, often providing solutions to the concerns he raises, particularly those relating to reproduction: the videocassette can be easily digitalized using an appropriate PC card and the resulting digital film can be manipulated in many ways, including, for example, the addition of explanatory captions; the Web, unknown ten years ago, has spawned new forms of advertising which increasingly include streaming video capturable through special software programs such as Camtasia; postproduction software such as Adobe Premiere has made it possible to convert a film into a sequence of stills and hence into a printable format. These technological innovations have given rise to new descriptive practices including: (a) the multimodal transcription (Baldry, 2000b: 81-85; Thibault, 2000: 374-385) and (b) the construction of PC-based multimodal
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corpora accessible by structured queries (Baldry, 2000c: 31). The former allows a TV advert to be reconstructed in terms of a Table containing a chronological sequence of frames, a technique that goes a long way to resolving the difficulties of taking linguistic, musical and pictorial modes into account. Figure 4.1 shows how, in a TV car advert, the intersection between the Columns and Rows in a Table characterizes the interplay between resources, not just those mentioned by Cook speech, song and writing - but also others such as ambient sounds, gaze and gesture. In keeping with the systemic-functional tradition of multimodality (Baldry, 2000a; Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996; O'Toole, 1994), a multimodal transcription will also need to show how meaning is built up as a series of functional units - typically, subphases, phases, but also potentially macrophases, minigenres and genres. An early example of this work was presented by the author in the 25th International Systemic-Functional Congress in 1998 (Taylor and Baldry, 200la, 200Ib) which analysed the phasal (Gregory, 1995, 2002; Gregory and Malcolm, 1981) and metafunctional (Halliday, 1994) organization of a car advert in such a way as to show the advert's interleaving of American and British cultural values. Subsequently, Thibault (2000: 311-385) devised an annotational system, partly reproduced in Figure 4.1, which provides a systematic description of the interplay between resources in an Australian bank advert and which illustrates how a typically Australian identity comes to be created. Thibault's model, which allows the phasal and metafunctional organization of a text to be described in great detail, has become a reference point when extending the approach, for example, to subtitling for languagelearning purposes (Baldry and Taylor, in press) and to the description of genres relating to the political arena (see the news report and interview described in Lombardo, 2001, and party political broadcasts described in Vasta, 2001: 99-128). At the very least, this work has succeeded in establishing how national identities and values are constandy expressed and manipulated in many forms of advertising. In the process of this applicative work, the multimodal transcription has begun to change its function, increasingly being identified with the typical interplays that occur in many texts; for example, Baldry and Thibault have devised a multimodal transcription which, by incorporating a multimodal tagging system, promotes an understanding of the notion of type that lies behind a specific instance (Baldry and Thibault, 2001: 94-98). But is the multimodal transcription the answer to researchers' needs? This paper suggests that, at the very least, it needs to be backed up by other tools that help us understand the workings of multimodal genres. Indeed this paper describes the initial stages of research into multimodal concordancing and development of appropriate software that will allow the relationship between phase and transition to be viewed in terms of type rather than instance. In so doing it questions some aspects of the traditional view of the relationship between phase and transition. But the main purpose
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of this paper is, however, to introduce the new field of multimodal concordancing as a means of examining text and text types in relation to their context of situation and context of culture (Halliday, 1978; Halliday and Hasan, 1985). Multimodal concordancing thus builds on the foundations laid by the multimodal transcription and on systemic-functional approaches to language-only concordancing such as the Systemics Coder developed by O'Donnell (2002). In so doing it raises questions about how the study of multimodal discourse might be undertaken in the languagelearning classroom (Baldry, 1999, in press; Pavesi and Baldry, 2000) and more generally how multimodal concordancing might develop in the future. The multimodal transcription as an expression of instance or of type in phasal organization? What role do phases and transitions play in TV adverts? And crucially how far are multimodal transcriptions limited to giving details of specific instances of phases and how far can they, instead, give information about types of phases? Figure 4.1 is a small and highly abridged sample of a
Figure 4.1
A classic multimodal transcription (Phase 1 of The Fan)
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'classic' multimodal transcription based on the Table and (with a few additions and modifications and many abridgements) on, in particular, Thibault's annotational scheme (see Thibault, 2000: 374—385 for a complete example of a multimodal transcription). It relates to an advert entitled The Fan in which a male driver, whose car has become overheated, hitches a lift from a lady driver in an Audi automatic. The transcription in Figure 4.1 is concerned with instance rather than with type and may be read from left to right in three major blocks that constitute a progression from a description of Textual data to one relating to the specific text's organization into semiotic units: (a) the first two columns relate to the way in which frames are selected with a periodic regularity, in this case one frame per second (see Table 4.1 for an explanation of the abbreviations
Table 4.1
List of abbreviations
Time:
TS = time in seconds;
Phases:
Ph — Phase or 11; SP= Subphase or |; CD = Car Drive; CS= Car Stationary;
Metqfunctions:
EXP= Experiential; £NT= Interpersonal; TEX= Textual;
Visual image:
CP= Camera Position; VS = Visual salience; SH= Shot; CLS = Close Shot; D = Distance; MCS= Medium Close Shot; SV= Side view; FV= Front View P; /C= Inside Car; OC= Outside Car; ICLO — Inside Car Looking Out; OCLI= Outside Car Looking In; WS = written slogan;
Participants:
P= Participant, D = Male Driver; F= Female driver; M= Mascot; ST= Soundtrack; AS = Ambient sounds; MIS — Music and singing or JJ + %* with words in italics representing words spoken or sung; T= Transition; \ \ = transition lasting a subphase; > || a transition crossing a phasal boundary;
Soundtrack:
Transitions:
J high integration of resources (in particular between body movements and music); Combinations (RC): L low integration of resources (in particular between body movements and music); K medium integration of resources (in particular between body movements and music); Other symbols: Movt. = Movement; •!• or —> = the same semiotic selections hold true as compared with the previous frame on the left (i.e. same phase or subphase but some changes have occurred); a double arrow as in —> P: —>+ F (finger) means that the configuration is as before but there is now a new Participant added to those previously present: the Female driver's finger.
Resource
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used); (b) the subsequent columns provide descriptions of the individual semiotic resources, including a description of the soundtrack in terms of both music and song and ambient sounds; (c) the final columns relate to semiotically motivated interpretations of how resources combine to form meaning-making units. As Thibault (2000: 321) points out, multimodal text analysis does not accept the notion that the meaning of the text can be divided into a number of separate semiotic 'channels' or 'codes': the meaning of a multimodal text is instead the composite product/process of the ways in which different resources are co-deployed and in which the phase is taken as an enactment of'locally foregrounded selections of options'. Figure 4.2 is a very different kind of multimodal transcription, organized not so much as a finite Table with its page-based verticality, but more like a musical score. It unfolds from left to right in a manner that potentially extends well beyond the confines of the page. Such a transcription, remains however, in keeping with the overall goals of multimodal text analysis which is to specify both the selections made from the various semiotic modalities and the combinations used to produce a given (phase-specific) meaning (Thibault, 2000: 321). Vis-a-vis Figure 4.1, it uses a few more abbreviations. It should be noted that the car, although not included in the list of abbreviations, is still to be considered a Participant (in the technical sense of a Participant in a ParticipantAProcess relationship, see Halliday, 1994: 107-109), its parts (gear, window, etc.) being spelled out in full: thus a transcription of the type P: D: Arm; Car: Gear means that the major Participants in the construction of meaning are the driver's arm and the car gearstick. Unlike the 'classic' multimodal transcription described in Figure 4.1, a transcription of the type presented in Figure 4.2 is concerned as much with type as with instance. It dispenses, for example, with a precise reference to the text's unfolding in time: in fact the total duration of this text is 35 seconds and the interval between the individual frames is, as in Figure 4.1, still one second. The transcription in Figure 4.2 is in some respects slighdy less detailed than the instantial conception of the multimodal transcription exemplified in Figure 4.1 since one of its functions is to summarize the major characteristics of the entire text in a concise way, thus demonstrating its greater potential for compression in description. This kind of multimodal transcription records information about type in the top section, i.e. the Row above the individual frames, and information about specific instance in the bottom part. In particular, the Top Row suggests the change that has taken place vis-a-vis the previous subphase: the text in question relates to the male driver jiving to the sounds of an Elvis Presley-type song as he drives along, while the details of what actually happens to the driver and the way this relates to the song are given in the Bottom Row. The Top Row thus suggests the semiotic development of the text in terms of its phasal structure and the main changes in its deployment of resources - the Top Row is thus oriented
Figure 4.2 A multimodal transcription incorporating structure/type of phase/subphase (Top Row) and co-deployments and resource selections (Bottom Row)
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towards the constant shifts in the selection of options in keeping with Gregory's principle that phase and transition can 'be used to capture the dynamic instantiation of micro-registerial choices in a particular discourse' (Gregory, 2002: 323); the Bottom Row (with its focus on the content of each shot) describes, on the other hand, the film's unfolding in time, and, though not excluding the principle of selection from options, is thus oriented more towards sequential development and specific realizations. Though not shown here, a multimodal transcription of this type also allows Textual elements from various texts to be aligned in such a way as to compare their phasal organization (see Baldry, 2000b: 68-69 for the development of the comparative multimodal transcription). Though unusually involving two drivers and two car-drive phases, in many other ways the text in question illustrates many typical features of car adverts, in particular the expression of the very strong relationship between the driver's and the car's identity. As Figure 4.2 indicates, although other criteria might have been invoked, a good starting point when defining the division into phases in this text (and we may add the 60 adverts in the current car advert corpus) relates not to the human participants but instead to the type of representation of the car: in this case (and in many other cases) whether the car is present and, if so, whether it is moving or stationary. At the start of the first phase of this text, there is a typical car-drive phase [+CD], in the second, an essentially car-stationary phase [+CS] (though the second subphase contains the idea of a car stopping and starting - hence the [+CS, +CD] tag); the third phase is again a car-drive phase [+CD], while the fourth phase, the end phase, typically relates to the car abstractly in terms of its make and manufacturer, and presents all the typical ingredients of one type of end phase where the car itself is (physically) excluded [—CD, —CS] and where instead the focus is on oral and written slogans and the manufacturer's logo. The correlation between driver and car is, of course, a major goal of the car advert genre, reflected in the genre's phasal organization, which characterizes the way the car advert unfolds in time. The car is very much a Participant — by definition, at least an equal partner in the human/non-human participant relationship (and more often than not a superior). This emerges quite clearly in the type-oriented multimodal transcription of Figure 4.2, which explicitly defines the constant shifts in local foregrounding in the Top Row, e.g. whether it is the car, the driver, the mascot or the countryside that is the salient Participant in a particular phase or subphase. In fact, the most salient phases in this text are the first and third, with the first phase being conjunctive-disjunctive in nature and the third, conversely, of the disjunctive-conjunctive type. This reflects the text's foregrounding of potentially conflictual Interpersonal relationships between the two drivers: the first, an outlandish jive-as-you-drive dude, the second, a suave, sophisticated female. 'Conjunctive' and 'disjunctive' are here
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respectively used to describe specifically the synchronization and nonsynchronization of movements among Participants (see Thibault, 2000: 342), which, of course, include the cars and the mascot as well as the drivers. It is frequently the case in film texts (for example, documentaries) that the visual and the verbal are out of step, with the visual anticipating the verbal (see Baldry, 2000b: 74), but what is striking in this text is whether or not the movements of the participants are synchronized in relation to each other and to the music. An attempt has been made to track the types of shift that take place in this respect using symbols that relate to Resource Combinations (RC). Resources can thus be deployed, as in this text, in such a way that their initial synchronization is lost, thereby creating two sets of meanings which are potentially in conflict. In the first phase, all the resources - body movement, music and song and the sequence of visual frames - are in unison but, by the end of the first phase, visual image, kinetic action and soundtrack are out of step: neither driver nor mascot are swinging in time with the music and song (which continues); instead with the sudden braking of the car, they remain quite rigid and motionless, an indication that a second and rather ironical series of rhythms is at work, which, together with the smoke coming from the gearbox, signals the fact that the dude's car is on the point of breaking down. Conversely, in the third phase, desynchronized resources become synchronized: the man and woman seem, initially, to be in conflict with each other, with gaze significantiy contributing to this meaning - the woman glares reproachfully at the man who dares to stick his mascot on her impeccably clean windscreen while the poor man 'defends' himself by looking blankly straight ahead, out of the windscreen, his facial expression and body position, having become utterly rigid, in complete contrast to what happens in the first three subphases of the first phase. Resources such as gaze, spatial disposition, body movement and facial expression are deployed in this text in such a way as to be deliberately out of step with cultural expectations: two people sitting next to each other in the confined space of a private car and who have never met before and who are the car's only occupants will normally look at and talk to each other, which is precisely what does not happen. Gradually, harmony between the two sets in, as the interplay of semiotic resources underpinning the first phase is restored: music and song are the first to be reintroduced when the man hands over his cassette, followed by the restored rhythms of the mascot, which when prodded by the nowsmiling lady, once again swings in keeping with the music; finally, the man's good humour also returns: he lifts his head up, smiles and starts to chew gum again, all signs that his unrestrained jiving-'n'-driving is in the process of being rehabilitated. Important in this process is the focus on the mascot, which is seen being prodded by the lady who, though not present in the man's car, seems intuitively to understand that this gesture will cause the mascot to wriggle and writhe to the music thereby restoring her passenger's good humour.
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These two phases are separated by a very brief second phase in which both cars are essentially motionless and where, vis-a-vis the metafunctions, rather than Interpersonal elements, Textual and Experiential elements are prominent: in this short phase, the New is introduced in the form of a new car, a new driver and an Internet address (note that, in fact, the Internet address has been 'carried across' from the previous phase, illustrating the significance of extended transitions and overlaps in phasal organization, a matter discussed in detail below). The main meaning created is that the male driver successfully hitches a lift, so that it is important to glimpse one of the cars stopping - hence the [+CS +CD] tag for this phase. The absence of salient Interpersonal elements in this phase is striking: the song, for example, ceases, in contrast to the previous and subsequent phases, indirectly underscoring the fact that, in many car ads, song is a crucial source of meaning, often acting as the functional equivalent of a narrator, linking the viewer to the events at hand and, in part, defining the viewer's expected response to actions and events. This advert is no exception in this respect: the final refrain 'you own my heart', cements the identity between the viewer, the car drivers and the car. It also coincides with the written slogan - multitronic©: II cambio automatico a variazione continua da Audi [i.e. Audi's gearbox with continuously variable automatic transmission] further building on the text's basic thematics, namely that the discordant contrast between the smooth, sophisticated lady and the dude's jive-as-you-drive lifestyle will be resolved in a harmonious fashion by a relaxing ride in the right car, namely an Audi automatic. Significantly, many contemporary car adverts present the car as a space where social conflicts, potential or real, may be resolved, whether within the family or, for example, between loving couples. The car can thus be a sexual space as in the Citroen car advert in the author's corpus where, in the hyperreal coding orientation (for coding orientation see Bernstein, 1971; for a multimodal perspective of coding orientation see Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996: 168—171), the car rolls over and over as the couple make love; alternatively, it may be a place of protection where a kissing couple in a lonely lane can successfully fend off an attack from Zombies. More mundanely, it can also be a space where children and animals can be safely transported and sometimes even a space in which members of a sports team can start throwing a ball around, de facto transcending the narrow confines of the car's interior. In this advert, song contributes significantly to this particular meaning of conflict resolution, built up gradually and multimodally, throughout the advert with its highly sensual suggestion that the relationship between the man and the woman will outlive the lift and that it will be the woman who will provide the initiative in this respect: a prod, as it were, is as good as a wink. Notice, indeed, how, rather than stopping at the end of the third phase, the song extends beyond into the final phase, with the
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result that the latter, as well as giving the usual information about the particular model and the manufacturer, also underscores the entire text's meaning, by suggesting that the conflict between the man and the woman can be, and indeed, has been resolved by virtue of the car's design characteristics. This meaning-making is the result of the artful juxtaposition and overlapping of different types of phases that carry out different functions. The very notion of phase presupposes that there is some transition between one phase and another and, to a lesser extent, between the various subphases that constitute a phase. Moreover, following on from what has been stated above, as well as phase types, we can also expect various types of transition to be present in film texts. For example, Thibault (2000: 320-321) suggests that the points of transition between phases have their own special features that play an important role in the ways in which observers or viewers recognize the shift from one phase to the next and that, generally speaking, transition points are perceptually more salient in relation to the phases themselves. Thus viewers of texts have no difficulty in perceiving particular Textual phases thanks to their ability to recognize the transition points or the boundaries between phases. However, the notion of transition should not necessarily be associated with the idea that there is a precise boundary or point at which a transition occurs. In many cases, this vision of boundaries in the organization of phases and transitions will work very successfully. But this is not always the case. As Thibault (2000: 326-327) points out: Perceptually speaking, transitions between phases are not always clear-cut [. . .] Thus, the transition point may be characterized by a gradual merging of features from the two phases in question as one phase decays or fades out and the other conies into being [. . .] The transitions between subphases are not always so straightforward. At times, there is an almost imperceptible overlap between subphases. In this text, for example, each of the two main phases (the first and the third) contains a series of pivotal transitional points between the various subphases that mark the step-like progression from conjunctive to disjunctive (as defined above) and vice versa: these are movements relating to the gearbox, the cassette, the mascot, the drivers and the cars (e.g. braking). In the first phase, the malfunctioning of the gearbox (we hear an ominous crunching noise) and sudden braking and cessation of the mascot's movements signal that disruption is to follow. The driver's jiving also comes to a stop. In the third phase, the reverse is true: for the second time the camera carefully focuses on the gearbox, which, in keeping with the demands of the targeted audience, and quite unlike the first gearbox, is an automatic gearbox for drivers who like a smooth ride. Significantly, the transition points in this, and many other adverts, are linked in a chain to form a crescendo which
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contributes to the overall coherence of the text. One way in which this salience is achieved is by changing the camera focus: thus the out-of-focus mascot suddenly comes into focus. Another is the type of shot used: two major subphasal transition points in the first phase and a third in the third phase coincide with the only three shots in which we view the mascot by looking out of the car through the windscreen: in each case this selection of the mascot contributes to the underlying conjunctive/disjunctive 'stop-start' flow of the text: the mascot is shown, in an alternating way, as either static, carrying with it a negative connotation (a 'stop') that things are wrong, or, when it sways in all directions, with a positive connotation (a 'continuation' or a 'restart' after a 'stop'). A similar chain is described in Thibault (2000: 328-329), in terms of: covariate semantic ties in the visual thematics [. . .] that are progressively denned in the unfolding text as cohesive chains extending over the entire text. For example, the foregrounded co-patternings of items deriving from the interacting cohesive chains of 'smiling', 'rolling the sleeves', and 'moving forward' function to create global coherence in the text.
In Thibault's example the meaning implied relates to the characterization of different activities as being fundamentally analogous (the participants, each in a different context, roll up their sleeves, smile and get on with their different jobs). But the transition chains in this text carry out a very different function: they realize step-like crescendos relating to the creation of discord and the subsequent return to harmony. That the notion of transition does not necessarily entail the notion of a single point or a single boundary in any particular phase also emerges in other ways. Mergings and overlaps between phases are also typical in many film texts, adverts included. In this particular text, transitions are prominent in both the second and the fourth phases of this text, where the transition from Phase 1 to Phase 2 is prolonged over a few seconds in such a way as to construct the meaning that the male driver is in the process of changing cars. Thus, in the second phase, phase and transition are partly co-terminous insofar as an entire subphase (SP2) is taken up with an (albeit rare) split shot, in which the two different cars are simultaneously foregrounded and backgrounded, the result of postproduction techniques (but also clever camera work), whose purpose is to effect the transition from the Given (the first car) to the Mew (the second car) in a salient and lingering way, thereby underscoring the fact that a major change in the events described in the text is taking place. Moreover, as we have already seen, the end phase, which in car adverts are typically associated with slogans for the particular car model and car manufacturer, is merged with the previous phase, thanks to the precise synchronization between the oral slogan (the final part of the song), and the written slogan. Thus, transitions are not necessarily equated with the cutting from one shot to another, nor indeed with what is happening in the visual. While
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transitions will often be related to what is happening in the visual, this will not always be the case; while phases (see Gregory, 1995, 2002; Gregory and Malcolm, 1981) relate to 'stretches of text in which there is a significant measure of consistency and congruity' (Gregory, 2002: 322) transitions, as Thibault (2000: 320) and Gregory (2002: 323) have pointed out, essentially relate to changes in the metafunctional organization of the text and as such may very well be related to changes in the soundtrack and not just to what happens in the visual. One of the clues to the fact that, in this text, the second phase really is a separate phase is the fact that after the noise and commotion of the first phase, this phase uses 'quiet' sounds: no song, no music - just the sound of car tyres and a barely audible wind. Indeed the Top Row of Figure 4.2 attempts to record the constantly changing interplay between the types of resource in the soundtrack: ambient sounds, music and music and song (but never complete silence). Transitions, as well as being structural in nature, are thus inherently and predominantly semiotic, contributing to the entire text's meaning through their typical organization into chains. They are thus not just part of the local foregrounding of semiotic selections. Indeed, precisely because they are salient, transitions are frequently linked to the advert's ultimate message. Transitions are ultimately bound up with the expectations that the viewer has about the text and often guide the viewer vis-a-vis these expectations to the right conclusion. Transitions thus have to do with the constant interplay between the expected and unexpected in film texts. In this text, we expect song and music to be restored, which is precisely what happens. These expectations are inherently multimodal, the result of the interplay between many resources. Zago (2002: 62—70) reports an interesting case in which a drinks advert uses an animated cartoon to represent the transitions from one experience to another in a sequence of hallucinations each represented as a warping of the face of the protagonist, an exhausted cyclist, and in the buildings he cycles past. He finally reaches a place where he can drink a cool pint of Guinness, and thus bring a halt to the spiral of fever-like experiences that include blue penguins and deformed rubber-like walls. Here, too, it is the chain of transitions that is important, the text's meaning being built around a spiralling escalation, interrupted only by the act of 'murdering' a cool pint. I have also reported a similar chain of transitions at work in Benigni's 1997 film La vita e bella (Life is beautiful} (Baldry, 2002) suggesting that the viewer's expectations are that the chain of transitions from one phase to another will be linked to the final climax in the film. Transition chains make their meaning by being typically multimodal. In many film genres, they will be visual and musical as well as linguistic, the case, time and again, in the world of advertising. In La vita e bella all three elements intertwine, with music playing a very significant role: the catchy music starts off as background music but gradually as the film proceeds becomes foregrounded and thematized as the only means of communication
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in a concentration camp. In saying this, we are suggesting that it is the transition., rather than the phase, that is the most significant element in the phasal organization of a text and that a focus on type of transition in multimodal analysis will help clarify that what is salient is ultimately what is most meaningful. So far we have posited phase types applicable to this advert as being describable as: [+GD], [-CD], [+CS] or [-CS] or a combination thereof (but see also the discussion below for their extension to many other car adverts) and, from a slightly different perspective, we have also posited the existence of phases that can be characterized in terms of the conjunctive and/or disjunctive deployment of resources. But what transition types are there? In this paper, given that multimodal concordancing is taking its very first steps, we can do little more than posit their existence. Indeed, precisely because of its static nature, the multimodal transcription, which seems so far to have been the major research tool used in the multimodal analysis of film text, is inappropriate when identifying and describing what is quintessentially dynamic in nature: namely the transition. All this is reflected in a second type of multimodal transcription presented in Figure 4.2, concerned as much with multimodal type as with multimodal instance. Still under development (e.g. as a method of reporting the findings of multimodal concordancing), this type of transcription tries to highlight types of cut, types of shot, types of phases and types of transition. To give just one example, the symbol > has been used to suggest a transition overlap, that is, points at which there is no clean break between one phase and another but where instead one or more resources get carried across what otherwise appears to be a phasal boundary. Thus, the symbol >ll J3 + %* means a type of transition in which music and song are carried across from one phase to another. Conversely, the symbol | | means a type of transition that lasts for the entire length of a subphase. Looking at types of phase and transition through a multimodal concordancer In describing The Fan advert, we are beginning to move away from the multimodal transcription as an expression of instance towards the multimodal transcription as an expression of type, which inevitably raises a whole series of questions. Are certain types of transitions likely to be found more frequently in specific genres? Is the absence of speech, or indeed total silence, one of the typical markers of a transition from one phase to another in afeature film, but which, because of the need for maximum compression of meaning in a very short space of time, is unlikely to be present in such genres as the car advert? Or, on the other hand, do transitions function in such a way as to introduce a new item of information that builds, sometimes in a repetitive chain, onto what has previously been constructed in the text? As viewers we are capable of recognizing phases and transitions; as transcribers, we can reconstruct where they occur. But this does not amount to
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the same thing as characterizing the typical ways in which transitions come to be the salient element in phasal organization. A multimodal transcription is limited in the amount of information it can give about types of semiotic units that are found in film texts and cannot provide anything like the information we need in order to provide motivated answers to these questions. If we are to pursue our understanding of the codeployment of semiotic resources more thoroughly we need to understand how a large number of dynamic texts typically unfold in time. And in order to be able to identify characteristic patterns, the research process requires us to build corpora that can be analysed in terms of various Textual phenomena, including, in particular, a study of the typical phasal organization of a specific genre which ensures that a film's unfolding in time, in which the transition, as we have seen, is so significant, can be captured by in vivo multimodal analysis. Such a requirement dictates the need to build software programs that are capable of analyzing corpora and not just individual texts. What then are the characteristics of an online XML-based multimodal concordancer such as the Multimodal Corpus Authoring (MCA) system, which has been designed by the author specifically to identify recurrent patterns in films? First, as an authoring tool, it enables researchers, however imperfectly, to view short pieces of film and simultaneously to write multimodal descriptions of them in terms of various parameters, for example, those relating to a text's metafunctional and phasal organization. Using MCA's editing tool, researchers can segment a particular film into functional units and, while viewing these units, type out detailed annotations relating both to the semiotic resources they deploy and the functions they perform within that film. Indeed, MCA approximates to the researcher's dream of simultaneously viewing and writing a description of a film in real time (see Baldry and Taylor, in press). Second, like a linguistic concordancer, a multimodal concordancer can also establish patterns that relate to a series of texts, rather than to specific instances, to a much greater degree than is possible with a multimodal transcription, even where the latter is oriented towards type rather than instance. For example, it is possible, using MCA, to determine the ratio of female to male drivers, or to identify those texts relating to cars that are not being driven, and hence have no drivers, and those relating to cars which are instead being driven but where the driver is 'implied' and not actually seen. It is also possible to identify special cases that involve two drivers, typically one male and one female, or non-human drivers, typically robots. As with any corpus approach using information technology, this information can be obtained within a few seconds. However, unlike many lemma-based approaches, the researcher must first carry out the work of description-cumtranscription of the texts in the corpus. Not surprisingly, the software design is such to incorporate an analytical framework that simplifies this task as much as possible.
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MCA's incorporated relational database allows researchers to search the corpora created and identify patterns in them, all of which leads to a further round of hypothesis formulation, segmentation, description and comparison of results. Table 4.2 gives the results of multimodal concordancing in relation to 60 car adverts and shows that there are, in fact, many cases where there is either no driver, because the car is stationary (16/60), or where an unseen driver is driving the car (19/60). There are in fact a total of 24 male drivers (though in 3 cases we assume that the driver is a male from what goes before and after). There are only six woman drivers and two of these appear, as in the case of The Fan, in adverts where a man also drives. Importantly, half the adverts are careful not to show the driver's identity. Moreover, the relationship between men and women takes on a different perspective when we look at different participants in the structure of an advert. When we examine, for example, the ratio between male and female voiceovers (whose function is usually to act as 'narrators' or 'storytellers'), we notice that the imbalance begins to redress itself for there are various cases in the corpus where, vis-a-vis a male or an unidentified driver, a female
Table 4.2 Driver types in 60 TV car adverts
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voiceover predominates. As Table 4.3 shows, the search query in this case is no longer formed by a single parameter (driver) but is a relational search that links two disparate parameters: driver and storyteller. Thus, unlike many lemma-based linguistic concordancers such as OCP or WordSmith, but in keeping with the approach adopted by O'Halloran and Judd (2002), a multimodal concordancer needs to be built around the notion of the relationship between resources, events and participants. In this respect, any form of transcription is a hard task, often undertaken by a researcher without knowing whether the effort will be worth the candle. In theory, the results described in Table 4.2 could be acquired by watching a videocassette and marking down the various features using pen and paper. Though in principle feasible, it would be a time-consuming process. Even using MCA, which greatly reduces the time taken to provide a description, it is still a time-consuming process. A much harder task, however, is to relate the parameter DRIVER with other parameters such as STORYTELLER and ORAL SLOGAN. This is virtually impossible to achieve using traditional pen-andpaper and cassette methods. A multimodal concordancer, such as MCA, which is based on these relational principles, can easily identify such patterns through relational searches as Table 4.3 indicates. Third, a multimodal concordancer, even more than a linguistic concordancer, needs to be built around functional parameters such as those we have mentioned above, namely Halliday's notion of metafunctions (Halliday, 1994) and Gregory's notion of phase and transition (Gregory, 1995, 2002). In this respect, one significant step in the development of a corpus relates to the work of tagging. In their paper on the development of a tagging system, Baldry and Thibault (2001: 94-98) proposed the use of an annotational system that defined gesture and language in terms of Halliday's notion of
Table 4.3 A relational search in MCA
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Experiential metafunction: thus a tag of the L-MENT:PROJ and G-MENT:PROJ type means that the text being described contains an instantiation in which language and gesture are being used together to express mental projection. MCA will support this type of tagging without any difficulty. However, given that, as mentioned above, annotational systems in multimodal concordancers are still in their infancy, the system adopted so far has been oriented to a binary presence/absence distinction of the various descriptive parameters, which, as described elsewhere (Baldry and Taylor, in press), may be defined at will by the corpus author. But how does all this contribute, for example, to our understanding of the phasal organization of texts? Though ultimately more sophisticated mappings of the relationship between phases and metafunctions should be possible, in the current stage of development, this relationship has been characterized only in terms of a very preliminary step, namely the analysis of the major Experiential 'category' in the car-drive phase(s) of 60 car adverts: the activity of driving and what precedes and follows it. As Table 4.4 illustrates, this activity has been characterized in terms of the sub-components associated with the material process of driving, where SP stands (as indicated in Table 4.1) for a subphase. Using MCA, this information can be retrieved from the corpus with a query of the form: SP2: contains YES or SP2: contains NO or even SP2: contains YES and NO in cases where the matter is not quite so clear (for Table 4.4
Division of the activity of driving into subphases
SP1: INDICATES INTENTION: e.g. picks up keys (partly a mental process, partly a material process); SP2: APPROACHES: The driver a) approaches the car and b) unlocks the driver's door; SP3: GETS IN: The driver a) opens the door, b) gets in and c) closes door; SP4: STARTS UP/DEPARTS: The driver a) puts the key in the ignition, b) starts the engine, c) indicates intention to move off and d) pulls away; SP5: CAR-DRIVE: The driver drives along the road (in town/country, by day/by night, in summer/winter, on/off road) towards his/ her destination; SPG: STOPS/SLOWS: The driver (a) stops and (b) slows down at INTERMEDIATE POINTS (e.g. traffic lights, junction, negotiates bend, has accident, calls in a shop, changes cars); SP7: ARRIVES/PARKS: The driver (a) slows down, (b) stops on reaching destination, (c) parks and (d) switches off engine; SP8: EXITS: The driver (a) gets out of the car and (b) closes door; SP9: WALKS OFF: separates himself/herself physically from the car.
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example, when a driver opens the door and puts an object or person in the car rather than himself/herself). Equally, it is possible, with a single search, to identify all the cases where we see the car being driven and the driver getting into and out of the car, in this case a query of the type: SP3: contains YES + SP5: contains YES + SP8 contains YES. Thus 60 adverts were 'tagged' in terms of the subphases of the car-drive phase (the first subphase has been excluded on the grounds that it is only partly a material process), in such a way that the corpus could be searched for the absence or presence of a particular subphase. As Table 4.5 shows, there is in fact only one advert (n. 21) which comes anywhere close to instantiating all the possible subphases and even in this case one subphase is missing and another is doubtful - hence the YES/NO tag represented as a bracketed tick: this is a case where the driver is seen getting into the car but only to put his young son in the back seat (see Figure 4.3 below). In all these adverts, visual/verbal ellipsis is constantly at work vis-avis the instantiation of the driving experience: there is normally no need to see all the phases at work, since our own experience of driving allows us to 'fill in the gaps'. With the exception of advert n. 21, in 60 adverts we never see the driver getting into and out of a car. Table 4.5 suggests that car adverts do, in fact, fall into three types, which may be tabulated as follows: 1 Car-drive adverts: The car is seen moving in a glorified way that attempts to go beyond the daily grind of the ordinary world. The car is in an ideal world. More often than not the number of participants is limited to one or two people and in many cases no human participant is foregrounded; the participants never talk about the car and never talk to each other and only exceptionally to the audience. In these adverts only subphase 5 is apparent (17 cases); 2 Car-stationary adverts: The car is motionless, a statue to be 'worshipped' and is typically related to some inconsistency or oddity in the behaviour of the people surrounding the car who typically talk about the car. In these adverts, none of the subphases listed in Table 4.4 is present (11 cases represented in Table 4.5 as grey-shaded columns) or alternatively subphases in which the car is seen moving are absent (a further 6 cases); 3 Hybrid storytelling adverts: where both car-drive and car-stationary elements are present and where either other genres are exploited to meet the advert's own ends (e.g. spoofs on cinema and TV genres) or some attempt is made to define the car in relation to daily activities and (usually) its enhancement of these. These types include talk but never in the car-drive phase or subphase. A good example of this is where the car-drive element is not shown - hence the bracketed tick notation - but is instead realized, through talk, as a mental and oral fantasy (projection) about the car's drive potential by the car driver while the car is actually stopped (say at the traffic lights). This is by far the largest category (26 cases), although it should be noted that the majority (15) instantiate CD subphases before CS subphases (The Fan being a rather special case).
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Table 4.5 Distribution of subphases (material process) in the car-drive phase
A fourth important characteristic of a multimodal concordancer is that it comes close to functioning as a 'Mark II' multimodal transcription represented in Figure 4.2 incorporating the notion of type in that it can 'print out' all the characteristics of a specific car advert in terms of a set of YES/ NO presence of descriptive parameters. Thus Table 4.6 gives the 'printout' (actually a screen illustration) for The Fan advert we have analysed above.
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Table 4.6 Screen illustration of a multimodal transcription generated by MCA
Table 4.7 A multimodal transcription generated by MCA using relational parameters
Finally, an important function of the multimodal concordancer, closely linked to its capacity to relate the characteristics of a specific car advert to general trends, lies in its ability to pick the 'odd man' out. Thus, for example, getting into a car is a comparatively rare event found in only 5 out of 60 adverts. Though by no means the rarest of subphases, its relative absence is surprising. Moreover, there are only two cases (10, 21) where SP2+SP3+SP4 all occur together. As Table 4.7 shows, they are both marked cases where, as is very frequently the case in car adverts, the abnormality and unpredictability of humans (in this case, as Figure 4.3 shows, the stereotypical forgetfulness of a male driver) is compared to the scientific reliability of cars. Notice the player symbols on the left-hand side of Tables 4.3, 4.6 and 4.7. Once we have identified a particularly striking result, we can mouse-click these symbols and gain immediate access to the advert in question, all of which allows us to view the precise context and to 'explain' the exception to the predicted pattern in the manner indicated in Figure 4.3. A multimodal concordancer is, after all, concerned with giving the researcher immediate access to phases in film that require careful scrutiny. Analyses of the results of queries such as Table 4.4, together with exceptions such as those suggested in Table 4.7 and Figure 4.3, all confirm Thibault's (2000: 343) hypothesis that: In movement, simultaneity and spatiality rather than linear succession in time and particulateness (constituency) are important in the realization of Experiential event and action configurations.
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Unusual events dictate the need for an extended pre-drive subphase
This might at first seem surprising: undoubtedly, the posited sequence of 8 subphases in the material process of driving might at first be seen as implying a linear succession in time. However, as we have seen, most of the subphases are implied rather than actually seen: only 5 out of 60 adverts explicitly represent more than 4 subphases. Most are more like The Fan, concerned with the car as a social space rather than as a moving object. The camera focuses on the spatial location of the car (on a country road) and on a body or body part (where body = e.g. driver, mascot or car) which performs a movement as an instigator or a reactor. Nevertheless, car adverts may, in general, be divided into three main blocks that can be tabulated as follows: an initial block consisting of a single phase focusing on a single, individual entity: a specific car, a person or a place in time; a main block consisting of one or more phases or subphases contextualizing the initial focus through the specification of the relations of the selected entity with the 'missing' parameters; an end block consisting of a single phase: featuring the car logo, name, manufacturer and, in many cases, some kind of EVALUATING synthesis that may be used to project beyond the small world of individual entities shown in the advert to a larger, more complex world (and which, of course, functions to persuade you, the viewer, by overcoming your resistance to the product). This phasal organization seems to fit The Fan and many other adverts in the corpus very well. However, more work using MCA is required to establish the validity of this suggested typical phasal organization and the division of advert types into three types. The [+/-CD] and [+/—GS] tagging system will not, of course, always be distributed as in the current case as: +CD(P1)A+CSA+CS/+CD(P2)A+GD(P3)A-GS/-GD(P4). There are cases, for example, in which the distribution is essentially the reverse, with the car's physical presence being confined exclusively to the end phase. But this does not affect the hypothesis that three basic subtypes exist.
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If they do exist, then it may well be that the predominating human figure in the car advert will turn out to be generically correlated with one of the specific subtypes mentioned above: the DRIVER (the car-drive only advert), the INSPECTOR (the car-stationary advert) and the RACONTEUR/STORYTELLER (the hybrid type alternating car-drive and car-stationary phases and including the subtype which includes an off-screen narrator). A further prediction is that other roles will be involved definable, however, in relation to the car (as opposed to other participants, whether family, colleagues or strangers). That is, it may prove to be the case that (despite many overlaps between the categories) the car may be defined in terms of first, second and third person relationships. The general distribution might well be: (a) car-drive adverts: driver with his/her car [first person: mine: car and me, driver are the same thing]; (b) car-stationary adverts: inspector with somebody else's car, not mine [third person: otherness: not mine/notyours\; (c) storytelling adverts: raconteur and his/her dream car for you [second person: yours, likely to include some kind of appeal of the type: You should be driving it. . .]. Table 4.5 reconstructs the Experiential metafunction of 60 car adverts analytically and systematically as subphases in the material process of driving, thereby suggesting the validity of multimodal concordancing as an analytical and teaching approach. But, however systematic this may be, this is only a provisional finding for if we are to honour the definition of phases in terms of Gregory's already mentioned concept of consistency and congruity echoed in Thibault's definition of phases as 'co-patterned semiotic selections that are co-deployed in a consistent way over a given stretch of text' (Thibault, 2000: 325-326) and if we are to characterize their consequent close identification with specific metafunctional configurations, we need, at the very least, to complete the picture by describing patterns that emerge vis-a-vis the Interpersonal metafunction (many of which are likely to be stereotypical) and even more crucially the types of configurations that emerge in relation to Interpersonal meanings when they are mapped onto the Experiential structure we have sketched out. This is a complex descriptive operation. Thus, although the previous paragraph gives broad suggestions as to how this mapping might take place in car adverts, a complete picture of the organization of car adverts into typical patterns of phases and transitions still needs to be worked out. Such a picture needs to be ascertained with more robust corpus description than the one currently available. But the important point to note is that both the type of corpus description and the corpus querying that this operation requires seem to be quite in keeping with MCA's capabilities, given that its core feature is its capacity to relate a wide array of disparate features over a wide range of texts. But even if the phasal patterns sketched out above prove to be valid over a still larger corpus, they will not be a point of arrival. Rather they will still be a point of departure into a more precise understanding of transitions and transition types, whose careful description, as this paper has attempted to suggest, is crucial to the success of the multimodal analysis of film texts.
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Conclusion What is a multimodal transcription and what is a multimodal concordancer? What is the relation between them and how can they promote English studies, both from the standpoint of the researcher carrying out detailed comparisons of texts and, more generally, from the standpoint of teachers and students of English? Why should we be looking at type as opposed to instance? Most answers to these questions will, hopefully, have been provided in what has been stated above. A characterization of phase and transition types would seem to lead to a better understanding of the features of dynamic genres of which TV ads are just one exponent, one that at the very least provides a guiding framework for students taking their first steps in the analysis of dynamic texts. A few concluding notes are, however, in order. While the multimodal transcription can be a useful starting point for an understanding of the ways in which resources such as gaze, gesture and language combine in typical phasal patterns, it has its limitations, some of which have been noted above. In the early stages of this work, Baldry and Thibault developed a dynamic version of the static multimodal transcription, a forerunner of MCA, which allowed the user to generate the individual rows of a transcription through a query mechanism, and which facilitated understanding of how visual objects and their movements could be analysed in terms of Halliday's metafunctions. Unlike a lemma-based linguistic concordancer such as OCP or Wordsmith, MCA does not search throug Textual data directly in the search for patterns but does so indirectly: it searches the corpus for patterns in descriptions which have been previously created by the researcher using MCA's annotational tool. The annotational patterns so far used in the construction of a corpus of car adverts relate mainly to the metafunctional and phasal organization of the texts. As we have seen, in the analysis of The Fan car advert, driving a car is notjust a question of driving: rather a car advert can be defined in terms of the relationship between the car driver and the car itself, with car-drive (CD) phases intertwining with car-stationary (CS) phases. Above all, though, MCA is the result of efforts to create transcription and annotational tools that meet functional criteria in a way that was not achieved by the first generations of lemma-based concordances. In this respect, it has to be stressed that the needs of the research community have changed in recent years in such a way as to privilege specialized corpora, including the analysis, whether comparative or otherwise, of specific texts, all of which are clearly reflected in the design characteristics of MCA. MCA has been specifically designed as an online tool so that the research and teaching community can easily access it. In this respect, work is currently in progress to establish what integrations can be achieved with other systems, for example, with HyperContext Web which uses techniques born in artificial intelligence that keep track of the user's progress and which are fundamental in teaching applications of corpora (see Pavesi and Baldry, 2000; Piastra and Lombardi, 2000).
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Multimodal concordancing is in its infancy. MCA may have been on-line for more than a year now with a constantly growing user base. But it is still a prototype that requires inputs and co-developments by various research teams, including the efforts of specialists in computer-based multimodal annotational systems. One area, for example, in which MCA and instruments like MCA may be expected to develop further, in particular if they are to be used as a teaching tool, is in terms of their incorporation of predefined sets of parameters so as to reflect different linguistic and multimodal theories and traditions. Here MCA will depend heavily on the experience gained by other research teams, in particular the work carried out at the National University of Singapore (for example, O'Halloran and Judd, 2002). Another development will be in relation to subtitling (Baldry, 2002; Baldry and Taylor, in press) where a project is underway to associate language-learning subtitles with the films in MCA's database. Rather than as faced overlays incorporated in the film itself, the subtitles, rather as happens with DVD, will be generated independently of the film text, in the case of MCA, through specific queries using the relational querying mechanism.
Acknowledgements This paper is part of research within the Linguatel Project, an Italian interUniversity project, co-financed by MURST/MIUR and co-ordinated by Carol Taylor Torsello, University of Padua and its successor the Didactas Project, co-ordinated by Chris Taylor, University of Trieste, which is similarly financed. Michele Beltrami has developed MCA to the author's design requirements as part of this project. Now in its second release, MCA is viewable through the Pavia pages of the Linguatel Website: claweb.cla.unipd.it/Linguatel/Pavia/MCA.htm or directly at: mca.unipv.it [default User name: guest and default login: iamguest; see also New Registration] using Microsoft Explorer. I thank Vauxhall Motors for the inclusion of five frames from their advertisement, and I also wish to thank Antonio Cerlenizza and Oliver Bartholomay, respectively Direttore Audi Italia and Responsabile MKTAudi of Autogerma, Divisione Audi S.p.A, Verona and Roberta Mottino of Verba s.r.l. Milan for their kind permission to reproduce parts of The Fan advert for the Audi A4 model. However appreciative and supportive of the advert's organization and goals, the interpretation given above remains, of course, entirely mine.
References Baldry, A. P. (1999) Multimodality and multimediality. In M. Karagevrekis (ed.), Compelling Learning Techniques in ESP/EAP, Proceedings of the 3rd ESP Conference., 25th September 1998. Thessaloniki: Zefyros, 5-32. Baldry, A. P. (ed.) (2000a) Multimodality and Multimediality in the Distance Learning Age. Campobasso: Palladino Editore.
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Baldry, A. P. (2000b) ESP in a visual society: historical dimensions in multimodality and multimediality. In A. P. Baldry (ed.), Multimodality and Multimediality in the Distance Learning Age. Campobasso: Palladino Editore, 41—89. Baldry, A. P. (2000c) Introduction. In A. P. Baldry (ed.), Multimodality and Multimediality in the Distance Learning Age. Campobasso: Palladino Editore, 11—39. Baldry, A. P. (2002) Computerized subtitling: a multimodal approach to the learning of minority languages. In G. Talbot and P. Williams (eds), Essays in Language Translation and Digital Learning Technologies in Honour of Doug Thompson. London: Matador-Troubador Books, 69-84. Baldry, A. P. (in press) Promoting comparative multimodal concordancing: its role in language education, teacher training, subtitling and minority language learning. In N. Vasta (ed.), Atti del Convegno Forms of Promotion, Bologna: Patron. Baldry, A. P. and Taylor, C. (in press) Multimodal corpus authoring system: multimodal corpora, subtitling and phasal analysis. In Proceedings of the LREC Congress, Las Palmas, June 2002. Baldry, A. P. and Thibault, P. J. (2001) Towards multimodal corpora. In G. Aston and L. Burnard (eds), Corpora in the Description and Teaching of English. Bologna: CLUEB, 87-102. Bernstein, B. (1971) Class, Codes, and Control, Vol. I: Theoretical Studies Towards a Sociology of Language. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Cook, G. (1992) The Discourse of Advertising. London: Routledge. (2nd edn 2001) Gregory, M. (1995) Generic expectancies and discoursal surprises. John Donne's The Good Morrow. In P. Fries and M. Gregory (eds), Discourse in Society: Systemic—Functional Perspectives. Meaning and Choice in Language: Studies for Michael Halliday. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 67-84. Gregory, M. (2002) Phasal analysis within communication linguistics: two contrastive discourses. In P. Fries, M. Cummings, D. Lockwood and W. Sprueill (eds), Relations and Functions within and around Language. London: Continuum, 316-345. Gregory, M. and Malcolm, K. (1981) Generic Situation and Discourse Phase: An Approach to the Analysis of Children's Talk. Mimeo, Applied Linguistics Research Working Group. Glendon College, York University, Toronto. Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. (1996) Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge. Halliday, M. A. K. (1978) Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning. London: Edward Arnold. Halliday, M. A. K. (1994) An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd edn). London: Edward Arnold. Halliday, M. A. K. and Hasan, R. (1985) Language, Context and Text: Aspects of Language in a Social-Semiotic Perspective. Geelong, Victoria: Deakin University Press. (Republished by Oxford University Press, 1989.) Lombardo, L. (2001) Selling it and Telling it. A Functional Approach to the Discourse of Print Ads and TV News. Roma: Istituto Linguistica Moderna, Luiss, Guido Carli. O'Donnell, M. (2002) Systemics Coder. http://www.wagsoft.com/Coder/ index.html O'Halloran, K. L. andjudd, K. (2002) Systemics 1.0. [CD-ROM]. Singapore: Singapore University Press. O'Toole, M. (1994) The Language of Displayed Art. London: Leicester University Press. Pavesi, M. and Baldry, A. P. (2000) Learning to read scientific texts: integrated selfaccess courseware and corpora for university science students. In A. P. Baldry
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(ed.), Multimodality and Multimediality in the Distance Learning Age. Gampobasso: Palladino Editore, 227-245. Piastra, M. and Lombard!, L. (2000) The HyperContext Web Project: dynamic authoring for distance learning. In A. P. Baldry (ed.), Multimodality and Multimediality in the Distance Learning Age. Gampobasso: Palladino Editore, 247-262. Taylor, G. and Baldry, A. P. (200la) Computer assisted text analysis and translation: a functional approach in the analysis and translation of advertising texts. In E. Steiner and C. Yallop (eds), Exploring Translation and Multilingual Text Production: Beyond Content. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 277-305. Taylor, G. and Baldry, A. P. (200Ib) Computer-assisted text analysis and translation (characteristics of interactive self-access computer modules incorporating a functional approach in the analysis and translation of advertising texts). In G. Torsello, G. Brunetti, andN. Penello (eds), Corpora Testualiper Ricerca, Traduzione e Apprendimento Linguistico. Studi Linguistici Applicati. Padova: Unipress, 273-292. Thibault, P. J. (2000) The multimodal transcription of a television advertisement: theory and practice. In A. P. Baldry (ed.), Multimodality and Multimediality in the Distance Learning Age. Campobasso: Palladino Editore, 311—385. Vasta, N. (2001) Rallying Voters: New Labour's Verbal—Visual Strategies. Padova: Gedam. Zago, S. (2002) A multimodal analysis of six television adverts. Unpublished thesis. Dipartimento di Lingue e Letterature Anglo-Germaniche e Slave, University of Padua.
5
Visual semiosis in film
Kay L. O'Hallomn National University of Singapore
Introduction The aim of this paper is to investigate a method for capturing and interpreting the spatial and temporal dynamics of visual semiosis. This is achieved through the description of an analysis of a short segment from the dynamic medium of film. The analysis is based on a systemic-functional framework for film, and the use of software which allows the editing of digital video images in order to display visually the nature of different semiotic choices across a range of systems. From this point, the problematic nature of such an enterprise becomes apparent and possible directions for future research are suggested. The film medium parallels a significant dimension of our experience of the world: it involves sequences of change and repetition in the visual and auditory realm. Film, however, involves playing with time sequences in a two-dimensional frame to represent our three-dimensional lived-in material experience of the world where the faculties of hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch are sources for sensory, and therefore semiotic, input. Thus while limited in the sense that the discussion presented here only incorporates the visual aspect of semiotic exchange, this paper is nonetheless a further tentative step towards incorporating the meaning of the dynamic in systemicfunctional theory. For it is not only the culmination of choices made across semiotic resources in their interaction with other resources that makes meaning, but also the temporal and spatial unfolding of those choices. Although images of instances frozen in time may become lodged within our consciousness, generally we do not make meaning from a series of snapshot images of the world, but rather our daily experience of the world is based on patterns of change; that is, meanings derived from systems in flux. Our perceptual apparatus is oriented towards detecting and assimilating change and contrast, rather than relying on the stability and continuity which, in the normal course of events, we learn to layer on top of that experience. An adequate model which accounts for our social construction of the world, therefore, necessarily needs to account for changing states which have traditionally been the concern of other domains, which include film theory, mathematics, physics and studies of perception in cognitive science.
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Although not reproduced here (Paramount refused copyright permission),1 two short scenes from the film Chinatown, directed by Roman Polanski (1974), were analysed for this paper. While film is evidentiy staged and directed behaviour with sequences which have been edited to achieve particular effects, the analysis of this medium is at least a step in understanding semiosis in everyday life. That is, despite the scripted and edited nature of film performance, this environment provides us with some means to start investigating everyday discourses-in-flux. Using a systemic-functional framework for film, this paper is a preliminary attempt at a method for capturing and analysing the dynamics of visual semiosis in a digitalized video format. The social semiotic framework presented in this paper is based on Michael Halliday's (1994) systemic-functional grammar of the English language. Halliday's theorization of language as a social semiotic with systems for Interpersonal, Experiential, Logical and Textual meaning has been extended by O'Toole (1994, 1995, 1999) to the realm of displayed art; for example, paintings, architecture and sculpture. While O'Toole's systems for paintings are included in the proposed framework for film, the former are concerned with analysing the single semiotic of the static visual image. In film, however, there are multiple semiotic resources being used spatially and temporally. Thus the multiple resources which result in change, similarity and contrast are included in the systemic model for film presented here. In addition, O'Toole (1999) represents his theory in an interactive CD-ROM format. This method of visual representation in the electronic environment provides the basis for the investigations undertaken in this paper. The focus of early studies in multimodality has primarily been directed towards the analysis of static texts; notably Lemke's (1998b, 2003) early pioneering work in scientific discourse and mathematics, Kress and van Leeuwen's (1996) Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, and other more recent studies2 (for example, Baldry, 2000; Kress and van Leeuwen, 2001; O'HaUoran, 2003a, 2003b; Ventola et al, forthcoming). However, current research is increasingly turning towards the analysis of the dynamic text (for example, Baldry, this volume; Callaghan and McDonald, 2002; ledema, 2001; Lemke, 1998a, 2000; Mclnnes, 1998; Martinec, 2000; Thibault, 2000; van Leeuwen 1999). With the exception of Baldry's Multimodal Corpus Authoring (MCA) system (see this volume), however, few (if any) attempts have been made to analyse dynamic semiosis in digitalized format using computer-based technology. Baldry's MCA is a Web-based instrument which is designed for analysing dynamic multimodal texts, that is, film and video texts which display different and constantly varying configurations of sound, image, gesture, text and language as the text unfolds in time. Baldry harnesses the potential of computer technology to develop the MCA system with the aim of developing a metafunctionally based transcription method which can highlight the types of shots, cuts, phases and transitions. The analyst can record choices in a relational database format so that comparisons can be
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made across a corpus of texts. This concordance instrument thus analyses the dynamics of semiosis through methods which involve recording annotated entries. As Baldry (this volume: 105) explains: MCA does not search through Textual data directly in the search for patterns but does so indirectly: it searches the corpus for patterns in descriptions which have been previously created by the researcher using MCA's annotational tool. The annotational patterns so far used in the construction of a corpus of car adverts relate mainly to the metafunctional and phasal organization of the texts.
One aim of this paper is to suggest ways in which the user can directly search for patterns in visual Textual data. In other words, I explain how commercially available software can be used in conjunction with a visual grammar to capture changing patterns in dynamic text. This exploratory stage is viewed as a first step towards a new methodology afforded by the electronic medium which could eventually be included in a system such as Baldry's MCA. In addition, there is the potential to incorporate software such as Systemics 1.0 (O'Halloran and Judd, 2002) in such applications in order to analyse the linguistic choices as they unfold in time. The challenge remains for us to capture and analyse choices across all semiotic resources in such a way that the dynamics of meaning-making can truly be investigated. A visual grammar for visual images The inspiration for the approach adopted in this study stems from O'Toole's (1994: 24, 1999) framework for the analysis of paintings where a constituent structure approach with ranks PICTURE, EPISODE, FIGURE and MEMBER is adopted. O'Toole's chart documents the systems of meaning for the Experiential, Interpersonal and Textual metafunctions which are respectively labelled representational, modal and compositional. While many of these systems can also be seen to operate within the realm of film, the different medium of production and the fact that the text unfolds in real time mean that there are further dimensions to the analysis. Also, given the cause-effect relations in film narrative, the logical metafunction is also included. In the innovative CD-ROM, Engaging with Art, O'Toole (1999) creatively utilizes computer technology in an interactive multimedia hypertext environment to display choices visually from his systemic-functional framework. For example, in Plate 5.1 O'Toole effectively captures choices from the system of light which function to engage the viewer in Rembrandt's painting The Night Watch (1642). In another instance, O'Toole (1999) demonstrates how Vertical Lines are one resource which functions compositionally in Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-1886). He also gives an amusing demonstration of the change in meaning which would occur in Botticelli's Primavera (1478) with alternative choices for the direction of Gaze for each of the figures in the painting.
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Visualizing the system of light (O'Toole, 1999)
O'Toole's (1999) Engaging with Art thus represents a major advance in theory of semiotic analysis where choices in the visual semiotic are displayed visually rather than being described linguistically. This method means that patterns in visual semiosis may be marked in such a way that the viewer can immediately grasp the significance of such choices. As I describe in this paper, there also exists the potential for displaying visually the overlapping dynamic choices in-flux across systems. The advantages of this approach may be appreciated through a comparison with an alternative method developed by Thibault (2000). As a major step in theorizing a comprehensive semiotic analysis of a television advertisement,3 Thibault (2000: 374—385) proposes a static linguistic description in table format with dimensions 'Visual Image', 'Kinesic Action', 'Soundtrack' and 'Metafunctional Interpretation of Phases and Subphases' which are denned as constituting 'an intermediate level of analysis which lies between the microlevel lexicogrammatical, kinesic, and image selections and the global structuring of the text as a whole' (Thibault, 2000: 365). Following Gregory (1995, 2002), Thibault (2000: 325-326) defines phase as 'a set of co-patterned semiotic selections that are co-deployed in a consistent way over a given stretch of text'. Here the change of phase is marked by a salient metafunctional choice which marks the transition.
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Although a highly significant and useful methodology for capturing integratively multimodal social meaning-making, the linguistic description does not capture the import of such choices and also it fails to map visually the choices as a sequence of continuity and change. The potential exists for the viewer to actively engage with the digitalized film segments to illustrate the impact of different semiotic choices. This is achievable through the use of facilities in video editing software such as Adobe Premiere 6.0, which permits the user to segment a digitalized video clip into sections according to frame number (for example, 1, 2, 4 and 6 frames) or time intervals (for example, 1, 2, 4 seconds). The software allows the user to manipulate the visual footage in multiple ways; for example, the image may be adjusted for brightness, contrast, colour (which can be replaced and matched) and special effects such as blurring, distortion, perspective, edge definition and shadowing (to name but a few) may be applied. The software also allows the user to create multiple transparent mattes which act as overlays on the original film footage so that text can be inserted and lines, vectors, figures, outlines and shadings can be drawn. In addition, visual transitions between parts of the footage can be marked in various ways. These facilities allow the user to mark explicitly the nature of visual semiotic choices which have been made. Just as one enters a linguistic analysis by tagging the linguistic text in software such as Systemics 1.0, so the analyst can enter the analysis of the visual images through direct Textual engagement. In the following discussion of the analysis of the visual dimensions of the dynamics of the film footage, I do not consider the soundtrack. Therefore, in this limited discussion it is important to keep in mind Baldry's (this volume: 94) claim that transitions in phases take many forms: Thus, transitions are not necessarily equated with the cutting from one shot to another, nor indeed with what is happening in the visual. While transitions will often be related to what is happening in the visual, this will not always be the case [. . .] transitions, as Thibault (2000: 320) and Gregory (2002: 323) have pointed out, essentially relate to changes in the metafunctional organization of the text and as such may very well be related to changes in the soundtrack and not just to what happens in the visual.
Video-editing tools, therefore, allow the user to highlight the different semiotic choices visually and view the impact of such choices when they combine in the text in real time. The method which was adopted for this paper involved the use of Adobe Premiere 6.0 to explore how salient semiotic choices may be highlighted in a short extract from the film Chinatown. However, as previously noted, unfortunately it has not been possible to reproduce still frames from this analysis in this publication due to Paramount Studio's refusal to give copyright permission. Nonetheless, the results of the visual analysis are described in some detail.
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A systemic-functional framework and Chinatown (1974) The systemic-functional model proposed here4 has been developed in conjunction with the film theory presented in Bordwell and Thompson's (2001) Film Art: An Introduction. Bordwell and Thompson are concerned with the image in the visual frame and the accompanying audio soundtrack. In what follows, I discuss the proposed systemic framework and demonstrate how such an approach may be applied for the analysis of compositional and Interpersonal meaning in two short scenes from Chinatown. In order to situate the analysis, I first briefly discuss this film. Written by Robert Towne and produced by Robert Evans with director Roman Polanski and production designer Richard Sylbert, Chinatown is a detective film set in 1937 in Los Angeles with Jack Nicholson as Jake Gittes (the private detective), Fay Dunaway as Evelyn Mulwray (the wife of Hollis Mulwray, chief engineer of Water Energy and Power) and John Huston as Noah Cross (former partner with Hollis Mulwray of a private water company for LA). The plot unfolds as Jake unearths the corruption behind Cross's plan to build a new reservoir. This involves investigation of the murder of Hollis Mulwray who opposes the plan, and unearthing the history of Evelyn Mulwray who was raped by her father Noah Cross at the age of 15. Cross's partner Hollis Mulwray subsequently married Evelyn and supported her daughter Katherine. After Jake becomes aware of the reasons for Evelyn's actions, he organizes her escape from her father with Katherine. However, Cross forces Jake to disclose their whereabouts with the result that Evelyn is killed by the police. Jake once again unwittingly aids the death of someone he is trying to protect, which is a repeated scene from the days in which he was a police officer in Los Angeles' Chinatown. Chinatown has been the subject of much discussion in film theory (for example, Eaton, 1997; Heisner, 1997; Krutnik, 1991; Tuska, 1984). Based on the history of pumping water to Los Angeles in the first quarter of the twentieth century, Eaton (1997: 43) explains that Chinatown is 'a complex detective thriller with dimensions which are political (about the nature of power), sexual (about the nature of gender), metaphysical (about the nature of the evil), psychological (about the nature of the self) and philosophical (about the nature of knowledge)'. According to Eaton (1997) the subtext is concerned with the theme of American greed. In addition, Heisner (1997: 63) explains that Robert Towne has explored the 1930s popular conception of 'the inscrutable Orient' which is 'unknowable; it is dense and powerful and corrupt'. In the film Chinatown, this view is applied to the entire world. The proposed systemic-functional framework involves classifying the film according to type, form and genre. The semiotic analysis of the film is based on a metafunctionally organized rank constituent structure with ranks Film Plot, Sequences, Scene, Mise-en-Scene and Frame. Though beyond the scope of this paper, the notion of metafunctionally based phases and transitions may be incorporated within this framework. The aim of the analysis
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undertaken here, however, is to demonstrate how a visual grammar can be implemented in the dynamic digitalized environment of film. Film type: fiction, documentary, experimental and animated Film form: narrative, categorical, rhetorical, abstract and association multiple types; for example, narrative films include science Genre: fiction, western, musical, comedy, suspense, and action thrillers with sub-genres horror, detective, hostage and gangster Film Plot Ranks: Sequences Scenes Mise-en-Scene (the shot) Frame Film type /form Bordwell and Thompson (2001) categorize films as fiction, documentary, experimental and animated based on how the film material was chosen, arranged and the nature of the filming. They further propose that films also have a basic film form, or a system of relationships among the parts which may be categorized as Narrative, Categorical, Rhetorical, Abstract and Associational. The narrative form, however, is dominant in mainstream cinema. Bordwell and Thompson (2001: 60) define narrative as 'a chain of events in cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space'. In a narrative film, the viewer is presented with the plot, 'the arrangement of material in the film' from which the viewer individually creates the story 'on the basis of cues in the plot' (ibid.: 62). Most films employ narrative where causality and time are central. In classic Hollywood cinema, the action usually springs from individual characters as causal agents where the narrative usually centres on personal psychological causes such as decisions, desires, choices and traits of character (Bordwell and Thompson, 2001). The narrative subordinates time, motivation and other factors to the cause-effect sequence. There is usually strong closure where the causal chain is completed with a final effect. 'We usually learn the fate of each character, the answer to each mystery, and the outcome of each conflict' (ibid.: 77). In Chinatown Jake Gittes desires to know the truth surrounding Evelyn and the murder of Hollis Mulwray. As Eaton (1997) explains, Evelyn chooses not to speak because she knows too much about her father's corruption and power to share Jake's faith in revelation. Jake considers her a betrayer but he learns that in fact she is the victim. The cause-effect relations in Chinatown are extremely complex as new revelations continually occur in the unfolding of the plot.
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Genre There are no rigid criteria to define the different genres of film (Bordwell and Thompson, 2001). Some classifications are based on subject/theme (for example, crime for gangster movies), while others are defined by emotional effect (for example, amusement for comedy). Genre conventions are also based on plot, thematic development, film techniques and iconography. Further to this, genres change and new hybrid types are continually emerging. However, despite this fluidity the audience generally recognizes genre conventions. Genres are seen to be institutionalized and ritualized dramas 'which are satisfying because they reaffirm cultural values . . . [such as] self sacrificing heroism, the desirability of romantic love' (Bordwell and Thompson, 2001: 99). Bordwell and Thompson (2001) further explain that these reaffirmations distance the viewer from real social problems and the more finite and anxiety-ridden aspects of life such as death, disease, breakdown and insecurity. Genres may also be seen to 'exploit ambivalent social values and attitudes' which 'arouse emotion by touching upon deep social uncertainties but then channel those emotions into approved attitudes' (ibid.: 99). Chinatown is a detective story with an investigative structure (Eaton, 1997). 'As Poe so clearly put it, the detective exists "to play the Oedipus'" (ibid.: 17), the truth seeker. Chinatown is a story where 'wrongs can ultimately be uncovered but the seeker after truth is not only completely incapable of righting them but his very search will only make matters worse' (ibid.: 21). Chinatown is also recognized as film noir and, more specifically, reflects the origins of the neo-noir. The subject of much study (for example, Christopher, 1997; Hirsch, 1981; Kaplan, 1998; Krutnik, 1991; Palmer, 1994; Tuska, 1984; Voytilla, 1999], film noir is a descriptive term for American crime film from early 1940s to late 1950s where doomed men are obsessed with seductive women, as exemplified by Double Indemnity (1944) and Scarlet Street (1945). In the 1960s and 1970s films with noir flourishes include Klute (1971), Play Misty for Me (1971), Taxi Driver (1976) and Chinatown (1974). Definitions of film noir vary but there seems to be general agreement that the term designates films with a low-key visual style which contrasts to the bright balanced studio look of the 1930s. There are noir movies of different genres, for example, mystery, suspense thriller, psychological drama, and gangster films (Krutnik, 1991). Critics generally agree that there is also an obliqueness and often confused temporal narrative plot. There is usually a general mood of dislocation and bleakness, and the noir world is deceptive and uncertain. ' "The world is a dangerous place" is one of the axioms of noir' (Hirsch, 1981: 13). Chinatown, however, is filmed in the non-expressionistic 'classical' style of Panavision and Technicolour with a straightforward narrative style. However, 'the cynicism and despair which permeates the social vision of the film noir... is present... in the final act of this Polish exile's [Roman Polanski's] film' (Eaton, 1997: 57-58). However, according to Eaton (1997: 58), the depiction of Evelyn Cross Mulwray is where the noir-ish influence is most
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obvious. 'The dark lady, the spider woman, the evil seductress who tempts man and brings about his destruction' [Place, 1998: 47] is how the "female archetype" of film noir has been characterized and this is the image of the female lead which is now consciously evoked [in Chinatown]' (ibid.: 58). The figure of the woman in film noir has been the focus of feminist film theory since Chinatown was produced. The emergent newfemmefatale in films in the 1990s, for example, Basic Instinct (1992), is 'redefined as a sexual performer within a visual system which owes as much to soft-core pornography as it does to mainstream Hollywood' (Stables, 1998: 172-173). The new woman takes an active role in initiating sexual practices which are perceived as deviant, marginal or transgressive to the dominant culture. In the analysis below, we shall investigate the semiotic construction of Evelyn Cross in the role of 'spider woman' which has subsequently led to such constructions of women in contemporary cinema. The Film Plot and Sequence The form which gives rise to the plot is the overall interrelation among various systems of elements and every element in this totality has one or more functions (Bordwell and Thompson, 2001). In the model presented here, the Film Plot is constructed from the series of Sequences where the motivation is similarity and repetition, and difference and variation. In Chinatown., repetitive elements and motifs are significant (Eaton, 1997; Heisner, 1997). The Scenes take place in different locations which reinforce the theme of drought-stricken Los Angeles. The symbolism of water continually appears in the unfolding of the plot with constant screen images and references to water. A second motif is the lens in the form of glasses, car mirrors and binoculars which contribute to the theme of distorted vision. These themes of voyeurism and blindness are 'not simply about seeing, it is about seeing wrongly' (Eaton, 1997: 29). Other motifs in Chinatown., for example, the horse and rider, are metaphors for desire and sexuality. In the Mise-en-Scene analysed below, we shall see these themes reappear in different forms. Scene and Mise-en-Scene The Mise-en-Scene is concerned with everything which is seen within the frame as it unfolds in time together with the accompanying soundtrack. As soon as the camera shot changes, even though still centred on the same setting, we will be concerned with a new Mise-en-Scene. The Mise-en-Scene complex, or the unfolding series of Mise-en-Scene, forms the Scene. The total of Scenes forms the Sequence, which in film theory is the term for the fragmentation of the film into segments. The Mise-en-Scene forms the basic unit for analysis because the major systems for each metafunction across the semiotic resources are operational at this rank. For instance, the higher rank of Sequence does not allow
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comprehensive analysis of the choices across semiotic resources, while the lower rank of Frame frozen in time excludes analysis of speech, music and other sound effects. Following Baldry (this volume) and Thibault (2000), the soundtrack can mark a transition, and in the case of the framework presented here, the transition may take place within one Mise-en-Scene. In effect, this would create a 'rankshifted' Mise-en-Scene. That is, if the soundtrack changes to indicate a transition within the single camera shot, we have a Mise-en-Scene embedded within the ranking Mise-en-Scene of the camera shot. In a similar manner, the soundtrack can continue across several Mises-en-Scene to form a Mise-en-Scene complex. The Mise-en-Scene complex is therefore construed by the nature of the setting and other structural elements which include the soundtrack. As displayed in Table 5.1, the Mise-en-Scene is analysed according to Visual Imagery, Speech, Music, Sound Effects and the subsequent Interweaving of the Visual Imagery and the Soundtrack. For Visual Imagery, the ranks are Movement-Action-Event in a shot, temporal episode, temporal figure and temporal member. In addition to making dynamic O'Toole's systems for paintings, further systems are included for the analysis of the temporal unfolding of the text. At the rank of Mise-en-Scene, these include systems for: (a) Interpersonal meaning such as Patterns (Kinesic, Proxemic, Rhythm, Gaze and Shape), Duration of the Image, Speed of Motion and Point of View; (b) Representational meaning, for example, Movement-Action Sequence; (c) Logical meaning, for example, Narrative Cause-Effect Relations; and (d) Compositional meaning, for example, Changes in Gestalt, OnScreen/Off-Screen Space, Camera Angle, Camera Level, Camera Distance and Mobile Frame. The Mobile Frame allows changes in the camera position in the Mise-en-Scene. The Mobile Frame thus interpersonally orients the viewer towards the image and furthermore contributes to the representational meaning in the form of the Point of View constructed within the film. The analysis described below is concerned with the visual imagery in two Mise-en-Scene from Chinatown. As the goal of this exercise is to demonstrate the usefulness of the Textual application of the visual grammar, the discussion is only concerned with selected choices in systems for Interpersonal and compositional meaning. The original analysis appears in the form of a movie where choices from the visual systems are marked on the digitalized film clip from Chinatown as they unfold in real time. We may note that, compositionally, the Framing in Chinatown (which may be marked visually) is widescreen with ratio 16:9. This allows the action sequences to be framed against an expansive setting which contributes to establishing one of the key themes of Chinatown'. Los Angeles in a drought. The analysis of two Mises-en-Scene in Chinatown The first Mise-en-Scene occurs at the end of the Scene where Jake and Evelyn meet in a restaurant. Jake is largely unsuccessful in his attempts to get
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further information from Evelyn, and in the ensuing Mise-en-Scene outside the restaurant, a somewhat angry and frustrated Jake informs Evelyn that her husband may have been murdered. In the newly released 1999 DVD version of Chinatown., director Roman Polanski states that this scene outside the restaurant is one of his favourite shots. We shall soon appreciate at least some of the reasons why Polanski thought this way about this part of the film. The dialogue which takes place outside the restaurant is reproduced below. Key:
EM: Evelyn Mulwray JG: Jake Gittes
EM: JG:
Oh no ... I have my own car. Ahh . . . the Packard. Wait a minute sonny [to the car attendant]. I think you [Evelyn] had better come with me But why. There's nothing more to say. Will you get my car please [to the attendant]. Okay go home. But in case you're interested, your husband was murdered. Somebody's been dumping thousands of tonnes of water from the city's reservoirs and we are supposed to be in the middle of a drought. He found out about it and he was killed. There's a waterlogged drunk in the morgue involuntary manslaughter if anyone wants to take the trouble which they don't. It seems like half the city is trying cover it all up which is fine by me. But Mrs Mulwray. I goddamn near lost my nose and I like it. I like breathing through it. And I still think that you're hiding something Mr Git—tes [as JG drives away]
EM: JG:
EM:
The restaurant Mise-en-Scene
The viewer's perception is attuned to difference rather than prolonged stimuli, and attention is typically focused through contrasting patterns and movement. However, in the selected Mise-en-Scene which occurs at the end of the restaurant Scene, the camera focuses on Evelyn (pictured from the shoulder upwards) who is silent and virtually motionless. Kinesics and Rhythm through movement are absent. What functions to make this Miseen-Scene so compelling? Through the analysis, we see that there are many simultaneous choices at work which focus the viewer's attention on this portrayal of Evelyn as the 'spider woman'. The Lighting Quality, Lighting Intensity, Lighting Direction and Lighting Source in the restaurant scene function to make Evelyn visually salient. The soft background Lighting may be marked visually through the use of the special effect 'lens flare' which allows the light source to be highlighted. As well as providing a contrast for the next Mise-en-Scene, the choice of the warm reddish colours from the system of Colour/Cohesion has implications for more immediate Interpersonal and Experiential meanings as we shall soon see. At the rank of Member, the Clarity and Focus of Evelyn's beautiful, pale and sculptured face attracts the viewer's attention. Further to this, Evelyn's
Table 5.1
Functions and systems in the Mise-en-Scene
Semiotic Resources/Rank
Modal
Representational
Logical
C ompositional
MISE-EN-SCENE COMPLEX
Contrasts
Narrative continuity and discontinuity
Cause-effect relations
Continuity and discontinuity
Patterns: Kinesic Proxemic Rhythm Gaze Shape Colours and Contrast Lighting Quality Light Intensity Lighting Direction Lighting Source Clarity Focus Film Tonality Special Effects Duration of Image Speed of Motion Point of View (Viewer)
Movement-Action-Event Sequence Figures/Objects Nature of Scene Props Lighting Colour Narrative as Cause Effect Relations Point of View Visual Motifs
Narrative CauseEffect Relations
Frame Dimension Frame Shape Changes in Gestalt: Framing Horizontal Vertical Diagonal Colour Cohesion/ Contrast Perspective Relations On-Screen/Off-Screen Space Camera Angle Camera Level Camera Distance Mobile Frame Film Editing
(the edited scene)
MISE-EN-SCENE The Temporal-Spatial Frame Complex Relation: The Shot Visual Imagery Movement-Action-Event in a Shot
Semiotic Resources/Rank
Modal
Representational
Logical
Compositional
Temporal Episode
Relation to MovementAction-Event: Scale Depth Centrality Relative Prominence Duration Clarity Focus Light
Sequence of Sub- Actions, Side Sequences and Events Interplay of Actions
Contribution to Narrative Cause-Effect Relations
Relative Relation of Action in Changing Gestalt Subframing Parallelism and Opposition Relative On-Screen/OffScreen Space Camera Angle Camera Level Camera Distance
Temporal Figure
Colour Coordination/ Contrast Colour Intensity Costume Style Frontal View Change in Size Change in Prominence Gaze Pattern Focus Depth Light
Character of Figure Costume Body Behaviour/Gesture Props
Contribution to Cause-Effect Relations through Intertextual Motif
Relative Position in Changing Gestalt Subframing Parallelism and Opposition Relative On-Screen/OffScreen Space Camera AngleCamera Level Camera Distance
Temporal Member
Colour Colour Intensity Style of Costume Part Makeup Facial Expression
Body Part Makeup Facial Expression Gesture Role in action
Contribution to Cause-Effect Relations through Intertextual Motif
Relative Position in Changing Gestalt Subframing
Semiotic Resources/Rank
Modal
Representational
Logical
Compositional Parallelism and Opposition Relative on-screen/offScreen space Camera level and angle Camera Distance
Gesture Light Change in Size Change in Prominence Focus Depth Soundtrack Speech
Negotiation Speech Function Mood Modality Polarity Attitude Comment Appraisal Lexical 'Register' Tone Pitch Volume
Ideation Transitivity Tense Lexical Content Ergativity Verbal Motifs
Conjunction and Continuity Logico-Semantic Relations
Identification Theme Cohesion Information
Music
Volume Pitch Timbre Rhythm Fidelity Beat
Genre: Experiential Context Intertextuality Musical Motifs
Narrative Cause-Effect Relations
Sound Perspective (Diegetic, Non-Diegetic)
Semiotic Resources/Rank
Modal
Representational
Logical
C ompositional
Sound Effects
Volume Pitch Timbre Rhythm Fidelity Beat
Experiential Content Intertextuality Oral Motif
Narrative Cause-Effect Relations
Sound Perspective Diegetic and NonDiegetic
Direction of Engagement through Foregrounded Semiotic Choice Change in Phase Marking
Development of the Narrative Plot for Story Line through Directed Content Input
Development of Cause-Effect Relations
Organization of the Unfolding of the Narrative
Visual Imagery + Soundtrack Interweaving Visual Imagery and Sound
Frame 24 Frames/Second
Viewed as Mise-en-Scene
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Gaze towards Jake (which may also be marked visually through vectors) is oblique and so the viewer can openly scrutinize her face, Makeup and Costume throughout the extended Duration of the Image. After her husband's funeral, Evelyn is wearing a black dress and a hat with a netted black veil which covers the top half of her face. Her Gaze in effect is veiled. Jake comments in the next Mise-en-Scene, 'And I still think you are hiding something'. Here the motif of distorted vision is reinforced. In this case, Jake is not gazing through a camera or car mirror, rather he is trying to penetrate the protective veil through which Evelyn views the world. The use of Colour in the restaurant scene is significant for several reasons. Digital colour matching (which can be displayed) reveals that Evelyn's red lipstick exactly matches the colour of the couch upon which she is seated. The motif of sexuality is represented through this use of the colour red in Evelyn's makeup which coheres with the intimate setting. The characterization of Evelyn as the 'spider woman' is thus created; she is veiled, oblique, sexual and potentially dangerous. This portrayal of Evelyn largely remains in place until the final scenes in the movie. The street Mise-en-Scene
In the next Mise-en-Scene the viewer is confronted with a bright street scene as Evelyn and Jake walk into the open glare of sunlight outside the restaurant. Compositionally, the contrast in Colour Cohesion/Contrast may be displayed through the use of colour matching and replacement. The analyst becomes conscious that the dominant background colour of bright yellow has replaced the subdued colours in the restaurant. The dark quiet world of the spider woman is contrasted to the stark brightness of the street where sunlight shines against the buildings and normal day-to-day activity takes place as the attendant rushes to open the car door for Jake and Evelyn. Through the use of overlays and drawing tools to mark the perspective and the placement of the Figures in the Mise-en-Scene, it may be appreciated that the On-Screen Space initially occupied by the attendant works perfectly in conjunction with the perspective provided by the buildings. Activities are ordinary, orderly and public in this Mise-en-Scene where the sound of car horns is heard and people walk down the street arm in arm. Jake and Evelyn become the focus of attention as they walk out onto the street. They continue to occupy the central On-Screen Space in the remainder of the Mise-en-Scene, and a dynamic visual tracing of the outline of their two Figures reveals the perfect compositional balance that is achieved within the widescreen frame format. The Colour Contrast provided by the bright background also functions to highlight the figures of Evelyn and Jake. The effect of the light provided by the sun may be marked visually through the use of'lens flare' to insert an accentuated light source. The analyst again becomes aware that the motif of hot dry weather is invoked. As the Mise-en-Scene unfolds, the exchange between the two central characters becomes increasingly intense as Jake responds with frustration to
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his lack of understanding of the situation. The intense gaze between Jake and Evelyn, which accompanies her refusal of his offer to drive her home, may be indicated visually by vectors. The On-Screen Space dominated by Evelyn and Jake continues to remain perfectly balanced, and the analyst can begin to appreciate how effectively the camera work and background setting function in this Mise-en-Scene. In addition, there is a lightly coloured bandage on Jake's nose which is marked with visual prominence despite its cohesiveness with the background colours. This visual prominence of the bandage is matched by the linguistic choices in the dialogue which takes place as we shall see in a moment. The triangle of social relationships between Jake, Evelyn and the car attendant is construed visually as well as linguistically. The attendant is a minor participant as indicated by his backgrounded physical position in the Movement-Action-Event when Jake and Evelyn walk out of the restaurant. Jake's use of the vocative 'sonny' in the command 'Wait a minute sonny' reinforces this position. Jake's attempts at exercising power over Evelyn, however, do not succeed. Jake fails in his bid to drive Evelyn home, and there is a pause before he turns to confront her. Evelyn remains detached and supposedly nonchalant by focusing her Gaze on her gloves, which may be indicated visually by line vectors. Evelyn's hand movements may also be highlighted visually to indicate Gesture. After a short silence, the Interpersonal relations between Jake and Evelyn intensify. The Gaze becomes direct and focused as the Proxemics, which may be displayed by visual vectors, decrease. The Mobile Frame has been brought into play so that the Camera Distance is decreased. This compositional strategy further draws the viewer into the exchange between Jake and Evelyn. The Interpersonal intensity of Jake's delivery continues as he explains that Evelyn's husband was murdered. Evelyn's Gaze, which again may be marked by visual vectors, shifts downwards as Jake refers to her late husband. Jake, however, continues regardless of Evelyn's silent response. When Jake refers to a situation where he was physically attacked and his nose sliced by a knife [hence the bandage], 'but Mrs Mulwray I goddamn near lost my nose', the Interpersonal intensity of the exchange increases. The use of vectors may explicidy demonstrate how distance in the Proxemics has again decreased with a resulting increase in the intensity of gaze. In addition, Jake's use of'goddamn near' reinforces the affect of his speech to Evelyn, which is somewhat mocking given that he addresses her as 'Mrs Mulwray'. The climax in this Mise-en-Scene is reached when Jake accuses Evelyn of 'hiding something'. Here the motif of the truth seeker looking through a veil of deception is reinforced. While he is correct that Evelyn is withholding information, it is not exactly the sort that Jake envisages. However, in the remainder of the street scene, Roman Polanski allows the viewer to gain some insight into Evelyn's situation. The final frames of the Mise-en-Scene capture one of the rare moments in Chinatown where the Point of View switches from Jake to Evelyn. The
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viewer is aware of Evelyn's latent appeal to Jake ('Mr Git—tes') as he drives away. Evelyn maintains her position within the Frame but the Mobile Camera effectively retreats to leave Evelyn pictured completely alone in the street scene. The appeal is reinforced through Evelyn's downcast Gaze and Gesture of moving her hand to her throat. At this stage, the viewer gains an understanding of Evelyn's efforts at selfcontrol. With her eyes temporarily closed, the absence of Gaze and the continuing Gesture are made salient through the Duration of the Image and the Framing of Evelyn within the street scene. Jake's departing car is the only Temporal Episode in relation to Evelyn's Movement-Action-Event. A somewhat resolute Evelyn opens her eyes with a straight gaze realized as a horizontal vector as her car is reversed by the attendant. In the final frames of this Mise-en-Scene, Evelyn has again opened her eyes to a world which does not understand her position nor the reasons for her actions.
Conclusion This necessarily incomplete description of the analysis of two Mises-enScene from Chinatown seeks to describe how a visual grammar may be applied to the dynamic visual image. In the discourse analysis of a linguistic text, the analyst directly engages with the linguistic choices which have been made in order to interpret the text. In a similar manner, the description of this analysis seeks to demonstrate the effectiveness of directly engaging visually with a Mise-en-Scene to make salient the choices which have been made. Through such an analysis, we start to appreciate the reasons why director Roman Polanski favoured this particular scene in Chinatown. The bright public street setting marks a stark transition from the intimate restaurant scene where Evelyn's sexuality is marked. The compositional aspects of the narrow street setting are perfect; the actors are framed through perspective, on-screen space, colour cohesion and contrast. The yellow tones of the background setting with light and shadows provided by the sun, the buildings and other lighting effects further enhance the visual salience of the two actors in the setting. The camera moves in to record the growing intensity of the exchange between Jake and Evelyn against a backdrop of day-to-day life which continues despite the drama being played out before the viewer's eyes. Through the use of gaze, gesture and proxemics the visual aspects of the interaction effectively construct Jake's growing frustration and anger with Evelyn in his search for truth. The camera later lingers to capture a subtle shift in the point of view where the unenviable position of Evelyn is signalled to the viewer. Jake's arrogance transforms her perceived strength into a web of deceit and corruption which rightfully should be attributed to her father. Roman Polanski ensured that the usual generic conventions were not followed in the movie Chinatown. In Robert Towne's original script, Evelyn is saved and her father exposed. Thus the usual generic tropes such as 'love triumphs' and 'youth defeats old age' and 'corruption resulting in a new
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healthier social order' are eliminated by Polanski. As Heisner (1997:63) states, in Chinatown 'Evil and power have triumphed, corruption has won out'. As Heisner further explains, the pessimism of the ending extends beyond Jake's cynicism. In the final line in the film Jake is told ' "Forget it Jake. It's Chinatown. It's Noah Cross. It's the power structure. It's the world"' (ibid.: 64). The proposed methodology for analyzing dynamic visual images, however, presents a range of difficulties. First, it proved near impossible to simultaneously record dynamically the metafunctional choices across the different semiotic systems, even in the case when each metafunction is considered separately. The reason is twofold: first, the complexity and range of systems from which options are chosen; and second, the problem of the temporal unfolding of those choices in real time. In the first case, visually marking semiotic choices across a range of systems for one metafunction proves problematic. For example, recording on-screen space for compositional meaning precluded including choices for colour cohesion and contrast because the resulting footage became too dense and confused. In a similar manner, choices from Interpersonal systems such as lighting and colour could not be combined with the analysis of gaze and proxemics. This situation gave rise to the second problem. In attempts to combine the metafunctionally based analysis in real time, the temporal unfolding of the resultant footage for each metafunction was too fast for the viewer to grasp the significance of the different aspects of the analysis. It becomes apparent that we perceive so much visual data in a short time span that it is impossible to mark this visually in real time. If the analysis for all four metafunctions were recombined in the footage, the problem would be exacerbated. In order to overcome the difficulties described above, it is suggested that the analysis for one system should be documented and the shifts annotated within a system such as the MCA. After the analysis for each system has been entered, the resulting footage could be recombined to mark salient transition points which occur as the result of the conflation of choices across the systems. These higher-level transition points could also be recorded in a database format. Despite the difficulties of using a visual grammar to interact directly with the dynamic visual image, the usefulness of such an approach is that the analyst becomes sensitized to meaning through choice in visual semiosis. In a manner analogous to language, the analyst can only become attuned to metafunctionally based choices if one has in a sense directly engaged with the text. The advances in computer technology mean that this is becoming a very real option for our investigation of the dynamics of semiosis in real time. Notes 1
Despite repeated written requests to Paul Hrisko, the Manager for the Film Clip Licensing Division for Paramount Studios, copyright permission to reproduce still frames from the movie containing the analysis of Chinatown was not given. I
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am, however, most grateful to Roman Polanski who kindly wrote in support of my requests for copyright permission. 2 See Visual Communication (Sage Publications), a journal devoted to the theory and analysis of visual images and multimodal texts. 3 See also Baldry (this volume) for the analysis of car advertisements. 4 See ledema's (2001) social semiotic framework and analysis of a television documentary. His framework consists of six levels: frame, Shot, Scene, Sequence, Generic Stage and Work as a whole. Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Michael O'Toole for his kind permission to reproduce Plate 5.1 from the CD-ROM Engaging with Art (Perth: Murdoch University, 1999) [copyright Michael O'Toole] with acknowledgement to the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam for the original image of Rembrandt's The Night Watch. References Baldry, A. P. (this volume) Phase and transition, type and instance: patterns in media texts as seen through a multimodal concordancer, 83—108. Baldry, A. P. (ed.) (2000) Multimodality and Multimediality in the Distance Learning Age. Campobasso, Italy: Palladino Editore. Bordwell, D., and Thompson, K. (2001) Film Art: An Introduction (6th edn). New York: McGraw Hill. Gallaghan, J. and McDonald, E. (2002). Expression, content and meaning in language and music: an integrated semiotic analysis. In P. McKevitt, S. O'Nuallain and C. Mulvihill (eds), Language, Vision and Music. Selected papers from the 8th International Workshop on the Cognitive Science of Natural Language Processing, Galway, Ireland, 1999. Advances in Consciousness Research, Volume 35. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 205—220. Christopher, N. (1997) Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir and the'American City. New York: The Free Press. Eaton, M. (1997) Chinatown. London: British Film Institute. Gregory, M. (1995) Generic expectancies and discoursal surprises: John Donnne's The Good Morrow. In P. H. Fries and M. Gregory (eds), Discourse in Society: SystemicFunctional Perspectives. Meaning and Choice in Language: Studies for Michael Halliday. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 67-84. Gregory, M. (2002) Phasal analysis within communication linguistics: two contrastive discourses. In P. Fries, M. Cummings, D. Lockwood and W. Sprueill (eds), Relations and Functions within and around Language. London and New York: Continuum, 316-345. Halliday, M. A. K. (1994) An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd edn). London: Arnold. Heisner, B. (1997) Production Design in the Contemporary American Film. Jefferson: Me Farland. Hirsch, F (1981) The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir. New York: Da Capo Press. ledema, R. (2001) Analysing film and television: a social semiotic account of hospital: an unhealthy business. In T. van. Leeuwen and C. Jewitt (eds), Handbook of Visual Analysis. London: Sage, 183—204.
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Kaplan, E. A. (ed.) (1998) Woman in Film Noir (rev. edn). London: British Film Institute. Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. (1996) Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge. Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. (2001) Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication. London: Arnold. Krutnik, E (1991) In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre and Masculinity. London: Routledge. Lemke, J. L. (1998a) Metamedia literacy: transforming meanings and media. In D. Reinking, L. Labbo, M. McKenna and R. Kiefer (eds), Handbook of Literacy and Technology: Transformations in a Post-Typographic World. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 283-301. Lemke, J. L. (1998b) Multiplying meaning: visual and verbal semiotics in scientific text. InJ. R. Martin and R. Veel (eds), Reading Science: Critical and Functional Perspectives on Discourses of Science. London: Routledge, 87—113. Lemke, J. L. (2000) Multimedia demands of the scientific curriculum. Linguistics and Education, 10(3): 247-271. Lemke, J. L. (2003) Mathematics in the middle: measure, picture, gesture, sign and word. In M. Anderson, A. Saenz-Ludlow, S. Zellweger and V Cifarelli (eds), Educational Perspectives on Mathematics as Semiosis: From Thinking to Interpreting to Knowing. Ottawa: Legas Publishing, 215-234. Mclnnes, D. (1998) Attending to the instance: towards a systemic-based dynamic and responsive analysis of composite performance text. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. University of Sydney. Martinec, R. (2000) Construction of identity in Michael Jackson's 'Jam'. Social Semiotics, 10(3): 313-329. O'Halloran, K. L. (2003a) Educational implications of mathematics as a multisemiotic discourse. In M. Anderson, A. Saenz-Ludlow, S. Zellweger, and V V Cifarelli (eds), Educational Perspectives on Mathematics as Semiosis: From Thinking to Interpreting to Knowing. Ottawa: Legas Publishing, 185-214 O'Halloran, K. L. (2003b) Intersemiosis in mathematics and science: grammatical metaphor and semiotic metaphor. In A.-M. Simon-Vandenbergen, M. Taverniers, and L. Ravelli (eds), Grammatical Metaphor: Views from Systemic Functional Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 337—365. O'Halloran, K. L. and Judd, K. (2002) Systemics 1.0. [CD-ROM]. Singapore: Singapore University Press. O'Toole, M. (1994) The Language of Displayed Art. London: Leicester University Press. O'Toole, M. (1995) A systemic-functional semiotics of art. In P. H. Fries and M. Gregory (eds), Discourse in Society: Systemic—Functional Perspectives: Meaning and Choice in Language: Studiesfor Michael Halliday. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 159-179. O'Toole, M. (1999) Engaging with Art. [CD-ROM]. Perth: Murdoch University. Palmer, R. B. (1994) Hollywood's Dark Cinema: The American Film Noir. New York: Twayne Publishers. Place, J. (1998) Women in Film noir. In E. Anne Kaplan (ed.), Women in Film Noir (rev. edn). London: British Film Institute, 47-68. Stables, K. (1998) The postmodern always rings twice: constructing the femme fatale in 1990s cinema. In E. A. Kaplan (ed.), Woman in Film Noir (rev. edn). London: British Film Institute, 164-201. Thibault, P. J. (2000) The multimodal transcription of a television advertisement: theory and practice. In A. P. Baldry (ed.), Multimodality and Multimediality in the Distance Learning Age. Campobasso, Italy: Palladino Editore, 311—385.
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Towne, R. (1974) Chinatown (R. Polanski, Director; and R. Evans, Producer). Hollywood GA: Paramount Studio. Tuska, J. (1984) Dark Cinema: American Film JVoir in Cultural Perspective. Westport, GN: Greenwood Press. van Leeuwen, T. (1999) Speech, Music, Sound. London: Macmillan. Ventola, E., Charles, C. and Kaltenbacher, M. (eds) (forthcoming) Perspectives on Multimodality. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Voytilla, S. (1999) Myth and the Movies: Discovering the Mythic Structure of 50 Unforgettable Films. CA: Michael Wiese Productions.
6
Multisemiotic mediation in hypertext
Arthur Kok Kum Chiew National University of Singapore
Introduction This paper is an attempt to understand how an institution and its objectives become translated, transmitted and received through the hypertext medium. The notion of hypertext is first clarified with the aim of abstracting methodological categories which may be used for a semiotic analysis. Following this, systemic functional models (Halliday, 1994; Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996; O'Toole, 1994) are employed to examine the semiotic choices made within a selected webpage, the Singaporean Ministry of Education (MOE) site,1 in order to examine the meanings produced by these choices and the context circumscribing this choice-making and meaning production. The interaction of meanings across different semiotic instantiations also features in this analysis. Genesis of hypertext The precedence of verbal over written language in human groups is firmly acknowledged in conventional histories of writing, with only certain cultures developing a recording-writing system for reasons of trade, religion or politics (Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996: 18-19). In Euro-American history, the advent of print technology made recordable texts not only vastly replicable but also more readily available compared to the past. In this sea of data, however, information retrieval posed a serious difficulty because texts remained in an unchangeable linear format. Early theorists concerned with presenting and retrieving information envisaged a system for providing complete access to the 'endlessly expansive world of texts' (Tuman, 1992: 55). The term 'hypertext', coined by Ted Nelson in the 1960s, was used to refer to a form of electronic text where the mode of publication was characterized by 'non-sequential writing'; that is, 'text that branches and allows choices to the reader' in the form of 'a series of text chunks connected by links which offer the reader different pathways' through an interactive screen interface (Landow, 1997: 3). In the late 1960s, theory moved towards reality when the Advanced Research Projects Agency (AREA) of the Department of Defence in the United States of America set
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up ARPnet, an inter-computer communication network which was designed to be impervious to communication disruptions in the event of a nuclear attack (Moore, 1994: 4). While it initially connected selected academic institutions, network technology soon expanded the use of hypertext. Software applications, such as web browsers, were made available to online computer users, and these combined with other software applications (for example, word-processing software) so that hypertext could be edited, updated, copied and, in a word, 'acted' on. Juxtaposed to static and linear print technology, hypertext became dynamic, alterable and multi-sequential. Interpretations and applications of hypertext Espen Aarseth (1997), appreciating the interactive co-partnering between the reader and the creator during Internet surfing, describes hypertext as 'ergodic, using a term appropriated from physics that derives from the Greek words ergon and hodos, meaning "work" and "path"'. 'Ergodist' has been coined to refer to the person who interacts with the hypertext in this way (Lim, 1998: 31). It is perhaps necessary to discuss what is meant by 'ergodic' so as to more fully investigate the notion of the 'ergodist'. 'Ergodicity' describes, first, the complexity of path predetermination and, second, how these paths can either be followed or bypassed, thereby creating new paths. The former implicates a 'creator' of the path, and the latter a choice-making individual who is faced with these paths. The 'ergodist' is this choice-making individual who may follow predetermined paths suggested by hypertext links which connect one webpage to another, or alternatively, may forge his or her own path. In moving through hypertext, a complex tripartite relationship exists between the ergodist, the hypertext and the hypertext creator. As the next section will show, ergodist acquires its definitional fullness at a particular abstraction of hypertext. The notion of hypertext has been rethought in various fields of study including deconstruction, structuralism, post-structuralism, reader-response theory, narratology, critical literacy (see Landow, 1997), and multiliteracy (Kress, 2003; Kress and van Leeuwen, 2001; Lemke, 1998; Unsworth, 2001). A reactionary view of hypertext sees it as artificial, a threat to face-toface or 'real' communication, and an usurper of older communicative technologies such as the nostalgic pen(cil) and paper manuscript.2 On the other hand, certain grandiose pro-hypertext statements claim hypertext to be an evolutionary superior that will replace linear writing; that better communication will result simply because multiple interpretations and voices are linked; and that hypertext will democratize society and education, even surmounting artificial divisions between the disciplines. These and certain other hyperbolic construals of hypertext detract from an understanding of the nature of this new technology and what it can and cannot do for us. I therefore propose a definition which opens up hypertext to further (multi)semiotic investigation (see also Kress, 2003; Kress and van Leeuwen, 2001; Lemke, 1998; Unsworth, 2001).
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Proposed working definition of hypertext Consensus seems to place hypertext as a new technology or medium for communication which allows new dimensions of human interaction hitherto not possible. Indeed, hypertext is a means of communication where multisemiosis as fact impinges upon the user. From these formulations, I postulate the following working definition: Hypertext is a computer supported online telecommunication technology that makes possible the assembly, retrieval, display and manipulation of texts, which are realizations of a single semiotic resource or a combination of semiotic resources, some of which include visual, linguistic, phonic and music.
The crucial qualification 'makes possible' arises for two reasons: first, multisemiotic texts can be assembled by technology other than the hypertext; second, a whole host of factors can curtail what hypertext affords; for example, 'secure' websites that can only be accessed by certain knowledgeable people (whether one possesses the password or is an expert hacker), incompatible or missing software, lack of technical savoir-faire., and so on. On another note, my definition excludes CD-ROM programs for standalone computer workstations. These CD-ROMs, while possessing certain hypertext features (such as connected scrollable pages and multimedia), are not related or potentially relatable to other webpages or software in a larger connected network of workstations. This exclusion holds until a website is created for supporting the said CD-ROM program in a web-browser window, in effect, making it relatable to other webpages. One is forced to admit that technological innovation continues to problematize the notion of hypertext. Orders of abstraction of hypertext With this working definition of hypertext in place, it is now possible to extract what I perceive to be different orders of abstraction with which one can talk about hypertext. These orders of abstraction should not, however, be confused with ranks or levels which are posited for different semiotic resources. Halliday (1994) proposed such constituent ranks for the linguistic semiotic. Borrowing this notion of levels, O'Toole (1994) suggests rank scales for visual art, sculpture and architecture. Here the notion of rank orders and relates systems of meaning-making across the different metafunctions in what are essentially theoretical formulations of the 'grammar' of different semiotic resources. As such, the ranks operate within the confines of the 'text' produced. These ranks become useful when one seeks to uncover the choices made in instantiations of each of the semiotic resources. The orders of abstraction posited here for hypertext are methodological categories construed to handle this to-date slippery technology. As we shall
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soon see, these orders of abstraction are not necessarily related to each other by constituency. Indeed, the orders of abstraction are different in nature to the aforementioned semiotic ranks because hypertext is not a semiotic resource, but a platform for the codeployment of different semiotic resources. The orders of abstraction proposed for hypertext are ITEM, LEXIA, CLUSTER and WEB. As these terms require theorization, I start with the lowest order of abstraction and develop these concepts to the highest or most inclusive category of hypertext. Item An ITEM is any instantiation from any meaning-making system that is supportable by hypertext technology, and to date, these semiotic resources include the linguistic, visual, music and phonic. The question of what instantiation(s) count as an ITEM is necessarily preceded with a brief discussion of ranks (in italic font below) in semiotic systems. A linguistic instantiation such as 'I could fly' is easily identified as a Clause. In contrast, the instantiation 'Move!' is simultaneously a Clause, a Verbal Group and a Word. O'Toole (1994: 12) observes the same phenomenon in certain paintings where a Work may simultaneously be an Episode, a Figure or simply a Member. Ostensibly, ranks within any one semiotic system are not impermeable to each other. In any one semiotic, an ITEM may therefore be a number of instantiations of different ranks of the one semiotic combining together as a discernible whole. In multisemiotic texts, an ITEM could be an instantiation of one semiotic resource, or a combination of instantiations of different ranks of different semiotic resources joining together as a methodologically justifiable whole. In this light, ITEM encapsulates this permeability of the ranks within and across semiotic resources. What are the semiotic choices that contribute to a sign or a complex of signs being designated as an ITEM? For either linguistic or visual semiosis, they are the choices made in the Textual or Compositional metafunction respectively. For a combination between the two resources, factors that separate one ITEM from another crucially rest on the choices made in the Compositional metafunction. These Compositional choices include those from the system of Colour Cohesion, the system of Alignment and the system of Gestalt: Framing (see Table 6.2). This is not meant, however, to play down the fact that choices made in the other metafunctions in both semiotic resources also contribute to the discreteness of a sign or complex of signs, but that the justification for ITEM rests primarily on choices made in the Compositional metafunction with regards to the Textual organization of the typographical/graphical instantiation of the linguistic/visual semiotic choices. As displayed in Plate 6.1, the order of ITEM could apply to a Word, a boxed-up Clause(s), an Element of a stylized gust of wind, an Episode of a man swatting a fly, the Work of an evening skyline serving as a background graphic, or even a complex of signs.
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Plate 6.1
Examples of items
So far I have only concentrated on signs or complexes of signs that are either linguistic or visual as these make up most of what appears on a webpage. However, hypertext makes available instantiations from other semiotic resources as well. Can ITEM be extended to instantiations of the phonic semiotic resource? Perhaps non-linguistic phonic instantiations broadcast in hypertext may be designated as an ITEM. These may include a sound clip such as the Microsoft Startup Window chime that is emitted when the Microsoft platform is launched on the computer. An ITEM may also be extended to melodic broadcasts, which again overlap between the phonic and music semiotic resources. Likewise, perhaps in certain cases of hypertext where audio recordings of linguistic discourse are broadcast, the entire broadcast might be grouped as an ITEM. It is apparent that further work in this direction is needed.
Lexia The word lexia derives from Roland Barthes (1974: 13—14) and stands for the scrollable webpage; that is, the 'text composed of blocks of texts' that an ergodist sees on the computer screen (Landow, 1997: 3—4). ITEM, which include hypertext links, become the constituents that make up a LEXIA. In practice, LEXIAS can be 'short' or 'long' depending on how many ITEMS are included and how they are organized. It is at this order of abstraction where (multi)semiotic realizations are organized in some meaningful way in relation to others. 'Reality' is represented (multi)semiotically, and the ergodist engages with, and is placed in a particular relation to, what is displayed and the producers of that display. The relation between LEXIA and ITEM is one of composition where a LEXIA is made up of ITEMS. Instances of LEXIAS and ITEMS are in turn realized from choices made in the metafunctional systems for different semiotic resources.
Cluster CLUSTER refers to a number of connected LEXIAS due to associations created via hypertext links. These hypertext links are classified as 'LEXIA internal' as
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they are located within the LEXIA itself and serve to 'call-up' another LEXIA should the ergodist click on it. With hypertext links, one agency (institution, company, collective or individual) can link its many LEXIAS in such a way as to suggest (and so limit) the multidirectionality of traversing the LEXIAS that make up one CLUSTER. The notion of CLUSTER thus overlaps with the notion of a producer-created path, because it is the producers of particular LEXIAS who place hypertext links that in turn suggest or determine a pathway or pathways through the CLUSTER. A CLUSTER can appear discrete from others by means such as strategic placing of'Back', 'Forward', 'Back to Homepage' buttons or even a sidebar with hypertext links to other LEXIAS within the CLUSTER. A complication to this order of abstraction may be the fact that a number of LEXIAS associated by one agency via hypertext links can join with or overlap with others as a result of hypertext links put up by the same agency or some other. This is not only a remote possibility, but an avenue exploited by agencies who insert a hypertext link on their own LEXIA that links to a larger number of associated LEXIAS. Pushed to its logical extreme, this notion breaks down what is authoritatively the CLUSTER belonging to a particular agency. For example, in December 1999, a hypertext link on the MOE homepage linked directly to a webpage belonging to the Housing Development Board of Singapore (HDB), which was in turn linked with a vast series of LEXIAS that the HDB produced. One asks where the MOE CLUSTER ends and the HDB counterpart begins? This is precisely the problem of designating CLUSTERS based on agency. The notion of CLUSTER is thus not concerned with agency perse., but associations formed via hypertext links. These links are finite, and a CLUSTER 'rounds off, or starts becoming a more discrete entity from other CLUSTERS with the termination of links. While the CLUSTER is constituted by LEXIAS based on internal hypertext links, these are temporal and changeable, thus making the associations between LEXIAS transient and mutable. CLUSTER is as such Virtual' and an observable disjunction occurs between this order and those of LEXIA and ITEM.
Web WEB is the number of LEXIAS associable through hypertext links and other facilities internal and external to a LEXIA. Facilities that are LEXIA internal (but are not hypertext links) include search engines situated within a LEXIA, while LEXIA external facilities are those provided, for example, by the webbrowser software. These appear on the web-browser window and include the 'Forward', 'Back' and 'Home' buttons among other options. LEXIA external facilities also include the hardware, or the cable connections between computers. This notion of WEB thus includes LEXIAS potentially relatable to each other by Local Area Networks (LANs), such as Ethernet, that join sets of machines within an institution or a part of one and also Wide Area Networks (WANs) that join multiple organizations in widely
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spread geographical locations. The contemporary terms 'Internet' and 'World Wide Web' capture what is believed to be an increased global connectivity since LANs and WANs. WEB therefore characterizes the varying degrees of associations as well as the different means of forming associations between LEXIAS and CLUSTERS. The range of facilities both LEXIA internal and external make potentially all LEXIA accessible and traversable. Perhaps here is where hyperbolic statements about hypertext's infinitude arise. In reality, however, even if all LEXIAS that comprise a WEB were made freely accessible, they are still a finite number, and, furthermore, restrictions limit access to particular sites. For example, certain 'secure' websites such as private online email accounts are accessible only to the person with the password or technical expertise to bypass the password requirement. WEB as an order of abstraction is what embraces all potential associations via devices that establish links originally internal or external to LEXIAS. Actual reading practice, therefore, is an interaction between the two notions of CLUSTER and WEB, where an ergodist's route occurs either within or without the routes made by the producer of the websites. Orders of hypertext for semiotic mediation and analysis Much effort has gone into clarifying the notion of hypertext because the objective of this paper is to give an account of how semiotic resources are codeployed in hypertext. With the ordering of hypertext into different abstractions, it becomes clear that it is at the categories of ITEM and LEXIA where multisemiosis, or the realization of different semiotic resources, occurs, and hence where multisemiosis as a fact impinges on the ergodist. It is at these two abstractions of hypertext where multisemiotic analysis can meaningfully operate. This is demonstrated in the following section which focuses on the analysis of the MOE homepage. Context for the construction of the MOE homepage Before the semiotic analysis proper, it is essential to include a brief consideration of webpages in relation to semiotic resources and the context of situation and culture. This relationship is represented diagrammatically in Figure 6.1. Both processes of realization and instantiation imply a dialectic activation to the right and below, and construal to the left and above. For example, culture activates the use of semiotic resources while choices from the systems of different semiotic resources construe culture. Likewise, culture activates situation while situation construes culture. A certain complexity enters into this relationship, however, when one appreciates that culture is not monolithic, that situations deriving from culture are not uniform and consequently LEXIAS are not entirely identical. Context, constituted by culture and situation, thus needs to be appreciated as multidimensional.
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Figure 6.1 Relation of culture, situation, semiotic resources and lexia (adapted from HaUiday, 1991)
Nonetheless, a particularization of the aspects of a context is useful for uncovering the circumstances under which a webpage is produced. For exemplification, I examine the MOE homepage 'frozen' at 7 January 2000, scaled down and reproduced in Plate 6.2. Note the analysis refers to the actual size of what is seen onscreen. With the MOE homepage in view, one aspect of context is the sociopolitical climate constructed by the current ruling party in Singapore, the People's Action Party (PAP). Through the years, the PAP has selectively identified and communicated to the local population concerns over Singapore's lack of natural resources, relative geographical smallness, heterogeneous population and proximity to nations predominantly MalayIslamic. With this 'crisis narrative', as some have called it, the government offers economic survival among others as a solution-goal under which to unify and direct Singaporeans (Heng and Devan, 1995). Unsurprisingly, the use of hypertext has been discursively predicated on this larger concern of economic survival in the 'Information Age'. For example, in the Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times (9 February, 2000) an editorial entided 'Internet a driving force' claims that: In Singapore, where the need to be a communications hub is, if anything, more acute than it is in places less dependent on global economy, connectivity is not a slogan. It is a simple pointed imperative. Companies and employees must take
Plate 6.2 Lexia of the MOE homepage
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seriously the Government's call for workers to upgrade their skills to find a place in the new knowledge economy.
As the educational arm of the PAP, the MOE works with such an end in mind. In a public release, in the section entitled 'Cornerstone of education policy', the MOE reveals that one of its chief foci is 'the development of human resources to meet Singapore's need for an educated and skilled workforce' (Ministry of Education, Singapore 2000). Out of this context construed by the PAP and, more specifically, the MOE, the homepage under consideration is erected. Another configuration of context, comprising the production norms for webpages, forms a necessary second step to contextualize the MOE homepage. LEXIAS can be constructed for a range of purposes. One such purpose is the display of information. Webpages that only serve this purpose emerge as 'content heavy'. Other webpages are used for administrative purposes such as gathering feedback and so possess features whereby the ergodist can 'enter' whatever he or she wishes. A particular type of webpage serves the function of welcoming and introducing the ergodist to a series of linked webpages. Such a webpage is commonly referred to as the 'homepage', since it is held to be the locus point to all the other linked webpages. Apart from welcoming and introducing the ergodist, homepages may also serve as an index of varying degrees by having visible hypertext links to the linked webpages. The norms associated with a homepage provide an insight into one aspect of the context that produces it. Most homepages have the generic layout of masthead in the topmost position with various texts and hypertext links beneath. This layout is generally adopted by commercial and institutional organizations perhaps because apart from welcoming and introducing, it foregrounds the corporate identity behind the website. With the identity of the 'seller' disclosed, the ergodist as consumer may in 'good faith' accept the material goods, services or information proffered by the website. Nonetheless, some websites do play with the rigid style of presentation or depart from it altogether to increase its engagement with the ergodist. This is done either by experimenting with the different semiotic resources in the hypertext environment or communicating in novel ways through uniquely hypertext facilities to create a greater sense of dynamism and unpredictability. For example, homepages may flout convention by duplicating and relocating the masthead vertically at the sides of the webpage, and such columns of words may flash alternative colours sequentially. Whatever the case may be, the purposes served by a homepage are circumscribed by situational and cultural demands of context. Context thus stands as a necessary preface to any semiotic analysis. With this in mind, one may enter into an exploration of the semiotic choices and hypertext facilities employed by the MOE homepage.
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Semiotic analysis of the MOE homepage The semiotic account of the MOE homepage tackles many intersecting questions: Why are certain semiotic choices made? How do these semiotic choices work together to give meaning? What meanings are conveyed and for what purpose? In effect, the following analysis works towards the central concern of this paper: to explicate the complex question of why the webpage comes to be written in the way it is. Such an analysis in turn necessitates an account of the interaction of meanings between instantiations of different semiotic resources, and this is explored in the next section of this paper. The semiotic examination of the meanings put forth by the MOE homepage is systematized first at the order of LEXIA followed by the order of ITEM. Such an analysis relies on the ranked functional systems for linguistic and visual semiotic resources posited respectively by Halliday (1994) and O'Toole (1994). Tables 6.1 and 6.2 provide a sketch of these ranked functional systems for both the linguistic and the visual semiotic. Because Tables 6.1 and 6.2 are essentially 'unfinished' maps, the systems are to a certain degree open-ended, implying that a greater level of analytical delicacy is always possible. Out of these posited systems, choices are simultaneously made to produce particular instantiations. Additionally, systems across ranks may also work together for any one instantiation. To capture this complexity, semiotic choices discussed in this analysis are presented in terms of'selection expressions'. These expressions use the systems available in Tables 6.1 and 6.2 as 'entry points', and these are worked to whatever level of delicacy is needed (see Hasan, 1996 for a detailed presentation of selection expression and entry points). All references to these entry points in Tables 6.1 and 6.2 are henceforth in plain text with the initial letter capitalized (for example Focus: Perspective), while those in italics represent my more delicate contribution (for example, Gestalt: Framing: Bordering). Pertaining to these selection expressions, there are several things to note: the left-most element is the entry point for the discussion; colons precede a more delicate choice in relation to the preceding element; and semi-colons distinguish elements of the same level of delicacy. Analysis at order of lexia Modal and compositional choices Because Modal choices are very intimately related to Compositional choices, a discussion of the former cannot avoid invoking the latter. A quick survey of the MOE homepage gives an impression of five sections represented in Plate 6.3. These divisions are strongly suggested by the Modal choices from the system of Scale to Whole, the system of Contrast and Conflict: Colour; Scale; Light; Line and the System of Relative Prominence. These choices may be more usefully explicated by complementary Compositional choices.
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Table 6.1 Halliday's functional systems for language (adapted from O'Toole, 1999) Function/ Rank
Ideational Experiential Logical
Interpersonal Textual
Clause
Condition Transitivity Types Of Addition Report Process, Participants Polarity and Circumstances (Identity Glauses) (Things, Facts and Reports)
Mood Types Of Speech Function Modality (The WhFunction)
Theme Types Of Message (Identity As Text Relation) (Identification Predication Reference Substitution)
Verbal Group
Tense (Verb Classes)
Person ('Marked' Options)
Voice ('Contrastive' Options)
Nominal Group
Modification Classification Epithet SubFunction Modification Enumeration (Noun Classes) (Adjective Classes)
Attitude Attitudinal Modifiers Intensifiers
Deixis Determiners 'Phoric' Elements (Qualifiers) (Definite Articles)
Adverbial (incl. Prepositional) Group
Narrowing 'Minor SubProcesses' Prepositional Modification Relations (Classes Of Circumstantial Adjunct)
Comment (Classes Of Comments Adjunct)
Conjunction (Classes Of Discourse Adjunct)
Word (incl. Lexical item)
Compounding Lexical Lexical 'Register' Derivation 'Content' (Expressive (Taxonomic Words) Organization (Stylistic Of Vocabulary) Organization Of Vocabulary)
Catenation Secondary Tense
Collocation (Collocational Organization Of Vocabulary)
These include Relative Position In Gestalt, In Episode And To Each Other: Proximate, Gestalt: Framing: Bordering (for example, those borders under the masthead and below 'Corporate Information') and groupings of recognizably similar instantiations under headings in Stylization: Font: Font Style:
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Table 6.2 Ranked functional systems for the visual semiotic (adapted from O'Toole, 1999) Function Unit
Representational
Modal
Compositional
Work
Actions, Events Agents, Patients, Goals Scenes, Settings, Features Portrayals, Sitters Narrative Themes Interplay Of Episodes
Focus: Perspective Clarity Light Colour Scale Volume Gaze: 'Eyework' 'Paths' 'Rhythms' Intermediaries Frame 'Weight' Modality: Fantasy Irony Authenticity Symbolism Omission Intertextuality
Gestalt: Framing Horizontals Verticals Diagonals Proportion Line Rhythm Geometric Forms Colour Cohesion 'Theme'
Episode
Groups And Sub-Actions, Scenes, Portrayals Side Sequence) Interplay Of Actions
Scale To Whole Centrality To Whole Relative Prominence Interplay Of Modalities
Relative Position In Gestalt And To Each Other Alignment Coherence Interplay Of Forms
Figure
Character Act Stance Gesture
Member
Basic Physical Forms: Parts Of Body Object Natural Forms Components
Object Characterization Position Relation To Viewer Gaze Gesture Contrast and Conflict: Colour Scale Light Line Stylization Attenuation Chiaroscuro Synecdoche Irony
Relative Position In Gestalt, In Episode And To Each Other Parallelism and Opposition Subframing
Cohesion: Reference Parallel Contrast Rhythm
Plate 6.3
Sections of the MOE homepage
ELECTRONIC MEDIA AND FILM
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Bold (such as the ITEMS under 'Web Sites of Interest' and 'Corporate Information'). Because these sections are rectilinear and stacked vertically, the Gestalt is one that positively suggests stability or negatively an absence of dynamism (O'Toole, 1994). The organization of linguistic and visual instantiation of this webpage reflects a certain trend. If one were to consider the linguistic texts on the webpage, the selection is Relative Position In Gestalt: Formatting: Left Justified., meaning strings of words are aligned from the same vertical point of departure starting from the left. This left justification relates to the reading practice associated with English texts which is left to right to the row below. Additionally, each of the hypertext links under 'Highlights' and 'Corporate Information' has a graphic bullet that indicates the start of a 'new point' as well as a distinct hypertext link. These bullets therefore function to draw the eye to the right and to signal the intended discreteness of linguistic instantiations. In much the same way, the MOE Shield at the top left corner of the webpage calls attention to itself while bulleting the 'main point' of the homepage: the Ministry of Education, Singapore. More so than in other multisemiotic texts, the 'putting together' or construction of a hypertext involves a heightened awareness of bringing separate elements together in spatial relation to each other. This construction is fundamentally achieved through Hypertext Mark-Up Language (HTML) that is used to 'write' computer commands which execute the webpage as seen on-screen. A source code thus details a particular webpage's HTML consisting of commands enclosed in pointed brackets such as '
' to more complex ones such as