Dr. Faisal AL-Qahtani1 CHAPTER 2: VISUAL ENGLISH Presentation Dr. Faisal Al-Qahtani REDESIGNING ENGLISH: NEW TEXTS, NEW IDENTITIES

Dr. Faisal AL-Qahtani2 FOCUS Forms of visuals used to communicate in English. Visual forms of communication:  culturally specific and highly conventionalized. Ways in which graphics and pictures can communicate. Differences between Visual English and Verbal English. Visual and verbal English interaction  reinforce each other, or  create conflicting meanings.

Dr. Faisal AL-Qahtani3 VISUAL AND VERBAL LITERACIES: The Impact Of Technology Visual literacy:  Traditional definition of literacy: inadequate to define visual English.  English texts: multimodal and increasingly visual with the help of the new technology:  different semiotic mode of communication. Culture, language and ‘seeing’  Context: crucial for meaningful decoding of visual English.  Visual English: culturally based.  Different languages and cultures: different symbols.

Dr. Faisal AL-Qahtani4 VISUAL OR VERBAL ENGLISH Graphosemantics:  meaning which derives from the text writtenness: what is written and how it’s written and the relationship between the two. Spelling:  Orthography can affect the way in which sounds are perceived: Grey vs. gray. The semiotics of typography  The effect of the typeface of a text: see page  Typography has paralinguistic function: intonation, change of pace, and accents  Visual alliteration visual alliterative: visual repetition : Own it now on video  Visual puns: T-shirt, U-turn: links between letters and look-alike objects.

Dr. Faisal AL-Qahtani5 ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH VISUAL GRAMMAR Visuals contain grammatical structures.  Functional approach: Analysis of images based on the functional theory of language (Michael Halliday). The functional approach is useful:  it adds a semantic dimension to the analysis of the text: allows differences in meanings:  Between different ways of addressing people: Mr. Smith or John.  Between different ways of describing events.  Some analysts of visual representation take a similar view:  Visual representation of events is linked to our point of view about those events, and what we want to communicate about them.

Dr. Faisal AL-Qahtani6 Halliday’s communicative (meta-)functions:  Semiotic mode (words, pictures, sounds) can fulfill three communicative functions: Ideational – representing ideas Interpersonal – representing relationships Textual – combining and integrating the ideational and interpersonal meanings into a text ELEMENTS OF ENGLISH VISUAL GRAMMAR

Dr. Faisal AL-Qahtani7 Direct and Indirect Address: Both language and pictures:  direct and indirect address : Verbal:  Does the verbal language address the listener or reader directly,  i.e. through the use of second person you? Visual:  Does the image address the viewer directly,  i.e. the person in the poster looking at the viewer? (fig. 2.13, p.54)

Dr. Faisal AL-Qahtani8 Given-New Structures: Given information:  already known to the participants New information  not already known, e.g. Tense, nervous, headache? Take Anadin (medicin ad.) (see p.55). In images (visual):  given and new are represented spatially through left and right positioning or before and after images.

Dr. Faisal AL-Qahtani9 Victors: Visual Transitivity Transitivity (Hallidayan approach):  a set of choices for representing what is going on in the world: representational elements:  Processes: action, transaction, or event.  Participants: the entities involved with what is going on: actor and goal. Different representations depend on the writer and on the context: e.g.,  event: innocent villagers died.  (instead of) transaction: soldiers killed innocent villagers. Visual Transitivity:  Above examples can be represented in images (p.57).

Dr. Faisal AL-Qahtani10 Modality : Visualizing the “real” (degree of representing reality) Modality (Halliday):  expressions of comment or attitude by the speaker: high modality expression: high truth value:  I know he is coming. Low modality expression: he might come. Modality can be expressed visually:  A sharply detailed, fine grained photograph = high modality: more true/real  No detail = low modality

Dr. Faisal AL-Qahtani11 VISUAL NARRATIVES: Multimodal narratives employ multimodal features:  Paralinguistic features e.g. facial expressions, gestures and postures.  Proxemic indicators: i.e. how characters are positioned (closeness, distances).  Pictorial representation: cartoons: e.g. stars after a bump, or light bulb to show that one has a great idea.  Intonation: e.g. characters’ accent, pitch, stress…

Dr. Faisal AL-Qahtani12 VISUAL NARRATIVES: Visual Deixis:  references to time and place Visual shapes  show deictic expressions like then and now.  Color: present events  black and white: past events.  Different languages and cultures express visual narrative structures in different ways.

Dr. Faisal AL-Qahtani13 CONCLUSION:  Texts are becoming increasingly multimodal: employing visual and verbal semiotic modes.  Meanings ascribed to visual information: socially constructed and culturally dependent.