Balancing cohesion and tension in multimodal rhetoric. An interdisciplinary approach to the study of semiotic complexity

Engebretsen, Martin

doi:10.1080/17439884.2012.655745

Cited by 19 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…An interpretation that led to correct positions but did not demand an understanding of the phenomenon per se was the experience of seeing the Moon at night. In such cases, the students related the content of the image (viz., the night side of the Earth) to their “previous knowledge of the world” (Engebretsen, , p. 146) and thus contributed to cohesion. A significant fraction of our participants took this view at one point or another in the discussions, which is, as touched upon above, an observation seldom reported.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With focus upon patterns of multimodal rhetoric, Engebretsen () posed a question about “what characterizes the most successful texts meant for learning” (p. 145). He is influenced by Michael Halliday's sociolinguistics as well as by social semiotics.…”

Section: Theoretical Framingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first of these influences focuses on the effect of aspects of, for instance, context on the way language is used (see, e.g., Gumperz & Cook‐Gumperz, ), whereas the second deals with systems of meaning‐making practices or “semiotic modes” (e.g., visual, verbal, written, gestural resources for communication; see, e.g., Kress & van Leeuwen, ). With a point of departure in these perspectives, Engebretsen () argues that a balance between multimodal cohesion and tension in the interplay between semiotic modes (e.g., written text, images, speech, animated graphics, and occasional videos) is a core issue for analysts as well as for designers of multimodal texts.…”

Section: Theoretical Framingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Multimodal tension , on the other hand, is the inversion of multimodal cohesion and is based on contrast, distance , and discontinuity and is, according to Engebretsen (), hitherto less focused and elaborated upon. Although cohesion supports comprehension, tension forces the reader actively to interact with the text.…”

Section: Theoretical Framingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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“Can There be a Full Moon at Daytime?” Young Students Making Sense of Illustrations of the Lunar Phases

2017

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Teaching and learning situations nowadays typically build on richly illustrated material or multimodal presentations. Under these circumstances, the transparency of images and models used for explaining various phenomena becomes central. The present study deals with 20 Swedish children, 9-12 years old, discussing an illustration meant to show the cause of the different appearances of the Moon in the sky. The students' task was to place eight numbered moon phases in the lunar orbit in the image. The illustration in question was chosen (a) because it was of a kind frequently used to explain the lunar phases and (b) because the phenomenon is known to be difficult to understand for students of all ages. The analysis leans on historical and sociocultural approaches as well as on multimodal semiotics. The results show that a majority of students were able to make sense of the most central features of the illustration but that very few spontaneously reasoned in a way that could be interpreted as the intended meaning-making of the cause of the lunar phases. The results also indicate that the simultaneous adoption of two perspectives necessary for understanding the phenomenon was a stumbling block for most of the students.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Framingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Framingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Framingmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

“Can There be a Full Moon at Daytime?” Young Students Making Sense of Illustrations of the Lunar Phases

2017

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“…The reason that visual information seems transparent to teachers and textbook authors is that they already know the code (Kress & van Leeuwen 1996). Engebretsen (2012) explores the concepts cohesion and tension in relation to learning in this multimodal context, stating that the challenge is in the balance between these two. Cohesion lies in the identification of semiotic elements and their relation to previous knowledge, whereas tension would be the opposite; provoking reaction, interaction and engagement.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Illustrations in Science Education: An Investigation of Young Pupils Using Explanatory Pictures of Electrical Currents

Zeipel

2015

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences

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This study is part of a project regarding explanatory illustrations in science education. Research questions here concern how pupils use and make meaning from illustrations in a science textbook. Electricity was chosen as the subject. Video data was collected in 8 sessions, each with a pair of pupils, 10-11 years of age in one school in Sweden. Communication within the pairs and with the interviewer was analyzed. The children also drew a picture of a battery and explained its function using this drawing. The most striking result was an almost complete lack of transparency for the scientific information in the illustrations. Regardless of previous knowledge, pupils were almost never able to collect new information on their own or together with their peer. As long as the visual information matched previous knowledge they could explain the content, but as the complexity increased, they were lost. They then either expressed their incomprehension or carried on to argue for evident misconceptions, not realizing that the illustrations were contradicting them. Together with the interviewer, pupils could eventually identify central scientific messages and where their previous understanding was challenged. One conclusion is that scientific illustrations can drive scientific in-depth discussion. However, the main conclusion is that pupils are not trained to interpret multimodal information themselves and that teachers and textbook authors therefore risk overestimating pupils de-coding abilities.

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Modality and Uncertainty in Data Visualizations: A Corpus Approach to the Use of Connecting Lines

Lechner

2020

Diagrammatic Representation and Inference

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In data visualizations, connecting lines may have various semiotic functions, including the semiotic potential of indicating modality and uncertainty. The goal of this article is to find out how this semiotic potential is realized in current best practices of data visualizations and what conventions exist for the visual manifestations of these functions. This issue is addressed by using a corpus-based approach and a two-level analysis method within a social semiotic framework. First, the article offers a theoretical discussion on how the concepts of modality and uncertainty interrelate. Second, a method for investigating how these concepts are visualized at different levels is presented. Third, a corpus analysis including 163 award-winning data visualizations is presented. The results indicate the existence of certain conventions for visual modality markers, and thus offer new insights relevant for both design theory and practice.

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Balancing cohesion and tension in multimodal rhetoric. An interdisciplinary approach to the study of semiotic complexity

Cited by 19 publications

References 9 publications

“Can There be a Full Moon at Daytime?” Young Students Making Sense of Illustrations of the Lunar Phases

“Can There be a Full Moon at Daytime?” Young Students Making Sense of Illustrations of the Lunar Phases

Illustrations in Science Education: An Investigation of Young Pupils Using Explanatory Pictures of Electrical Currents

Modality and Uncertainty in Data Visualizations: A Corpus Approach to the Use of Connecting Lines

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