Mediated characters: Multimodal viewpoint construction in comics

AbstractI analyze multimodal viewpoint construction in comics to engage with how modalities function within the medium as a specific discourse context with distinct conventions and material qualities. I show how comics employ established storytelling practices with character, narrator, and narrative viewpoint levels, while building up and interweaving these through strategic uses of the modalities of the medium. I mobilize the cognitive theories of embodiment, domains, mental simulation, and mental space blending as an analytical framework. I examine the asynchronicity of viewpoint elements between modalities and their synthesis into composite character viewpoints in several examples. I show how modalities can be prioritized and their different qualities and functions strategically manipulated for viewpoint construal. These brief examples show the complexity inherent in multimodal communication and interpretation and the usefulness of encouraging the medium-specific and interdisciplinary analyses of cultural works from a cognitive linguistic perspective.

Download Full-text

Zoltán Kövecses: Metaphor, discourse, context. A cognitive linguistic perspective

Die Sprache und ihre Wissenschaft zwischen Tradition und Innovation / Language and its Study between Tradition and Innovation ◽

10.3726/978-3-653-04525-3/13 ◽

2016 ◽

Keyword(s):

Discourse Context ◽

Cognitive Linguistic

Download Full-text

Toddler-directed and adult-directed gesture frequency in monolingual and bilingual caregivers

10.31234/osf.io/w35rh ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Monika Molnar ◽

Kai Ian Leung ◽

Jodee Santos Herrera ◽

Marcel Giezen

Keyword(s):

Communication Strategies ◽

Multimodal Communication ◽

Linguistic Context ◽

Cognitive Linguistic ◽

Language Context ◽

Communication Demands ◽

Representational Gestures

Aims and ObjectivesThis study was designed to assess whether bilingual caregivers, compared to monolingual caregivers, modify their nonverbal gestures to match the increased communicative and/or cognitive-linguistic demands of bilingual language contexts - as would be predicted based on the Facilitative Strategy Hypothesis.MethodologyWe recorded the rate of representational and beat gestures in monolingual and bilingual caregivers when they retold a cartoon story to their child or to an adult, in a monolingual and a bilingual context (‘synonym’ context for monolingual caregivers).Data and AnalysisWe calculated the frequency of all gestures, representational gestures, and beat gestures for each addressee (adult-directed vs. toddler-directed) and linguistic context (monolingual vs. bilingual/synonym), separately for the monolingual and the bilingual caregivers. Using ANOVA, we contrasted monolingual vs. bilingual caregivers’ gesture frequency for each gesture type separately - based on addressee and linguistic context. Findings/ConclusionsBilingual caregivers gesture more than monolingual caregivers, irrespective of addressee and language context. Furthermore, we found evidence in support of the Facilitative Strategy hypothesis across both monolingual and bilingual caregivers, as all caregivers increased the rate of their representational gestures in the child-directed re-telling. However, we found no clear patterns showing that bilingual caregivers, compared to monolingual caregivers, adjust their gestures when the communication demands from their child’s perspective are presumably high (i.e., the child is listening to a story in two languages). In summary, both monolingual and bilingual caregivers similarly adjust their gestures to aid their child’s comprehension, and bilinguals generally gesture more than monolinguals.OriginalityTo our knowledge, this is the first study of gesture use in child-directed communication in monolingual and bilingual caregivers.Significance/ImplicationsIndependent of their monolingual or bilingual status, caregivers adjust their child-directed multimodal communication strategies (specifically gestures) when interacting with their children.

Download Full-text

Modality, Medium, and More: A Toolkit for the Multimodal Cognitive Linguist. Sidenotes on “Understanding Abstract Concepts across Modes in Multimodal Discourse: A Cognitive-Linguistic Approach” (2020) by Elżbieta Górska

Anglica Wratislaviensia ◽

10.19195/0301-7966.58.11 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 58 ◽

pp. 189-202

Author(s):

Michał Szawerna

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Processes ◽

Cognitive Linguistics ◽

Review Article ◽

Multimodal Communication ◽

The Other ◽

Abstract Concepts ◽

Multimodal Discourse ◽

Cognitive Linguistic ◽

The One ◽

Linguistic Approach

The focus of this review article is on Understanding Abstract Concepts across Modes in Multimodal Discourse: A Cognitive-Linguistic Approach (2020), the latest monograph by professor Elżbieta Górska of Warsaw University, a leading Polish researcher in the area of multimodality studies informed by cognitive linguistics. The goal of this article is twofold. On the one hand, the article aims at evaluating Górska’s monograph on its own merits, as a self-contained study of the cognitive processes involved in the interpretation of multimodal works of art by Janusz Kapusta, with an emphasis on conceptual metaphor, conceptual metonymy, and their interplay. On the other hand, the article aims at considering a number of thorny concepts underlying much of the current linguistically informed research into multimodal communication (notably, modality/mode, medium, and genre) by using Górska’s monograph as a springboard for their discussion.

Download Full-text

Grounded spaces: deictic -self anaphors in the poetry of Emily Dickinson

Language and Literature ◽

10.1177/096394709700600101 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 7-28 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Margaret H. Freeman

Keyword(s):

Emily Dickinson ◽

The Self ◽

Transformational Grammar ◽

Cognitive Linguistic ◽

The Subject ◽

Mental Space ◽

Mental Spaces ◽

Linguistic Usage ◽

Linguistic Account

Ungrammaticality in poetry, when it is considered 'acceptable' by literary critics, has been characteristically dismissed as 'poetic licence', as though poets are somehow exempt from the constraints on linguistic usage. Autonomous (traditional or transformational) grammar has no explanation for the occurrence of forms such as Emily Dickinson's -self anaphor pronouns. On the contrary, under a cognitive linguistic account, her apparently ungrammatical -self anaphors are perfectly grammatical. Dickinson's -self anaphors, grounded in mental spaces, are triggered by the subject/agent of their originating space. That the grounding of these -self anaphors makes them deictic is attested by the existence of 'crossover' spaces. Dickinson's use of the -self anaphor in projected mental spaces makes the self deictically present in that space: not any self, but the self as agent in the originating space. By using the principle of -self anaphor projection from the subject/agent in one mental space into another, Dickinson creates for us a world of possibilities : a world in which things can happen and be made to happen through the agencies of the self.

Download Full-text

Above and beyond the content: Feelings influence mental simulations

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x19003108 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 43 ◽

Author(s):

Kellen Mrkva ◽

Luca Cian ◽

Leaf Van Boven

Keyword(s):

Mental Representation ◽

Mental Simulation ◽

Past Experience ◽

Prediction Errors

Abstract Gilead et al. present a rich account of abstraction. Though the account describes several elements which influence mental representation, it is worth also delineating how feelings, such as fluency and emotion, influence mental simulation. Additionally, though past experience can sometimes make simulations more accurate and worthwhile (as Gilead et al. suggest), many systematic prediction errors persist despite substantial experience.

Download Full-text

A Cognitive-Linguistic Intervention Program: Basic Concept Formation Level

Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools ◽

10.1044/0161-1461.0801.23 ◽

1977 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 23-32

Author(s):

Gerald E. Chappell

Keyword(s):

Basic Concept ◽

Concept Formation ◽

Intervention Program ◽

Cognitive Linguistic ◽

Basic Concepts ◽

Linguistic Skills ◽

Linguistic Intervention

Test-teach questioning is a strategy that can be used to help children develop basic concepts. It fosters the use of multisensory exploration and discovery in learning which leads to the development of cognitive-linguistic skills. This article outlines some of the theoretical bases for this approach and indicates possibilities for their applications in child-clinician transactions.

Download Full-text

Responses of Language-Disordered Children to Wh-Questions

Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools ◽

10.1044/0161-1461.1702.95 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

pp. 95-106 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Martha M. Parnell ◽

James D. Amerman ◽

Roger D. Harting

Keyword(s):

Relative Difficulty ◽

Normal Children ◽

Cognitive Linguistic ◽

Wh Questions

Nineteen language-disordered children aged 3—7 years responded to items representing nine wh-question forms. Questions referred to three types of referential sources based on immediacy and visual availability. Three and 4-year-olds produced significantly fewer functionally appropriate and functionally accurate answers than did the 5- and 6-year-olds. Generally, questions asked with reference to nonobservable persons, actions, or objects appeared the most difficult. Why, when, and what happened questions were the most difficult of the nine wh-forms. In comparison with previous data from normal children, the language-disordered subjects' responses were significantly less appropriate and accurate. The language-disordered children also appeared particularly vulnerable to the increased cognitive/linguistic demands of questioning directed toward nonimmediate referents. A hierarchy of wh-question forms by relative difficulty was very similar to that observed for normal children. Implications for wh-question assessment and intervention are discussed.

Download Full-text