Comparing the semiotic construction of attitudinal meanings in the multimodal manuscript, original published and adapted versions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Semiotica ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (215) ◽  
pp. 341-364
Author(s):  
Yumin Chen

AbstractThis paper analyzes the attitudinal variations in multimodal literary works by comparing the manuscript, the original published edition, and eight contemporary adapted versions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Drawing upon the appraisal system of attitude (Martin and White 2005, The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English. London: Palgrave) and the social semiotic approach to visual images (Kress and Van Leeuwen 2006, Reading images: The grammar of visual design, 2nd edn. London: Routledge), the analysis demonstrates that the deployments of linguistic and visual attitudinal resources in the adapted texts differ from those in the manuscript and the original published work in terms of the semantic region, what is being appraised, positive or negative attitude, the explicit or implicit way of expression, and the degree of attitudinal commitment. Variations within different adaptations are found to accommodate the needs of different target audiences. It is also found that the intermodal relation in constructing the overall attitudinal stance shifts from complementarity in the manuscript to enhancement in the original published work and then to co-instantiation in the adaptations. The semiotic exploration may shed light on the understanding of the variations of meanings arising from the interplay of multiple semiotic resources in the different versions of the timeless multimodal literary classic.

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 441-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Dezheng Feng

This study proposes that metonymy is fundamental to visual meaning making and develops a social semiotic framework to elucidate how conceptual metonymies are realized in both static and moving images. While we all accept that visual images are iconic, this study demonstrates systematically that they are also indexical (i.e. metonymic), in terms of their representation of both objects/events and abstract concepts. Based on the social semiotic visual grammar of Kress and Van Leeuwen’s Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (2006), systems of metonymy in actional, reactional, classificational and analytical processes are developed to map out the types of metonymies in visual representation. The metonymy systems bring a wide array of resources under a coherent framework for analysts to scrutinize the choices of representation in visual media such as comics, film and TV commercial. This study develops current theories of multimodal metaphor and metonymy, on the one hand, and provides new insights into the process of visual meaning making, on the other.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 788-832
Author(s):  
Lukas M. Muntingh

Egyptian domination under the 18th and 19th Dynasties deeply influenced political and social life in Syria and Palestine. The correspondence between Egypt and her vassals in Syria and Palestine in the Amarna age, first half of the fourteenth century B.C., preserved for us in the Amarna letters, written in cuneiform on clay tablets discovered in 1887, offer several terms that can shed light on the social structure during the Late Bronze Age. In the social stratification of Syria and Palestine under Egyptian rule according to the Amarna letters, three classes are discernible:1) government officials and military personnel, 2) free people, and 3) half-free people and slaves. In this study, I shall limit myself to the first, the upper class. This article deals with terminology for government officials.


Author(s):  
Svetlana Morozova ◽  
Dmitrij Zhatkin

The article is devoted to the perception of K.I. Chukovsky’s works by a famous English writer G.K. Chesterton. K.I. Chukovsky was one of the first to point out the ambiguity of the literary works by the English writer and called his journalistic activity more convincing. Describing G.K. Chesterton’s essays, K.I. Chukovsky believed that the writer is second to none in this genre. He praised G.K. Chesterton’s journalistic talent in responding to all the phenomena of contemporary social life. K.I. Chukovsky considered it obligatory for the Russian readers to familiarize themselves with the critical works of the English author. In the essay «Gilbert Chesterton. Manalive» (1924) K.I. Chukovsky substantiated why, for all the variety of genre forms that G.K. Chesterton used, Russian readers were familiar with only a few of his works. K.I. Chukovsky’s critical attitude to the novel «Manalive» is explained by his rejection of G.K. Chesterton’s utopian attitude to the social situation in England at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries. In G.K. Chesterton’s works K.I. Chukovsky saw a simulation of revolutionary pathos that did not solve pressing issues of social disorder.


Author(s):  
Dianne Toe ◽  
Louise Paatsch ◽  
Amy Szarkowski

Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children who use spoken language face unique challenges when communicating with others who have typical hearing, particularly their peers. In such contexts, the social use of language has been recognized as an area of vulnerability among individuals in this population and has become a focus for research and intervention. The development of pragmatic skills intersects with many aspects of child development, including emotional intelligence and executive function, as well as social and emotional development. While all these areas are important, they are beyond the scope of this chapter, which highlights the impact of pragmatics on the specific area of cognition. Cognitive pragmatics is broadly defined as the study of the mental processes involved in the understanding of meaning in the context of a cooperative interaction. This chapter explores how DHH children and young people construe meaning in the context of conversations and expository interactions with their peers. The chapter aims to examine the role played by the cognitive processes of making inferences and comprehending implicature, within the overall display of pragmatic skills. Further, the authors use this lens in the analysis of interactions between DHH children and their peers in order to shed light on the development of pragmatic skills in children who are DHH.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (23) ◽  
pp. 9813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuta Uchiyama ◽  
Eduardo Blanco ◽  
Ryo Kohsaka

Application of biomimetics has expanded progressively to other fields in recent years, including urban and architectural design, scaling up from materials to a larger scale. Besides its contribution to design and functionality through a long evolutionary process, the philosophy of biomimetics contributes to a sustainable society at the conceptual level. The aim of this review is to shed light on trends in the application of biomimetics to architectural and urban design, in order to identify potential issues and successes resulting from implementation. In the application of biomimetics to architectural design, parts of individual “organisms”, including their form and surface structure, are frequently mimicked, whereas in urban design, on a larger scale, biomimetics is applied to mimic whole ecosystems. The overall trends of the reviewed research indicate future research necessity in the field of on biomimetic application in architectural and urban design, including Biophilia and Material. As for the scale of the applications, the urban-scale research is limited and it is a promising research which can facilitate the social implementation of biomimetics. As for facilitating methods of applications, it is instrumental to utilize different types of knowledge, such as traditional knowledge, and providing scientific clarification of functions and systems based on reviews. Thus, interdisciplinary research is required additionally to reach such goals.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 171-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wung Seok Cha

TheSŭngjŏngwŏn ilgi (Daily Records of the Royal Secretariat)is one of the major chronicles of the events of the Chosŏn Dynasty (1392–1910). Although the records prior to the year 1622 are no longer extant, the remaining records from the years 1623 to 1910 meticulously recount the daily activities of the reigning Chosŏn kings, including copious information on their physical and mental status. Because the king’s health was considered as important as other official affairs in many respects, detailed records were kept of royal ailments and how court doctors treated them. This article surveys the state of Korean-language scholarship on the medical content of theDaily Recordsand presents selected translations to demonstrate how this valuable historical source can shed light on both the social history of Chosŏn medicine and the political importance of kingly health at the Chosŏn court.


2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 122-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chern Li Liew

AbstractSocial technologies have led to increasing participatory activities and institutions are interested in the potential of using these for outreach and engagement. Through offering new spaces and tools that allow users to consume and also to contribute content, institutions are expanding their traditional services which could redefine their role and relevance in the digital cultural heritage landscape. This study investigates the decision-making and practices underpinning current handling of social metadata and public-contributed contents (PCC). The focus is on examining the motivations for soliciting contributions, if and how these are moderated and managed, if they are integrated into the institutional data and knowledge base, and the extent to which public stakeholders moderate. The study also involves an investigation of whether, and how, memory institutions consider diversity and inclusiveness in soliciting participation and contributions, and the values placed on PCC, as compared to institutional resources. The aim of this study is to shed light on these by surveying libraries, archives, museums, and other institutions.How institutions deal with the social metadata and PCC they gather, and what they do with the contributions, could be a key determining factor of the success of their participatory practice as part of their larger effort to capture and preserve collective memories. This survey shows that the profession still has a way to go towards these goals. There is little evidence that demonstrates integration of a participatory culture and activities into the strategic directions and documentary practices of institutions.


2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 943-951
Author(s):  
Emma Teng

Engseng Ho proposes that “the study of Asia, thought of as an Inter-Asian space, and smaller than the whole globe, can provide tractable concepts for a new round of research to shed light on the social shapes of societies that are mobile, spatially expansive, and interactive with one other.” Moving us away from more static models of China studies, Japan studies, etc., the concept of “inter-Asian”—where I take the “inter” to stand for inter-national, inter-regional, inter-faith, inter-racial, and inter-ethnic—offers a productive framework for examining histories that have been previously marginalized in dominant historical narratives: for example, the history of colonial Hong Kong's Eurasian community. In such a case, where the scope of inquiry is neither fully global in scale nor strictly local, the inter-Asian framework provides a middle ground and intermediate scale that brings this history into focus.


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