Visual linguistics
The term image linguistics (also image linguistics or linguistic image analysis ) was coined by Diekmannshenke / Klemm / Stöckl (2011: 9) and taken up by Große (2011). Visual linguistics represents a branch of linguistics that has been developing in recent years , which deals with the interaction of language and image in specific communication contexts . It forms an interface between the linguistic sub-disciplines of text , media , cognitive and discourse linguistics .
Starting position
Never before have images been as present as they are today. Language-image links have become the most important message carriers with which people communicate in the mass media today. Accelerated by the technological revolution of digitization , images determine almost all areas of life and knowledge in our society in the so-called "optical age" and, more than ever, the following applies: "Images are quick shots to the brain!" Yes, but are they any more than that? What do images do in the age of visual communication besides shortened, faster perception ? Is there a typology of image segmentation and description that enables us to understand why some images or visual designs of text and image attract more attention than others? How can texts that are below, above, next to or in images that belong to them, refer to them, are sometimes only coherent in their mutual interaction and are themselves perceived as an aesthetic form, analyze and describe without one of any kind Image analysis?
In a media society that is heavily influenced by images, the ability to "read images" has become a key cultural competence . Because no picture explains and goes without saying. Their reception requires considerable cultural knowledge, e.g. B. via traffic signs and traffic lights and the signal values of their colors. The spectrum of image media and their forms of visualization is diverse. The methodological approaches to their description, on the other hand, have not yet been used. Philologists present them with completely new challenges.
terminology
In order to be able to describe language-image complexes linguistically, it is sometimes not enough to transfer the linguistic methods of the investigation, which were shaped by the structure of verbal forms of communication , to images. From a linguistic point of view, images and language-image complexes represent a qualitative extension of the communicative scope for action. Our understanding of linguistic actions is dependent on our understanding of visual actions and vice versa. A theory of language that wants to do justice to this modification of the linguistic scope for action through images must therefore develop an integrative analysis model for the investigation of linguistic and visual actions. It must take into account that language and image in their interaction turn out to be complementary forms of coding that complement each other and thereby increase to new meaningful contents.
There is currently no uniform terminology for linguistic description of images. Rather, there are a number of alternative terms for visual structure levels and units (cf. Grosse 2011: 53). A suggestion for a summarizing typology that distinguishes visual sign systems with regard to their level of expression and content can be found in Große (2011: 55).
methodology
Based on the fundamental question of whether and how images “speak” and in what relation they stand to texts, the visual linguistic approach according to Große (2011) provides a linguistic description apparatus for images in the context of language and an analysis model based on this, the visual sign system divided into several levels of description and examined for various (grammatical-structural, thematic-structural, semantic, pragmatic, communicative-functional) aspects.
Because visual signs - just like linguistic expressions - do not inherently have their communicative functions, but can be constituted in completely different ways and with partially completely different structures depending on specific purposes , they must be understood as the result of a process, both on the producer and on the Recipients are equally involved. The approaches to linguistic image analysis are therefore always presented with reference to concrete analysis examples and communication situations. In exemplary sample analyzes for each level of the visual structure and function descriptions, methodological approaches of a linguistic image analysis are summarized and the underlying structural, semantic, pragmatic and communicative-functional analysis categories and examination criteria are explained. In view of the virtually infinite amount of potential and real language-image communications, such methodological approaches cannot and cannot claim to be complete and / or general. Because such classifications are only ever suitable for certain purposes and they are only relevant under certain communicative conditions.
research object
Objects of investigation of the linguistic image analysis are i. d. R. Images in the context of language in concrete use. This means that visual sign systems and language-image complexes with one or more concrete communicative functions are used as a basis. In general, these are statically fixed, written-language and visual forms of communication, such as B. advertisements, graphs, photographs, graphics, pictograms, icons, symbols, etc. Depending on the respective medium that acts as the message carrier, further gradations can be made with regard to the dynamization of the sign systems from static (in print media) to interactive (in hypertexts ) result.
Questions
Central research questions in linguistic image analysis are in particular the mutual relationships that visual and linguistic sign systems enter into in their mutual interaction . The focus is less on questions about the similarities and differences between the respective sign systems, language and image, than on their interaction to create new, qualitatively modified forms of communication.
In the linguistic image analysis according to Große (2011: 250), text-external and text-internal factors of language-image complexes are distinguished. Factors external to the text describe a language-image complex as a whole with reference to the media framework, the form of communication and the area of action as well as the relationship between producer and recipient. Internal text factors determine language-image complexes more closely with regard to their communicative functions and, based on this, derive further structural units and (grammatical and thematic) structures that constitute them. These can be further specified, analyzed and evaluated with reference to the external factors.
State of research
Since this is a young scientific sub-discipline, there are only a few publications on the genuine topic of visual linguistics. These include the monograph by Große (2011) and the anthology by Diekmannshenke / Klemm / Stöckl (2011). The explosiveness and topicality of the topic as an interdisciplinary reference science for text, media, cognitive and discourse linguistics, however, is reflected in numerous publications that take up the paradigm shift taking place in the current media change in a mostly descriptive way under the catchphrase "iconic turn". In older semiotic and linguistic publications, important approaches to dealing with the traditions of language and image theory are already presented. More recent works take up such approaches and set new thematic priorities, such as B. in questions of text and style research, in questions of image theory, or in questions of media communication.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hajo Diekmannshenke, Michael Klemm, Hartmut Stöckl (eds.): Bildlinguistik. Theories - Methods - Case Studies. Berlin 2011.
- ↑ Franziska Große: Bild-Linguistik. Basic concepts and methods of linguistic image analysis in text and discourse environments. Frankfurt am Main et al. 2011.
- ↑ Erich Straßner : Text-image communication . Tübingen 2002, ISBN 3-484-37113-7 , p. 1.
- ↑ Werner Kroeber-Riel: Image communication. Image strategy for advertising. Munich 1993, p. Ix.
- ↑ Volker Frederking, Axel Krommer, Klaus Maiwald: Mediendidaktik German: An introduction. Berlin 2008, p. 132.
- ↑ Christa Maar, Hubert Burda (ed.): Iconic Turn. The new power of images. Cologne 2004.
- ↑ Umberto Eco : Sign. Introduction to a term and its history . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt 1977, ISBN 3-518-00895-6 . (Original: Il segno. Isedi, Milano 1973)
- ↑ Manfred Muckenhaupt : Text and Image: Basic questions of the description of text-image communication from a linguistic point of view. Narr, Tübingen 1985, ISBN 3-87808-271-1 .
- ↑ Ulla Fix, Hans Wellmann (Ed.): Picture in text - text and picture. Heidelberg 2000.
- ^ William JT Mitchell: Image Theory. Frankfurt am Main 2008.
- ↑ Harald Burger : Language of the mass media. 2nd Edition. Berlin / New York 1990, ISBN 3-11-012306-1 .
- ↑ Erich Straßner: Text-image communication . Tübingen 2002, ISBN 3-484-37113-7 .