Assimakis Tseronis

Multimodal argumentation: Beyond the verbal/visual divide

Abstract What would the consequences be for the interpretation and analysis of arguments if we were to accept that communication, within which arguments are produced and interpreted, involves the intricate use of more than just the verbal mode? In this paper, I discuss the shortcomings of the conception of argument as a purely verbal phenomenon and of the mere juxtaposition of the visual argument to the verbal, as suggested in the discourses of the sceptics and the advocates and of “visual” argument, respectively. Instead I propose a multimodal perspective on the analysis of argumentative discourse, according to which there is no a priori division of labor between the verbal and the visual mode, and attention is paid both to the (verbal and visual) content and to the (verbal and visual) style. In this view, argument is neither verbal nor visual, since argument is not to be defined on the basis of the verbal, visual or other semiotic means by which it is realized in communication. As a case in point, I analyze an ad campaign for the promotion of the British newspaper The Guardian in the United States.

Arguing Against Corporate Claims Visually and Multimodally: The Genre of Subvertisements

Abstract In this paper, we describe the conditions under which the manipulation of the verbal and the visual elements or of the visual elements alone in the genre of subvertisements can be considered as an act of objecting or rebutting in an implicit argumentative discussion. We thus consider the cognitive and pragmatic aspects of communication while paying serious attention to the interaction of semiotic modes in order to analyse a number of images produced by anti-consumerist groups such as Adbusters. We identify four different ways in which image-text relations or the visuals alone can cue an incongruity between the message of the original ad and the message of the subvertisement in such a way that the latter functions as an objection or rebuttal of the claim advanced by the original advertisement.

Determining the commitments of image-makers in arguments with multimodal allusions in the front covers of The Economist: Insights from Relevance Theory

The alleged vagueness of visual images and the lack of a univocal coding scheme make it difficult to be sure about the propositions to which image-makers are committed. This is particularly problematic for the analysis of multimodal discourse from an argumentation studies perspective, because it makes it hard for the analyst to establish the argumentative nature and relevance of visuals. The paper explores how insights from Relevance Theory can be applied in order to determine the commitments of image-makers. In particular, it has recourse to the inferential processes involved in the recovery of explicit and implicit content in order to analyse a series of covers from The Economist , where visuals in combination with verbal text cue allusions to films and paintings. It argues that these multimodal allusions are not simply used to attract the audience’s attention but also help the analyst to reconstruct the argument of the cover.

Introduction: Pragmatic insights for multimodal argumentation

In this introductory paper to the special issue, we briefly discuss literature from argumentation studies, pragmatics, and multimodal analysis in order to show how pragmatics has benefited argument ...

Multimodale argumentatie: bruggen slaan tussen argumentatieleer en multimodale analyse

Since the end of the 90s there has been an increasing interest in the analysis of images and in their interplay with written language. Even though images, especially when used in advertisements, have already been studied within rhetorical approaches to communication and visual studies, there still lacks a systematic account of their contribution to the way standpoints are put forward and argumentation is advanced. At the same time, within the field of discourse analysis interest has been expressed in the analysis of visual and other non-verbal elements of communication. Nevertheless, no special attention has been paid within this field to those communicative situations where the support of a standpoint with arguments and the acceptability of the argumentation are at stake. In order to be able to analyse the various aspects of multimodal documents on their merits and to account for their argumentative relevance it is necessary to build bridges between argumentation theory and multimodal analysis. This paper discusses critically the current state of affairs regarding the analysis of multimodal documents from an argumentation studies perspective and argues for a systematic study of the interplay of the verbal and the visual modes within the framework of Pragma-dialectics. Three print advertisements are analysed in order to illustrate the merits of such an approach to the argumentative analysis of multimodal documents.

Modern Greek dictionaries and the ideology of standardization

In this paper, we propose an analysis and evaluation of the four most recent and authoritative general monolingual dictionaries of Greek as texts produced by an identifiable agent and addressed to an identifiable public, that contribute to the ideology of standardization. Our claim is that we can demonstrate the profile of each dictionary and uncover the lexicographer’s aspiration to set a pace to the standardization of Greek by looking at and comparing the choices that each of the lexicographers made with regard to aspects involved in the compilation and circulation of their dictionary. The discrepancies observed in the treatment of issues regarding the inclusion/exclusion of words and variants from their list of entries, the labelling of the words, the etymological information provided and the spelling used are explained by the different perspective that each lexicographer assumed in their quest to define the standard language for the Greek linguistic community