Multimodal argumentation

Beyond the verbal/visual divide

Bibliographic Data

ID4947624
AuthorsAssimakis Tseronis (0000-0002-0295-4559, University of Amsterdam , Amsterdam , Netherlands, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume2018
Issue220
Pages41-67
Publication date2018-01-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSemiotica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0037-1998 • E-ISSN: 1613-3692
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/sem-2015-0144
OpenAlexW2849156140
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited33

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

Argument (complex analysis) · Argumentation theory · Argumentative · Cognitive psychology · Epistemology · Interpretation (philosophy) · Linguistics · Nonverbal communication · Semiotics · Communication · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Philosophy · Psychology · Rhetoric and Communication Studies

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub