2020/06/29 by Yu Liu · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · #Discourse Analysis in Language Studies #Language, Metaphor, and Cognition #Linguistics and Discourse Analysis
paper · doi:10.1080/10350330.2020.1785708
openalex publication_date 2020/06/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
This study explores tension between different modes from a social semiotic perspective. Tension and cohesion are viewed as two poles on a continuum of meaning relations ranging from oppositeness to similarity, and image-text interplay is analysed as a balance between tension and cohesion. Focusing on the device of evaluative dissonance, the multimodal analysis of two verbal-visual combinations from different genres (a procedure and a visual irony) demonstrates how attitudinal tension is created between language and images to make a deeper meaning such as foreshadowing the appraiser’s opposing feelings in the ensuing text and facilitating the construction of specific ideologies. The analysis also illustrates the multiplicative nature of meaning in the verbal-visual orchestration and uncovers that attitudinal meanings can be implicitly conveyed through image-text interaction and contextualising information. This study concludes that tension does not contradict, but closely cooperates with cohesion to produce a coherent message despite their semantic differences.