6.2 Geosemiotic Understanding of Campus Signs
6.2.1 Interaction of Texts and Images in Campus Signs
of speech”, such as oral, written and telegraphic, and variations in the forms of language, such as dialect, code, and register. This section will first account for these two components through the geosemiotic analysis of campus signs.
6.2.1 Interaction of Texts and Images in Campus Signs
The question of whether visual data (images and other multimodal literacies) should be included into the analysis of linguistic landscape is still under debate by scholars, as has been mentioned in previous chapters. It is known that scholars hold different views. More often than not, signs include images or other graphic elements as well as text. Kress and Leeuwen (1998, p.
186) claimed “Language always has to be realized through, and comes in the company of, other semiotic modes.” Goddard (2001, p. 13) also stated “…readers do not simply read images in isolation from the verbal text that accompanies them; nor do they read verbal text without reference to accompanying images.”
Kress and Leeuwen (1998, p. 187) identified that semiotic modes interrelate in three different ways:
Writing may remain dominant, with the visual filling a
‘prosodic’ role of highlighting important points and emphasizing structural connections. But it may also diminish in importance, with the message articulated primarily in the visual mode, and the words serving as commentary and elaboration. Visually and verbally
expressed meaning may be each other’s double and express the same meanings, or they may complement and extend each other, or even clash and contradict.
It can be concluded that the meaning of a visual object is always produced by multiple possible elements related to it, and the interactions of those
elements that compose the object as a whole. Huebner (2009, p. 75) indicated that common message forms were shared by members of a common genre, and
defines “forms” as the placement, the inclusion of other linguistic and non-‐
linguistic material, and other acts that comprise linguistic material. The close observation of the campus linguistic landscape indicates the complexity in the formation of a sign, in particular, the interaction of text and images or semiotic signs. It is difficult for the observer to include all the visually presented format of campus signs, such as the “layout”, “spatial arrangement of blocks of text, of pictures, and other “graphic elements”, as mentioned by Kress and Leeuwen (1998) Therefore, the role of text and images (as visual data) on campus signs will be examined and analyzed for the current study.
Table 6-‐ 1: Number of Text-‐Only and Visual Data Added Text Signs (Ito Campus)
Setting Text-‐Only Visual Data Added
Cafeteria 29 7 22
Library 29 9 20
Gymnasium 34 20 14
Parking lot 28 4 24
Bus station 23 8 15
Shop 9 7 2
Open Plaza 5 2 3
Classroom building 29 15 14
Restaurant 6 2 4
Others 31 16 15
Total: 223 90 40% 133 60%
Table 6-‐ 2: Number of Text-‐Only and Visual Data Added Text Signs (BLCU Campus)
Setting Text-‐only Visual Data Added
Cafeteria 20 7 13
Library 13 9 4
Gymnasium/Playground 33 16 17
Parking lot 7 6 1
Shop 31 17 14
Restaurant 14 4 10
Classroom building 14 5 9
Other buildings 15 10 5
Others 42 26 16
Total: 189 100 53% 89 47%
It is found that among the 223 signs collected on Ito Campus, 133 (60%) signs were text combined with images, and on BLCU Campus 89 out of 189 (47%) adopted images or signs into the signboards, which conformed with Kress and Leeuwen’s (1998, p. 186) statement that “when we write, our message is
expressed not only linguistically, but also through a visual arrangement of marks on a page.” On Ito Campus, the roles of visual data are indicated in various forms:
(1) campus maps and classroom layouts (with the message or information articulated primarily in the visual mode, with the words serving as commentary and elaboration); (2) arrows in directing notices, photos of dishes (with text and image complementing each other); (3) slarcles (Slash+circle) and cross marks (highlight importance and emphasizing structural connections), and so on. The following examples are provided to make these points clearer.
Figure 6-‐ 1: Signboard in a Parking Lot on Ito Campus
This sign is located in the parking lot for bicycles near Center Zone
Building 1, a classroom building. A bicycle pump is provided free of charge on Ito Campus, and several similar signs are displayed in other parking lots as well. On this signboard, the verbal text placed on the top of the board provides the theme of the sign (“a pump is provided here”), and the red arrow below directs the sign readers to the placement of the pump. Meanwhile, warning information is given in the lower right picture saying, “Taking the pump home is prohibited”.
Designed in this way, the visual data fulfills both the role of emphasizing
structural connections and complementing. Besides, the main linguistic message on the top in a bigger size is complemented with additional linguistic material in smaller size at the bottom.
Figure 6-‐ 2: Notice in a Bus Stop on Ito Campus
This sign is found at the Big Orange bus stop, which is located beside the main road going through Ito Campus, to remind the Kyudai (Kyushu University) students to obey these rules when they take the bus so that they can leave a good impression of college students to other passengers. The message of this sign is articulated primarily in the visual mode, with the words serving as commentary and elaboration (Kress & Leeuwen, 1998). The cross mark indicating bad
manners and circle mark indicating good manner, in company with text, help the sign to deliver thorough information to the intended readers. It is worthwhile to note that the red color used in the text and the marks give “weight” to the
important information, and they become “heavier”, which strengthen the
“salience” in the sign (Kress & Leeuwen, 1998, p. 200).
Figure 6-‐ 3: “Keep Quiet” Signboard on BLCU Campus
The above picture placed near the school gate was taken on BLCU Campus in March 2012. On this signboard, the image of a city is placed as the background, with characters placed in the foreground. As Kress and Van Leeuwen (1998, p.
188) stated, “the elements of a layout attract the reader’s attention to different degrees, and through a wide variety of means: placement in the foreground or background, relative size…” The semiotic modes in such text can interrelate in different ways. In this picture, writing in the biggest size on the top (reads,”shh, it is class time now”) remains dominant, with the visual data fulfilling a “prosodic”
role of highlighting important points by adding some rules on campus: No Venders, No Parking and No Honking. The “prohibition” sentence above the cityscape in bigger size and the image of a city inspector worked together to indicate the “authority” of this signboard. Malinowski (as cited in Huebner, 2009,
p. 80) identified both discourse of reason and discourse of threat of regulatory signs. For the above sign, the “desired action” is stressed more without indicating a “legal code”, which defines the overall warning tone of this sign at the same time. The interaction of text and visual data accounts for the “Key” and
“Instrumentalities” of the campus linguistic landscape to a large degree. The following sections will bring more discussion on these two components through the examination of code.