A Functional-Semiotic Analysis of Visual Aids in Scientific Discourse
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_misc/mj.199411751Abstract
This paper attempts to explore one of the aspects of scientific communication: visual aids. The study of non-linguistic representations is best approached from semiotics, which permits the description of visual aids as conventional tools of scientific research and expression. The notion of iconicity proposed by Eco (1979) is the basic concept for this analysis of visuals used in scientific discourse. The vague idea of similarity is discarded and iconic signs are defined as the result of a transformation process by means of which a content type is projected into a given expression continuum.
This paper aims at a functional and formal analysis of visuals: they are conventional informative iconic signs which stand in a narrow relationship to the linguistic message of the scientific text and which can be categorized accroding to their mode of production. As a conclusion, the paper reveals the relevant role of visuals in the representation of a message, since these devices conform to two basic principles of scientific discourse: economy and precision.
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