Image superimposition in signed language discourse and in motion pictures
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Anke Müller
Abstract
Both film and signed languages are media that make use of iconicity and employ motion images for communicative and narrative purposes. This paper focuses on simultaneously presented images that occur in film for example as double exposures and in signed languages as simultaneous constructions. While film and signed languages differ in many ways with respect to iconicity, they can be compared with respect to the way simultaneously presented motion images relate to each other. Superimpositions are defined as a simultaneous view on two or more scenes or as giving two different simultaneous representations of one scene. They serve as a means of dense information packaging. While superimpositions strongly differ in their appearance in film and signed discourse, they exhibit some similarities of structure and functions. They exploit the iconicity of spatial relations emerging in the graphic spatial dimension. Their function is to express a spatial, intentional or temporal connection between two scenes or aspects of one scene, for example the intentional relation between a cognitive activity as seen in the face of a person and the object or content of that cognitive activity.
Abstract
Both film and signed languages are media that make use of iconicity and employ motion images for communicative and narrative purposes. This paper focuses on simultaneously presented images that occur in film for example as double exposures and in signed languages as simultaneous constructions. While film and signed languages differ in many ways with respect to iconicity, they can be compared with respect to the way simultaneously presented motion images relate to each other. Superimpositions are defined as a simultaneous view on two or more scenes or as giving two different simultaneous representations of one scene. They serve as a means of dense information packaging. While superimpositions strongly differ in their appearance in film and signed discourse, they exhibit some similarities of structure and functions. They exploit the iconicity of spatial relations emerging in the graphic spatial dimension. Their function is to express a spatial, intentional or temporal connection between two scenes or aspects of one scene, for example the intentional relation between a cognitive activity as seen in the face of a person and the object or content of that cognitive activity.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Preface and acknowledgements ix
- Introduction 1
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Part I. General framework
- The intricate dialectics of iconization and structuration 11
- The iconicity ring model for sound symbolism 27
- Iconicity as a key epistemic source of change in the self 47
- Indexicality and iconization in Mock ing Spanish 63
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Part II. Symmetry
- Iconicity of symmetries in language and in literature 79
- Chiastic iconicity 103
- Tonal iconicity and narrative transformation 135
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Part III. Visual and intermedial iconicity
- Władysław Strzemiński’s theory of vision and Ronald Langacker’s theory of language 155
- Iconicity for an iconoclast 173
- This is not a pipe 193
- Image superimposition in signed language discourse and in motion pictures 213
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Part IV. Gesture and sign language
- Iconicity in gesture 245
- Where frozen signs reclaim iconic ground 265
- Recurring iconic mapping patterns within and across verb types in German Sign Language 289
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Part V. Onomatopoeia and sound symbolism
- Echoes of the past 331
- The correlation between meaning and verb formation in Japanese sound-symbolic words 351
- The phonosemantics of the Korean monosyllabic ideophone ttak 369
- The iconicity of emotive Hijazi non-lexical expressions of disgust 389
- Author index 405
- Subject index 407
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Preface and acknowledgements ix
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. General framework
- The intricate dialectics of iconization and structuration 11
- The iconicity ring model for sound symbolism 27
- Iconicity as a key epistemic source of change in the self 47
- Indexicality and iconization in Mock ing Spanish 63
-
Part II. Symmetry
- Iconicity of symmetries in language and in literature 79
- Chiastic iconicity 103
- Tonal iconicity and narrative transformation 135
-
Part III. Visual and intermedial iconicity
- Władysław Strzemiński’s theory of vision and Ronald Langacker’s theory of language 155
- Iconicity for an iconoclast 173
- This is not a pipe 193
- Image superimposition in signed language discourse and in motion pictures 213
-
Part IV. Gesture and sign language
- Iconicity in gesture 245
- Where frozen signs reclaim iconic ground 265
- Recurring iconic mapping patterns within and across verb types in German Sign Language 289
-
Part V. Onomatopoeia and sound symbolism
- Echoes of the past 331
- The correlation between meaning and verb formation in Japanese sound-symbolic words 351
- The phonosemantics of the Korean monosyllabic ideophone ttak 369
- The iconicity of emotive Hijazi non-lexical expressions of disgust 389
- Author index 405
- Subject index 407
