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The thematic structure of homepages: An exploratory systemic-functional account

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Published/Copyright: March 12, 2016
Semiotica
From the journal Semiotica Volume 2016 Issue 210

Abstract

The visual social semiotic approach, based on Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics (SFL), is widely used in studies on multimodal texts. As SFL is a framework focusing on the functions of language, several SFL categories are re-conceptualized in visual social semiotics to handle the analysis and interplay of extra-linguistic features; other categories, however, are excluded. A consequence is that any insights offered by these excluded categories in multimodal texts remain obscured. This paper focused on one such category, theme, as a generator of expectations. It analyzed the thematic structure of twenty homepages to show that the different SFL themes are applicable and evident in such multimodal texts. It underscores the importance of theme as a point of departure of any discourse, textual or otherwise, allowing us to form expectations about how the rest of the discourse may be acceptably developed.

Keywords: visual social semiotics; systemic functional linguistics; homepage; theme; rheme

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Published Online: 2016-3-12
Published in Print: 2016-5-1

©2016 by De Gruyter Mouton

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  3. Anthropological-semiotics of rhythm and animating modernity in China: A rhythmanalysis of Princess Iron Fan
  4. Individuating in the dark: Diagrammatic reasoning and attentional shifts
  5. The free slave paradox
  6. Size and shape depictions in the manual modality: A taxonomy of iconic devices in Adamorobe Sign Language
  7. The thematic structure of homepages: An exploratory systemic-functional account
  8. Revisiting dynamic space in film from a semiotic perspective
  9. A semiotic analysis of anti-identity construction in fictional narratives from the viewpoint of modeling systems theory
  10. Rethinking semiotics: Toward a theory of intentional sign
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  13. Conceptual embodiment in visual semiotics
  14. Reading palm-up signs: Neurosemiotic overview of a common hand gesture
  15. Does one truly need to belong?: A case for the need to meaningfully exist
  16. Review articles
  17. Review of Speaking hatefully: Culture, communication, and political action in Hungary
  18. Exploring stories
https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2016-0048
Keywords for this article
visual social semiotics; systemic functional linguistics; homepage; theme; rheme

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  3. Anthropological-semiotics of rhythm and animating modernity in China: A rhythmanalysis of Princess Iron Fan
  4. Individuating in the dark: Diagrammatic reasoning and attentional shifts
  5. The free slave paradox
  6. Size and shape depictions in the manual modality: A taxonomy of iconic devices in Adamorobe Sign Language
  7. The thematic structure of homepages: An exploratory systemic-functional account
  8. Revisiting dynamic space in film from a semiotic perspective
  9. A semiotic analysis of anti-identity construction in fictional narratives from the viewpoint of modeling systems theory
  10. Rethinking semiotics: Toward a theory of intentional sign
  11. Two approaches to defining internal, external, and zero-focalization
  12. Zero sign duality in visual semiotics
  13. Conceptual embodiment in visual semiotics
  14. Reading palm-up signs: Neurosemiotic overview of a common hand gesture
  15. Does one truly need to belong?: A case for the need to meaningfully exist
  16. Review articles
  17. Review of Speaking hatefully: Culture, communication, and political action in Hungary
  18. Exploring stories
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