My proposition for this particular week will be that Visual Images can actually be considered a language because what I have learnt in class today shows that Images do have their own syntax, semantics and pragmatics. I will do so by investigating the origin of Roman alphabets. As a Visual Communication Student , I have every right to believe that images should also be considered a language because images have the power to send messages and play a major influence in people’s lives the same way words do.
Over the years, there has been a disagreement between linguists and visual communicators because there are various linguistic scholars who fail to acknowledge that images can be considered a language. According to the Linguists, “Images do not have common elements similar to a written ABC alphabet” and they have no formal structure or syntax therefore they cannot be considered a language. ( Lester, 2000). To strengthen their argument, Noam Chomsky also stated that “a language is defined by its alphabet and it’s grammatical sentences”.(n.d.)
I have done several research and my findings is that during the historical period, before words or alphabets even existed, human beings communicate using signs and symbols. Iconic symbols as Pierce named it, is used as hieroglyphics during the Egyptian century . Language in its spoken form is a natural phenomena because it is common to everyone as a means of communicating. However when comes to writing, it is only achieved by some cultures depending on their historical background. In the past, certain cultures needed a form of writing to record matters dealing with trade, religion or power (Crees & Leeuwen, 2004) . During those days, things were written in a form of icons. According to Pierce, there are 3 types of signs which is iconic, indexical and symbolic. “Icons is an image that refers to something outside of its individual components.”( Pierce, pg.31 ) . People in the Roman and Egyptian period communicate through signs and drawings which closely resembles the object. This is commonly used for the hieroglyphics. This is how the alphabets were invented. For 25,000 years, the chief mode of written communication was paintings on the walls of caves.
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| Fig.1 An example of alphabets in order. |
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| Fig.2 An example of hieroglyphics used during the Egyptian period |
In order to test whether this statement is true, let us observe an image from an advertisement, and we will test the order of eye movement and see whether or not it follows a visual syntactic rule as claimed by the Visual Communicators.
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| Fig.1 An image of a hairdresser advertisement |
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| Fig.2 The Lines and Arrows indicates the movement |
Here is a hair dresser advert advertising hair cut. Fixation is where the eye is fixed to a certain point in the image for a certain period. The fixation point for this advert will be on the hair between the two fingers. The reason for this is because according to the law of Pregnanz, the eye is lazy and it will only identify the most prominent image. When we apply the law of contrast, the colour of the finger is much in contrast with the colour of the hair which makes the hair in between the fingers stand out. According to Suzzane Langer, “grammatical structure is not a symbol of itself but it ties several symbols,....to make one complex term.”In an image, that term or idea is expressed through “ visual forms..lines, colours, proportions, etc. And are just a s capable of articulation as pictures.” This is the synctactic theory of visual communication. ( Langer, n.d.)
In this image, the hair in between the fingers captures our attention that cause our eyes to focus on that part. Perception is also another factor as to why we focus on the hair between the fingers. For most adults , their first impression on this image is that they see two legs which is actually the fingers and to them it represents nudity . However, when I asked my 11 year old boy what this image represents , he said that the finger represents a scissor and he interpreted it as someone trying to cut some hair. Here, it is proven that perception of an image strongly relies on cultural and historical knowledge. The reason why most adults interpret this as nudity at the first impression is because they already have a schema of what nudity is. On the other hand, the boy is innocent and sees the picture as exactly how it is represented. A perception only has meanings when the signs are recognizable and when it can be related to personal and cultural experience.
From the eye fixation in between the fingers , the focus of the eye slowly moves down to the fingers and then around the hair. The last part of the fixation will be on the text. Here, we can see that there is a set visual syntax rule of the eye movement and how they see the images. This is also similar to the structure of language.
Visual syntax also explores how colour, lines , shades and shadow are all part of the visual grammer. These rules are the syntactic rules of colour, syntactic rules of line and the syntactic rule of composition.
RULE OF CONTRAST.
When we analyse Fig.1 above, we can see that the colour of the background which is the hair is dark and the colour of the foreground which is the fingers is light. The two colours of the image is strongly contrasted hence it highlights the main image which the little part of the hair between the fingers.
RULE OF LINE
The major function of the line is too create a border and to guide the eyes of the viewers towards the direction of the image. When there is a border in the image, it makes the image look more prominent and focussed. Take a look at the Fig.2 and compare it to Fig.1 above. The image in Fig.2 gives a more prominent look to the image and it looks like it is in a frame. This is because of the border around it.
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| Fig. 3 When the rule of Lines is applied it gives a more stability and prominent look to the image. |
RULES OF COMPOSITION.
In the rules of composition according to the syntactic rule of visual communication, it has the rule of third which is essential in photography. The rule of third actually helps to focus the composition. When we follow the rule of thirds, the image will turn out to be what is considered a good image. The image will not be out of focus and the viewers is able to identify what object is being highlighted. In this image Fig 1. And Fig.2 , the rule of third is focussing on the fingers. Perhaps we can say that the fingers is what the advertisers use as a subject to highlight the hair. Without the fingers, the climax of the image is gone.
We often ask what is the relationship between semiotics and semantics. Semiotics studies the meaning between signs and what they denote ( Barthes, 1977 ) whereas Semantics questions the “meanings behind the image and how the meaning is being created”. For example, when we look at the image again in Fig.2, we ask how did the advertiser create this meaning. What sort of visual grammar did the advertiser apply in order to capture the attention of the viewers.
CONCLUSION
Thus, from all the evidence given above, i hereby conclude that visual images can indeed be considered a language because images also contains certain rules such as syntax, pragmatics and semantics and I have demonstrated how these rules are applied into visual images.
The reason why children or adults are able to remember something well and clearly by looking at visual images is because according to Lester, (1996) “Words are repressive while pictures are fascinating, easily understood within a particular culture and can be made personal mediums of expression.” Indeed, visual images can be considered a language because they do have their own form ,structure, conventions and rules
REFERENCES:
Gunter Crees & Theo Van Leeuwen (2006), Routledge. 2nd edition.Reading Images. The grammer of Visual Design,pg.21. Retrieved from http://www.books.google.com.bn on 7th September 2010
Langer, Suzanne K. (1960). Philosophy in a New Key. Cambridege : Havard University Press.
Lester, Paul Martin.(2006) Visual Communication Images with Messagess 4th edition. Belmont,CA: Wadsowrth Publishing Company.
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