This text explores what speech, music and other sounds have in common. It gives a description of the way perspective, rhythm, textual quality and other aspects of sound are used to communicate emotion and meaning. It draws on a wealth of examples from radio (disc jockey and newsreading speech, radio plays, advertising jingles, news signature tunes), film soundtracks, such as The Piano, The X Files and Disney animation films, music ranging from medieval plain chant to drum'n'bass, and everyday soundscapes.

Adding a new introduction and two previously unpublished papers, Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis brings together van Leeuwen's methodological work on discourse analysis of the last 15 years. Discourse, van Leeuwen argues, is a resource for representation, a knowledge about some aspect of reality which can be drawn upon when that aspect of reality has to be represented, a framework for making sense of things. And they are plural. There can be different discourses, different ways of making sense of the same aspect of reality that serve different interests and will therefore be used in different social contexts.
However abstract some discourses are, discourses ultimately always represent doings, van Leeuwen argues. Doing is the foundation of knowing, and social practices are the foundation of discourses. Studying children's books, newspaper reports, brochures and other texts, as well as photographs and children's toys, van Leeuwen investigates what can happen when practices are transformed into discourses and provides analytical tools for reconstructing discourses from texts.
Throughout the book, van Leeuwen makes connections between sociological and linguistic or semiotic concepts and methods to ensure the social and critical relevance of his analytical categories. van Leeuwen's work has already been widely used by critical discourse analysts across the world. This volume will be a welcome guide for anyone looking for a form of discourse analysis that is both explicit and methodical, and critically incisive.

The Language of Colour provides a fresh and innovative approach to the study of colour from the co-author of the best-selling textbook, Reading Images. Moving on from the meanings of single colours, Theo van Leeuwen develops the theory that many different features shape the way we attach meaning to the colours we see in front of us, and the idea that colour schemes are more important than individual colours. Chapter topics include: * a brief history of the meanings of colour * the relationship between language and colour names within a cultural context * corporate uses of colour * the meaning of colour in everyday life. Spanning a wide range of examples from graphic design to the visual arts, this title presents a cutting-edge and engaging overview of the use of colour in a wide variety of situations and cultural and historical contexts. Incorporating both contemporary and traditional theory and supplemented by questions and ideas for projects at the end of every chapter, The Language of Colour is the ideal textbook for students of multimodality and language and communication within applied linguistics, communication studies, art and design and cultural studies. Theo van Leeuwen is Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Technology, Sydney. He is author of An Introduction to Social Semiotics (2005), Reading Images (second edition, 2006) with Gunther Kress, and The Language of New Media Design (2008) with Radan Martinec, all published by Routledge. Linguistics/Communication Studies/Media Studies/Art and Communication

Introducing Social Semiotics uses a wide variety of texts including photographs, adverts, magazine pages and film stills to explain how meaning is created through complex semiotic interactions. Practical exercises and examples as wide ranging as furniture arrangements in public places and advertising jingles, provide readers with the knowledge and skills they need to be able to analyze and also produce successful multimodal texts and designs.
The book traces the development of semiotic resources through particular channels such as the history of the Press and advertising; and explores how and why these resources change over time, for reasons such as advancing technology.
Featuring a full glossary of terms, exercises, discussion points and suggestions for further reading, Introducing Social Semiotics makes concrete the complexities of meaning making and is essential reading for anyone interested in how communication works.

This collection brings together social semiotic, ethnographic, and conversation analytic approaches to multimodality in global studies of shopping, drawing on the rich diversity of the latest multimodal methods to critically reflect on shopping as a cornerstone of contemporary social life. The volume explores shopping as an area of study in its own right, with the buying and selling of goods and services a fundamental part of the social and cultural life of human communities for centuries. The book looks at both online and offline shopping, examining it as both everyday multi-sensorial practice and its translation into the interactive text and imagery that comprise the online shopping experience, from London street markets to Japanese grocery shops to Danish supermarkets to worldwide online shopping sites. Highlighting the diversity of modern multimodal approaches through contributions from established scholars, the book critically surveys both the challenges and opportunities in the embodied interactions between buyers and sellers and how these points of connection have been translated and will continue to transform in the age of algorithms and emergent technologies. This book will appeal to students and scholars interested in multimodality, multimodal conversation analysis, social semiotics, social interaction, and retail studies.

This volume brings together two hitherto disparate domains of scholarly inquiry: organization and management studies on the one hand, and the study of visual and multimodal communication on the other. Within organization and management studies it has been recognized that organizational reality and communication are becoming increasingly visual, and, more generally, multimodal, whether in digital form or otherwise. Within multimodality studies it has been noted that many forms of contemporary communication are deeply influenced by organizational and managerial communication, as formerly formal and bureaucratic types of communication increasingly adopt promotional language and multimodal document presentation. Visual and Multimodal Research in Organization and Management Studies integrates these two domains of research in a way that will benefit both. In particular, it conceptually and empirically connects recent insights from visual and multimodality studies to ongoing discussions in organization and management theory. Throughout, the book shows how a visual/multimodal lens enriches and extends what we already know about organization, organizations, and practices of organizing, but also how concepts from organization and management studies can be highly productive in further developing insights on visual and multimodal communication. Due to its essentially interdisciplinary objectives, the book will prove inspiring for academics and scholars of management, the sociology of organizations as well as related disciplines such as applied linguistics and visual studies.

This third edition of the landmark textbook Reading Images builds on its reputation as the first systematic and comprehensive account of the grammar of visual design. Drawing on an enormous range of examples from children's drawings to textbook illustrations, photo-journalism to fine art, as well as three-dimensional forms such as sculpture and toys, the authors examine the ways in which images communicate meaning. Features of this fully updated third edition include: new material on diagrams and data visualization a new approach to the theory of 'modality' a discussion of how images and their uses have changed since the first edition examples from a wide range of digital media including websites, social media, I-phone interfaces and computer games ideas on the future of visual communication. Reading Images presents a detailed outline of the 'grammar' of visual design and provides the reader with an invaluable 'tool-kit' for reading images in their contemporary multimodal settings. A must for students and scholars of communication, linguistics, design studies, media studies and the arts.

This edited volume brings together two largely separate fields - organization studies and multimodal social semiotics - to develop an integrated research agenda for the novel interdisciplinary field of 'organizational semiotics'. Organizations, whether for profit, non-profit, or governmental, dominate much of everyday life, and multimodal communication is not only an output of organizations, it is constitutive of them. This volume argues in particular for the importance of organization studies for social semioticians: not just as a site of application, but as a critical contemporary context which requires novel and expanded methods of analysis and critique, and new practices of partnership. The volume addresses a range of institutions and sectors, from civil to retail to medical, from corporations to universities, and reveals how a deep engagement with their meaning-making practices produces insights not just about communication but also about the broader contemporary cultural context in which organizations play such a significant role. Fundamentally, it reveals that the rich analytical and theoretical resources of multimodal perspectives on organizations studies can - and should - make a fundamental contribution to our understanding of organizations in social life. This volume is relevant to social semioticians and organizational researchers, as well as to practitioners and decision-makers in organizations.

Featuring a wide range of exercises, examples, and images, this textbook provides a practical way of analyzing the discourses of the global media industries. Building on a comprehensive introduction to the history and theory of global media communication, specific case studies of lifestyle and entertainment media are explored with examples from films, global women's magazines, Vietnamese news reporting and computer war games. Finally, this book investigates how global media communication is produced, looking at the formats, languages and images used in creating media materials, both globally and in localized forms. At a time when the media is becoming increasingly global, often with the same films, news and television programmes shown all over the world; Global Media Discourse provides an accessible, lively introduction into how globalization is changing the language and communicative practices of the media. Integrating a range of approaches, including political economy, discourse analysis and ethnography, this book will be of particular interest to students of media and communication studies, applied linguistics, and (critical) discourse analysis.

Social Semiotics is a lively introduction to the ways in which different aspects of modern society combine to create meaning. These 'semiotic resources' surrounding us include obvious modes of communication such as language, gesture, images and music, but also less obvious ones such as food, dress and everyday objects, all of which carry cultural value and significance. Social Semiotics uses a wide variety of texts including photographs, adverts, magazine pages and film stills to explain how meaning is created through complex semiotic interactions. Practical exercises and examples as wide ranging as furniture arrangements in a public places, advertising jingles, photojournalism and the rhythm of a rapper's speech provide readers with the knowledge and skills they need to be able to analyse and also produce successful multimodal texts and designs. Featuring a full glossary of terms, exercises, discussion points and suggestions for further reading, Social Semiotics makes concrete the complexities of meaning making and is essential reading for anyone interested in how communication works.

Featuring a wide range of exercises, examples, and images, this textbook provides a practical way of analysing the discourses of the global media industries. Building on a comprehensive introduction to the history and theory of global media communication, specific case studies of lifestyle and entertainment media are explored with examples from films, global women's magazines, Vietnamese news reporting and computer war games. Finally this book investigates how global media communication is produced, looking at the formats, languages and images used in creating media materials, both globally and in localised forms.

At a time when the media is becoming increasingly global, often with the same films, news and television programmes shown all over the world; Global Media Discourse provides an accessible, lively introduction into how globalisation is changing the language and communicative practices of the media. Integrating a range of approaches, including political economy, discourse analysis and ethnography, this book will be of particular interest to students of media and communication studies, applied linguistics, and (critical) discourse analysis.

This third edition of the landmark textbook Reading Images builds on its reputation as the first systematic and comprehensive account of the grammar of visual design. Drawing on an enormous range of examples from children's drawings to textbook illustrations, photo-journalism to fine art, as well as three-dimensional forms such as sculpture and toys, the authors examine the ways in which images communicate meaning. Features of this fully updated third edition include: new material on diagrams and data visualization a new approach to the theory of 'modality' a discussion of how images and their uses have changed since the first edition examples from a wide range of digital media including websites, social media, I-phone interfaces and computer games ideas on the future of visual communication. Reading Images presents a detailed outline of the 'grammar' of visual design and provides the reader with an invaluable 'tool-kit' for reading images in their contemporary multimodal settings. A must for students and scholars of communication, linguistics, design studies, media studies and the arts.

This book brings together the work of leading theorist, Theo van Leeuwen, on typography, colour, texture, sound and movement, and shows how they are used to communicate identity, both corporate and individual. The book provides a detailed approach to analysing the key elements of multimodal style, and shows how these can be applied to a wide range of domains, including typography, product design, architecture, and animation films. Combining sociological insights into contemporary forms of identity with multimodal approaches to analysing how these identities are expressed, the text is richly illustrated with examples from fashion, the built environment, logos, modern art and more. With sample analyses, this user-friendly text provides clear methods for analysis and creative strategies for the practice of multimodal communication. Providing an invaluable toolkit to analysing the key elements of multimodal design and the way they work together, this book is essential reading for students, teachers and researchers in the field of multimodal communication, whether in communication studies, linguistics, design studies, media studies or the arts.

This volume brings together two hitherto disparate domains of scholarly inquiry: organization and management studies on the one hand, and the study of visual and multimodal communication on the other. Within organization and management studies it has been recognized that organizational reality and communication are becoming increasingly visual, and, more generally, multimodal, whether in digital form or otherwise. Within multimodality studies it has been noted that many forms of contemporary communication are deeply influenced by organizational and managerial communication, as formerly formal and bureaucratic types of communication increasingly adopt promotional language and multimodal document presentation. Visual and Multimodal Research in Organization and Management Studies integrates these two domains of research in a way that will benefit both. In particular, it conceptually and empirically connects recent insights from visual and multimodality studies to ongoing discussions in organization and management theory. Throughout, the book shows how a visual/multimodal lens enriches and extends what we already know about organization, organizations, and practices of organizing, but also how concepts from organization and management studies can be highly productive in further developing insights on visual and multimodal communication. Due to its essentially interdisciplinary objectives, the book will prove inspiring for academics and scholars of management, the sociology of organizations as well as related disciplines such as applied linguistics and visual studies.

This volume presents a short review study of the potential relationships between cognitive neuroscience and educational science. Conducted by order of the Dutch Programme Council for Educational Research of the Netherlands Organization for Scienti c Research (NWO; cf. the American NSF), the review aims to identify: (1) how educational principles, mechanisms, and theories could be extended or re ned based on ndings from cognitive neuroscience, and (2) which neuroscience prin- ples, mechanisms, or theories may have implications for educational research and could lead to new interdisciplinary research ventures. The contents should be seen as the outcome of the 'Explorations in Learning and the Brain' project. In this project, we started with a 'quick scan' of the lite- ture that formed the input for an expert workshop that was held in Amsterdam on March 10-11,2008. This expert workshopidenti ed additional relevant themesand issues that helped us to update the 'quick scan' into this nal document. In this way the input from the participants of the expert workshop (listed in Appendix A) has greatly in uenced the present text. We are therefore grateful to the participants for their scholarly and enthusiastic contributions. The content of the current volume, however, is the full responsibility of the authors.

Adding a new introduction and two previously unpublished papers, Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis brings together Van Leeuwen's methodological work on discourse analysis of the last 15 years. Discourse, Van Leeuwen argues, is a resource for representation, a knowledge about some aspect of reality which can be drawn upon when that aspect of reality has to be represented, a framework for making sense of things. And they are plural. There can be different discourses, different ways of making sense of the same aspect of reality that serve different interests and will therefore be used in different social contexts. However abstract some discourses are, discourses ultimately always represent doings, Van Leeuwen argues. Doing is the foundation of knowing, and social practices are the foundation of discourses. Studying children's books, newspaper reports, brochures and other texts, as well as photographs and children's toys, Van Leeuwen investigates what can happen when practices are transformed into discourses and provides analytical tools for reconstructing discourses from texts. Throughout the book, Van Leeuwen makes connections between sociological and linguistic or semiotic concepts and methods to ensure the social and critical relevance of his analytical categories. Van Leeuwen's work has already been widely used by critical discourse analysts across the world. This volume will be a welcome guide for anyone looking for a form of discourse analysis that is both explicit and methodical, and critically incisive.

The Language of Colour provides a fresh and innovative approach to the study of colour from the co-author of the best-selling textbook, Reading Images. Moving on from the meanings of single colours, Theo van Leeuwen develops the theory that many different features shape the way we attach meaning to the colours we see in front of us, and the idea that colour schemes are more important than individual colours. Chapter topics include: * a brief history of the meanings of colour * the relationship between language and colour names within a cultural context * corporate uses of colour * the meaning of colour in everyday life. Spanning a wide range of examples from graphic design to the visual arts, this title presents a cutting-edge and engaging overview of the use of colour in a wide variety of situations and cultural and historical contexts. Incorporating both contemporary and traditional theory and supplemented by questions and ideas for projects at the end of every chapter, The Language of Colour is the ideal textbook for students of multimodality and language and communication within applied linguistics, communication studies, art and design and cultural studies. Theo van Leeuwen is Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Technology, Sydney. He is author of An Introduction to Social Semiotics (2005), Reading Images (second edition, 2006) with Gunther Kress, and The Language of New Media Design (2008) with Radan Martinec, all published by Routledge. Linguistics/Communication Studies/Media Studies/Art and Communication

"Multimodal Discourse" outlines a theory of communication for the age of interactive multimedia and multi-skilling. Just as the demarcation lines between specialized jobs are blurring in contemporary society, so are the demarcation lines between modes and media of communication. This requires a new way of thinking - it requires a practice in which designers can freely move between different modes and media, and a theory whose concepts and ideas can do the same. Drawing on a wide range of examples, Kress and Van Leeuwen sketch an approach to the idea of discourse in which colour plays a role equal to language, and show how two kinds of thought processes interact in the design and production of communicative messages, "design thinking" and "production thinking", the kind of thinking which occurs in direct interaction with the materials and media used. Above all the authors stress communicative practice and interactivity. Their question, throughout, is: how do people use communicative modes and media in actual, concrete, interactive instances of communicative practice?