Visual and Multimodal Communication: Applying the Relevance Principle

Successful communication requires optimal relevance to a target audience. Relevance theory (RT) provides an excellent model based on this insight, but the impact of the theory has until now been restricted due to an almost exclusive focus on spoken face-to-face communication. Visual and Multimodal Communication: Applying the Relevance Principle is the first book to systematically demonstrate how RT can fulfill its promise to develop into an inclusive theory of communication. In this book, Charles Forceville refines and adapts RT's original claims to show its applicability to static visuals and multimodal discourses in popular culture genres. Using colorful examples, he explains how RT can be expanded and adapted to accommodate mass-communicative visual and visual-plus-verbal messages. Forceville addresses issues such as the difference between drawing prospective addressees' attention to a message and persuading them to accept it; the thorny continuum from implicit to explicit information; and the role of genre. Case studies of pictograms, advertisements, cartoons, and comics provide contemporary and accessible examples of the importance of genre and of how the RT model can be connected to other approaches. By expanding the application of relevance theory to include mass-communicative messages, Visual and Multimodal Communication reintroduces a central framework of cognitive linguistics and pragmatics to a new audience and paves the way for an inclusive theory of communication.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Chapter 1: Preliminaries Chapter 2: Relevance Theory-Basics Chapter 3: Adapting Relevance Theory to Accommodate Visual Communication Chapter 4: : Relevance Theory and Mediated Mass-Communication Chapter 5: Genre Chapter 6: Case Studies: Pictograms, Traffic Signs, and Logos Chapter 7: Case Studies-Advertising Chapter 8: Case Studies-Political and Non-Political Cartoons Chapter 9: Case Studies-Comics Chapter 10: Controversial Communication Chapter 11: Concluding Remarks Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Charles Forceville is Associate Professor of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Committed to cognitivist, socio-biological, and relevance-theoretical approaches, he works on multimodality in metaphor, argumentation, and narrative discourse. He is author of Pictorial Metaphor in Advertising (1996) and co-editor of Multimodal Metaphor (2009), Creativity and the Agile Mind (2013), and Multimodal Argumentation and Rhetoric in Media Genres (2017).

Review :
"The practical implementation of relevance theory in this book mostly differs from ordinary text analysis by the emphasis put on those skills, procedures, and interests that the addressee needs to use and possess to receive the messages as well as on the ability of the addresser to address those skills and interests of the addressee. The book also emphasizes how genres and modes are helpful contexts for interpreting meanings. Thus, Forceville's use of relevance theory strongly focuses on what preconditions different types of individuals have to find a given message relevant." -- Torben K. Grodal, Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture "...Forceville makes a bold attempt to help provide a theoretical underpinning to the studies of multimodality, and with that to reinvigorate RT itself. ...Forceville's book is first of all a substantial contribution to multimodal pragmatics and communication. It definitely fulfills its claim that it "has attempted to make the most substantial DL if not necessarily uncontroversial DL contributions to the RT Model" (p.240). In the second place, advocates of blending theory will benefit from concepts and procedures theorized in the RT model." -- Ahmed Abdel-Raheem, University of Bremen, Germany, Journal of Pragmatics "Visual and Multimodal Communication: Applying the Relevance Principle is a very interesting and well-written book that extends RT beyond its comfort zone (namely, face-to-face verbal communication, dyadic exchanges) and is also accessible to readers outside the RT framework. CF has done a great job inmaking RT accessible to readers ranging from researchers in mass communication to post-graduate media students and, of course, analysts in cognitive pragmatics." -- Francisco Yus, University of Alicante, Journal of Visual Communication "Highly original and thought-provoking, Visual and Multimodal Communication offers a wealth of insights into the effects these forms of communication achieve. Using the framework of relevance theory, it presents a series of beautifully illustrated case studies showing how coding, inference, genre and world knowledge interact in the interpretation of advertisements, political cartoons and comics from many cultures. Essential reading for students and researchers in pragmatics, linguistics, art and communication studies." -- Deirdre Wilson, Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, UC "Lucidly and with copious erudition, the book accomplishes a fascinating objective: astutely extending Relevance Theory to account for visual and multimodal meaning-making. Charles Forceville formulates his argumentation for an "overarching model of communication" with conviction and elegance. He sensibly relates static visuals-text combinations to the central notions of media, context, and genre. Offering both broad theoretical footing and invaluable case studies on public graphic signage, advertising, cartoons, and comics, the book will be a must-read in multimodality research and beyond." -- Hartmut Stöckl, Professor of English and Applied Linguistics, University of Salzburg, Austria