Relevance, style and multimodality: typographical features as stylistic devices
Sasamoto, RyokoORCID: 0000-0002-1644-6897 and O'Hagan, MinakoORCID: 0000-0003-0870-0725
(2020)
Relevance, style and multimodality: typographical features as stylistic devices.
In: Piskorska, AgnieszkaORCID: 0000-0002-7297-1776, (ed.)
Relevance Theory and Figuration, and Continuity in Pragmatics,.
Figurative Thought and Language, 8
.
John Benjamins Publishing, Amsterdam, Netherlands, pp. 193-226.
ISBN 9789027261199
Brightly coloured textual inserts, which often occupy a sizable
part of the TV screen, have become a key feature in Japanese TV. This
paper unpacks the contribution of such multimodal stimuli to inference, and
the consequences this has for the interpretation process. Using data derived
from a mixed-methods approach (i.e. eye-tracking and a multimodal content
analysis), we evaluate the relationship between cognitive processing and
communicative stimuli. We demonstrate how typographical features
(colours and fonts) are used as highlighting stylistic devices by TV
producers to manipulate the viewer comprehension process by guiding the
audience to an intended interpretation. The results suggest how editorial
choices regarding typographical features to trigger certain effects might be
subsumed under the current view of style in relevance theory.