conceptual representations

In chapter 3, the authors discussed the conceptual representations together with classification processes, analytical processes, and symbolic processes. Classification process related participants to each other in terms of relation where a set of participants act as subordinates and at least one other participant act as Superordinate. In classification process, Kress and Leeuwen stated that tree structure is one kind of classification structure and they linked the relationship between visual image and social structure and mentioned that “Conceptual classification is a represented by the same structures as social hierarchy and the hierarchies of concepts are represented as being subordinate to its origins” (p. 80-82).

In addition, analytical processes relate participants in terms of part and whole structure that involve carrier (whole) and possessive attributes (parts). In analytical process, defining characteristics in specific content is one of the major purposes. For instance, in temporal analytical process, timeline represents the history of the world as successive states with fixed and stable characteristics. We could find that timeline could be used to signify human history by visual means. In dimensional and quantitative topography, chart are drawn to scale based on the quantity of aggregated to distinguish participants such as different socioeconomic groups or landmarks. Furthermore, the authors also talked about symbolic processes that are about what a participant means including symbolic attributive and symbolic suggestive. Symbolic suggestive processes have one participant, the carrier and the participant represent the meaning that coming from within. Symbolic attributive processes represent meaning and identity as being bestowed to the carrier. Thus, from reading this chapter, we could know that the visual image could be used to represent relation between people, places and things.