ABSTRACT
In verbal and written language, a message is built in simple, but effective logic, which underlies every sentence with a fi rst syntax through incorporating the basic concept of explaining something to another person. Communication always involves the mediation of novel signifi cance with signs that have been coded in the past, and syntactical arrangement is what enables a new expression to be formed with old signs. The syntactic logic compels certain signs to be chosen in the place of others and gives these signs meaning that is different from their general use. In principle, any utterance begins with a “theme” specifi ed by signs referring to a known context.1 The theme is usually followed by a verb that sets up the “rheme,” which orders all other signs in a sequence that in principle gradually adds novel signifi cance to the theme. In general, the signs comprising the rheme of a sentence are arranged layer by layer with the last one refl ecting the most important or most novel piece of information. Variations are of course possible, as are exceptions that often develop meaning in indirect reference to the rule-and so are misunderstandings. The simple, but effective logic of this one-dimensional syntax compares at fi rst oddly to visual perception. Not only do pictures provide various syntactic vectors, but they also project meaning in a fraction of the time it takes to utter a sentence and, apart from fi lm, lack the temporal structure of sequencing either signs or groups of signs. With respect to the four codes, however, the basic logic of the theme-rheme principle can nevertheless be compared with the pictorial syntax of pictures. The key to structuring visual signs’ syntactic order rests in setting a focal point, for example, by placing the main symbol in the foreground or by emphasizing particular signs by means of other visual variables, such as color and lightness. Exploiting the potential of the visual variables, the setting of a focal point marks the theme to which all other signs and symbols relate in the fashion of the rheme: they add layers of meaning, which help to develop the theme and thus to enable a new expression. In contrast to sentences, pictorial syntax follows a rather circular path, usually beginning and ending with the focal signs and symbols, and in doing
so it synthesizes a verblike concept. Due to the dialectic principle that vivifi es all contrast relations, the theme-rheme hinge imbues verblike signifi cance in the contrast line between adjacent signs-such as, for example, “belongs to”—which complements the grammatical structure of a visual message. When analyzing the logic of advertising, the German linguist and sociologist Wolfgang Fritz Haug called such “grammatical” interrelation of visual signifi cance “symbolic transfer.”2 This dialectic relationship works in both directions, since a product in the center may not only profi t from the semantic content and status of (for example) a nearby icon, but may also add to that icon’s semantic fi eld in return. Whatever the person is doing with the product, holding, eating, throwing, or walking towards it, may not construct a visual shape on its own, but refl ects in its verb concept an invisible dialectic relation between the main visual symbols. At minimum, the symbolic transfer of the picture’s theme-rheme hinge thus proposes that two things “belong together,” as for example when an advertisement introduces a car in front of a house, or a news spot depicts a politician in front of a bookcase. Symbolic transfer thus proposes a grammatical arrangement of signifi cance as opposed to a coincidental context, meaning that a picture’s statement can be assessed as either true or false, which assessment refl ects upon those who present the picture to others.
