Theo van Leeuwen On The Social Semiotics Of Time

 THE SOCIAL SEMIOTICS OF TIME

Theo van Leeuwen (leeuwen@sdu.dk)

The course will deal with time-based multimodal texts. It has two main objectives. Theoretically, it seeks to show that the semiotic resources we have for the temporal structuring of multimodal texts reflect the temporal structuring of social life. Practically, it introduces resources for analysing the temporal structuring of multimodal texts, including music and film, and for analysing the verbal and visual representation of time and timing in multimodal texts.

5 August Time and society

The lecture introduces the course and discusses its basic assumption – that the structuring of time-based multimodal texts is closely related to the way society organizes the timing of activities. It also discusses the power structures and normative discourses that regulate social timing.

12 August Rhythm (1)

Starting by discussing the differences between clock time and our body clocks, the lecture argues that the structuring of everyday social interaction and the structuring of time-based multimodal texts is primarily based on rhythm, and introduces a method for analysing the rhythmic structure of multimodal texts and the role it plays in meaning-making.

26 August Time and music (1)

This lecture discusses the relation between musical time and social time, introducing a number of key concepts, including measured and unmeasured time, regularized and non-regularized time, metronomic and non-metronomic time, and polyrhythmic and mono-rhythmic time, in each case explaining how these forms of timing create meaning, and how they can combine in complex structures.

9 September Time and film (1)

This lecture discusses the relation between filmic time and the changes in social time and timing which came about at the time film language was developed, as a result of technological innovations and new ways of understanding time (e.g. relativity theory). Key themes include the relation between past, present and future, the stretching or condensing of time and the presentation of distant events as simultaneous and connected.

23 September Time and language (1)

The lecture discusses linguistic resources for representing the timing of social activities, their relation to the way time and timing are organized in contemporary society, and the way they can be used to analyse the representation of time in discourse.

14 October Visual representations of time (1)

This lecture discusses semiotic resources for the (static) visual representation of time-based activities, showing how these resources can be used in analysing images and diagrams, and comparing the semantic reach of visual and verbal representation of time and timing.

Blogger Comments:

[1] On the model of Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the dimension of time can be understood as the location and extent (duration or frequency) of the unfolding of processes. The difference between 'clock time and our body clocks' is in the processes whose rhythms provide the intervals of time measurement.

[2] Rhythm can be understood as the unfolding of a process relative to the time intervals used to measure it.

[3] The difference between musical time and social time is in the processes whose unfoldings provide the intervals of time measurement.

[4] This mistakes process for time. It is the unfolding of processes that is measured or unmeasured, regularised or non-regularised, metronomic or non-metronomic, polyrhythmic or monorhythmic. Timing is the unfolding of a process relative to temporal location and extent.

[5] From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the General Theory of Relativity models gravity as the relative contraction of space intervals and the relative expansion of time intervals with increasing proximity to a centre of mass.

[6] From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, past, present and future are relative to the time of meaning-making, mental or verbal.

[7] Interpreting the General Theory of Relativity in terms of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the 'simultaneity' of distant events can be understood in terms of the 'past in present' tense, because the time it takes light to travel entails that what is observed is a past event relative to the present of the observing process.