1. Verbal and Visual Communication
W.J.T. Mitchell, ”Pictures and Paragraphs: Nelson Goodman and the Grammar of Difference” in Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology

2. Characteristics of the verbal and the visual messages/signs
temporal
successive
linear
hierarchical
chronological
causal
fluid/mobile
diachronic
digital (Mitchell 53)
symbolic (Mitchell 53)
VISUAL
spatial
simultaneous
fixed/stable/solid
synchronic
analogical (Mitchell 53)
iconic (Mitchell 53)

3. The implication of Goodman’s Languages of Art
„language will provide the model for all the symbolic systems, including the pictorial” (Goodman qtd. in Mitchell 55)
„[...] semiology is required [...] there is no meaning which is not designated, and the world of signifieds is none other than that of language.” (Barthes qtd. in Mitchell 56)
superiority of language/linguistic imperialism
extreme conventionalism (Mitchell 65)
the abolishment of the boundaries between sign types
no difference between pictures and maps (Mitchell 65)

4. Hans Holbein, The Ambassadors (1533)

5. Hans Holbein, The Ambassadors (1533) the undistorted skull

6. The problematic of the iconic sign
The most difficult to assimilate into semiotics ↔ verbal sign
C.S. Peirce’s definition: any sign that ”may represent its object mainly by its similarity” (Mitchell 56).
iconic signs are partially ruled by convention/refer to an established stylistic rule (Eco qtd. in Mitchell 57)
→ arbitrary connection between signifier and signified/unmotivated
yet they are at the same time motivated/propose a new rule (Eco qtd. in Mitchell 57)
→ motivation: natural connection between signifier and signified

7. Peirce’s sign system ICON-SYMBOL-INDEX
Icon: sign by physical resemblance or analogy
Index:
sign by ‘causal’ or ‘existential’ connection
has a correlation in space and time with its meaning
Has a direct influence by its object (e.g. thermometer, sundial, clock, weathervane, smoke-fire)
Symbol: sign by convention, it’s arbitrary

11. Photographic sign
Composites of iconic and indexical signs (Mitchell 59)
non-mediated vs mediated
non-coded vs coded
~ cf. Barthes’s idea of the photographic image as non-coded as opposed to a drawing that is coded even if it is denotational due to its manner of execution and its focus (43)
direct vs indirect
perceptual vs conceptual
empirical vs symbolic
Analogous to impressions (as mental signs) and ideas (as in empirical epistemology) (60)

12. Moholy-Nagy, Untitled (c. 1927)

13. Image vs Text Goodman’s categorisation
”Super dense”/”replete” symbol ~ read like an ungraduated thermometer
Syntactically and semantically dense and continuous
→ every mark is loaded with semantic potential
→ no mark can be isolated as a unique and distinct character
Its meaning depends on its relations with all the other marks in a dense, continuous field (67)
TEXT
”Disjunct” set of symbols (gaps without significance) (68)
Discontinuous ~ read like a graduated thermometer