Analysing Visual Imagery: Connecting Semiotic and Cognitive Perspectives

Abstract

This article provides an exploratory study of a new analytical approach to examining visual imagery in relation to the underlying cognitive processes involved. The analytical approach combines social semiotic theory of representation with cognitive-linguistic studies on blending or conceptual integration. The author’s thesis is that visual-analytic tools suggested by the social semiotic approach perfectly complements the inward cognition of an image-viewer, a synergy which has rarely been envisaged by scholars from both disciplines. From this perspective, visual analysis is seen as both semiotically and cognitively relevant. The interdisciplinary approach developed in the article hopes to present new perspectives on the ways images are analysed and interpreted.