Blurb:

In this chapter we link some of the general principles outlined in the previous one to the analysis and transcription of the printed page, the scientific printed page in particular, in an approach which moves from general to increasingly specialist considerations. Specifically, in the first part of the chapter we consider the evolution of the page as a textual unit in its own right in contemporary society, characterising the role played by such resources as tables, charts and diagrams in this process and comparing texts from the 19th century with their ‘counterparts’ from the end of the 20th century. The later sections of the chapter deal with the way in which scientific meanings are communicated to children in biology textbooks. In the course of the chapter, we will provide a detailed account, both in terms of text analysis and multimodal transcription, of the ways in which a metafunctional framework (see 1.4, pp. 38-44) can help us understand many aspects of the multimodal printed page, such as the spatial arrangement of items on the page, the relation between images and linguistic text, the relations between reader and multimodal text, and so on.



2.0 Introduction

2.1 The printed page and its evolution

2.2 The resource integration principle in the scientific page

2.2.1 How can we study tables systematically?

2.2.2 How does the page communicate?

2.3 Science textbooks and multimodal meaning making

2.4 Visual, verbal and actional semiotic resources in a table

2.4.1 Visual and verbal resources

2.4.2 Thematic development of the page: hierarchies of textual periodicity

2.4.3 Actional semiotic resources

2.5 Blood under the microscope: multimodality in a photographic display

2.6 Integration of scientific photographs and verbal text

2.6.1 The textual metafunction

2.6.2 The ideational (experiential and logical) metafunctions

2.6.3 The interpersonal metafunction

2.7 The Italian texts: differences with respect to the Australian texts

2.7.1 Reading paths

2.7.2 The use of colour

2.8 Expertise and authority vs. comprehensibility and accessibility

2.8.1 Linguistic resources

2.8.2 Visual resources

2.9 Conclusion