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This study attempts to carry out an analysis of the compositional and interpersonal metafunctions of the picture book Stella brings the family (2015). The analytical tools employed in this study are based on the model for reading visual narratives proposed by Painter, Martin and Unsworth (2013) and on Kress and van Leeuwen's Visual Social Semiotics (2021), which are useful models for the analysis of multimodal texts. The compositional and interpersonal analysis intends to deepen the deconstruction of meaning in the picture book and how the characters express affection. The compositional analysis reveals that the visual and the written text are complementary and that the different focus groups highlight the characters. The types of themes and the layout foreground the protagonist Stella. In addition, from an interpersonal perspective, the analysis reveals that Stella has more physical contact with one of her fathers, which suggests that Stella has a closer relationship with him. The compositional and interpersonal meanings contribute to establishing a close connection with readers so that they identify with Stella's problem of not having a mother to celebrate Mother's Day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an analysis of the main discourses that appear in a sample of Spanish newspapers before and after the arrival of the Aquarius at the port of Valencia in June 2018, in order to observe if there is a solidarity discourse or one that rejects the arrival of the rescued immigrants in Spain. The corpus consists of all the news published from June 10 to July 10, 2018 in the electronic version of the Spanish newspapers ABC, El Mundo, El País and La Vanguardia. The methodology is mainly qualitative-descriptive. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) was chosen to observe the main linguistic characteristics of the collected news items and the topics that appear in the articles. The analysis shows that the testimonies of politicians and members of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) predominate, but there are few testimonies of immigrants. The solidarity and acceptance of Spain are strengthened, as well as the defense of human rights. This contrasts with the discourses that the press presents after the arrival of the ship in Valencia. A discourse related to the health of immigrants and their need for help and resources predominates, a fact that contributes to the alarm of the majority group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the main linguistic and visual characteristics of sub-Saharan immigrants represented as illegal in a sample from the Spanish press, and the ideological consequences for the audience of the newspapers. The data consists of all the news items published on sub-Saharan immigrants in the digital editions of the three most popular Spanish newspapers, El País, ABC and El Mundo, from 1 June 2011 to 1 June 2014. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) and van Leeuwen's (2008) model for the verbal and visual representation of social actors will be used to study the main characteristics of the written language used to refer to sub-Saharan immigrants as illegal in three main ways: as victims, as heroes and as threats. In addition, Kress and van Leeuwen's (2006) visual grammar will be the theoretical framework used to analyse the photographs published in the newspapers studied in order to observe the main visual characteristics that contribute to the portrayal of immigrants as illegal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article constrasts the representation of women and immigrant minors as social actors following the theoretical framework proposed by Theo van Leeuwen (2008). The corpus of examples belongs to the news items from the radio and television programs called Hora Sur Andalucía and Canal Sur Noticias respectively; they were collected between 1 April and 31 July 2011 This corpus is part of the following project: Proyecto de Excelencia de la Junta de Andalucía. Reference: TIC-6517. Call: 2010 "Immigration discourses in Andalusian mass media: the discursive and visual construction of the new Andalusia", University of Granada, Institute of Migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article intends to approach the way NGOs represent the population in poor countries, in rich countries and the NGOs of Development. Our corpus consists on the publications of Intemon Oxfam published in 2012. We will offer a detailed analysis of the covers because this is the first page seen by the audience and because this is the way in which the NGO introduces itself. Critical discourse analysis, in concrete the model proposed by van Leeuwen in 2008 and Kress and van Leeuwen's (2006) visual grammar will be used in order to provide a detailed analysis of the covers under study in order to observe the main visual characteristics used for presenting people from South countries in one of the main publications of the said NGO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article documents the operation of multimodal and rhetorical strategies in cosmetic surgery leaflets, with a focus on the interplay between the verbal and visual channels. It describes how advertising discourse exploits the image of an idealized female body in order to achieve its economic goals. Recipients are targeted through the application of the prevalent ideology of femininity, which in the Western context is increasingly dependent on patterns of consumption of body-oriented products and services against the background of (male) expectations of the female body ideal. It is argued that in this situation, which merges the private with the public and in which women willingly participate in the self-perpetuating ideology of male-defined femininity, women may, for various reasons, identify with the super-ideal sexualized images of women offered to them, while indulging in a mixture of fantasy and reality and sharing in the guilty knowledge that their own imperfect bodies need to be fixed. This article points out that such ideologies are very effectively studied through their multimodal realizations, where the visual mode, in particular, can non-verbally draw on and reproduce stereotyped representations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper we explore the use of predicated Themes in the novel Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) by Alan Paton, using the systemic functional framework of analysis. We show how this noncanonical structure helps to build the novel's semantic textual design. The analysis of the structural component of predicated Themes (Theme–Rheme and Given–New structures and their interactions) will be essential to an understanding of the functions these structures and other grammatical resources play in the novel. This is complemented by a paradigmatic view on the use of predicated Themes: that is, we view these structures as the realization of systemic options in the grammar of English, functioning as resources for the creation of text. One proposal for theorizing the novel's semantic organization in particular is explored, that of hyper/macro-Theme/-New, as developed by Martin (1992), based upon work by Fries (1981). By employing these concepts, as features in the semantic systems of “method of development” and “point”, we show how the use of predicated Themes may be related to the discourse functions they serve and thus, ultimately, to the context of the novel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to prove that the recurrent use of predicated themes in the novels written by the South African writer Alan Paton has certain communicative implications, since they are appropriate to express feelings, and to highlight information in situations of climax in the novels under analysis. The analysis of this syntactic structure in context will point out that predicated themes allow the writer to be conscious that he is asserting or denying something in a firm way; the predicated theme is also an important structure for the textual organisation of discourse. The linguistic framework for this paper is systemic functional linguistics (Halliday & Matthiessen 2004), a linguistic school that establishes a clear link between lexico-grammatical choices in the text, and the relevant contextual factors surrounding it. Systemic linguistics explores how linguistic choices are related to the meanings that are being expressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]