Pragmatics of Visual Image : a New Angle of Communication Act Theory

本研究旨在探讨视觉图像作为视觉传播媒介的功能和结构，使用的方法，可以最好地被称为“图像行为理论”，一个理论框架，其中描绘图像被视为执行一个特定的视觉传播行为，就像说出的话是一个特定的言语行为的表现。阐明了以下六点：第一，尽管图像与语言、图像与文字、“图标”与“象征”在符号学上存在差异，但它们具有相同的传播功能;第二，视觉传播行为由七个要素构成：专员、艺术家、调解人、观众、语境、作品、代码。第三，这七个要素可以简化为五个，这五个方面决定了作品的不同功能：指涉性、情感性、指导性、审美性或元图像性。第四，尽管图像的这五个基本方面可以区分开来，但不可能找到任何一个图像只满足其中一个功能。这种多样性并不在于这五种功能中的某一种功能的垄断，而在于功能的层次顺序的不同。第五，视觉图像具有语义，即深层结构，它可以被分析为指示行为和命题两部分。一个形象要成功地表演，必须遵循四种规则：命题内容规则、预备规则、真诚规则和本质规则。第六，必须区分暗示行为和暗示行为，暗示行为是指这种行为对观看者的行为、思想或信念等产生的后果或影响。

This research aims at an examination of the function and structure of visual image as a medium for visual communication, using an approach that can best be termed a "pictorial acts theory", a theoretical framework in which depicting an image is viewed as performing a specific act of visual communication, just as uttering words counts as a performance of specific speech acts. Six points as follows were clarified.First, in spite of the semiotic differences between pictures and language, image and words, "icon" and "symbol", they have the same communicational functions in common.Second, the act of visual communication consists of the seven elements : a commissioner, an artist, a mediator, a viewer, a context, a work, and a code.Third, these seven elements can be reduced to five, each of the five determines a different function of the work: referential, emotive, directive, aesthetic, or meta-pictorial.Forth, although these five basic aspects of an image can be distinguished, it is impossible to find any image which fulfills only one of these functions. The diversity lies not in a monopoly of one of these five functions, but rather in a different hierarchical order of functions.Fifth, a visual image has the semantic, in other words, deep structure which can be analyzed into two parts : the in-depictionary act and the proposition. For a certain image to be performed successfully, it must follow four kinds of rules : the Propositional Content rule, the Preparatory rule, the Sincerity rule, and the Essential rule.Sixth, the in-depictionary acts must be differentiated from the per-depictionary acts that are the consequences or effects such acts have on the actions, thoughts, or beliefs, etc. of viewers.