Semiotic Cereals
Thomas Hestbæk Andersen & Morten Boeriis
Abstract
In this paper we present findings from a pilot study of packaging1. To be more precise: we
present findings from our analyses of verbal and visual elements on packaging. All instances
of our corpus of packaging are defined by the same field (cf. Halliday 1978: 62): they contain
breakfast cereals.
Situating our work in a social-semiotic framework (cf. Halliday 1978, Van Leeuwen
2005), we present a multimodal approach to the analysis of the resources used in verbal and
visual elements (i.e. multimodal texts) on the packages containing cereals. Our multimodal
approach is comprised of two monomodal approaches: a visually oriented approach and a
linguistic approach.
In this paper we focus on giving a brief overview of our methodology for analyzing,
and of the diverse meanings found on packages. From a brief overview of these meanings, a
few of these will be elaborated in some detail, thereby exemplifying our methodology.
1. Introduction – The communicative role of packaging in a marketing context
From a commercial point of view, the packing plays a crucial role when selling a product.
Teknologisk Institut (Technological Institute in Denmark) states that i) today’s customers are
met with between 1.000 and 30.000 different products in their average supermarket, ii) the
duration of a visit to the supermarket is normally between 5 minutes and 60 minutes, and
bearing the number of products in mind, this leaves less than 1 second’s attention to each
product, iii) up to 80% of the decisions about which product to buy is made on the spot, i.e. in
the supermarket, and iv) for at least 40 weeks a year, the packing is the main thing selling the
product, and it is only a few weeks every year that the supermarket/the producer are
campaigning for their product. From these points we can conclude, that what the producer
does with his packing is directly affecting his company’s balance sheet.
Nina Nørgaard (ed.) 2008. Systemic Functional Linguistics in Use.
Odense Working Papers in Language and Communication vol. 29
(ISSN 0906-7612, ISBN: 978-87-90923-47-1)
The competition for attention
is fierce in the Supermarket
From a commercial point of view, the use of multimodal texts on packing is a cheap way to
deploy a message: a company can not distribute its products without packing them, and the
distribution of one’s message is therefore paid for in advance, so to speak. This is contrary to
deploying a message in e.g. print media or television, where one has to pay (often large sums)
for the distribution of one’s message.
From a communicative point of view, multimodal texts on packages are not only a
cheap way of spreading a message; it is also an effective one, since the reader often does not
perceive the message as having a strategic function (e.g. functioning as advertising) but rather
as some kind of entertainment.
2. Methodology
Our approach to the multimodal communication on the packages is based on an analysis of
the two-dimensional layout of the package sides. It consists of a combination of a linguistic
analysis of the wordings and an analysis of the general visual layout on the sides of the
packages. This approach has given us some rather interesting insights into the complex
communicational mode of packing. Examining three-dimensional layout, tactile design and
maybe even the smell and sounds of the product and package would probably have brought
even further insights, but our studies do not include this yet.
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Following Kress & Van Leeuwen (2001) and Baldry & Thibault (2006) we stipulate
that meaning made in any type of communication stems from the complex interplay of modes
in resource integration (Baldry & Thibault 2006: 18) rather than from a simple addition of
meaning of monomodes. Analytically, however, we chose to make a partly monomodal
theoretically abstracted division and look at the verbal and other visual modes apart.
In the analysis of packing we utilise Baldry and Thibault’s ‘Multimodal Cluster
Analysis’ (Baldry & Thibault 2006: 31) as our basic structural approach. We find groupings
of similar functional elements across our different types of packing, and attempt to describe
their function in the overall visual layout. These reoccurring clusters may make use of
different combinations of modes to achieve the same functional communicative purpose.
Please refer to the end of this article for large versions of front side layout of our corpus of
packages.
3. Basic clusters
We found a number of cluster types on the various packages and have chosen to focus mainly
on the most common basic types, which are: product title, product type, logo, producer name,
product photo, cereals mascot, product origin, additional non-product images, product
information in terms of weight and quality, linking to other parts of the package, background,
additional information tags, and backside text.
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Amount
information
Product title
Cereal mascot
Product type
Logo
Product origin
Content quality information
Producer name
Product photo
Additional information tags
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Additional non-product images
Linking to other sides of packing
Background
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With the cluster analysis as the basic principle behind our analyses, our main perspective is
from above (cf. the trinocular perspective; Halliday & Matthiessen 1999: 504), from
semantics. And when looking at the packing semantically, we find the following meaning
potentials involved in the construal of meaning on packages containing cereals:
-
Age: adult – youngster – child
-
Sex: unisex vs. female
-
Communication perspective: writer orientation vs. reader involvement
-
Personalization: personal vs. impersonal
-
Nutritional value: healthy
-
Entertainment: entertaining
-
Geographical anchorage: local vs. regional
-
Company integrity: the producer exclusively vs. marking of one or more other
companies
In the following two sections of this paper, we will explore some of the most salient semantic
categories in depth.
4. Basic visual semantic categories of cereals – healthy versus entertaining
When analysing the cereal packages visually, it seems that they fall into two evident overall
basic semantic groups. We label these groups A) Healthy Cereals and B) Entertaining
Cereals. These categories stem from quite consequent strategic visual semiotic choices made
across the product packages as an attempt to “shelf-market” the relatively “low involvement
product” cereals. The categories have little to do with how healthy the products actually are,
since probably the only truly healthy cereal-product is oatmeal. Instead the categories reflect
how the products are presented semiotically as belonging to the healthy group or not. To put it
simply, some extra semiotic value is added to the basic value of the products themselves. To a
great extent, this extra value is conveyed by means of the visual layout of the packing, and it
is typically imported from either entertainment or health discourses. What cannot believably
be sold as healthy is sold as entertaining and energizing. This may be done to divert the
attention from the fact that the products are unhealthy, or perhaps try to give the impression
that the amount of sugar or salt in the product is less of a problem when you are an active
individual.
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Figure 1: Health-focused versus Entertainment-focused
From a visual perspective the two basic groups utilise very different strategies: a “Look at
me” vociferous attention seeking strategy and an “I know I’m worth it” subdued confidence
strategy. Some products fall somewhere between those two poles, though. The relatively less
healthy of the healthy ones give stronger emphasis to the healthy nature of their product, and
by doing so, they are less downplayed.
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Healthiness
(Serious)
#2
#13
#4
#14
#1
#12
#7
#11
#6
#9
#8
#10
#3
#5
#15
Entertainment
(Fun)
Figure 2: System of relative healthiness-focus versus entertainment-focus on packing
The healthy products can be divided into two subgroups 1) The explicitly healthy and 2) The
implicitly healthy. The explicitly healthy products put a great deal of emphasis on different
aspects of the products which make them healthy, even though they may actually often not be
particularly healthy. The implicitly healthy downplay the healthiness by acting on the
knowledge that their products are usually considered nutritious and healthy by most nutrition
experts. This group counts almost exclusively oatmeal products. Through their stronger
emphasis on the healthy contents of their product, the explicitly healthy products such as #2,
#4 and #14 may seem more closely related to the entertainment focused cereal type than the
implicitly healthy products, #10 and #3. However, they still belong to the health-focused
group, since they do not overtly try to divert attention away from the product itself. #1 makes
an interesting attempt to fit into the category of the healthy products’ downplayed visual style
by applying much the same visual choices, such as low modal density, low colour saturation,
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high modulation and low differentiation (Kress & Van Leeuwen 1996), combined with a plain
bold antiqua typography.
We find two general strategies in the explicitly healthy category and therefore make a
further subdivision of this. One sub-category focuses on the nutrition value of the product
itself, focusing in particular on low values of sugar or fat. In the other sub-category, nonproduct health contents are added which usually stem from exercising discourses. Value from
a certain discourse is added to the product’s value, and may, for instance, make the buyer
associate it with a healthy sporty life.
The entertainment-focused cereals also fall into two general categories. In the
entertaining category the entertainment stems from the product itself. This is mostly done
through different visual or verbal representations of the exiting taste or tactile experience of
the product such as for instance #5, #8 or #15. In the category of added entertainment certain
entertaining elements are added to the packages that has little to do with the product itself. We
find three different types of added entertainment that we label ‘imported value’, ‘play’ and
‘toys’. Imported value is when extra entertainment is added through co-branding of other
products such as Spiderman in #8 or through clusters of information that is non-relevant to the
product, but have a certain implicitly alleged (street) credibility to the audience such as breakdance in #9. The added play entertainment can be different kinds of games, puzzles or stories
such as in #15, these again having no direct relevance to the product. Added toys
entertainment is information about some sort of toy inside the package as is the case with #5.
The subcategories will be further elucidated in the following.
product contents
(nutrition)
explicit
(emphasized)
healthy
(serious)
added health contents
(exercising)
implicit
(downplayed)
cereals
product
(taste + tactility)
imported value
(street cred + other brands)
added
playing
(games + puzzles + stories)
entertaining
(fun)
toys
(on box + in box)
Figure 3: Network of basic visual semantic categories
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4.1 Modal density
When applying Norris’ concept of ‘modal density’ (Norris 2004: 79), we find significant
differences between the two basic types of cereals and their packing. The entertaining packing
category utilises a great number of different modes across the packing, resulting in high
modal density, whereas the healthy category tends to be more simplistic with fewer clusters
and fewer different modes in play. The entertaining type, then, uses high modal density to
convey to the consumer an intense or even action packed feeling about the product when
purchasing it. This could be seen as almost reflecting the sugar-speeded energy level of the
children when consuming these products.
The healthy products tend to use the less intense feel of the low modal density to focus
on the information about the products nutritiousness – and at the same time the low modal
density in itself conveys sensibility and calmness through simplicity.
#3 #10
#1
#12 #11
#6
#14 #2 #13 #15
Low
#9 #5#8#7 #4
High
Blue = health focus
Red = entertainment focus
Figure 4: Relative modal density in packing
4.2 The interpersonal modality systems of colour and detail
The entertainment focused packing makes heavy use of strongly saturated colours with
relatively low/flat colour modulation and low differentiation. There is a relatively low
rendition of detail both in the drawn and in the photographic clusters (Kress & Van Leeuwen
2006: 160). In the different clusters, the combined modality choices mostly seem to resemble
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what we see as a kind of animation coding orientation, inspired by cartoons, comic strips and
retro 3d-animation (Kress & Van Leeuwen 2006: 163).
The packing which focuses more on health use less saturated colours with more
modulated colours and a tendency to lower differentiation. The combined coding orientation
seems to draw upon a sensory coding orientation somewhere between photo and crayon
drawing, but with a relatively low rendition of detail, which is a result of low depth of field or
high key, as a part of the aesthetic presentation of the product and its use.
Figure 5: Colour and detail on packing
4.3 Visual product representation
The product is almost always represented via the photographic mode on the packages, or as
for instance in the case of #5, by means of a photorealistic graphic rendition. This, of course,
describes visually what is inside the packages, but often also provides a highly aesthetic
product presentation in terms of modality. #13 is an exception where the product is
represented by visual illustration with low naturalistic or sensory modality. In this rather
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peculiar rendition of the product, it is quite difficult to recognise the product and the function
of this cluster is unclear.
There is an obvious tendency to represent the entertainment focused products visually
via dynamic action processes (Kress & Van Leewen 2006: 45) of for instance stirring,
pouring or eating, whereas the health focused products use more conceptual processes of the
product merely being there, representing the contents of the package (Kress & Van Leewen
2006: 79).
Figure 6: Visual product representation on packing
4.4 Typography
The health-focused products tend to use antiqua type, connoting traditionalism and
seriousness. The explicitly healthy products seem to make more use of italics, which convey a
dynamic feel, mirroring the often explicit active lifestyle discourse illustrated elsewhere on
the packing. The more serious and healthy the product is, the less rendition of depth there
seems to be in the letters. The healthy products also have less articulated depth shaping, but as
many other products often a cast shadow. The more entertaining the products are, the more
dynamically curved and organically shaped the display typography seems to be. The
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entertainment-focused products tend to use more bold and warped letters, and have different
kinds of ideational import from the product in the type design.
In some examples, the letters in the product name may have different degrees of
ideational meaning import in an almost naturalistic coding orientation, and therefore have a
double ideational function as both a letter and a representation of the product. In #5 the letters
are rendered as if they were made by chocolate milk, in # 15 the product name looks like it is
written with honey and in #7 the “o” in Weetos is a photorealistic rendition of a Weetos ring.
Figure 7: Typography on packing
4.5 Additional value tag
The explicitly healthy products alongside the entertainment-focused products have extra
added value besides the product’s name and type. This value may be enhancing certain
qualities such as the nutritiousness of the contents, the taste or tactility, or the product
function when consumed. There may also be an import of value through co-branding, i.e.
making reference to another product, brand or general discourse in an attempt to import
positive connotations to the current product.
One distinct way of conveying the added value is through the cluster type on the front
side which we have labelled the additional value tag. These clusters usually resemble some
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kind of tag or label that seems to have been stuck onto the package. The tags are often slanted
to stand out as more salient and are placed on top of the basic layout by contrasting the lines
and colours of the standard design.
In #6 the additional value tag provides information about
the product contents, which, in this case, is a low amount
of sugar. The exclamation mark has an interesting position
in this particular cluster. It is placed as Given, and does not
function as a standard linguistic exclamation mark, but
seems to have the function of some sort of attention call,
followed by the verbal content to be noticed in New.
In #12 the additional value tag cluster is a keyhole, which in
a Danish context does not make much sense. It is a Swedish
nationally institutionalized label for low fat and a high level
of fibres. Here the design of the package makes use of a tag
which only gives meaning in a Swedish context. This use of
a local Swedish symbol in a Danish context seems
inexpedient and makes room for misunderstanding.
There are quite a few additional value tags on #13. For instance, a little
cluster resembling a breakfast bowl with a spoon contains the verbal
message GOD MORGEN – til hele familien [GOOD MORNING – to
the entire family] making exophoric reference to the breakfast situation.
There is also homophoric reference through another tag cluster with the
Danish nationally institutionalized label for organic production, and yet
another cluster signalling further expansive elaboration on the package
content elsewhere on the package sides.
The entertainment-focused packing usually has tags that link to extra content either on the
package as for instance a crossword in #9 and break-dance instructions #15, or as discussed
above, toys such as playing cards or squirt guns inside, as in #7 and #8.
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The explicitly health-focused products may also have tags
linking to the backside information, for instance about an
online training programme (#2 and #14) or, besides sugar
content information, to a contest on the backside (#2). In
the latter example, the cluster linking to the contest
includes a logo from a movie and a photographically
represented image of actors from the movie and of
the mobile phone given as the price in the contest
(endophoric
and
homophoric
reference).
The
implicitly health-focused products such as #11, #3
and #1 are more likely to have no
additional value tags. An important
part of their self-confident expression
is the fact that they do not need to
flaunt their healthiness since it is
commonly known.
4.6 Gaze and cereal mascots
A significant difference between the two basic types of cereals is the use of the specific
cluster type which we label cereal mascots. The Entertainment focused products all make use
of some kind of cereal mascot to attract the attention of the buyer, and to create a confidencebuilding appeal. The cereal mascot takes the role of the sender in the visual layout and is used
to convey the image act of demand (Kress & Van Leeuwen 2006: 116).
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Different examples of cereal mascots and their styles are: The honey nut monster in a
big furry teddy bear-like style in #15, Tony the tiger in #9 with a Hanna-Barbera style, #8 The
Nesquick Bunny in a Warner cartoon style, The Weetos professor in Sims style in #7, Coco
the monkey in #5 in Disney style and #6 Cornelius rooster in a kind of retro 3d animation
style in #6.
The general interpersonal image act on the package, and thereby the kind of consumer
contact established, stem from the choices made in the visual layout process. The
entertainment-focused products with their cereal mascots make prominent use of direct gaze
at the viewer, in what Kress and Van Leeuwen call the Demand Gaze (2006: 117). The more
nutritious and serious the product is, the less human or humanlike are the participants on the
box. The demand images make a direct approach contacting the consumer in the buying
situation, which may be an attempt to appeal to children or perhaps to what their parents
believe appeals to them. The idea seems to be that children are supposed to like to be
addressed directly and preferably by furry creatures.
The Health focused products usually do not make use of cereal mascots to appeal to
the buyer since these products focus more on the product itself, but there are different
examples of more or less stylised human participants such as the South American woman in
#12, the generic female body in #4 or the Quaker logo in #1.
5. OTA Solgryn
The packing of #3 OTA Solgryn [Sun meal (from oatmeal)] is an interesting
case where we see that the size and shape of the package is itself semiotically
meaning-making. The choice of a cardboard box is quite unusual for oatmeal
products, since, in a Danish context, it is typical to use paper bag wrapping of
oatmeal. The choice of a cardboard box makes the OTA Solgryn package
approach the entertainment-focused non-healthy products. They connote a
modern, artificial and more processed product with the typical inside plastic wrapping of the
product for avoiding moist and odours, but at the same time, it also conveys a message of a
safe food type in terms of quality control and quality keeping. The box shape and size could
be read as an attempt to make the oatmeal product closer to the attractive modern types of
cereals, but in fact, this is not the case. Even though the box shape resembles the usual choice
of the entertaining cereal type, it actually invokes its own heritage of historical product
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marketing by OTA Solgryn. OTA Solgryn is an institution in Denmark, where the company,
for more than 50, years has managed to position the product as the breakfast product – mostly
for kids – being healthy and giving children (supernatural) strength. It is to this heritage the
shape of the current Solgryn box makes its references, since the oatmeal from OTA has
always been sold in cardboard boxes with a very simple visual design.
A few years ago, OTA Solgryn ran an advertising campaign with the following punch
line: OTA Solgryn er Danmark om morgenen! [in English: OTA Solgryn is Denmark in the
morning!]. And this is not that much of an exaggeration: OTA Solgryn is the market leader in
the Danish market for oatmeal, and the product has almost an iconic status. In other words:
the brand is very well-established. To illustrate this, we did a quick survey asking 30
randomly picked persons at the University of Southern Denmark – students, teachers,
maintenance workers, etc. – to name which brand first came into mind when hearing the word
oatmeal. The result of this survey is striking: 83% named OTA Solgryn. The remaing 17%
could not name a brand but said things like: The cheap one from Netto (: a Danish
supermarket) or The ecological one from Føtex… (i.e. another Danish supermarket).
This position as well-established market leader in a culture where the brand name
(OTA Solgryn) is almost synonymous with the product category (oatmeal) is a privileged
position, and drawing on this position, OTA presents its product as something unique, using
an identifying process (we find this in the cluster functioning as heading on the front of the
box):
OTA Solgryn
(er)
De lækre kerneristede
havregryn
OTA Solgryn
(is)
the delicious grain-roasted
oatmeal
Subject
Finite/Predicator
Complement
Identified
Relational>identifying
Identifier
Theme
Rheme
In the heading, the starting point (: the Theme) is the product name, and the product is then
identified as a unique item: it is the delicious grain-roasted oatmeal.
A little point of interest about the product name is the way the producer has incorporated the company logo in the product name, making the producer a very salient entity on
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the box, i.e. a significant player in the game of convincing the consumer to buy this very
product instead of another.2
The confidence of the producer (stemming from and corresponding to the product’s
salient position in the mind of the average consumer) that we find in the identifying process
on the front of the box, is iterated in the linguistic cluster on the right side of the box: here we
find (i) a reference to OTA Solgryn’s position as the first ever oatmeal brand on the Danish
market: it is stated that Solgryn har patent på den gode nødde-agtige smag (i.e. Solgryn holds
the patent for the good nut-ish flavour), and the use of the lexical item patent in a text like this
is not seen anywhere else, and (ii) a reference to its status as being unique (thereby corresponding with the identifying process on the front of the box): it is stated that Solgryn is
produced efter en helt unik metode (i.e. according to a unique method).
The layout of the packing is a very basic simplistic design, with few clusters. Two
basic hyper-clusters occur in the upper white part and in the lower red. The sun and the
wordings are subclusters in these hyperclusters. There is no representation of the product
because the product is assumed to be well known to the consumer. As concerns information
structure, this is an interesting choice since the sun is placed in Real, as the attainable, and the
product name is placed as Ideal, as the timeless essence and as the ideal element (Kress &
Van Leeuwen 2006: 179).
There is an example of interesting visual rhyming between the two (super-)clusters,
when the letters by a circular gradient going from red to orange, with its centre in the yellow
sun below, links the two parts, giving an ideational impression of the sun shining, partly
illuminating the letters. This is enhanced by the shadows on the letters, indicating a light
source below, and in combination with the sun, this creates both textual linking and an
experiential relation of the sun shining on a goal, namely the cluster of letters above.
Our analysis of the package of OTA Solgryn provides an example of the importance
of context to the understanding of multimodal communication. It shows how visual
communication is not always fully understandable globally, and how the understanding of
visual semiosis can be locally founded (in this case in Denmark). This is the case even though
Solgryn has actually been a part of the American company Quaker since 1930. This
connection to Quaker is cleverly downplayed on the package – compared to #1, where the
Quaker logo and name play a more dominant role in the design – in order to evoke a certain
feeling of an idyllic Danish heritage.
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6. Basic verbal semantic categories of cereals (: Focus)
From a primarily visually oriented analysis, we now turn to the wordings on our corpus of
packages. We look at the focus of the linguistic clusters. The focus of a text is a factor
comprised by two other factors, namely that of personalization and that of communication
perspective.
Personalization has to do with the construal of participants in a text. Which roles do
the participants express? Following Halliday and Matthiessen and their taxonomy of ‘simple
things’ as the basis for constructing participants (1999: 190-191), we regard a personal world
as a world construed in texts dominated by a conscious participant (Medium or Agent), that is
a participant who is an “active participant in figure of sensing (…) and of doing” (Halliday &
Matthiessen 1999: 190). This conscious participant might be realized by a personal pronoun.3
An impersonal world is construed in texts dominated by a non-conscious participant,
typically a Medium realizing an object, which is an “impacted participant in figure of doing”
(Halliday and Matthiessen 1999: 191). Often this type of Medium – being an “impacted”
entity (cf. Diderichsen 1957: 115) – is found in middle clauses (clauses with no feature of
agency), or in effective clauses that are receptive in voice.4 The receptive voice can be used
for a number of purposes (cf. Halliday & Matthiessen 2004: 298), and it signals an impersonal
text since it is often associated with what Halliday labels “the ‘suppressed person’ passive”
(Halliday 1993: 58).
Communication perspective concerns the enactment of relationships in a text. Is the
text focussing on the writer, or is it oriented towards and trying to involve the reader?5
Reader-involvement is enacted through two types of speech function, namely the
command (congruently realized by an imperative clause) and the question (congruently
realized by an interrogative clause); both these speech functions are demanding something
from the reader (cf. Halliday & Matthiessen 2004: 107). Reader-involvement is also enacted
through the use of the personal pronoun du/you with its accusative and possessive
alternatives, respectively dig/you and din(e)/yours.
Writer-orientation is enacted through the absence of the speech functions command
and question, i.e. through the speech function of statement (congruently realized by a
declarative clause); in this context, the statement highlights that the writer gives something
(cf. Halliday & Matthiessen 2004: 131). Writer-orientation is also enacted through the use of
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the personal pronouns I and we with their accusative and possessive alternatives, respectively
mig/me, os/us and min(e)/mine, vores/our.
Stating these linguistic resources indicates our methodological frame for distinguishing between (parts of) texts and assigning them to one category or the other. As indicated by
our choice of words6, personalization is mainly experiential in its focus, while communication
perspective is interpersonal in its focus. Focussing on these two metafunctions, we focus on
those metafunctions directly reflecting the world, namely how language – and texts – is “a
meaning potential, at once both a part of experience and an intersubjective interpretation of
experience” (Halliday 1996: 89). We will, however, also take the textual metafunctions into
consideration, since especially the system of THEME is an enabling resource in bringing out
the meanings under discussion.
In their description, the two types of personalization and the two types of
communicative perspective are discrete categories, drawing on different linguistic resources.
In texts, however, we find a mix of personal/impersonal and reader-involving/writer-oriented
language. For analytical purposes, it is therefore reasonable to regard the two types of
personalization and the two types of communicative perspective not as alternative, discrete
categories (: the either-or perspective) but as extremes on a cline (: the more-or-less
perspective). This gives us the following pictures:
Personalization and communication perspective as descriptive categories:
personal
PERSONALIZATION
+ conscious participant
impersonal
+ object-participant; + middle clauses;
+ effective clauses with receptive voice
focus
writer-orientation
COMMUNICATION
PERSPECTIVE
- command; - question; + I/we
reader-involvement
+ command; + question; + you
Figure 8: Network for focus
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Personalization and communication perspective as analytical clines:
personal
PERSONALIZATION
impersonal
focus
writer-orientation
COMMUNICATION
PERSPECTIVE
reader-involvement
Figure 9: Network for focus with clines
If we fuse the two clines into a system of co-ordinates, the picture is as follows:
personal
PRODUCER
CONSUMER
writerorientation
readerinvolvement
PRODUCT
CONSUMPTION
impersonal
Figure 10: Focus as a system of co-ordinates
The four quadrants in the system designate four different fields of focus, namely
1. The producer (personal, writer-orientation)
2. The consumer (personal, reader-involvement)
3. The product (impersonal, writer-orientation)
4. The consumption (impersonal, reader-involvement)
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Focus is illustrated below.
In quadrant 3 we find two examples from packages containing oat meal. In fact, the texts on
the two packages are almost identical, even though they come from different manufactures.
Both of them, however, are produced as household products for Dansk Supermarked A/S (the
company behind a number of Danish supermarkets).
1. Finvalsede havregryn (#10)
Finvalsede havregryn er fremstillet af havre, der er dyrket i Europa. Finvalsede
havregryn indeholder ikke rester af stråforkorter, da råvaren er dyrket uden brug af
stråforkorter. Havren sorteres, rengøres og afskalles, hvorefter kernen behandles ved
100° C for at undgå bakterie- og mugdannelse. Efter opvarmning tørres kernen og
deles i mindre stykker, som presses flade mellem to valser, hvorved det finvalsede
havregryn opstår.
‘Finely rolled oatmeal
Finely rolled oatmeal is made of oat that is grown in Europe. Finely rolled oatmeal
does not contain remnants of plant growth regulator, since the raw material is grown
with no use of plant growth regulator. The oat is sorted, cleened and peeled, after
which the core is treated at 100° C to avoid the emergence of bacteria and mould.
After heating the core is dried and cut into smaller pieces, which are pressed flat
between two rollers, whereby the finely rolled oatmeal comes into existence.’
2. Morgengry økologiske Havregryn (#13)
Økologiske finvalsede havregryn er fremstillet af havre, der er dyrket i Norden. Til
økologisk dyrkning må stråforkorter ikke anvendes, derfor indeholder økologiske
finvalsede havregryn ikke rester af stråforkorter. Havren rengøres, sorteres,
afskalles og deles i mindre stykker, hvorefter kernen varmebehandles vha. damp ved
100° C for at undgå bakterier og mugdannelse samt for at blødgøre kernen, så den
ikke knækker under valsningen. Efter opvarmning presses kernerne flade mellem to
valser og tørres, hvorved det finvalsede havregryn opstår.
‘Morgengry ecological oatmeal
Ecological finely rolled oatmeal is made of oat that is grown in the North. In
ecological growing, plant growth regulator must not be used, and therefore does
ecological finely rolled oatmeal not contain remnants of plant growth regulator. The
oat is cleened, sorted, peeled and cut into smaller pieces, after which the core is
heated with damp at 100° C to avoid the emergence of bacteria and mould, and to
soften the core to ensure that it does not brake during rolling. After heating the cores
are pressed flat between two rollers and dried, whereby the finely rolled oatmeal
comes into existence.’
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131
The two texts are dominated by effective material processes in receptive voice, e.g.:
From text 2:
Statement, free: declarative
Økologiske
er
fremstillet
af havre,
‘are’
‘made’
‘from oats’
Finite
Predicator
Adjunct
Material
Means
finvalsede havregryn
Økologiske
finvalsede havregryn
Subject
Goal
Theme
Rheme
bound: indicative-27
der
er
dyrket
i Norden.
‘which’
‘are’
‘grown’
‘in the North’
Subject
Finite
Predicator
Adjunct
Material
Place
Goal
Theme
Rheme
From text 1:
Statement, free: declarative
Havren
sorteres, rengøres og afskalles,
‘The oat’
‘is sorted, cleaned and peeled’
Subject
Finite/Predicator
Goal
Material (x3)
Theme
Rheme
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bound: indicative-2
hvorefter
kernen
behandles
ved 100° C
for at undgå
bakterie- og
mugdannelse.
‘where after’
‘the core’
‘is treated’
‘at 100° C’
‘to avoid the
emergence of
bacteria and
mould’
Sub
Subject
Finite/Predicator Adjunct
Adjunct
Goal
Material
Purpose
Theme
Rheme
Quality
In other words, we have a large proportion of clauses with elided Agent, where the
experiential Medium is conflated with the interpersonal Subject. In the two texts, the material
clauses that are not receptive in voice are middle-clauses, so there is no Agent in these either
(the first two clauses in the clause complex are effective in receptive voice, while the third
clause is middle – so all of them, as pointed out, have no Agent):
From text 2:
Statement, free: declarative
Efter
presses
kernerne
flade
mellem to valser,
‘the cores’
‘flat’
‘between two
opvarmning
‘After heating’
‘are pressed’
rollers’
Adjunct
Finite/Predicator
Subject
Adjunct
Adjunct
Time
Material
Goal
Attribute
Place
Theme
Rheme
Statement, free: declarative
og
[de]
tørres,
‘and’
‘[they]’
‘are dried’
Con
Subject
Finite/Predicator
Goal
Material
Theme
Rheme
Systemic Functional Linguistics in Use, OWPLC 29, 2008
133
bound: indicative-2
hvorved
det finvalsede havregryn
opstår.
‘whereby’
‘the finely rolled oatmeal’
‘comes into existence’
Sub
Subject
Finite/Predicator
Actor
Material
Theme
Rheme
The conclusion is that no one is doing anything in the two texts, but a lot is done to
something, namely to the product. The thing type realized by the Mediums in the two texts is
the object type, namely the product, i.e. a non-conscious thing.
The above qualities of the texts position them as impersonal texts (cf. our description
of personalization). They are also writer-oriented due to the fact that they do not have any
kind of address towards the reader (no reader-involving speech functions, nor any pronouns
referring to the reader). They are texts with a product focus.
Visually #10 has a clear and simple focus on the product, but not on the
product’s naturalistic appearance or aesthetic appearance. Instead, it is a
fairly generic rendition of the basic conception of the product’s basic
physical origin in oat seeds, without many details or added (evaluative)
meaning. The words on the front of the package are also kept few and
basic, expressing only the generic conception of the
product and the processing of it (Havregryn
[Oatmeal] and Finvalsede [finely rolled]).
#13, on the other hand, has a multifaceted visual layout where the
consumer is in focus. The consumption is thematized. A cluster with
photographic image as the semiotic system, renders a breakfast situation.
The vertical perspective is at eye level with the children, and in a way it
is seen from the point of view of the parents. The image is modally
rendered as an aesthetic representation with high key and low rendition
of details of the circumstantial setting. It is an idealised breakfast situation, where the
children’s devoted gaze at their parents is salient. Interestingly, the represented objects on the
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table do not indicate a simple basic breakfast table with oatmeal and milk. Actually, there is
no element in the picture indicating them having oatmeal for breakfast at all. Instead, it seems
to be a full continental weekend breakfast with juice, soft-boiled eggs, bread and marmalade.
This image, however, is not an image of a specific oatmeal breakfast, bur rather it conveys a
more general feeling of a happy family breakfast.
A diametrically opposed contrast to the two texts with product focus is a text with a
consumer focus; this is due to the logic of the system of co-ordinates: the product focus is
what we find in impersonal texts with writer-orientation, while consumer focus is found in
personal texts with reader-involvement. A text with consumer focus is what we find on
packing #14 (Kellogg’s Special K classic). Here we have the personal story in combination
with reader-involvement: The first clause – which functions as the headline and is hence a
salient entity on the package – is an imperative clause realizing a command which is pointing
directly to the reader, involving him/her.
Command, free: imperative
Kom
ind i en ny god løbevane
med Special K
‘Come’
‘into a new good habit of running’
‘with Special K’
Finite/Predicator
Adjunct
Adjunct
Material
Place
Means
Theme
Rheme
The text begins in a strongly reader-involving manner, namely with a command (i.e. a type of
challenge) but it does not lose sight of the product itself: in the command (/challenge) directed
at the reader, the product is positioned as the Means helping the reader/the consumer of
Kellogg’s Special K meet the challenge. This is a very strong position for the product, and the
first clause is an example of what we believe is skilled copy writing: at the same time, focus is
on the consumer and on the product: interpersonally speaking, Kellogg’s is setting up a
situation for the consumer (a situation that the company believes is desirable for the consumer: to be fit and live an active life), and experientially speaking Kellogg’s is positioning
its product as the consumer’s means to obtain this desirable life. This experiential construal is
elaborated in the clause following the headline:
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135
Statement, free: declarative
Special K’s Løbepit
er
genvejen til gode resultater.
‘Special K’s running pit’
‘is’
‘the short cut to good results’
Subject
Finite/Predicator
Complement
Identified
Relational>identifying
Identifier
Theme
Rheme
Here Special K’s Løbepit is identified as the one and only short cut to good results. There is
no other way, Special K’s Løbepit is not presented as one out of a number of more possible
ways to getting good results (if this was the case, it would be a participant in an attributive
relational process); it is the only way, lexicogrammatically functioning in an identifying
relational process.
The text is not just reader-involving; it is also personal, which the following clause
exemplifies:
Statement, free: declarative
I Løbepitten
kan
du
invitere
dine veninder
med på en ny
god løbevane
‘In the running pit’
‘can’
‘you’
‘invite’
‘your friends’
‘to a new good
habit of running’
Adjunct
Finite
Place
Theme
Subject
Predicator
Complement
Adjunct
Sayer
Verbal
Target
Quality
Rheme
In the clause, we find the conscious Medium du/‘you’ (Sayer), which has the form of a
personal pronoun, and we find another conscious participant, namely the Target dine
veninder/‘your friends’. The text ends with a series of directly reader-involving clauses which
emphasize its focus on the consumer:
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Command, free: imperative
Løb
regelmæssigt
‘Run’
‘regularly’
Finite/Predicator
Adjunct
Material
Quality
Theme
Rheme
Command, free: imperative
og
spis
en sund morgenmad.
‘and’
‘eat’
‘a healthy breakfast’
Con
Finite/Predicator
Complement
Material
Goal
Theme
Rheme
Minor clause: To vaner, der er gode og nemme for formerne og dit BMI. ’Two habits that are
good and easy for your bodily shapes and your BMI’.
Command, free: imperative
Start
f.eks.
dagen
med en portion Special K, fuldkornsbrød
med ost og et stykke frugt.
‘Begin’
‘e.g.’
‘the day’
‘with a serving of Special K, whole grain
bread with cheese and a piece of fruit’
Finite/Predicator
Adjunct
Material
Theme
Complement
Adjunct
Goal
Means
Rheme
Command, free: imperative
Følg op
med løb et par gange om ugen.
‘Follow up’
‘by running a couple of times a week’
Finite/Predicator
Adjunct
Material
Means
Theme
Rheme
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137
Statement, free: declarative
Det
kan
være
svært
at komme i gang,
‘It’
‘can’
‘be’
‘hard’
‘to get started’
Adjunct
Finite
Predicator
Adjunct
Subject
Relational>attributive
Attribute
Carrier
Theme
Rheme
Command, free: imperative
men
hold ud.
‘but’
‘hang in there’
Con
Finite/Predicator
Material
Theme
Command, free: imperative
Og
hold øje med
spejlet
‘And’
‘keep an eye’
‘on the mirror’
Con
Finite/Predicator
Complement
Mental>perceptive
Phenomenon
Theme
Rheme
– de gode resultater
viser sig
hurtigt.
‘the good results’
‘will show’
‘quickly’
Subject
Finite/Predicator
Adjunct
Phenomenon
Mental>perceptive
Quality
Theme
Rheme
Statement, free: declarative
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Most of the texts on our packages are not as unambiguous in their focus as the ones we have
analyzed so far. In other words: most of our texts combine different foci. An example is the
text on packing #11 (Kornkammeret Økologiske Havregryn).
This text begins with a consumption focus, setting the scene:
Glad og sund fra morgenstunden
En god dag starter med et godt og solidt morgenmåltid. Kroppen skal have tilført ny
energi – og med en god portion havregryn styrkes koncentrationen i skolen eller på
jobbet.
‘Happy and healthy from the morning
A good day starts with a good and healthy breakfast. The body must be given new
energy – and with a good serving of oatmeal concentration in school or at work is
strengthened’.
It then shifts to a product focus, telling us about the nutritious value of oatmeal:
Havregryn er sunde, fordi de har et perfekt forhold mellem kulhydrater, fedt og
proteiner.
‘Oatmeal is healthy because it has a perfect balance between carbon hydrates, fat and
proteines’.
Then it returns to a consumption focus, now with a description of different types of servings
of oatmeal:
Et frisk pift
Der er mange måder at servere en portion havregryn på. Der er klassikeren med et
drys sukker og mælk, men det er nemt og hurtigt at give grynene et frisk pift.
‘A refreshing touch
There are many ways of serving oatmeal. There is the classical way with a sprinkle
of sugar and milk, but it is easy and quick to give the grains a refreshing touch’.
And the text ends with a consumer focus, elaborating on the different ways to serve oatmeal,
now with the reader present as the one the commands are directed at:
Prøv f.eks. en portion med æbletern og grofthakkede nødder eller mandler og rosin.
Eller prøv med bananskiver og rosiner.
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139
‘Try e.g. a serving with apple cubes and coarsely chopped nuts or almonds and
raisin. Or try with slices of banana and raisins’.
So far, we have not yet had an example of producer focus; this is because this type of focus is
rare in our sample of packages. However, we find this type of focus in the text on packing #12
(da Müsli). The text is initially a story of the thoughts behind the product, the producer’s
ideas, and lexicogrammatically this story is realized in clauses with a conscious participant
and personal pronouns signifying the writer:
Statement, free: declarative (projecting)
Så
hos Finax
tænkte
vi,
‘So’
‘at Finax’
‘thought’
‘we’
Con
Adjunct
Finite/Predicator
Subject
Place
Mental>cognitive
Senser
Theme
Rheme
bound: indicative-2 (projection)
at
vi
ville
lave
en sund müsli,
‘that’
‘we’
‘would’
‘make’
‘a healthy musli’
Sub
Subject
Finite
Predicator
Complement
Material
Goal
Actor
Thema
Rhema
The producer focus in the text is not the only focus. It shifts from an initial producer focus to
a product focus at the end. In other words, there are different phases in the text, and we see
how the system of THEME plays a role as an enabling resource in bringing out these different
phases – and in the shift from one focus to the other: In the first clauses, the Theme is
signifying the producer, while Theme in the last clause of the text signifies the product:
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Systemic Functional Linguistics in Use, OWPLC 29, 2008
Statement, free: declarative
En portion da Müsli
giver
viktige kostfibre, vitaminer og mineraler.
‘A serving of da Müsli’
‘gives’
‘important fibres, vitamins and minerals’
Subject
Finite/Predicator
Complement
Actor
Material
Goal
Theme
Rheme
In other words, the story changes from being a story about the producer’s idea to being a
statement of what the product gives (to the consumer).
7. Coda
The point of departure of our pilot study has been a rather small corpus of 14 different
packages containing cereals, and therefore our results are to be read as a preliminary
examination of the multimodal semiotic meaning making on packing. We have chosen to let
the empirical base influence our research design, which may in some respect make it
somewhat methodologically incoherent. However, we hope it is evident that our study
brought about a number of interesting insights:
1. Methodologically, we have illustrated how a multimodal study concentrating on both
verbal and visual meaning may be conducted
2. Descriptively, we have provided a sketchy outline for a register description of cereal
packing
Hopefully, these insights can be used in an application perspective, e.g. when planning the
semiosis on packages. This perspective, however, will need further work.
Bon appetit!
Thomas Hestbæk Andersen, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Insitute of Language and Communication
University of Southern Denmark
[email protected]
Morten Boeriis, Ph.D.-student
Insitute of Language and Communication
University of Southern Denmark
[email protected]
Systemic Functional Linguistics in Use, OWPLC 29, 2008
141
Notes
1
This paper presents our findings as of July 2007 (: the time of the 34th ISFC). We have since conducted more
work on our description of a multimodal approach to the analysis of packings, and the results from this work will
be presented on a later occasion.
2
This corresponds to the usage of Kellogg’s as part of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.
3
In imperative clauses, the participant is often implicit, but nevertheless the clause involves a conscious being.
Halliday & Matthiessen state, that ”Since the imperative is the mood for exchanging goods-&-services, its
Subject [and thereby the participant involved, our note] is ‘you’ or ‘me’ or ‘you and me’” (2004: 138).
4
Cf. the distinction between operative and receptive voice in Halliday and Matthiessen 2004: 297.
5
‘Writer’ and ‘reader’ in lack of better terms – it should be emphasized that we do not see communication as a
simple act of transmitting a message but as a dialogical act (cf. Halliday & Matthiessen 2004: 106-107).
6
‘Construes’ for the experiential metafunction and ‘enacts’ for the interpersonal metafunction (cf. Matthiessen
2002: 59).
7
Cf. the system for INDICATIVE STRUCTURE in Danish; see e.g. Andersen & Smedegaard 2005: 57-60.
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References
Andersen, Thomas Hestbæk & Flemming Smedegaard (2005). Hvad er meningen? Odense:
Syddansk Universitetsforlag.
Baldry, Anthony & Paul J. Thibault (2006). Multimodal Transcription and Text Analysis.
London: Equinox.
Diderichsen, Paul (1957). Elementær Dansk Grammatik. København: Gyldendal. (2nd ed.).
Halliday, M.A.K. (1978). Language as Social Semiotic. London: Arnold.
Halliday, M.A.K. (1993). “On the Language of Physical Science” in M.A.K Halliday & J.R.
Martin Writing Science: Literacy and Discursive Power. London: The Falmer
Press: 69-85.
Halliday (1996). “‘Introduction’, Language as social semiotics: the social interpretation of
language and meaning” in Paul Cobley (ed.) The Communication Theory
Reader. London: Routledge: 88-93.
Halliday, M.A.K & Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen (1999). Construing Experience through
Meaning. London: Cassell.
Halliday, M.A.K & Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen (2004). An Introduction to Functional
Grammar. London: Arnold. (3rd ed.).
Kress, Gunther & Theo van Leeuwen (2006). Reading Imagese – The grammar of visual
design. London: Routledge. (2nd ed.).
Van Leeuwen, Theo (2005). Introducing Social Semiotics. London: Routledge.
Matthiessen, Christian M.I.M (2002). “The architecture of grammar” according to the
systemic functional theory of language. Sydney: Macquarie University.
Norris, Sigrid (2004). Analyzing Multimodal Interaction – A methodological framework. New
York & London: Routledge.
We wish to thank the following for kindly allowing us to include visual images of their
products in this article:
Anne-Mette Wolff Hansen, Kellogg’s Forbrugerservice
Benedicte Flamand, Nestlé Danmark A/S
Claus Hansen, Dansk Supermarked Indkøb
Martina Pettersson, Finax AB
Michael Bjørn Rasmussen, Valora Trade Denmark A/S
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Appendix
#1
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#2
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#3
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#4
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#5
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#6
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#7
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#8
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#9
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#10
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#11
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#12
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#13
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#14
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#15
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