This article explores construction discourses as they appear in the
professional fields of architecture and design engineering, as well as in
hobby magazines; its focus is the semiotic and mediated realization of
knowledge. How does the semiotic specialization found in industrial
construction drawings relate to the way knowledge is constructed within
the professional and academic construction field? In what ways is the
popular discourse about construction related to the professional one? In an
attempt to answer these questions, the written and visual modes in two
industrial drawings and three magazines are analysed using social semiotic
methods. In the industrial drawings, the visual is shown in a very
conventional way, expressing meaning exactly and systematically; these
texts are usually monomodal, with the written text playing a very restricted
role. In the magazine drawings, the visual resource is used in a much less
conventional way, with the coding orientation varying between a more
abstract, scientific orientation and a naturalistic, life-world oriented one.
These unstable visual conventions require written language for clarification,
which gives the writing a dominant role. The article argues that professional
construction discourse is less text-mediated and more action-mediated
than popular discourse that heavily relies upon written language. |