Perception of Violence in Multimodal Text: Cross-Disciplinary Approach

Abstract

The article deals with the linguistic and psychological concepts explaining the perception of multimodal texts that imply information about violence. The importance of the subject is verified by the task of countering the spread of ideologies of violence, extremism, and terrorism in Internet communication. The multimodal text is considered a popular means of propagating radical ideas relating to incitement to social discord. The absence of complex models explaining the transmission of violence through multimodal texts is observed. It is shown that linguistic and psychological concepts can be relevant resources for building such a model. The purpose of the article is to generalize concepts in the form of intra- and extralinguistic factors that determine the perception of information about violence in a multimodal text. The generalization of cognitive linguistic theories into the group of intralinguistic factors is complemented by the conclusion that the semantic structure of a multimodal text is formed by visual, sign, and verbal coding systems; the perception of information about violence is determined by the typicality of linguistic means and the presence of logical and semantic links between the elements of a multimodal text. The conclusion is made about the influence of aggressiveness, personal attitude toward violence, and the experience of using violence on the perception of multimodal information about violence by the reader. The article may be interesting to linguists, psychologists, and a wide range of researchers in the field of humanities and humanities-related social sciences.

Keywords

• multimodal text
• multimodality
• violence
• extremism
• structural semiotics
• cognitive linguistics
• psycholinguistics
• eye-tracking
• reader personality
• perception