Chapter 3: Conceptual Representations

This chapter basically deals with conceptual representations, which, unlike narrative representations, concentrate on presenting relatively stable attributes of objects, events or situations (participants). The writer divides such representations into “classificational,” “analytic,” and “symbolic” processes.
Classification refers to the presentation of participants in terms of a class. All the objects or people belong to the same class in terms of certain characteristics. They are of same kind. Classification is often shown through the use of tree structure. The main item comes at the top and that is divided into subclasses, and that is further categorized into smaller classes. For instance, we can see any organizational structure.
“Analytical processes relate participants in terms of part-whole structure.” There one participant stands for the whole and the others are its parts. If we compare it to language, we can say that it conforms to descriptive kind of writing where we find a certain object described in terms of its parts and individual attributes. Analytical representation allows us to scrutinize the participants in terms of their possessive attributes.
Another process is symbolic. “Symbolic processes are about what a participant means or is.” It can be of two types: symbolic attributive and symbolic suggestive. In the first one there are two participants, one carrier and the other related to it. In the second one there is only one participant.

Narrative Representations

I found the chapter very interesting. It is wonderful in its theoretical proposition and practical information. As a beginner in visual communication, I found the interpretation of the certain shapes representing movement and certain characteristics very useful for me to understand images. I was not able to see image in terms of broader organization before reading this chapter. The idea that the image does not merely reflect but manipulates reality is what this books shares with the other book we have read. The interpretation of the encounter between the whites and the Aboriginals made me see picture in terms of the basic shapes.