Abstract
The distinction between words and pictures is approached via Nelson Goodman’s theories about symbol systems and notations, denotation and exemplification. It is argued that his attempt to draw a purely syntactic distinction fails. An attempt is made to reconcile Goodman with a notion of pictures as based on interest-relative structure-mappings. Comparisons are drawn between e.g. Goodman’s concept of “repleteness” and the “systematicity” of structural mappings.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Lee, J. (1997) Similarity and Depiction. In Proceedings of the Interdisciplinary Workshop on Similarity and Categorisation (SimCat ‘87), M. Ramscar and U. Hahn (eds.) Dept. of Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh.
Goodman, N. (1969) Languages of Art. Oxford University Press.
Goodman, N. & Elgin, C.Z. (1988) Reconceptions in Philosophy and Other Arts and Sciences. Routledge.
Elkins, J. (1993) What really happens in pictures: misreading with Goodman. Word and Image 9:4, 349–362.
Scholz, O. (1993) When is a picture? Synthese 95:1, 95–106.
Elgin, C.Z. (1993) Outstanding problems. Synthese 95:1, 129–140.
Schier, F. (1986) Deeper into Pictures. Cambridge University Press.
Gurr, C. (1998) On the Isomorphism, or Lack of it, of Representations. In Theories of Visual Languages, K. Marriot and B. Meyer eds. 288–301, Springer-Verlag.
Gurr, C., Lee, J. and Stenning, K. (1998, in press) Theories of diagrammatic reasoning: distinguishing component problems. Minds and Machines.
Petre, M. and Green, T.R.G. (1992) Requirements of graphical notations for professional users: electronics CAD systems as a case study. Le Travail Humain 55, 47–70.
Haiman, J. (1985) Iconicity in Syntax (ed.). John Benjamin.
Lee, J. and Stenning, K. (1998) Anaphora in Multimodal Discourse. In Multimodal Human-Computer Communication, Harry Bunt, Robbert-Jan Beun, Tijn Borghuis eds. 250–263 Springer-Verlag.
Files, C. (1996) Goodman’s rejection of resemblance. British Journal of Aesthetics 36:4, 398–412.
Bull, M. (1994) Scheming schemata. British Journal of Aesthetics 34:3, 207–217.
Elgin, C.Z. (1991) Sign, symbol and system. Journal of Aesthetic Education 25:1, 11–21.
Elgin, C.Z. (1983) With reference to reference. Hackett Publishing Co.
Oberlander, J. (1996) Grice for graphics: pragmatic implicature in network diagrams. Information Design Journal 8:2, 163–179.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1999 Springer-Verlag London
About this paper
Cite this paper
Lee, J.R. (1999). Words and Pictures — Goodman Revisited. In: Paton, R., Neilson, I. (eds) Visual Representations and Interpretations. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0563-3_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0563-3_3
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-85233-082-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-0563-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive