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DOI: 10.1080/10862969009547707
1990 22: 203 Journal of Literacy Research
Joanne M. Golden and Annyce Gerber
A Semiotic Perspective of Text: The Picture Story Book Event

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Journal of Reading Behavior
1990, Volume XXII, No. 3
A SEMIOTIC PERSPECTIVE OF TEXT:
THE PICTURE STORY BOOK EVENT
Joanne M. Golden
University of Delaware
Annyce Gerber
Indian Oasis Baboquivari School District, Sells, Arizona
ABSTRACT
The focus of this paper is on the exploration of the nature of the picture story book
event from a semiotic perspective. One purpose of the study was to examine how
pictures and words relate in picture books. A second purpose was to explore how
one picture story book was constructed during teacher-student-text interaction in a
second-grade classroom. The classroom event involved an oral reading and discus-
sion of the text, interpretations of the main character's traits, letters to the author,
and illustrations of dream worlds. The picture book was viewed as a potential text
in terms of verbal, visual, and performance cues and as a realized text in terms of
students' interpretations. The inquiry illustrates the value of semiotic theory for
providing insights into the nature of text and text events.
Text is a term which evokes various meanings reflecting particular disciplinary
perspectives. Text has been represented in cognitive psychology as the author's
propositions, in ethnopoetics as the union of story and performance, in social
semiotics as a social exchange of meanings, in poststructuralist theory as productiv-
ity, and so forth. For others, including some deconstructionists, the text is illusory,
everywhere yet nowhere fully present. The picture story book for children offers an
interesting case for illuminating dimensions of text. This is evident for at least two
reasons. First, contributions of the visual and verbal in the picture book result in a
"great efficiency in communicating meaning . . . high semantic or semiotic capac-
ity" (Landes, 1987, p. 320). Second, books for young children both historically
and currently are illustrated (Nodelman, 1988). Thus, they merit close examination
203
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204 Journal of Reading Behavior
because they provide children with an introduction to and foundation for written
narratives.
In the picture story book, the potential sign, the network of cue systems avail-
able to the reader/listener, is characterized by dual sign systems of verbal language
and the language of the image. Author and illustrator (who may or may not be
synonymous) contribute verbal and visual cues which interconnect in various ways
to convey story information. Because the picture book is often read by an adult to a
child who is in the process of acquiring skills for constructing texts, the adult's
rendition of the written text provides another type of cue which guides the child
listener. The reader/performer interprets the text through a variety of paralinguistic,
kinesic, and proxemic cues reflecting his or her own interpretation of the text for a
particular audience.
Thus, performed text integrates the reader's oral text, the author's written text,
and the illustrator's visual text. From this view, the narrow conception of text as
author's text is thus extended into the sphere of the social context of the reading
event where the text is a display of author's, illustrator's, and performer's cues.
Another dimension of the event is the adult's mediation of the text expressed in the
talk about text that may accompany the reading of the story, such as asking ques-
tions and/or commenting on certain aspects of the book. To a great degree, picture
books are performed texts which function to acculturate children to literacy as well
as to entertain them. Thus, the picture story book event with its multiple, intersect-
ing symbol systems can provide insights into the nature of texts and the processes
related to literacy acquisition.
The purpose of the present paper is to examine the nature of the picture story
book symbol. More specifically, one goal is to consider the symbol of the picture
book and the ways in which words and pictures relate. A second goal is to explore
potential and realized signs by analyzing how a picture book symbol is transformed
during teacher-student-text interaction in a second-grade classroom. Theoretical
constructs from semiotic theory which contribute to the exploration of text events
frame the present inquiry. These constructs are discussed in the following section.
SEMIOTIC THEORY
Central to the process of semiosis is the triadic relationship involving the sign,
the interpretant, and the object. A sign is defined by Peirce (1955) as "something
which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity" (p. 99). In
the mind of the interpreter the sign generates an equivalent sign, the interpretant,
which stands for an object. The object in Peirce's view is not a concrete thing, but
rather a "sort of idea" (p. 99). When the triadic relation is applied to the narrative
symbol, the sign encompasses the textual cues which guide the reader in construct-
ing an interpretant, a particular story world. The object or idea of the sign is the
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A Semiotic Perspective of Text 205
sequence of events to which the story world refers (Scholes, 1982). In a fictional
narrative, such as Potter's (1902) The Tale of Peter Rabbit, the story events refer to
themselves rather than to a series of events which actually occurred. In non-fictional
narratives, such as historical accounts and biographies, the sequence of events
constructed by the reader refers to actual events.
An important dimension of the triadic relation is the notion of the sign as
generative in that it spawns a series of other signs which, in turn, function as signs.
Peirce (1955) characterized this process in the following way: "in use and in
experience, its [a sign's] meaning grows" [and] "lives in the minds of those who
use it" (p. 115). This conception of the symbol is echoed in Ingarden's (1973)
depiction of the symbol of the literary work as a "living being" (p. 344) with
different phases in its life. The picture book narrative, composed by an author and
illustrator, functions as a symbol which grows in the minds of the respondents in
different contexts. The equivalent sign created in the mind of the audience is an
interpretant which also functions as a symbol (Peirce, 1955). The symbol can grow
in the mind of the same reader over various readings as well as in the minds of
different readers. If the symbol occurs in a social process, other readers can in-
fluence the development of the interpretant. A picture book narrative, then, has the
potential of generating multiple interpretations depending upon what the symbol
offers, what the reader brings, and how the text is mediated by participants in a
social context.
A second construct from semiotic theory that contributes to the understanding
of the picture book sign is the relation of the sign to its object. According to Peirce
(1955), there are three kinds of signs which relate to the object in different ways: the
icon, the index, and the symbol. The iconic sign refers to objects it denotes primar-
ily by similarity. The portrait of a man, for example, is a resemblance or likeness.
The indexical sign shares an existential relation to an object, having a quality in
common with the object. The sign is modified by the object rather than resembling
it. The position of a weathercock, for example, indicates the direction of the wind.
Sundials and demonstrative pronouns are also indexical signs. The symbol refers to
an object by a law, general ideas representing a general object. Words, sentences,
and books exemplify symbols which denote a kind of thing. The word bird, for
example, evokes the idea of a bird rather than the actual object. Wollen (1969) has
argued that the triadic relations are necessary in the consideration of the aesthetic
richness of cinema. According to Wollen, although the iconic and indexical signs of
cinema are the most powerful and the symbol signs are limited and secondary in
film, all three are co-present and important signs of the cinema. The symbol con-
veys conceptual meaning, the icon, pictorial beauty, and the index, documentary
truth (Wollen, 1969).
The same observations apply to the picture story book though it can be argued
that the symbol has a more predominant role in at least some picture story books.
Verbal language reflecting the symbol is integrated with the iconic signs present in
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206 Journal of Reading Behavior
the illustrations. Iconic signs are arranged linearly to reflect the sequence of the
narrative. Together words and pictures convey the story. Although iconic aspects
are predominant in illustrations and symbols in the verbal language, each may
represent other dimensions of signs. In Ezra Jack Keats' (1962) The Snowy Day, for
example, the text describes Peter's feet as "pointing out, like this" and "in, like
that" (unpaged) as he makes tracks in the snow, relaying the indexical nature of
demonstrative pronouns. The photographic images in George Mendoza's (1969)
And I Must Hurry for the Sea is Coming In relate the imaginative play of a boy in an
urban ghetto, suggesting the existential bond or the indexical relation between the
natural world and the image. Onomatopoeia, such as the "scr-r-ritch, scratch,
scratch, scritch" of Mr. MacGregor's hoe in The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Potter,
1902, p. 49), represents iconic aspects of language. The fox, who is not referred to
in the text, is a symbol of the villain in the illustrations of Pat Hutchins' (1968)
Rosie's Walk. The picture story book thus represents a marriage of the predomi-
nantly symbol signs of words with the predominantly iconic signs of illustrations,
with both words and illustrations reflecting triadic relations of their own.
A third aspect of semiotics concerns the process of semiosis which occurs in a
social context. To capture the picture book symbol as it unfolds in a social context
with child listeners and adult mediators, Morris' (1964) view of semiosis as a five-
part relation provides a framework. Morris expanded Peirce's triadic relation by
formulating how the sign-interpretant-object relations appear in context. He posited
a five-part relation: "in which v sets up in w the disposition to react in a certain kind
of way, x, to a certain kind of object, y (not then acting as a stimulus), under certain
conditions, z " (p. 2). In a picture book reading event, the v is the picture book
(sign), the w' s are the listeners and mediators (interpreters), the x's are the mental
representations of the sign (interpretants), the y's are the general objects
(significations), and the z' s are the home, school, or library settings (contexts) in
which the event occurs. This view of the process of semiosis captures picture books
as text events in context (Golden, 1989).
Morris (1964) differed from Peirce in characterizing the interpretant in behav-
ioral terms as "the disposition to react in a certain kind of way because of the sign"
(p. 178). Thus, behavior in this sense is observable and open to objective study. The
behavioral perspective, however, limits the interpretant by not capturing other ways
of depicting interpretants. The power of the five-term relation, if Peirce's view of
the interpretant is maintained, is the inclusion of context. A sign is not only viewed
in terms of its grammatical and logical structures but also'in terms of its pragmatic
structure. Pragmatics, according to Morris (1938), is the relation of signs to their
interpreters and concerns the psychological, biological, and sociological conditions
influencing the usage of signs. The interpreter brings a set of expectations of sign
usage to particular situations. A similar conception has been explored by cognitive
psychologists in terms of the schemata readers bring to the interpretation of events
(e.g., Ruddell & Haggard, 1985). The notion of the effects and usages of signs
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A Semiotic Perspective of Text 207
within the context in which they occur is central to the examination of semiotic
events in classrooms.
THE PICTURE BOOK SYMBOL: THE POTENTIAL SIGN
In considering the picture book symbol, we can first foreground the sign in the
triadic relation. The sign is, in part, the string of textual cues which guide the reader
in constructing the interpretant. In this view, the sign is connected to the ground or
grammar which enables it to mean (Peirce, 1955). The grammar of the picture book
is reflected in the arrangement of words (symbols) and images (icons). When the
picture book is read to children, oral performance and instructional cues are woven
together, thereby creating a multi-layered system of intersecting cues. Cues which
contribute to the ground of the sign are discussed below.
Verbal-Visual Cues
The picture story book as a potential sign conveys a narrative through verbal
language (symbol) and illustration (icon). The respondent is engaged in a dual
process. The respondent transforms the black ink marks (or sounds) in the surface
plane of the text into various textual perspectives of the narrative (e.g., character,
narrator, plot, reader in the text) by identifying, combining, and predicting informa-
tion as well as by filling in the gaps of the unwritten text (Iser, 1978). In addition,
the respondent transforms the marks on the illustrated page into narrative images by
engaging in similar processes identified above. In this sense, we read the painting as
well as the poem (Goodman, 1968). Two dots and a line become the eyes and
mouths of the 12 little girls in Ludwig Bemelmans' (1953) Madeleine's Rescue. A
shape of green meets a shape of blue to suggest a mountain and a lake in Uri
Shulevitz's (1974) Dawn. Smudges of black against white evoke an image of a herd
of buffaloes in GammelPs illustrations of Baker's (1981) Where the Buffaloes
Begin. Thus, in constructing the image as beholders of art, according to Gombrich
(1969), we are "watching our imagination come into play, transforming the medley
of color into a finished page" (p. 199).
In a picture book narrative, it is the relationship between the picture and the
words that constitutes the narrative. The picture book is a unique kind of symbol in
that meaning is generated simultaneously from verbal and visual cues in a particular
kind of relationship. Verbal and visual cues provide what Barthes (1977) termed as
a relay function with each system complementing the other. Words and image thus
contribute to a "unity of message" (p. 41) at the story level. In Potter's (1902) The
Tale of Peter Rabbit, for example, the text describes Peter looking for parsley to
settle his queasy stomach: "And then, feeling rather sick, he went to look for some
parsley" (p. 22). The illustration, on the opposite page shows Peter holding his
stomach, drooping facial features, shaky posture, and ears pointed straight upward.
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208 Journal of Reading Behavior
In this sense, the picture functions as an interpretant of the words and the words
serve as an interpretant of the picture. The information in the text does not, how-
ever, always represent such a close correspondence. In Sendak's (1963) Where the
Wild Things Are, the mother referred to in the text does not appear in the illustra-
tions and the antics of the "wild rumpus" (unpaged) are depicted solely in the
illustrations. This suggests that the artist does more than reflect the text, he or she is
an interpreter of the text (Marantz, 1977).
Text conveys literal and symbolic meanings as does image so the reader/listener
is presented with more than one signified in text and image. The text, to some extent
serves to anchor the image, as Barthes (1977) contended, in order to reduce the
range of significations. The multiple visual stimuli of colors and shapes in
Wildsmith's (1971) The Owl and the Woodpecker are anchored by the text which
relates "a great storm shook the forest" and the owl's tree began to "sway and
fall" (unpaged). Similarly, it could be argued that the illustrations can anchor the
text by reducing the signifieds. In Preston's (1974) Squawk to the Moon, Little
Goose, the text describes the fox seeing "a cheese as big as the moon" (unpaged) in
the pond. The illustration by Cooney indicates the reflection of the moon in the
water which the fox believes is cheese.
Although it is conceivable that in some picture books, a story could be told
either through the text or the pictures, it would not be the same story told when both
systems work together to create the sign. Individually, words and pictures are
fragments of a larger syntagm (Barthes, 1977). The relationship between words and
image varies depending upon the author and illustrator. In some picture books,
images convey a major portion of the narrative and in wordless books, the entire
narrative is conveyed through the ordered sequence of pictures as in Hutchins'
(1971) Changes, Changes. In other books, the text assumes a more prominent role
and illustrations function to interpret selected aspects of the text as in some illus-
trated folktales such as Grimm and Grimm's (1972) Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs illustrated by Burkert. The words convey a number of details regarding the
story events while the pictures reflect selected scenes such as Snow White running
through the forest, the chamber of the stepmother, and so forth.
Oral Performance Cues
When the picture story book sign is embedded in a social event, other cue,s for
interpreting the story are available to the listener. In many situations the young child
hears a story read aloud by an adult. In this process, various interpretations of story
are provided through auditory and visual channels of the performance. Auditory
cues include intonation, stress, pausing, voice quality, and rhythm, among other
cues, which influence how the story is conveyed. Golden (in press) compared two
recordings of a tale by Hans Christian Andersen and found that differences between
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A Semiotic Perspective of Text 209
the performers in the use of auditory cues affected how the story, particularly the
characters, was interpreted. In one rendition, the shepherdess appeared as a petu-
lant, spoiled child, whereas in the other as a fragile and naive figure. The actual
words were similar in both versions, yet the intonation patterns, pausing, and stress
influenced how the characters were presented and how the listener empathized with
the characters.
The performer may also employ facial expressions which add to interpretations
such as a frown accompanying reading about a particular character's action or a
fearful expression to enhance suspense. Fine's (1984) analysis of an oral telling of a
written version of the tale Stagolee revealed how the written text was transformed
during performance. This transformation was reflected in the style of language,
characterization, and tone, indicating the interaction between word, voice, and
body. In addition, there is the consideration of proxemics which affects how the
story unfolds. A parent and child in a lap reading event share a different degree of
intimacy than the teacher who reads to a group of children seated at their desks in a
classroom. Thus, through the use of paralinguistic, kinesic, andproxemic cues, the
adult reader constructs an interpretant of the sign which is displayed to the child
along with author's and illustrator's cues.
Bauman's (1986) notion of the story as verbal art performance is central here.
A literary critic's focus on the author's text and an anthropologist's emphasis on the
event do not fully account for the story. When a story is performed (read or told),
the story is a combination of the author's words, the illustrator's images, and the
speaker/reader's nonverbal cues. The child listener is thus presented with multiple
cue systems for interpreting the story which include the words of the text, the
illustrations, and the nonverbal cues of the performer.
Instructional Cues
A picture book reading event as a performance event shares similar features
with a traditional storytelling performance as noted above. There are, however,
differences between the events which relate to the mediating role of the adult in the
story reading event. In some reading events, the adult will provide what Bruner
(1983) labeled as "scaffolding" or talk about the text (p. 133). The adult may draw
the child's attention to certain aspects of the text, such as labelling the picture,
connecting pictures to real life objects, and so forth. In other instances, adults may
focus the child on aspects of print and/or story. In these ways, the adult is establish-
ing the "contracts of literacy" (Snow & Ninio, 1986, p. 119). Eventually, this
external scaffolding by the adult is assumed by the child who engages in construct-
ing an internal scaffolding of the text. After subsequent experiences with a text, the
child gradually approximates both the adult's interaction with the text and the
author's text. Some children internalize the written text to such an extent that they
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210 Journal of Reading Behavior
memorize it through listening, prior to acquiring the ability to match up the story
told with the story written.
In addition to talk about the text, the adult may also modify the author's actual
text during the interaction by word changes, omission of text segments, and elab-
oration of text, thereby utilizing the author's text as a springboard for labelling
pictures rather than processing stories especially with younger children. In this way,
the mediator has rewritten the author's text and altered its story function to accom-
modate his or her purpose. It should be noted, however, that not all parents scaffold
the text and for those that do, there is variance in how they do it. Some observers
suggest that some ways of scaffolding are more consistent with schooling experi-
ences than others.
Moreover, some research has suggested that adults' structured interactions with
books reflect both individual styles (e.g., Martinez & Teale, 1989) and community-
cultural patterns (e.g., Heath, 1983; Wells, 1986). The way in which stories are
scaffolded can influence how children engage in story discourse. Preliminary re-
search findings, for example, indicate that scaffolding can affect children's compre-
hension of stories (e.g., Green, Harker, & Golden, 1987). Teachers influence the
formulation of the interpretant by signaling different aspects of a story which they
deem as important in constructing texts such as plot events, characters' reactions,
etc. As teachers and parents establish the "rules for reading" (Snow & Ninio,
1986, p. 119), they signal what they think is important about the narrative itself
(e.g., events, characters) and the function of narrative (e.g., as a vehicle for teach-
ing reading or concepts, as an aesthetic experience). The child constructs meaning
guided by the expectations governing the event; that is, what is projected as success-
ful behavior, what conventions are necessary for engaging in story discourse, and so
forth.
The extent of the adult's influence on the child's approach to subsequent
stories, however, is open to question. In some instances, schooling processes result
in the legitimization of some interpretations over others as Eagleton (1983) sug-
gested, as well as the fostering of particular ways of interacting with texts. When
reading stories occurs in the classroom setting, there is also the influence of other
peers if they are allowed to share responses (sometimes the group shapes the
individual's interpretations; at other times the individuals are not influenced by
these interpretations). Readers' interactions with texts are therefore affected by the
teacher's recognition of the multiple interpretive possibilities of the symbol and the
role of interpretations in constructing meaning.
Thus far, the picture book has been examined in terms of grammatical cues
which can influence the child's construction of the picture book narrative. These
cues constitute the potential sign. In the next section, the focus is on the exploration
of how multiple cue systems are at work during a picture book event in one
classroom, thereby addressing the realized sign or the interpretant.
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A Semiotic Perspective of Text 211
A PICTURE STORY BOOK READING EVENT: THE REALIZED SIGN
The picture story book discussed here was constructed in a second-grade class-
room comprised of 24 Native American children in a public school on a reservation
in the western United States. The event was one in a series of literary experiences
the children participated in during the course of the school year and was chosen to
illustrate how semiotic theory can be applied to such events. In this particular event,
the teacher wanted the children to focus on the literary element of character and on
visual imagery (Golden, Gerber, & Lewis, 1989). As the picture book evolved from
the potential to a realized sign, it progressed through a series of four phases: (a)
listening to the story read aloud, (b) exploring the traits of the character, (c) writing
a letter to the author, and (d) visualizing a personal dream world. Since a primary
goal of this inquiry was to examine the nature of the picture book symbol, the
emphasis of this discussion is on the multiple cue systems operating in the first
phase of the event, though the other phases will be addressed.
Phase 1
Phases of the picture book event can be captured in terms of Morris's (1964)
description of the process of semiosis as a five-part relation. In Phase 1, the picture
book sign, Sendak's (1963) Where the Wild Things Are, provided verbal and visual
cues for constructing the narrative of a character's journey to the land of the wild
things. Accompanying these cues were the teacher's oral performance and instruc-
tional cues. The students as interpreters constructed an interpretant of the sign
which was partially visible to the observer in terms of their articulated responses.
The signification reflected the events in the character's (Max's) life since events in
fiction refer to themselves rather than to actual occurrences. The context was a
second-grade classroom on a reservation. Phase 1 of the event is represented in
Morris's terms in Table 1.
In order to examine this phase more fully, cue systems of the picture book sign
are considered. As noted previously, the students experienced the story by hearing
the teacher's performance of the author's words while viewing his illustrations. At
various points, the teacher or a child offered comments or questions about the text
as the story unfolded. Two segments, one at the beginning and one in the middle of
the story, are employed to illustrate the display of author-illustrator, performance,
and instructional cues. The author-illustrator's cues are examined first.
In the first segment of the narrative, the words appear on the left page: "The
night Max wore his wolf suit and made mi schi ef. . . " (unpaged). On the opposite
page in a centered frame bordered by white spaces, Max is pictured in a wolf suit
with a scowl on his face conveyed by a down-turned line for his mouth and upturned
eyebrows. He is standing on books, hammering the end of a rope of knotted sheets
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212 Journal of Reading Behavior
Table 1
Phase 1 of the Picture Book Event
Sign
Picture book
(author-illus-
trator's ver-
bal-visual cues;
teacher's per-
formance-in-
structional
cues)
Interpreters
Students
Teacher
Interpretant
Students' tacit
and articulated
construction of
text during
group reading
Signification
Events in the
character's
life
Context
2nd grade class-
room in a
public, reser-
vation school
with a large nail. A big hole in the wall suggests the damage to the plaster. A stuffed
animal hangs by its arm from a coat hanger on the rope. A blanket is thrown over
the rope with a stool underneath. Words and picture function as a relay system in
which story information is enhanced by utilizing both image and language. The
word mischief is delineated by the illustration which examplifies it. The costume
Max is wearing in the picture is clarified in the language as a wolf suit. In this way,
words function as an interpretant for images and images serve as an interpretant for
words.
On the following page, the words "and another" (unpaged) are presented on
the left page. On the opposite page, the framed picture is enlarged. Max, with an
ornery look on his face, is leaping off the stairs, holding a fork extended over his
head. A dog is running from him. There is a picture of a monster with sharp teeth
and a horn drawn by Max hanging on the wall by the stairs. Again, the picture
exemplifies the word mischief by portraying Max's actions.
Following this illustration, the words, again on the left page read: "his mother
called him 'WILD THING!' and Max said 'I'LL EAT YOU UP' so he was sent to
bed without eating anything" (unpaged). In this case, the print is capitalized to
stress the conflict between the mother and son and to convey the anger that Max felt.
The mother's goal of punishing him for his outburst is implied by Max's banishment
to his room. In the illustration on the opposite page, which is larger than the
previous illustrations, Max is in his bedroom looking back toward the closed door
with an angry expression, depicted by a down-turned line for his mouth and fur-
rowed eyebrows. His hand is positioned on his hip to convey anger. In his room, a
moon is pictured through the shutters of an open window. It is possible to infer from
the pictures alone that Max is making mischief and consequently is sent to his room.
But this information, anchored by the words, specifies the conflict between mother
and child and Max's state of anger. The illustrations function in a similar way by
providing information and by adding connotations of the character.
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A Semiotic Perspective of Text 213
When the teacher read the author's words discussed above, she interpreted
them through stress, pausing, volume, and intonation patterns (only the auditory
channel cues are noted). These oral performance patterns are evident in the follow-
ing representation in which stressed words are capitalized, pauses occur at the end
of a line, raised voice through rising letters, and elongated words through dashes
(Golden, 1989).
The night MAX wore his WOLF suit and made MISCHIEF of ONE KIND
(child: "of a kind")
And another (soft tone)
(child: responds inaudibly)
His mother called him WILD thing
and MAX said
I LL eat you up
and so he went to bed withOUT
eating ANYthing
The teacher emphasized through stress patterns, certain words such as Max, wolf,
mischief, one kind, wild, I'll, out and any, thus highlighting key aspects of the
narrative. I'll was elongated, conveying a sense of Max's angry mood. Pausing
patterns were at times an artifact of the break-up of the text (i.e., one sentence
continues over several pages) and at other times for effect such as in the pause
between Max said and /' // eat you up. The teacher did not interject talk about the
text though two children did. In one case, a child repeated of a kind after the teacher
read one kind. This repetition of the author's language was apparent in other
instances. In another case, the child's response was inaudible.
In the first page of the book, the author's words "mischief of one kind"
(unpaged) are delineated in the illustration, depicting Max in a particular mood
engaging in one kind of mischief. Similarly, the teacher stressed the words mischief
and one kind and the child repeated of a kind. The illustration accompanying the
second page of text depicts another kind of mischief with the teacher stressing the
second syllable in another. On the next pages, the print is capitalized for "WILD
THING" and "I' LL EAT YOU UP" (unpaged) which emphasizes the emotional
flare-up that occurred between Max and his mother. The illustration shows Max
glaring angrily in the direction of his mother, providing another representation of
the character's state. The teacher stressed words pertaining to the character such as
wild, Max, and I'll, accentuating his rebellious mood and desire to be in control.
Although patterns may be identified in story reading events, one phase in the
event is not always equivalent to another. A subsequent segment in which the wild
things respond to Max's arrival contrast with the beginning of the text, particularly
in terms of the teacher's mediation. In this text segment, the author's words are:
"and in and out of weeks and almost over a year to where the wild things are"
(unpaged). These words appear on the left-hand page, but the corresponding illus-
tration fills the entire opposite page and part of the page where the words appear.
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214 Journal of Reading Behavior
Thus, as Max's imagination grows, the illustrations assume a more prominent role
in the story. Max is pictured in his wolf suit in a sail boat facing a wild thing. His
former scowl is replaced by a look of uncertainty conveyed in the less rigid line of
his mouth and eyebrows. His arm is raised and extended to reflect momentary pause
at seeing the monster.
On the next page, the author's words and the illustrations are presented in a
double-page spread with the words appearing at the bottom of the page, like a
caption: "And when he came to the place where the wild things are they roared their
terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth" (unpaged). The words continue at the
bottom of the opposite page: "and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible
claws" (unpaged). The illustration depicts Max having recovered his command of
the situation shown by the scowl on his face, hand on one hip, and other arm over
the edge of the boat, facing the wild things. The words wild thing uttered by Max's
mother have now taken shape in the visual representation of creatures, not unlike
Max's drawing of a monster, who are large-sized, half animal-half monster, charac-
terized by sharp teeth, furry-scaly hides, sharp claws, and horns.
The teacher performed and mediated this phase of the story in the following
way.
And in and out of WEEKS
and almost OVER a year
to where the WILD things are (hushed tone)
T: Can you make some noises you think he might hear?
S: Yeah (whisper)
And when he CAME to the place where the
wild things are, they ROARED their tor-TERRIBLE roars
T: Let me hear your terrible roars.
S: roaring sounds
T: Oh, that doesn't sound like very many wild things are even there. Where are all
the wild things? Let me hear you.
S: asleep
S: asleep
T: Let me hear you.
S: louder roaring sounds
T: We have some wild things in here.
In this process, the teacher invited children to take on the behaviors of some of the
characters by enacting what the words conveyed. Students' responses in this way
functioned, like the illustrator's with the word mischief, to interpret the words
terrible roar through sounds.
In the first part of the segment, the words relate to the setting both in terms of
time and place"almost over a year to where . . . . " (unpaged). In the illustra-
tions, Max has already arrived at the place, indicated by the wild thing in the water.
The words give no clue to Max's reactions which are conveyed instead through the
illustrations which capture his initial uncertainty. The teacher emphasized time
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A Semiotic Perspective of Text 215
aspects of setting in stressing weeks and over and place aspects in stressing wild.
Her hushed tone contributed to the suspense of the story. In terms of instructional
cues, the teacher asked a question related to her goal of having children imagine and
one child responded by indicating she could imagine.
In the second part of the segment, the words convey Max's arrival at the place
where the wild things are telling how they responded to Max. In the illustration,
Max's response, again not mentioned in the words, is shown through his scowling
expression and somewhat arrogant body stance. The illustration thus provides con-
notations about the character that suggest he is undaunted and in control of his own
imagination. In reading the words, the teacher stressed the words came, roared, and
terrible, thereby focusing on place and the wild things. The mediation also reflects
her emphasis on focusing the children on the characters of the wild things. She
subsequently asked them to gnash their terrible teeth and show their terrible claws.
When these phrases are introduced later in the story, the children responded with
similar enactments without being prompted by the teacher.
Phases 2-4
Following the reading event, the students constructed Max's character, wrote a
letter to the author, and created pictures of their personal dream world. These
phases are represented in Morris's five-term relation in Table 2.
The three phases illustrate Peirce's notion of the sign giving birth to other signs.
In a chain of signification, the author-illustrator's picture book sign generated
various interpretants in students in all four phases of the event. In Phase 1, the
interpretant was only partially visible (e.g., students' articulated responses). In
Phases 2-4, the interpretants were more evident in the students' representation of
aspects of the narrative. Viewing interpretants as more than mental representations,
according to Eco (1979), is consistent with Peirce's allowance for various types of
Table 2 '
Phases 2-4 of the Picture Book Event
Sign
Picture book
(author-illus-
trator's
verbal-visual
cues)
Interpreters Interpretants
Students Students' words
describing
Max; letters to
author; and il-
lustrations of
dream worlds
following
group reading
Signification
Max's charac-
ter; stu-
dents'
dream
worlds
Context
2nd grade class-
room in a
public, reser-
vation school
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216 Journal of Reading Behavior
interpretants (e.g., behavioral, visual, and objectal), although Peirce did not
categorize these types.
In Phase 2 of the event, students worked in pairs or small groups with multiple
copies of the picture book to construct their view of the character, Max. Descrip-
tions formulated during this process were later shared in a whole class discussion in
which students indicated why they thought Max had a particular trait. Various
students described Max as bossy when he ordered the wild things about, as vicious
when he chased his dog with a fork, as imaginative when he went to the land of the
wild things, and as serious when he missed home. These and other descriptions
generated by the students from their interpretation of both the words and pictures of
the text were put on a large size drawing of Max and placed in the book corner.
Thus, the students' construction of the character, Max, served as a sign itself with
the potential of generating interpretants.
As a result of one student's suggestion to write the author (Phase 3), the teacher
developed a center the next day in which students wrote letters to the author about a
variety of topics of their choice. In this way, the interpreters of the sign com-
municated with the producer of the sign. In Phase 4, students and their teacher aide
discussed Max's dream world and how the illustrator created the world. Examples
of illustrators' techniques in other books the students had previously read were also
discussed. The emphasis, then, was on how visual cues are utilized to create
images. Following a discussion of their own dream worlds, the students chose
different media to represent their own dream worlds. These representations were
posted in the hallway, functioning as signs for others to see. In the phases discussed
above, then, students employed verbal (symbol) and visual (iconic) cue systems for
interpreting the picture book sign in a variety of ways. Their interpretations, in turn,
became signs for others to interpret.
DISCUSSION
A major focus of the present paper was the exploration of a type of text with
high semantic or semiotic capacity (Landes, 1987). The distinction was made
between the potential sign, as a network of cue systems, and the realized sign as the
interpretant or the reader's representation of the text. In the potential sign, the
author-illustrator's display of verbal and visual cues provides information
specifically revealed in either language or image, information repeated by both
sources, information delineated by one source, and information from one source
providing connotations for the other. These relationships between words and image
are generally apparent in picture story books, although the specific relationships
vary across picture books. How the listener/reader uses these cues to guide interpre-
tation will depend on factors related to both reader and text.
When the picture book is read to children, the oral performance of the author's
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A Semiotic Perspective of Text 217
written text provides other information cues for interpreting the text. The perform-
er's expression may accentuate aspects of plot such as suspense or nuances of
character states such as anger. Other performers might emphasize other aspects of
plot or interpret characters in a different way. Although paralinguistic cues add to
the display of information presented to the child reader, they are also visible inci-
dences of how the performer has realized the text. Some realization on the part of
the performer, for example, is necessary for making decisions about how to read the
story.
Evidence of the realized text is more difficult to ascertain than are the cue
systems of the potential sign since response remains primarily in what Polanyi
(1967) termed as "tacit knowing" (p. 9). The talk about text that may accompany
reading does, however, provide some insight into the reader/listener's process of
constructing text. It is possible to ascertain through talk, for example, aspects of the
text the adult views as important to signal for the child. Further, the comments
initiated by the child or those in response to an adult's question or request offer
some evidence about the child's realization of text. In a picture story book reading
event, we are able to look in on an act of production, on a "methodological field"
in Barthes' (1979) terms, where participants work together to construct a literary
text (p. 74). We can overhear a conversation about text.
In a classroom event, the methodological field may extend beyond the actual
reading of the story thereby providing additional insights into how the reader inter-
prets the text as in the classroom event involving Where the Wild Things Are.
Following the teacher's reading of the story, the children wrote descriptive words
about Max, illustrated their own dream world, and wrote letters to the author. These
representations functioned as signs for others to interpret since the children's work
was either displayed for others to read or sent to the author. In this sense, symbols
grew out of symbols and lived in the minds of the audience.
Scholes (1982) has described similar types of activities in terms of the author's
production of a primary text and the teacher's, critic's, and student's production of
secondary texts in relationship to the primary text. While the words, primary and
secondary are problematic (i.e., why isn't the reader's constructed text the primary
text?), the notion of an evolving text with different realizations in different contexts
is important. It might be more useful to consider the author-illustrator's sign as the
first sign in a chain of signs rather than as a primary sign.
The exploration illustrates the value of a semiotic perspective in illuminating
dimensions of the text, such as the author-illustrator's verbal-visual cues, and
dimensions of the text in context, including the teacher's performance and instruc-
tional cues. Each of these dimensions requires further study with a range of texts
and classroom events. In addition, the exploration suggests the need to examine
more closely the relationship between the first sign (i.e., the author's text) and the
equivalent sign produced by the interpreter. What is determined to count as an
equivalent sign depends, in part, on our assumptions about the nature of the sign,
the interpretant, and the object.
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218 Journal of Reading Behavior
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