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DOI: 10.1080/10862969009547707

1990 22: 203Journal of Literacy ResearchJoanne M. Golden and Annyce Gerber

A Semiotic Perspective of Text: The Picture Story Book Event

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Journal of Reading Behavior

1990, VolumeXXII 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 mean ings 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 m eanings, in poststructuralist theory as productiv-

ity, and so forth. For others, including som e deconstructionists, the text is illusory,

everywhe re yet nowh ere 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 (Node lman, 1988). Thus , they merit close examination

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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 inform ation. 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/perfo rmer interprets the text through a variety of paralinguistic,

kinesic, and proxemic cues reflecting his or her own interpretation of the text for a

particular aud ience.

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 commen ting on certain aspects of the boo k. 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 symbo l 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 w ords 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 "so rt of i de a" (p. 99 ). When the triadic relation is applied to the narrative

symb ol, the sign en comp asses 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

20 5

sequence of events to which the story world refers (Scholes, 1982). In a fictional

narrative, such as Potter's (1902)The Ta le of Peter Rabbit, the story events refer to

themselves rather than to a series of events w hich 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. A ccording to P eirce

(1955),

there are three kinds of signs w hich relate to the object in different way s: 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 Wolle n, 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 sym bol is integrated w ith the iconic signs present in



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20 6 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 Hu rry 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. 4 9) , represents iconic aspects of language. The fox, wh o 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 oc curs. Th is view of the process of semiosis captures picture boo ks

as text events in context (Golden, 1989).

Morris (1964) differed from Peirce in characterizing the interpretant in behav-

ioral terms as "t he disposition to react in a certain kind of way because of the s ig n"

(p . 178). Thu s, behav ior in this sense is observable and open to objective study. T he

behavioral perspective, ho weve r, limits the interpretant by no t capturing other w ays

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



6/18


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 p icture book sym bol, we can first foreground the sign in the

triadic relation. T he sign is, in part, the string of textual cues w hich guide the reader

in constructing the interpretant. In this view, the sign is connected to the ground or

grammar wh ich enables it to mean (Peirce, 1955). The gramm ar 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, plo t, reader in the text) by identifying, c omb ining, and predicting informa-

tion as well as by filling in the gaps of the unw ritten text (Iser, 1978). In addition,

the respondent transforms the m arks on the illustrated page into narrative images by

engaging in sim ilar processes identified above. In this sen se, w e 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. T he 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)T he

Tale of Peter Rabbit,

for examp le, 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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20 8


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)W here the

Wild Things Are, the moth er 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 m ore than on e signified in text and imag e. 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 mo on " (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 th e text or the pictures, it would not be the same story told when bo th

systems work together to create the sign. Individually, words and pictures are

fragments of a larger syntagm (B arthes, 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 Bu rkert. The words convey a n umber 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

W hen th e picture story b ook sign is embedded in a social event, other cue,s for

interpreting the story a re available to the listener. In m any situations the young ch ild

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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ASemiotic erspectiveofText

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 m ay also employ facial ex pressions which add to interpretations

such as a frown accompanying reading about a particular character's action or a

fearful expression to enhance susp ense. Fin e's (1984) analysis of an oral telling of a

written version of the taleStagolee 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 sh are a different degree of

intimacy than the teacher w ho reads to a g roup of children seated at their desks in a

classroom. Thus, through the use of paralinguistic, kinesic, andproxe mic 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 "sc affo ldin g" 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 o bjects, and so forth. In other instances, adults m ay

focus the child on aspects of print and/or s tory. In these wa ys, 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 wh o engages in construct-

ing an internal scaffolding of the text. After subsequent exp eriences 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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21 0


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-

mod ate his or her purpo se. It should be noted, how ever, 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 ., M artinez & Teale, 1989) and commun ity-

cultural patterns (e .g ., Hea th, 1983 ; W ells, 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 con structing 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 ., even ts, 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 exp ectations g overning 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 even t,

the teacher wanted the children to focus on the literary element of character and on

visual imagery (Golden, G erber, & Lew is, 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 sem iosis 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 exam ine this phase m ore 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. T wo segm ents, 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 mademischief... (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 u pturned

eyebrows. He is standing on books, hammering the end of a rope of knotted sheets



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21 2


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 ho le 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 awolf suit. In this way,

words function as an interpretant for images and image s 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 m other's goal of punishing him for his outburst is implied by M ax'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 throu gh the shutters of an open window . It is possible to infer from

the pictures alone that Max is making m ischief 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.



12/18

A Semiotic Perspective of Text 21 3

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

on e

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 on e case, a child repeated

of a kind

after the teacher

read on e 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 ofmischief.S imilarly, the teacher stressed the words

mischief

and one kind and the child repeated of akind. 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, an dI'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.



13/18

21 4


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 ey ebrow s. His arm is raised and extended to reflect mom entary 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: "A nd when he cam e to the place where the wild things are they roared their

terrible roars and gnashed their terrible tee th " (un paged). The wo rds continue at the

bottom of the opposite pa ge: "a nd rolled their terrible eyes and show ed 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 wordswild thinguttered 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 WIL D 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 d oesn't sound like very many w ild 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-

t ions,

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



14/18


21 5

aspects of setting in stressing

weeks

an d

over

and place aspects in stressing

wild.

Her hushed tone contributed to the suspense of the story. In terms of instructional

cue s, 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 abou t the character that suggest he is undaunted and in control of his own

imagination . In reading the word s, the teacher stressed the wordscame,

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 ph ases illustrate Peirc e'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 Even t

Sign

Picture book

(author-illus-

trator's

verbal-visual

cues)

Interpreters Interpretants

Students Studen ts' 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



15/18

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 pro cess 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, asimaginativewhen he w ent to the land of the

wild things, and as serious when he missed home. These and other descriptions

generated by the studen ts 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 stud ent'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 boo k 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 system s, 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 bo oks . Ho w the listener/reader uses these cues to guide interpre-

tation will depend on factors related to both reader and text.

W hen the picture book is read to children, the oral performance of the author's



16/18

A

Semiotic erspective

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 exam ple, 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 exam ple, 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, w e are able to look in on an act of production, on a "m ethodo logical 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 p roviding 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 M ax, 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 au thor'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 mo re 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.



17/18

21 8


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