Simulacrum in the Heterogeneous Screen Text

Abstract

This article aimed to describe the peculiarities of cooperation between verbal and non-verbal units during the creation of empty signs in the dynamic scope of the heterogeneous screen text. The bulk of the research consists of the polycode multimodal texts of cinematography, television and the Internet. For illustrative material the author turned to the fiction film Life of Pi, the educational TV show Made in Moscow: Doctor’s Sausage and the Instagram vine In Schools All Over the Country. The results of the study showed that in the spatiotemporal continuum of the text, a simulacrum is created as a set of audio-visual signs, which contains designation (unreal or partially real), but lacks the actual denotation. The author comes to the conclusion that a simulacrum is constructed by means of computer technology and involves manipulation of the visual image that is introduced and explained verbally. In addition, the study showed that in a polycode multimodal text the simulacrum can be a nonlinear discontinuous icon and a linear continuous kinemorph, sign-imitation. In the semiosis of sign-imitation we can observe an interpretant, an interpreter, and a partially real/unreal designatum, while the real denotatum is absent. The sign vehicle functions according to the laws of objective reality applicable to the thing it designates, which makes the viewer believe in the existence of the sign-imitation. It differs from the sign-symbol in that the latter bears no formal resemblance to the thing it designates, while the sign-imitation is constructed on the principles of formal and/or ontological resemblance. In conclusion, it is stated that further study on the simulacra in polycode multimodal texts will allow us to gain deeper insights into the process of manipulating viewers’ consciousness in the screen texts of mass culture.