Polymodality of senses in the mirror of a polycode text, or once again on the anthropocentricity of linguistics

Abstract

The article deals with the interrelation of the first and the second signal systems of a man in his perception of sensual information and its further reflection in a text message. Sensual information is perceived via five sensor (modal) canals. Modality, discussed in the article, refers to qualitative characteristics of human senses. Modalities are taste, odour, sound, colour etc. It is stated that different modalities have different possibilities of being reflected in a text. The article analyzes potencies of a monocode and a polycode text in reflecting different modal information. A purely verbal message contains mainly narration about all modalities, retelling about something which is cold or hot, smooth or rough, big or small, balmy or stinking. Anyway, the author appeals to the reader’s sensual memory. Whatever modal information comes to the reader via verbal code message it is to be recreated in his imagination. The only modality which can be partially reproduced is audial modality. Sound imitation and capitalization/petite are the means of reproducing the quality and quantity of an audial phenomenon. A unity of verbal and picture codes in a polycode text suggests both a narration and a reproduction of visual modality. A bright example of such type of text is a museum catalogue, containing a reproduction of a picture and a text annotation. The addressee of such polycode message acts alternately as a reader and as a viewer, receiving printed text (the second signal system – words) in its linear development then switching to picture reproduction (the first signal system – visual images) in its holistic presentation. Parcels of information are frequently doubled in pictorial and verbal components of such messages, thus enhancing their impact upon the addressee.The presence of an experiencer/narrator figure is obligatory in a message about some sensual information, which is another proof of an absolute anthropocentricity of a language image of the world.