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Xuan Liu

Dr. Sinfree B. Makoni

APLNG 482Y

8 December 2008

Gain and Loss of Meaning in the Process of Resemiotization: A Critical Study of One Clip from

Grey’s Anatomy

With widespread popularization of television, more and more attention has been paid to

everything about television. For applied linguists, especially discourse analysts, there is a

tendency to have a close examination of the television discourse. Like other prevalent media

discourses such as the press and the cyberspace, television discourse is a “multi-semiotic

practice” of meaning making.(Iedema, 2003) This article sets out to analyze the multi-semiotic

nature of television discourse through a process called “resemiotization”.(Iedema, 2003)

Specifically, one clip from the popular medical drama series Grey’s Anatomy would be analyzed

as data. This analysis shows that the multimodality displayed in television discourse come about

through a dynamic process of resemiotization. More importantly, during this process there is no

equivalent translation from one semiotic system to another. Instead, inevitably there is a gain or

loss of meaning or both.

Before analyzing the data, it is necessary to provide some background information. The

notion of resemiotization will be explained first. Obviously, the root of the word

“resemiotization” is semiotics. According to Ferdinand de Saussure, semiotics is “the science of

the life of signs in society”. ("Social semiotics," Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia)For instance,

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language is one of the most frequently used semiotic systems. There are other semiotic systems,

too, such as image, sound, color, etc. With an understanding of what is semiotics, now we turn to

resemiotization. Just as the name implies, resemiotization means the transition from one semiotic

system to another. More authoritatively, Rick Iedema defines it as “resemiotization is about how

meaning shifts from context to context, from practice to practice, or from one stage of practice to

the next.” (41) It is usually used as an analytical means to look into the multimodality of

discourses. Resemiotization views the multimodality displayed in discourses as a dynamic

process situated in social context. Therefore, with resemiotization, the discourse analysis goes

beyond only analyzing the multimodal “complexity of texts and representations as they are.”

Instead, it also explains how these multimodal texts or representations come about in the first

place.

However, as Saint-Martin mentioned, “each semiotic has its own specific (systemic)

constraints and (material) affordances.” (393) Simply put, there are something that we can do

with one semiotic system can not be realized in another semiotic system. Besides,

“rematerialization requires new resource investments; reconstructing derives from different

expertises and literacies, and resemiotization opens up different modalities of human

experience.”(Iedema 48) Therefore, it is inevitable to have either a gain or loss of meaning or

both during the process of resemiotization in multimodal discourse. This paper is thus to analyze

the gain and loss of meaning during the process of resemiotization in the particular clip selected

from Grey’s Anatomy. There are two main research questions:

(1) How did the multi-semiotic presentations in this clip come about?

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(2) What are the gain and loss of meaning during this process of resemiotization?

The clip to be analyzed is a 2-minute extract from episode three, season five of the popular

medical drama series: Grey’s Anatomy. It is a conversation scene between Cristina (one of the

doctors in the drama series) and Mr. Pattermore (a patient in a particular medical case). The

selection of this clip was influenced by its relatively rich multimodality compared to other

available online clips.

First, we will look into how the multi-semiotic presentations in this clip came about during

the making of this drama series. Right after the writer of this play finished his/her writing, he/she

gave the script to a programmer from a TV station. Then, the writer, the programmer and

officials from the TV station probably had several meetings to discuss the feasibility of making

this play into TV series. During the meetings these people talked, discussed and tried to achieve

a consensus. Tensions definitely exist since they were different stake-holders. Probably, the

writer cared more about his/her own work while the programmer and officials from TV station

care more about the taste of the audience and the profit they could make out of this TV series.

Finally, certain agreements were achieved and they were kept in written formal files. Here, the

interaction of those people during the meetings (talk content, gesture, eye look, facial expression,

etc) ended up as written formal files. After that, revision would be made to the original script

according to those written files. This is where the first major resemiotizing move took place.

When the script was massaged into final form with “preferred meanings, which usually coincide

with the perceptions of the dominant sections of society” (Fiske John and John Hartley 5), a

group of people were hired to make this TV series come true. There were actors, directors,

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photographers, sound technicians, lighting engineer, etc. Every one of them had their own

interpretation of the script. After they all finished their own part of work, the TV series came out.

Here comes the second major resemiotizing move. The revised written work (script) turned into

the performances of the actors (their images, facial expressions, gestures, voices, intonation, etc),

the settings shown on the digital screen, the background music, the color and light in the scene,

etc. In this particular clip, the written script became the touching conversation between Cristina

and Mr. Pattermore (their images, facial expressions, eye looks, intonation, and voice), the

sorrowful background music and the unusual dark light and color of the scene settings.

With an understanding of these two major resemiotizing moves, we now turn to the analysis

of the gain and loss of meaning in these two moves. In the first move, as more and more people

get involved, the original meaning of the writer may be altered to a way more oriented to

entertaining the audience. New episodes might be added while old ones which seem

inappropriate to the authorities might be deleted. Here is both a gain and loss of meaning. In the

second move, there are many places where a gain of meaning happened. Since the space is

limited, we will focus on two main points. First, of particular noteworthiness is that when Mr.

Pattermore said “My wife died last year”, sorrowful background music rang out immediately and

ended until Mr. Pattermore finished his heart-breaking story. Though there is not a single word of

his containing “sad”, the meaning of sadness is effectively conveyed through the music. It

touched the softest part of the hearts of the audience instantly. By converting the words of “sad”

into sentimental music, the clip seems more natural. In other words, it gained naturalness here. It

is also worth noting that there is a change of attitude of the doctor Cristina towards the patient in

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this 2-minute clip. However, this change of attitude is completely realized by semiotics other

than language. It is realized through her eye look, intonation and voice. At the beginning, when

Cristina asked Mr. Pattermore: “How is your pain level now?” Her voice is indifferent and her

face is grim. Instead of looking at Mr. Pattermore, she is busying preparing drawing his blood.

However, when Mr. Pattermore is telling his story, Cristina looked directly into his eyes and her

eyes hold a look of silent sympathy. Also, her voice became softer and more compassionate

when later she said “Let’s get your blood drawn”. The eye look, voice, and intonation not only

convey the change of Cristina’s attitude, but also show a general feature of doctors. Namely,

though doctors tend to “avoid the personality, the individuality, any involvement with the

destiny” of their patients (Johnson 177), they are human beings after all. This is also a gain of

meaning.

Obviously, more researches and in-depth analysis need to be done to make convincing

claims about the process of resemiotization in television discourse. To certain extent, by

analyzing one clip from Grey’s Anatomy, the present article shows the dynamic process of

resemiotization involved in the development of multimodal television discourse and the gain and

loss of meaning during this process as well.

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Works Cited

“Cristina/Patient scene-5x03-Grey’s Anatomy.” 10 October 2008. Online video clip. YouTube.

Accessed on 27 November 2008. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiMVdk2GzXk>.

Fiske, John, and John Hartley. Reading Television. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2003.

Iedema, Rick. “Multimodality, resemiotization: extending the analysis of discourse as multi-

semiotic practice.” Visual Communication 2. 1 (2003): 29-57.

Johnson, Diane. “Doctor Talk.” About Language A reader for Writers. Roberts and Turgeon.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1986. 175-78.

Saint-Martin, F. “Advances in Visual Semiotics: The Semiotic Web 1992-93.” Visual and Verbal

Semantics. Ed. T.A Sebeok and J. Umiker-Sebeok. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1995. 375-

401.

"Social semiotics." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 31 October 2008. 8 December

2008<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Social_semiotics&oldid=248853406>.

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