Cover not available

In:The Documentarist Turn: From observable linguistic behaviour to typological generalizations
Edited by Sonja Riesberg, Uta Reinöhl and Birgit Hellwig
[Studies in Language Companion Series 240] 2026
► pp. 239–262

Chapter 10
Multimodal communication in historical perspective

Gestures and visual prominence in Pharaonic Egyptian monumental inscriptions

 | Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
The study of multimodality in communication is a field of research that has been receiving increasing attention in various humanities disciplines since the 1990s. While research on multimodality deals extensively with communicative situations in recent European and Anglo-Saxon cultures, such situations in ancient times have hardly been considered. The article discusses some of the challenges and potentials of multimodality research for the study of historical languages using the example of ancient Egyptian monumental inscriptions. It focuses on two topics. Firstly, the question is examined whether and to what extent historical inscriptions can be used for gesture research. Secondly, the parameter of size scaling is used to show that perceptual saliency and visual prominence are relevant for the constitution of meaning in monumental inscriptions.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Multimodality research
    • 2.1Gesture research
    • 2.2Multimodal graphic communication
  • 3.Investigating the semiotic effects of scaling in Pharaonic Egyptian monumental inscriptions
    • 3.1Guiding the recipient’s gaze by scaling
    • 3.2Weighting of information by visual prominence
  • 4.Investigating gestures in Pharaonic Egyptian monumental inscriptions
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (84)
References
Arnheim, Rudolf. 1954. Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye, revised ed. Berkeley: University of California.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baines, John. 2007. Visual and Written Culture in Ancient Egypt. Oxford: University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. “On Functions of Writing in Ancient Egyptian Pictorial Representations.” In Iconography without Texts, ed. by Paul Taylor, 95–126. London/Turin: Warburg Institute.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2023. “Ancient Egyptian Decorum: Demarcating and Presenting Social Action.” In (Re)constructing Ancient Egyptian Society: Challenging Assumptions, Exploring Approaches, ed. by Danielle Candelora, Nadia Ben-Marzouk, and Kathly M. Cooney, 74–89. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barthes, Roland. 1964. “Rhétorique de l’Image.” Communications 4: 40–51. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bateman, John A. 2008. Multimodality and Genre: A Foundation for the Systematic Analysis of Multimodal Documents. London: Palgrave MacMillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2014. Text and Image: A Critical Introduction to the Visual/Verbal Divide. London and New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2016. “Methodological and Theoretical Issues in Multimodality.” In Handbuch Sprache im Multimodalen Kontext, ed. by Nina-Maria Klug, and Hartmut Stöckl, 36–74. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2021. “Dimensions of Materiality: Towards an External Language of Description for Empirical Multimodality Research.” In Empirical Multimodality Research: Methods, Evaluations, Implications, ed. by Jana Pflaeging, Janina Wildfeuer, and John A. Bateman, 35–63. Berlin/New York: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bateman, John A., Janina Wildfeuer, and Tuomo Hiippala. 2017. Multimodality: Foundations, Research and Analysis. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bohle, Ulrike. 2014. “Contemporary Classification Systems.” In Body — Language — Communication, HSK 38.2, ed. by Cornelia Müller, Alan Cienki, Ellen Fricke, Silvia H. Ladewig, David McNeill, and Jana Bressem, 1453–1461. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cohn, Neil. 2013. “Navigating Comics: An Empirical and Theoretical Approach to Strategies of Reading Comic Page Layout.” Frontiers in Cognitive Science 4: 1–15. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davies, Norman de Garis. 1920. The Tomb of Antefoker, Vizier of Sesostris I, and his Wife, Senet. London: Allen & Unwin. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davies, Norman de Garis, and Seymour de Ricci. 1903. The Rock Tombs of el-Armana, vol. VI: Parennefer. Tutu, and Aij. London/Boston: Egypt Exploration Fund, [URL], (11/06/2025).
Diekmannshenke, Hajo, Michael Klemm, and Hartmut Stöckl (eds). 2011. Bildlinguistik: Theorien — Methoden — Fallbeispiele. Berlin: Schmidt. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Dijk, Teun A. 1980. Macrostructures: An Interdisciplinary Study of Global Structures in Discourse, Interaction, and Cognition, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Döhl, Rebecca, Silvia Kutscher, and Jens-Martin Loebel. 2020. “CaeMmCom — Corpus Altaegyptischer Multimodaler Communication. Der Aufbau einer Multimodalen Datensammlung Altägyptischer Kommunikate.” Zeitschrift für Digitale Geisteswissenschaften 5, Version 2.0: 12th May 2023. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dominicus, Brigitte. 1994. Gesten und Gebärden in Darstellungen des Alten und Mittleren Reiches. Heidelberg: Orientverlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Efron, David. [1941] 1972. Gesture, Race and Culture. The Hague/Paris: Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ehlich, Konrad. 1984. “Zum Textbegriff.” In Texte — Textsorten — Semantik: Linguistische Modelle und Maschinelle Verfahren, ed. by Annely Rothkegel, and Barbara Sandig, 9–25. Hamburg: Buske.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ekman, Paul, and Wallace V. Friesen. 1969. “The Repertoire of Nonverbal Behavior: Categories, Origins, Usage and Coding.” Semiotica 1 (1): 49–98. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldwasser, Orly. 2002. Prophets, Lovers and Giraffes: Wor(l)d Classification in Ancient Egypt. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K. 1978. Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning. London: Arnold.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1985. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Arnold.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hassan, Selim. 1936. Excavations at Giza 2: 1930–1931. Kairo: Government Press, Bulâq, [URL]. (30/05/2025).
Heine, Bernd. 2019. “Some Observations on the Dualistic Nature of Discourse Processing.” Folia Linguistica 53 (2): 411–442. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hellwig, Peter. 1984. “Grundzüge einer Theorie des Textzusammenhangs.” In Texte — Textsorten — Semantik. Linguistische Modelle und Maschinelle Verfahren, ed. by Annely Rothkegel, and Barbara Sandig, 51–79. Hamburg: Buske.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jewitt, Carey. 2009. “An Introduction to Multimodality.” In The Routledge Handbook of Multimodal Analysis, ed. by Carey Jewitt, 1–15. London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(ed). 2014. The Routledge Handbook of Multimodal Analysis. London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jewitt, Carey, Jeff Bezemer, and Kay O’Halloran. 2016. Introducing Multimodality. London/New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jurman, Claus. 2023. “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien! A Narratological Essay on Life Writing, Life Telling, and Life Reading in Old Kingdom Egypt.” In Narrative and Narrativity in Ancient Egypt: Case Studies on Narrative Difference in Various Media, ed. by Gerald Moers, 71–216. Hamburg: Widmaier. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kahl, Jochem. 2001. “Hieroglyphic Writing During the Fourth Millennium BC: An Analysis of Systems.” Archéo-Nil 11: 101–134. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kammerzell, Frank. 1998. “The Sounds of a Dead Language. Reconstructing Egyptian Phonology.” Göttinger Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft 1: 21–41.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. “Klassifikatoren und Kategorienbildung in der Ägyptischen Hieroglyphenschrift.” Spektrum. Informationen aus Forschung und Lehre 3: 29–34.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. “Egyptian Verb Classifiers.” In Proceedings of the Xth International Congress of Egyptologists, Rhodes May 22–29, 2008, ed. by Panagiotis Kousoulis, and Nikolaos Lazaridis, 1395–1416. Leuven: Peeters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021. “Reading Multimodal Compositions from Early Dynastic Egypt (With an Appendix on Previously Unlisted, Reinterpreted or Otherwise Noteworthy Signs).” In Keep out! Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom Cylinder Seals and Sealings in Context, ed. by Eva-Maria Engel, Annette I. Blöbaum, and Frank Kammerzell, 1–98. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Karttunen, Lauri. 1969. “Discourse Referents.” In COLING ‘69: Proceedings of the 1969 Conference on Computational Linguistics, September 1969, 1–38.
Kendon, Adam. 2004. Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance. Cambridge: University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klug, Nina-Maria, and Hartmut Stöckl (eds). 2016. Handbuch Sprache im Multimodalen Kontext. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kress, Gunther. 2009. “What is Mode?” In The Routledge Handbook of Multimodal Analysis, ed. by Carey Jewitt, 54–67. London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kress, Gunther, and Theo van Leeuwen. 1996. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. London/New York: RoutledgeGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2001. Multimodal Discourse. The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication. London/New York: RoutledgeGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. Reading Images. The Grammar of Visual Design. London/New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kutscher, Silvia. 2020. “Multimodale Graphische Kommunikation im Pharaonischen Ägypten: Entwurf einer Analysemethode.” Lingua Aegyptia 28: 81–116. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2025. “Space as a Semiotic Resource in Stationary Graphic Communication of Ancient Egyptian: A Theoretical Outlook.” In Spaces and Meaning: Multimodal Communication in Ancient Egypt, ed. by Silvia Kutscher, and Dina Serova, 19–36. Leiden: Sidestone Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. To Appear. “Analysing Ancient Egyptian Text-Image-Compositions: An Outline.” In Multimodal Artefact Analysis in Ancient Studies, ed. by Patrizia Heindl, and Eva Roßberger. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Kutscher, Silvia, and Dina Serova. 2025. “Spaces and Meaning: Introduction to the Volume.” In Spaces and Meaning: Multimodal Communication in Ancient Egypt, ed. by Silvia Kutscher, and Dina Serova, 9–18. Leiden: Sidestone Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(eds). 2025. Spaces and Meaning: Multimodal Communication in Ancient Egypt. Leiden: Sidestone Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lapčić, Aleksandra. 2014. “Bild-Schrift-Gestalten des Göttlichen: Multimodale Informationsverarbeitung im Amduat Thutmosis’ III.” In Bild: Ästhetik — Medium — Kommunikation. Beiträge des Dritten Münchner Arbeitskreises Junge Ägyptologie (MAJA 3), 7. bis 9.12.2012, ed. by Gregor Neunert, Alexandra Verbovsek, and Katrin Gabler, 169–192. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Lieven, Alexandra, and Sandra L. Lippert. 2016. “Egyptian (3000 BCE to ca. 400 CE).” In Biscriptality: A Sociolinguistic Typology, ed. by Daniel Bunčić, Sandra L. Lippert, and Achim Rabus, 256–276. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lincke, Eliese-Sophia. 2011. Die Prinzipien der Klassifizierung im Altägyptischen. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lincke, Eliese-Sophia, and Frank Kammerzell. 2012. “Egyptian Classifiers at the Interface of Lexical Semantics and Pragmatics.” In Lexical Semantics in Ancient Egyptian, ed. by Eitan Grossman, Stéphane Polis, and Jean Winand, 55–112. Hamburg: Widmaier.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lincke, Eliese-Sophia, and Silvia Kutscher. 2012. “Motivated Sign Formation in Hieroglyphic Egyptian and German Sign Language (DGS): Towards a Typology of Iconic Signs in Visual Linguistic Systems.” In Lexical Semantics in Ancient Egyptian, ed. by Eitan Grossman, Stéphane Polis, and Jean Winand, 113–140. Hamburg: Widmaier.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Macramallah, Rizkallah. 1935. Le Mastaba d’Idout. Caire: Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McNeill, David. 2000. “Introduction.” In Language and Gesture, ed. by David McNeill, 1–10. Cambridge: University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moussa, Ahmed M., and Hartwig Altenmüller. 1977. Das Grab des Nianchchnum und Chnumhotep (Archäologische Veröffentlichungen 21). Mainz: von Zabern.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Müller, Cornelia. 1998. Redebegleitende Gesten: Kulturgeschichte — Theorie — Sprachvergleich. Berlin: Berlin Verlag A. Spitz.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Müller, Cornelia, Alan Cienki, Ellen Fricke, Silvia H. Ladewig, David McNeill, and Jana Bressem (eds). 2014. Body — Language — Communication. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Norris, Sigrid (ed). 2015. Multimodality. Critical Concepts in Linguistics. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Payrato, Lluís. 2014. “Emblems or Quotable Gestures: Structures, Categories, and Functions.” In Body — Language — Communication, HSK 38.2, ed. by Cornelia Müller, Alan Cienki, Ellen Fricke, Silvia H. Ladewig, David McNeill, and Jana Bressem, 1474–1481. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Poggi, Isabella. 2014. “Semantics and Pragmatics of Symbolic Gestures” In Body — Language — Communication, ed. by Cornelia Müller, Alan Cienki, Ellen Fricke, Silvia H. Ladewig, David McNeill, and Jana Bressem, 1481–1496. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Polis, Stéphane. 2018. “The Functions and Toposyntax of AE Hieroglyphs.” Signata 9: 291–363. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2023. “How Does the Hieroglyphic System Function?” In Guide to the Writing Systems of Ancient Egypt, ed. by Stéphane Polis, 42–49. Cairo: Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Polis, Stéphane, and Serge Rosmorduc. 2015. “The Hieroglyphic Sign Functions.” In Fuzzy Boundaries: Festschrift für Antonio Loprieno, 2 vols., ed. by Hans Amstutz, Andreas Dorn, Matthias Müller, Miriam Ronsdorf, and Sami Uljas, 149–174. Hamburg: Widmaier.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Raible, Wolfgang. 1978. “Langer Rede Dunkler Sinn. Zur Verständlichkeit von Texten aus der Sicht der Sprachwissenschaft.” In Grammatik und Deutschunterricht. Jahrbuch 1977 des Instituts für deutsche Sprache, ed. by Ulrich Engel, and Siegfried Grosse, 316–337. Düsseldorf: Pädagogischer Verlag Schwann.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1991. Semiotik der Textgestalt: Erscheinungsformen und Folgen eines Kulturellen Evolutionsprozesses. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Regulski, Ilona. 2016. “The Origins and Early Development of Writing in Egypt.” Oxford Handbooks Online. (20/6/2020). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rogner, Frederik. 2022. Bildliche Narrativität — Erzählen mit Bildern: Rezeption und Verwendung Figürlicher Darstellungen im Ägyptischen Neuen Reich. Basel: Librum. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roth, Ann Macy. 2006. “Little Women: Gender and Hierarchic Proportion in Old Kingdom Mastaba Chapels.” In The Old Kingdom Art and Archaeology: Proceedings of the Conference, ed. by Miroslav Bárta, 281–296. Prague: Czech Institute of Archaeology.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Royce, Terry D. 1998. “Synergy on the Page: Exploring Intersemiotic Complementarity in Page-Based Multimodal Text.” JASFL Occasional Papers 1: 25–49.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2007. “Intersemiotic Complementarity: A Framework for Multimodal Discourse Analysis.” In New Directions in the Analysis of Multimodal Discourse, ed. by Terry D. Royce, and Wendy L. Bowcher, 63–109. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schenkel, Wolfgang. 1984. “Schrift.” In Lexikon der Ägyptologie V, ed. by Wolfgang Helck, and Wolfhart Westendorf, 713–735. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. Die Hieroglyphische Schriftlehre und die Realität der Hieroglyphischen Graphien. Sitzungsberichte der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Philologisch-Historische Klasse 138, 5. Stuttgart/Leipzig/​Hirzel: Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. “Wie Ikonisch ist die Altägyptische Schrift?” Lingua Aegyptiae 19: 125–153.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Seidlmayer, Stephan J. 2012. “Ägyptische Hieroglyphen Zwischen Schrift und Bild.” In Schriftbildlichkeit. Wahrnehmbarkeit, Materialität und Operativität von Notationen, ed. by Sybille Krämer, Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum, and Rainer Totzke, 123–138. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Streeck, Jürgen. 2015. “Gesture.” In The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Anthropology, ed. by Nancy Bonvillain, 27–43. New York/London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
von Stutterheim, Christiane, and Wolfgang Klein. 1989. “Referential Movement in Descriptive and Narrative Discourse.” In Language Processing in Social Context, ed. by Rainer Dietrich, and Carl F. Graumann, 39–76. Amsterdam: North Holland. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Teßendorf, Sedinha. 2013. “Emblems, Quotable Gestures, or Conventionalized Body Movements.” In Body — Language — Communication, ed. by Cornelia Müller, Alan Cienki, Ellen Fricke, Silvia H. Ladewig, David McNeill, and Jana Bressem, 82–100. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae, Korpus-Ausgabe 20, Web-App-Version 2.3.2, 31.10.2025, hrsg. von Tonio Sebastian Richter & Daniel A. Werning im Auftrag der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften und Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert & Peter Dils im Auftrag der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig (11/06/2025).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vandier, Jacques. 1969. Manuel d’Archéologie Egyptienne. Tome V: Bas-Relief et Peintures. Scenes de la Vie Quotidienne. Paris: Edition A. et J. Picard.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vasiljević, Vera. 1998. “Über die Relative Größe der Darstellungen des Grabherrn im Alten Reich.” Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur 25: 341–351.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wertheimer, Max. 1923. “Untersuchungen zur Lehre von der Gestalt, II.” Psychologische Forschung 4: 301–350. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wildfeuer, Janina, and John A. Bateman. 2018. “Theoretische und Methodologische Perspektiven des Multimodalitätskonzepts aus Linguistischer Sicht.” IMAGE 28: 5–46.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wildfeuer, Janina, Jana Pflaeging, John A. Bateman, Ognyan Seizov, and Chiao-I. Tseng. 2020. “Multimodality: Disciplinary Thoughts and the Challenge of Diversity — Introduction.” In Multimodality: Disciplinary Thoughts and the Challenge of Diversity, ed. by Janina Wildfeuer, Jana Pflaeging, John A. Bateman, Ognyan Seizov, and Chiao-I. Tseng, 3–38. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue