A picture less 1000 words: Mapping feeling

This paper looks critically at a selection of infographics involved in the construal of knowledge about appraisal in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). It draws on recent work by Martin & Unsworth (2024) on infographics in secondary school science to explore the complementarity of verbiage and image in appraisal infographics and accompanying text. The discussion focuses in particular on the use of paradigms to present descriptions of affect and diagrams implicating semogenic processes (ontogenetic and phylogenetic). The problem of including too much or too little information in infographics opens up the challenge of developing theory and description in relation to SFL’s cline of instantiation and the syndromes of coupling and commitment that effectively distribute meaning within and across modalities.