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An interpersonal study of The Leading Hotels of the World. A systemic- functional social-semiotic approach

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This is a contribution fromTheory and Practice in Functional-Cognitive Space. Edited by María de los Ángeles Gómez González, Francisco José Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez and Francisco Gonzálvez-García. © 2014. John Benjamins Publishing Company This electronic file may not be altered in any way. The author(s) of this article is/are permitted to use this PDF file to generate printed copies to be used by way of offprints, for their personal use only. Permission is granted by the publishers to post this file on a closed server which is accessible to members (students and staff) only of the author’s/s’ institute, it is not permitted to post this PDF on the open internet. For any other use of this material prior written permission should be obtained from the publishers or through the Copyright Clearance Center (for USA: www.copyright.com). Please contact [email protected] or consult our website: www.benjamins.com Tables of Contents, abstracts and guidelines are available at www.benjamins.com An interpersonal study of the leading hotels of the world A systemic-functional social-semiotic approach

Arsenio Jesús Moya Guijarro and José María González Lanza University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Within the frameworks of Halliday’s SFL and Kress and Van Leeuwen’s Visual Social Semiotics, the main aim of this chapter is to analyse how the verbal and visual modes of ten tourist brochures, taken from The Leading Hotels of the World guide (2009), are co-deployed to construct interpersonal meaning. The use of declarative mood structures, the scarce presence of imperative clauses and the lack of interrogative clauses demonstrate that the verbal component accompanying the photographs does not encourage much interaction. However, the middle-shots and essentially the medium angles utilised are evidence of the engagement created between the visual readers and what is displayed in the photographs. This analysis shows that words and images reinforce each other to highlight the elitist characteristics of the facilities and services offered to the potential clients.

Keywords: interpersonal, multimodality, tourist brochures, social semiotics

1. Introduction

Since Vestegaard and Schrøder (1985) analysed printed advertisement taken from seven magazines circulating in Great Britain in 1977, the advertising phenomenon has attracted the attention of linguists such as Coleman (1990), Bell (1991) Cook (1992), Myers (1994), Goddard (1998) and Crook (2004), among others. Most of the studies carried out up until the last decade of the 20th century focus essentially on ads taken from the radio, magazines and newspapers. In the past, when radio was the main media to advertise products, advertisements mainly consisted of words and music; there were no images used. However, with the arrival of the medium of television in the 1950s and 1960s and the development of the internet

in the 20th century, the ways of selling things changed, and pictures and mov- ing images started to play a key role in advertising campaigns (Budd et al., 1999, p. 9; Tan, 2009, pp. 157–158; Crystal, 2011). This change has contributed to the development of multimodal studies, through which not only the verbal mode, but also other modes which are beyond language itself, are analysed. Whether static or dynamic, printed on paper or taken from TV or the Internet, adverts are composite wholes and usually include different semiotic resources in their designs as semiotic products or events created within a specific social and cultural context (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2001, p. 20, 2006; Kress, 2010). Studies on multimodality investigate possible strategies available to visual art- ists and writers to create meaning in a given discourse both within and across modes, and, in turn, analyse the choices that have actually been made in the design of a specific multimodal text (Forceville, 2010; Moya, 2013). This paper aims to identify the verbal and visual strategies used by hotel advertisers to persuade the readers/viewers of the hotel book The Leading Hotels of The World (2009) to purchase a product – in this case a hotel reservation – and to delve into the ideologies underlying the company. Within the frameworks of Halliday’s SFG (2004) and Kress and Van Leeuwen’s Visual Social Semiotics (2006), we will attempt to analyse how the verbal and visual modes are co-deployed to construct interpersonal meaning in the ten London hotels included in the guide. The Leading Hotels of the World (2009) guide is presented to the reader/ viewer as a book of quests with a map which will guide them in their research of remarkable journeys, unmatched service and exclusivity. On the second and third pages of the book, the names of the executive committee members are introduced together with a letter from the president and chief executive officer of the company The Leading Hotels of the World Ltd. Theodore Teng, as president of the firm, introduces himself to the reader, presenting the list of the most luxurious hotels in the world which the guide contains. In his message he puts special emphasis on the exclusive services that the presented hotels offer to the client, bringing him or her closer each moment to a world of distinction, exquisite treatment and luxury. The study conducted here centres on Europe and within Europe, on the United Kingdom, specifically on London and the ten five-star hotels recommended by the company: Badlioni London, Brown’s Hotel, The Cadogan Hotel, Dukes, The Halkin, The Landmark London, The Langham, The Milestone Hotel, One Aldwych and The Ritz London (included between pages 289 and 298 of the hotel book). The paper also aims to investigate the extent to which the ideologies of luxury and exclusivity (Thurslow and Jaworski 2006) underlying the marketing philoso- phy of the company The Leading Hotels of the World may influence the semiotic choices actually made by marketers at interpersonal/interactive levels to promote the hotel destinations (Hopearuoho & Ventola, 2009). As the hotels included in

The Leading Hotels of the World book were initially intended for people belonging to high class society, the interpersonal appeal is probably achieved through the creation of an illusion of exclusiveness and social status (Thurlow & Jaworski, 2006). The way society interprets adverts is strongly influenced by the culture and the social ideology within which they are designed and created (Kress, 2010). After specifying the aims and scope of this study, in Section 2 we outline the key features of SFG (Halliday, 2004) and Kress and Van Leeuwen’s Visual Social Semiotics (2006) that may help to describe the meaning-making affordances of both images and words as independent and interdependent modes in our sample texts. Once the data is presented and the methodology is described, Section 3, the main body of the paper, deals with the analysis of the verbal and non-verbal meaning-making devices available to the writer and the photographer of the guide to promote their luxurious hotels. Finally, the results are interpreted in functional terms and, on the basis of the analysis, some generalisations concerning the semiotic organisation and general design of the ten hotel brochures are made.

2. SFG and Visual Social Semiotics

A systemic-functional social semiotic approach, essentially born of the combination of Halliday’s SFL (1978, 2004) and Kress and Van Leeuwen’s Visual Social Semiotics (2006), is adopted here to carry out the proposed analysis. The brochures selected for study are examined from the perspective of Halliday’s systemic functional theory, as this approach is useful to explore what is advertised to whom and with what means, at the linguistic level of analysis. In addition, Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (2006) Visual Social Semiotics, extrapolated from the SFG account, provides an appropriate framework to interpret multimodal texts and aims to describe the meaning-making resources of visual language. In this theoretical framework multimodal artifacts are conceptualised as choices from semiotic resources which are beyond language itself and are combined and integrated across verbal, visual, auditory and somatic modes to create meaning in context.1

1. The concepts of choice and system are central in Systemic Functional Linguistics and have played a key role in the development of this theory from its initial stages (Halliday, 1978). Systemic functional linguists describe language as a system of choices, i.e. a set of options available to the user of the language to express meaning, and which can be selected from on a particular occasion. In turn, choice is seen as a social semiotic act which needs to be interpreted both socially and semiotically (Fontaine, 2013, p. 5). Today, with the advent of new technologies, both verbal and non-verbal modalities are used to make and exchange meaning, thus extending the semiotic choices available to convey representational, interactive and textual meanings in a specific social and cultural context.

Halliday (2004) develops a SF-grammar in relation to verbal language and establishes a comprehensive description of grammatical systems. These grammatical systems employ three metafunctional meanings, which are present in all instances of communication, independently of their verbal or visual nature: (i) representational meaning, which constructs our experience of the world inside and outside of us and is concerned with the clause as representation of reality; (ii) interpersonal meaning, which deals with social relationships, essentially between the speaker and the listener and, finally, (iii) textual meaning, which is concerned with the clause as a coherent message. Both SFG and Visual Social Semiotics approach language as a social semiotic system where the options available to its users to achieve their communicative goals and make meanings are determined by the social context or culture in which language is used (Halliday, 1978, 2004); Halliday & Hasan, 1985; Martin, 1992, 2002; Unsword, 2006, 2007). Although SFG focuses essentially on verbal language, Halliday assumes that this is not the only semiotic system that can be used to create meaning (Halliday & Hasan, 1985, p. 4; Unsword, 2006, p. 71). Rather, Halliday asserts that all texts, whether verbal or visual, independently or in combination with other semiotic modalities, simultaneously entail representational, interpersonal and textual meanings. This idea has led Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006) to develop a grammar of visual design to describe the meaning-making resources of images. They propose that images are also capable of simultaneously realising three types of meaning: representational, which is related to Halliday’s ideational metafunction, interactive, which corresponds to Halliday’s interpersonal metafunction, and finally, compositional meaning, which is associated with Halliday’s textual metafunction. In the following paragraphs, the main features of the interpersonal/interactive metafunction, which is the focus of this study, are succinctly referred to. The interpersonal metafunction deals with the clause as an exchange of information and as an exchange of goods and services (Halliday, 2004). In a verbal communicative exchange interactants may give information through the use of statements, demand it through the utilisation of questions or make commands or offers. These basic illocutionary forces are encoded in the grammar by means of three syntactic moods: declarative, interrogative and imperative. The interpersonal function not only includes interaction, but also implies evaluative meaning. In language, evaluative meaning is realised through the system of polarity (positive or negative), and essentially through the system of modality, which includes mood and comment adjuncts. They essentially reflect the speaker’s or writer’s attitude to propositions as a whole (declaratives clauses only) or to particular speech functions. They introduce elements of doubt (degrees of certainty and probability and degrees of usuality and frequency). Attitude can also be expressed by the use of attitudinal subjective epithets (Royce, 2007, p. 69).

In the visual mode, the interpersonal metafunction explores the relations between engagement, power and intimacy established between the writer/artist, the reader/viewer, and the (represented) participants involved in a multimodal text. Interaction in images is actualised by three different systems: image act and gaze, social distance and intimacy, and involvement and power (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006). The first system, image act and gaze, differentiates between offer and demand images. In demands the gazes of the RPs are directed to the viewers suggesting a pseudo-interactive relation with them. In offers, however, there is no such visual connection between the Represented Participants of a composition and the viewer; the image is an offer for the viewer’s contemplation and does not demand interpersonal engagement as none of the characters actually look at the viewer. The system of social distance and intimacy relates to the degree of intimacy established between the viewer and the RPs depicted in a visual composition. The scale, resulting in feelings of intimacy or distance, varies between close-ups, which generate intimacy between the viewer and the RP, and long- shots, which express distance. An intermediate level of intimacy is achieved by the use of middle-shots. Objects are represented in them as if within the viewer’s reach (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006, pp. 127–128). Finally, within the systems of involvement and power, Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006) differentiate between vertical and horizontal angles. Horizontal angles can include frontal and oblique angles; vertical angles can be high, low or eye-level angles. Vertically, if the scene is viewed from an eye-level angle, there is no power differential between the RPs and the viewer. An oblique angle reduces the inclusion of the viewer in the RPs’ world. In a frontal plane the characters are parallel to the plane of the viewer, suggesting maximal inclusion of the viewer in the world of the participants. The distinct choices determine the interactive effect, that is, the degree of engagement the visual artist intends to create when constructing the multimodal text (Unsword, 2006; Kress, 2010). The interpersonal metafunction does not only involve interaction, it also deals with evaluative meaning. In the grammar of Kress and Van Leeuwen, evaluative meaning is referred to as modality and focuses on the creditability of images. Although the modality of an image can be judged according to different coding orientations (naturalistic modality, scientific modality, etc.), the naturalistic code is the most accepted criterion to assess the reality of a visual artifact. Within a naturalistic coding orientation, the more an image resembles the reality it represents the higher degree of modality it is likely to have. A photograph, as is the case in our hotel brochures, has a higher degree of modality than just a sketch of the object or the entity it represents (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006).

3. The analysis of the interpersonal/interactive meaning

Once the objectives of this study and the theoretical models on which this investi- gation is based are exposed, we will proceed to carry out the interpersonal analysis of the verbal and visual modes that comprise the ten hotel brochures. Among other aspects, we will analyse the structures and modal elements used by the writer to interact with the reader, and their corresponding reflection in the visual mode by way of the interactive system established by Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006). SFG has proved to be a powerful source to describe interpersonal patterns reflected in the verbal mode. In turn, the Grammar of Visual Design proposed by Kress and Van Leeuwen provides a descriptive framework for the interpretation of interactive features in the visual mode. Lastly, the meaning that is born from the intersemiosis of words and images to create an illusion of luxury and exclusivity that attracts the reader’s desire to reserve a stay in these hotels will be dealt with. The final results will be interpreted from a critical and functional viewpoint. A total of ten texts and twenty photographs will be studied. However, not all of the photos have been inserted in the present contribution. The pictures that have been included will be referred to within Figures 1, 2 and 3.

3.1 Methodology: Some troubleshooting aspects

Before dealing with the analysis of the verbal and visual strategies available to the advertiser to create interpersonal meaning, we will comment on some problems the analyst may encounter when applying the Hallidayan SF-theory to the study of authentic texts. One of the difficulties is related to the utilisation of ellipted clauses in the sections of the brochures entitled “leisure” and “additional features” and their possible interpretation within the interpersonal level of analysis. Within the SFG framework, choices of mood are available to free independent clauses, that is, those that have a verb acting as predicator (Halliday, 2004, p. 135, Figure 4–15). As previously stated, this implies that major, free clauses can have a mood-residue structure and, in turn, can be established as either declarative, interrogative or imperative. In addition, clauses involved in a paratactic projec- tion in direct speech can also be counted for mood selection. However, non-finite clauses, bound clauses with a finite verb and minor clauses do not affect the mood types as distinguished by Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar. Therefore, in extract 1 the dependent clause, “situated in the heart of Kensington with views of Kensington Palace,” and the following embedded clause, “overlooking Hyde Park,” do not fulfill a function in mood selection. Only the main clause, “the hotel is a stone’s throw from the city’s cultural highlights…” does. The non-defining relative

© 2014. John Benjamins Publishing Company All rights reserved An interpersonal study of the leading hotels of the world 91 clause in extract 2 cannot be counted either for modality due to its dependence on its main clause: “which has been served in the Drawing Room for over 120 years.” Finally, neither are the defining relative clauses in 3 counted for mood selection as they act as postmodifiers of their preceding nominal groups: “a classic of Victorian Gothic architecture” and “an eight-storey glass atrium.”

(1) Situated in the heart of Kensington with views of Kensington Palace overlooking Hyde Park, the hotel is a stone’s throw from the city’s cultural highlights – Harrods, Sloane Street and trendy Notting Hill. (Baglioni London, 289) (2) The Cadogan hotel is also an institution for afternoon tea, which has been served in the Drawing Room for over 120 years. (The Cadogan Hotel, 291) (3) The Landmark London is a classic of Victorian Gothic architecture that features red brickwork and beautiful arch detailing. The centerpiece of this luxury hotel is an eight-storey glass atrium that can be viewed (from all internal- facing guest rooms. (The Landmark London, 294) In the case of ellipsis, the situation needs further clarification and the analyst has to make a decision as to whether or not he is going to distinguish a mood structure in a clause with some ellipted components. If an independent clause such as “The Rejuvenation Spa offers prescription facials, purifying cleansing rituals, media- tion yoga and revitalising massages to detoxify, using ESPA products” (Baglionni London, p. 289) has a subject (The rejuvenation Spa) and a finite verb (offers), then it is clear that there is a mood structure (in this case declarative as the Subject precedes the Finite). However, in the case of clauses such as: “Chauffeur-driven Maserati Quattro Porter courtesy car, subject to availability” (Baglioni London, p. 289), or “24-hour fully equipped gym” (Baglioni London, p. 289), the analyst has to reconstruct one or both of the two components of the mood element to make the clause available for mood choice. In the first example what is probably ellipted is: “will (Finite) be provided,” with “chauffeur-driven Maserati Quattro Porte courtesy car” as the subject of this implied verbal complex. In the second example given: “24-hour fully equipped gym,” neither Subject (there) nor Finite (is) are present (there is) and both of them have to be reconstructed to make a complete clause. As with so many issues in linguistics, modality is a question of gradation. When an independent major clause includes both a Subject and a Finite verb, there is clearly a structure that can be classified as either declarative, interrogative or imperative. However, when only one of these is included (either Subject or Finite), the situation is less clear, and it is even less clear if we have to reconstruct both, Subject and Finite. To solve this problem and make a decision as to where to put the cut-off point, we will refer to the notions of anaphoric and exophoric

ellipsis described by Halliday (2004, p. 100). An ellipted subject or finite verb can be recoverable or presupposed from either the preceding discourse (anaphoric ellipsis) or from the rhetorical structure of the situation (exophoric ellipsis). Thus, if either the Subject or the Finite are recoverable from either the discourse or the rhetorical situation, the clause will be reconstructed and be assigned a modal structure. However, if there is neither an overt subject nor an overt finite in a clause, we will classify it as moodless, even though both the subject and the finite could be reconstructed from the rhetorical situation. A nominal group such as “24-hour fully equipped gym” will be analysed as just that and will not be assigned a modal structure. We are not keen on postulating a mood element that is entirely ellipted. Those cases where the analyst has to supply the entire mood implicit element are not going to be counted for modality purposes in the analysis. However, if either the Subject or the Finite is present in a clause and only one of them is omitted, the clause will be reconstructed from the discourse or from the rhetorical structure and will be counted for the purposes of modality. In the following clause, for example, only the Finite (“are”) has to be reconstructed since the Subject element is present: “Complementary high-speed internet access and butler service (Subject) (“are,” Finite) available on all floors” (The Baglioni London Hotel, 289). There is another troubleshooting aspect that deserves a comment. It is related to the visual grammar developed by Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006) to describe the potentiality of images in the process of making meaning. Kress and Van Leeuwen develop their model to identify the different affordances of images in relation to a human figure as the subject of the shot. However, in the photographs included in the hotel brochures that form our sample texts there are scarcely any human participants as focuses of the shot, which makes the analysis of the interactive features in the hotel brochures a bit vague. To solve this problem we have considered the interior and exterior of the hotels as the “substitute human participants” that Kress and Van Leeuwen take into account to draw their model and identify the function of images in the visual mode. In Figure 1, for instance, the “substitute human,” so to speak, is an interior of the Baglioni hotel. As we are placed right in the interior of a room it has been considered that the distance might be equivalent to a middle shot since the furniture is shown with a certain proximity to the viewer (Kress, personal communication). Through this shot the advertiser reveals part of the furniture and the magnificent views the potential client will enjoy if he or she decides to stay in the Blagioni hotel. In addition, the angle is wide enough to show the spaciousness of the room which, due to its large dimensions, cannot be shown in its totality in a single shot.

Figure 1. Middle shot of Baglioni London Hotel.

3.2 Interpersonal options in verbal language

With the exception of one imperative clause, through which the writer invites the prospective customer to enjoy an English tea or a relaxing cocktail (The Milestones Hotel, 296), the rest of the clauses throughout that can be counted for mood selection are declarative (see Table 1). Thus, in verbal language there is little that is of stylistic importance which is interpersonal and signalled through the grammar, as declarative mood structures do not encourage much engagement. The explanation for this lies in the fact that, while the utilisation of imperative and interrogative modes tends to interrupt the flow of the message that is being expressed, declaratives generally contribute directly to the continuity of information and present it as fact. Through them, the advertiser represents the reality of luxury and exclusivity that is offered by The Leading Hotels of the World Company, awaking the prospective customer’s desire to purchase a stay in one of the hotels included in the guide.

Table 1. Mood structures. Categories Absolute values Values in percentage Declarative 103 99% Imperative 1 1% Interrogative 0 0% Total Number 104 100%

As shown in extract 4, through declarative clauses containing relational and material processes the advertiser gives information about the facilities and services provided by the hotels as well as their convenient locations near fashionable shops and cultural highlights in the cities where they are set. The advertiser describes the exclusive services that the hotels can provide in their different facilities in an objective way: spas, suites, but mainly their restaurants. The hotels themselves appear as the agents that carry out the services that may be required by the potential customers, highlighting in this way the illusion of comfort and relaxation clients can achieve in theses exclusive places (excerpt 5). Sometimes, through declarative mood structures, the writer introduces well-known personalities and highlights the sensation of exclusivity typically associated with the upper-classes and royalty (extract 6). All these aspects, personalities, convenient locations and exclusive services contribute to make the hotels more appealing to clients looking for exclusivity and luxury.

(4) Opened by renowned hotelier Cesar Ritz in 1906, the legendary Ritz is per- fectly located in a landmark position in the heart of London’s West End, and is ideal for business and leisure visitors alike. (The Ritz London, 298) (5) Legendary chef David Thompson serves a new understanding of Thai food at the Michelin-starred Nahm restaurant. The adjacent bar offers lighter meals, COMO Shambhalacuisine, cocktails and afternoon tea. (The Halkin, 293) (6) Built in 1887, it was once home for famous actress Lillie Langtry, King Edward VII frequently visited the Cadogan to see his mistress and Oscar Wilde was arrested in the hotel. (Cadogan Hotel, 291) Out of the 103 declarative clauses identified, eleven contain ellipted elements; essentially, the relational verb “be.” In fact, when “be” can be presupposed either from the linguistic context or from the rhetorical situation it is usually left out. The following sentences in extract 7, which give information about the additional features available in the hotels, provide an example. Added to these ellipted relational verbs in declarative clauses, ellipted existential processes are also utilised by the advertiser in the “leisure” and “additional features” sections of the brochures to create an atmosphere of luxury and efficiency. Extract 8, which describes some of the services offered in the hotels, sets an example. The first refers to Cadogan Hotel and the second to Brown’s Hotel. In the examples given, the existential process and its corresponding subject (there is/are) are ellipted and, therefore, the corresponding clauses do not count for mood selection. Throughout the four sections in which the brochures are divided (overall information, dining, leisure and additional features) the facilities and services available in each hotel are specified with the aim of attracting and persuading the potential customer to make a reservation in their luxurious installations.

(7) Complementary high-speed Internet access and butler service (0) available on all floors (Baglioni London, 289); Wi-Fi (0) available in public areas (Brown’s Hotel, 290); The Mirror Bar (is) for late-night cocktails and Champagne. (The Landmark London, 294) (8) Additional Features: Six private dining and meeting rooms up to 120 people with license for civil ceremonies. Business centre […] Children’s program (Brown’s Hotel, 290); Spa boutique. Hair salon. (Baglioni London, 289) As stated in Section 2, the attitudes embodied in a text, realised by the system of modal assessment, are also part of the interpersonal metafunction of the language (Halliday, 2004, Table 10 (6)). The hotels are ideationally presented as objects of desire to the addressee, with explicit signals of positive evaluation. This fact contrasts with the negative evaluation which is typically associated with advertisements that follow a problem-solution pattern (Hoey, 2001; Cheong, 2004). Lexical items are often used in the context of travelling and tourism to create a sense of exclusivity, privilege and efficiency. They help reinforce the elite connotations of the service that the advertised products offer to their exclusive clients (Thurlow & Jaworski 2006, p. 110). Attitudinal lexis within nominal group and copular structures are used by the advertiser to express positive evaluative meaning. As shown in excerpts 9, 10 and 11, within a lexico-grammatical framework, the hotels and their meal services are described as “exquisite,” “authentic,” “traditional,” and “innovative.” In addition, the restaurants and bars where the meals are served are associated with the attributes “stylish,” “relaxing,” and “contemporary.” Finally, the menus offered are modified by the adjectives “unique,” and “inventive.” All this serves to create an illusion of sophistication to which only the clients of the hotels included in the guide may have access to. This also serves as a lure to attract the reader’s interest to the unique and luxurious services offered by The Leading Hotels of the World company, as it creates a positive attitude towards the world that is advertised in the hotel guide.

(9) Dukes is a CampbellGray Hotel – a small collection of exquisite individual hotels including One Aldwych in London, Carlisle Bay in Antigua and Le gray in Beirut. (Dukes, 292) (10) The menu offers an original and inventive interpretation of authentic Italian cuisine. The Brunello Bar is a stylish cocktail bar with an Italian flavor […]. (Baglioni London, 298) (11) Langtry’s Restaurant offers a new dining experience in Knightsbridge. It combines an intriguing relaxed atmosphere with excellent cuisine and offers British menus with unique and inventive flavor combinations, innovative yet with a strong acknowledgment of tradition. (Cadogan Hotel, 29)

3.3 Interactive choices in the photographs

So far, it seems that the narrative voice reflects the events from a distant perspective as the almost unique presence of declarative mood structures may suggest. At this point, we shall attempt to determine how the visual elements create interpersonal meanings throughout the hotel brochures by focusing the analysis on the interactive features that Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006) distinguish in their Grammar of Visual Design: (i) image act and gaze; (ii) social distance and intimacy, (iii) horizontal angle and involvement and, finally, (iv) vertical angle and power. The aim is to find out whether the photographs suggest relations of intimacy or, on the contrary, whether they imply a certain level of detachment similar to that expressed in the verbal component through the use of declarative clauses. The analysis of the twenty photographs shown in Table 2 sheds light on the visual choices made by the advertiser to create engagement. The aspects that predominate in the majority of the illustrations are offers, middle and long shots, and oblique and eye-level angles, with certain exceptions that will be commented on later.

Table 2. Interactive features. Absolute and relative values. Categories Absolute values Values in percentages Image act and gaze Offer 20 100% Demand 0 0% Total number 20 100% Social distance and intimacy Close-up 0 0% Middle-shot 9 45% Long-shot 11 55% Total number 20 100% Horizontal angle and involvement Frontal 4 20% Oblique 16 80% Total number 20 100% Vertical angle and power High 0 0% Eye-level 20 100% Low 0 0% Total number 20 100%

Concerning Image act and gaze, the analysis shows that all the photographs are offers. Through them, the features of the hotels are presented as items of information for the viewer, but without creating an affinity with him or her. The utilisation of offers in the visual mode has a one-to-one correspondence to the high presence of declarative clauses in verbal language. In the photographs the information is also shown in an objective way and without demanding anything from the

© 2014. John Benjamins Publishing Company All rights reserved An interpersonal study of the leading hotels of the world 97 potential customer. In addition, the occurrence of human participants is kept to a minimum, and even in the cases when they are present there is no eye contact between them and the prospective customer. Consequently, there is no demand on the viewer to be involved in any way beyond accepting or rejecting the offers of information made by the photographer. This is also reflected, in a way, in the verbal component where there are no direct appeals or any suggested demand from the writer to the reader. As shown on the left-hand side of Figure 2, through offers the photographer reveals some of the interior facilities of the hotels that are being promoted, leading the viewer to a world of luxury and good taste. The large palms, colorful plants and light atmosphere inside what may be the lounge of the Landmark London hotel serve as a lure to the eyes of the prospective customer, awaking his or her desire to purchase a stay in this specific hotel. The lack of human beings in the photograph makes this hotel even more exclusive as it also generates an illusion of relaxation; the idea of being far away from the bigger number of customers that may gather in other less exclusive hotels. The long-shot photograph on the right-hand side of Figure 2 also conveys the idea of an idyl- lic, green, calm, hazy indoor garden in busy central London, which maximises the idea of quietness, privilege and distinction. In other words, as always, ideology seems to be the central issue that determines the visual choices made by the

Figure 2. Offer, long-shot and eye-level angles of The Landmark London and Blaglioni London Hotels.

photographer to promote the elitist hotels belonging to The Leading Hotels of the World company. Customers are seduced by the promotion of good taste and an aspirational lifestyle which only distinctive and superior clients have access to. Old-fashioned modes of travelling and traditional ideologies of class and social distinction are promoted as modes to seek elitism and exclusivity (Thurlow & Jaworski, 2006, p. 131). The participants in an ad often become representatives of the human condi- tion (Bortoluzzi, 2010, p. 169). Human participants tend to constitute the Locus of Attention (LoA), that is, the most salient feature in a visual composition (Cheong, 2004, p. 165). Nonetheless, only four human participants that might attract the visual reader’s attention and establish a type of interaction between the viewer and the represented participants appear in the ten printed hotel brochures; specifically in Brown’s Hotel, The Landmark London, The Langham London, and One Aldwych. The entities depicted in the photographs are basically non-human and are related to the typical furniture present in a five-star hotel: tables, beds, lamps, etc. At this point, there is an aspect that deserves to be commented on. While human entities are scarce in the printed adverts, their presence is more important on the webpage that the company has designed to promote its hotels (http://www.lhw.com#). The web page, displayed at the bottom of the printed page, invites more engagement between the product that is advertised and the potential customer than the printed page. Unlike the two sole photos that the printed page offers, the webpage has an average of between 25 and 50 photos per hotel, some of which contain human participants. There are no space restrictions on the webpage. Therefore, a wider and more detailed vision of the hotel specifications is offered to the reader, as there are photographs, not only of the interior or exterior areas of the hotel, but also of some of their employees carrying out different chores or providing a service to the client. Despite the presence of human participants, there are no crossing gazes between them and the viewer. As on the printed page, all that the hotel contains is offered to the viewer as an object of contemplation, emphasising consequently the social distance between the hotel personnel and the prospective client. All of the hotel machinery is designed and prepared to provide the best service to the exclusive client who knows how to appreciate refinement and good taste without feeling the obligation of maintaining any sort of social relation with the hotel personnel. In addition, through the verbal mode the web page creates more engagement than the printed page. This is mainly due to the presence of imperative sentences that are directed towards the reader requesting something from him and inviting him to take an active part in the life of the company by becoming a member of its exclusive club or making a reservation in one of its luxurious hotels (“book now to earn more rewards,” “enter your travel dates (optional),” “check availability,” etc.).

However, as previously pointed out, on the printed page all the sentences, except one imperative mood structure, are declarative and do not generate any type of interaction with the reader, with the exception of offering information about the facilities and services of the hotels included in the guide. Added to the imperative clauses, there are also some interrogative modal structures on the web page, which were also missing on the printed page, and even more strongly encourage the engagement that the utilisation of imperative clauses creates: “Looking for a weekend getaway or maybe the ideal luxury vacation destination?,” “How can I book more than one room?” The use of imperative and interrogative sentences on the webpage brings the potential client closer in a way to the world of luxury and exclusivity of the hotel products advertised by the company. With regard to the second feature of interactive meaning, social distance and intimacy, long shots predominate (55% of the cases identified) as the interior and exterior features of the hotels are depicted filling most of the space from the top to the bottom of the photographs and the reader perceives them from a certain distance. The long shots usually provide a high degree of contextual detail as evidenced in Figure 2, where the interior and exterior of the Landmark London and Baglioni London hotels are shown. Although the Landmark London hotel is set in downtown London, the contextual information offered in the long-shot sug- gests that the customer can enjoy the quietness typically associated with a natural environment free of pollution and environmental noise. The photographer tries to show as much information as possible so that the potential customer can see the exclusive style, the spaciousness and smartness of the hotels included in the guide. The façade of the Baglioni London hotel is almost covered by the branches of a tree and some green plants on the ground, which move the hotel further away from the viewer. The interior of what might be the lounge of The Landmark London hotel is also perceived from a certain distance, which makes it difficult to identify some of the furniture inside the hall and even the human figure, probably a waiter, who is shown on the right-hand side of the photograph. The use of long-shots creates a sensation of detachment, which contrasts with the closeness that the nine middle distance shots also identified in the ten brochures generate. In Figure 1, already described, the viewer can distinguish the furniture: part of two sofas, two tables, two armchairs, etc., which are in the space of the interior shown in the photograph as if he or she was inside the room. The lined shapes and the two pictures that decorate the walls can also be appreciated. This, of course, reinforces the interaction created between the hotel itself and the prospective customer. Proper close-ups have not been identified as they would have focused exclusively on specific luxurious and exclusive items without offering an overall picture of the comfort offered in the different rooms of the hotels. In a pair of visual elements the photographer has to show and highlight the commodities

and facilities that characterise each hotel. No doubt, middle and long shots are more appropriate to carry out this task. As for the third feature of interactive meaning, horizontal angle and involvement, 80% of the angles identified in the twenty photographs are oblique. Only four frontal angles have been counted. Unlike oblique angles, which show the participants from the sidelines, at 90 degrees, and create a sense of detachment (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 134), frontal angles generate involvement with the viewer as evidenced in Figure 3. In it the plane of the represented objects and the plane of the photographer run parallel (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 134) and show the main entrance of the Brown’s Hotel together with part of its lounge and one of its open doors. The presence of a bellboy receiving what might be the car of a client who is trying to park before checking in gives the hotel human-like characteristics. This way the viewer is encouraged to feel involvement with the hotel and its personnel.

Figure 3. Frontal and middle angles of Brown’s Hotel.

Finally, regarding vertical angle and power, the fourth feature of interactive meaning, the twenty images identified are eye-level angles, which implies that the viewer is at the same level as the represented entities, and therefore s/he feels s/he can identify with the hotels and their staff. Figure 3, already described, is a clear example of this. The viewer can enter into Brown’s Hotel’s world; one of its main doors is open and lets us see its interior and the warm atmosphere that the yellow light creates. The presence of a human being who seems to be directing a customer to park his car encourages the interaction between the viewer and the hotel. This fact, however, is not demonstrated in the verbal component.

The distance created by the use of long-shots and oblique angles in the visual mode helps to produce a sensation of exclusivity and elitism, typically associated with the members of high class society that are the intended customers of the products advertised in The Leading Hotels of the World book. On the contrary, the middle shots utilised show the interior rooms of the hotels from a certain proximity, making them more accessible to the clients of this exclusive brand. The combination of detachment and involvement is a useful tool to promote the hotels included in the guide as exclusive stays intended for the most elitist clients. With regards to modality, as all the images are photographs, they reflect real characteristics and, therefore, achieve a great level of modality, according to the visual perspective defined by Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006). Figure 1, for example, a middle-shot of the Baglioni London hotel, reflects the interior of a room with its furniture and decorative components. The color modulation is, in addition, similar to the levels one might expect to find on a sunny day in the morning and gives the image a high level of modality and realism. Other photographs, however, have a lower level of modality. In Figure 2, for example, the presence of the human participant is not given any prominence and it is difficult to identify and distinguish his or her shape. The Langham’s London hotel brochure provides another example. The woman photographed on the top visual composition adopts an unreal pose which makes her look like a mannequin rather than an actual human being. She is wearing an evening dress and in her right hand she is holding a smart shoe, an action that generates a certain inter- textuality (Genette, 1989) with the fairly tale of Cinderella and leads once again to connotations of elegance and princely refinement. Overall, the interior and exterior of the hotels are reflected in a more natural way than the human beings, perhaps in an attempt to show the prospective customer that his or her expecta- tions about the facilities and services of the hotels included in the guide will be fulfilled and that the verbal and visual information transmitted and displayed is a faithful representation of reality.

4. Conclusion: The co-deployment of images and words

The analysis carried out reveals that the verbal component accompanying the photographs does not encourage direct interaction between the RPs and the reader. This is essentially due to the absence of direct appeals from the writer of the brochures to the reader. As stated in Section 3, in verbal language most of the mood structures identified are declarative. Declarative clauses guarantee an objective tone with which the writer intends to present the facilities and services offered in

the different hotels included in the guide. The use of these, the scarce utilisation of imperative clauses and the lack of interrogative modal structures and modal adjuncts demonstrate that the verbal component accompanying the pictures does not seem to encourage much interaction. Rather, it exists to inform and highlight the exclusivity and luxury associated with the hotels included in the guide. This lack of engagement in the verbal component is also reflected, to a certain extent, in the visual modality where there is a predominance of offers and a significant number of long-shots and oblique angles. The lack of demand images limits, to a certain extent, the interactive potential of the brochures, as the limited presence of human participants eliminates the possibility of a direct engagement between the viewer and the inanimate participants depicted in the rooms. The photographs are offered to the visual reader for his or her contemplation of the luxury items found in a five-star hotel furnished for an exclusive, high class client. Although the utilisation of offers, oblique angles and long-shots may imply distance with the viewer, other visual devices related to distance and perspective reveal that the photographer has made choices which do create affinity with the potential reader. Some of the visual techniques chosen by the advertiser (four frontal angles, nine middle-shots and essentially twenty eye-level angles) are evidence of the engagement that is created between the visual reader and what is displayed in the photographs. The four frontal angles and the nine middle shots used give the viewer the feeling of being involved in the hotel’s life or at least of having access to its services and interior facilities. In contrast to the horizontal axis, which reflects involvement, the vertical angle usually expresses power (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006[1966], pp. 146–147). All the photographs are represented from an eye-level angle, which implies that the viewer is at the same level as the RPs displayed in the photographs, and therefore feels near the exclusive world reflected in them. In addition, interpersonally, the twenty photographs encourage interaction with the viewer since they attract his or her attention towards the most important element of the visual composition; in this case the rooms of the hotel and their equipment and furniture. Once the reader’s attention has been trapped visu- ally, the verbal language does the rest, describing the services and installations that the advertised hotels can provide for the client. At an interpersonal level, the full-color photos and the highlighted text in black (dining, leisure and additional features) attract the reader’s gaze towards the information that the text encloses and invite the reader to delve deeper into the specific characteristics of the hotels. Verbal and visual modalities inter-relate to highlight an idea of luxury and exclusivity and attract high-class guests. Images and words seem to combine to construct parallel interpersonal content (Unsword, 2006; Royce, 2007) and

© 2014. John Benjamins Publishing Company All rights reserved An interpersonal study of the leading hotels of the world 103 create a sense of distance which is characteristic of the exclusivity of high-class society and elitist people. The hotel is there to assist in the needs and require- ments of an exclusive clientele that knows how to appreciate luxury, tranquility and efficient service. Human personnel have to be available at any moment to offer the services required, but everything must be proportioned from a posture of maximum respect and exquisite treatment where there is no room for cama- raderie or interpersonal relations between equals. Other features of the visual mode, however, bring the hotels closer to the prospective client. Middle shots and eye-level angles, for instance, suggest that the hotels are available to those who look for an exclusive place to spend their holidays or to develop a professional activity. A multimodal analysis in which both images and words are considered as interdependent parts turns out to be necessary to delve into the potential of combining these two components in hotel brochures. As has been demonstrated, the combination of verbal and visual modalities in the design of hotel brochures enriches the meaning of both and leads to conclusions which go beyond the interpersonal implications expressed by each modality in isolation. Promoting and informing are the two functions that the selected texts for this analysis fulfil. On top of informing about the services and installations that the hotels of the company The Leading Hotels of the World Ltd. offer, they try to awaken the high-class client’s desire to stay in one of the high standing hotels presented in the hotel guide (either to develop their professional activities or to enjoy a well-earned vacation). Both the printed and the web page successfully achieve these aims. However, the web page invites more engagement between the product that is advertised and the potential customer than the printed page, while still generating an illusion of exclusivity and luxury. This is mainly due to the use of imperative and interrogative clauses and the more significant presence of human beings on the web page. The main communicative purpose of advertisements is to attract, at least momentarily, the viewer’s attention through a range of meaning-making devices (O’Halloran & Lim Fei, 2009, p. 144) and enforce the selling of products that appeal to the customer, not only on a local level, but also, as Hopearuoho and Ventola (2009, p. 184) indicate, globally. Writers, photographers, and printed and web page designers of hotel brochures need to master the verbal and visual strategies which may be exploited both on printed and web pages to lure customers to purchase a stay in the hotels promoted in their advertising campaigns. In turn, customers need to be aware of the different persuasive techniques that advertisers may use to fulfil a persuasive function and encourage them to enter indiscriminately into a world of luxury and exclusivity.

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