| Additive transformations |
Participants: relates to the addition of any participants to the represented object/social practice.
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Legitimation: relates to the justifications to why something happens the way it happens, or should not happen, in the case of social practices. Regarding representations, legitimation presents the rationale behind the semiotic choices employed (VAN LEEUWEN, 2008, p. 20VAN LEEUWEN, T. Discourse and practice: new tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford ; New York:Oxford University Press, 2008. (Oxford studies in sociolinguistics).). Next, we quickly summarize the legitimation types: |
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Authorization: based on tradition, recommendations, or laws, i. e., socially recognized authorities, personalized (e.g., specialists in an academic field) or not (e.g., laws) (VAN LEEUWEN, 2008, p. 105VAN LEEUWEN, T. Discourse and practice: new tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford ; New York:Oxford University Press, 2008. (Oxford studies in sociolinguistics).).
Moral legitimation: it “is based on values, rather than imposed by some kind of authority without further justification. In some cases, moral value is simply asserted by troublesome words such as ‘good’ and ‘bad,’ which freely travel among moral, aesthetic, and hedonistic domains and often combine with authority legitimation [...] but in most cases, moral evaluation is linked to specific discourses of moral value. However, these discourses are not made explicit and debatable. They are only hinted at, by means of adjectives such as ‘healthy,’ ‘normal,’ ‘natural,’ ‘useful,’ and so on” (VAN LEEUWEN, 2008, p. 109–110VAN LEEUWEN, T. Discourse and practice: new tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford ; New York:Oxford University Press, 2008. (Oxford studies in sociolinguistics).).
Rationalization: “legitimation by reference to the goals and uses of institutionalized social action and to the knowledge that society has constructed to endow them with cognitive validity” (VAN LEEUWEN, 2008, p. 106VAN LEEUWEN, T. Discourse and practice: new tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford ; New York:Oxford University Press, 2008. (Oxford studies in sociolinguistics).).
Mythopoesis: “legitimation conveyed through narratives whose outcomes reward legitimate actions and punish nonlegitimate actions” (VAN LEEUWEN, 2008, p. 106VAN LEEUWEN, T. Discourse and practice: new tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford ; New York:Oxford University Press, 2008. (Oxford studies in sociolinguistics).).
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The main legitimation strategy deployed in Marvel Super Heroes is Authorization: the game uses several images (and, therefore, discourses) conventionally associated with Brazil, be it the Amazon Forest or the Mesoamerican iconography. That is, legitimation arises from a tradition (VAN LEEUWEN, 2008, p. 108VAN LEEUWEN, T. Discourse and practice: new tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford ; New York:Oxford University Press, 2008. (Oxford studies in sociolinguistics).) of representations in other media: movies, for example, such as Creature from the Black Lagoon (Universal Studios, 1954), in which researchers encounter a monster in the Amazon Forest.
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Evaluation: evaluations can pertain to the whole practice/object or to parts of it (VAN LEEUWEN, 2008, p. 21VAN LEEUWEN, T. Discourse and practice: new tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford ; New York:Oxford University Press, 2008. (Oxford studies in sociolinguistics).). They are not legitimations since they can appear in a text without being legitimized. However, they are related to a legitimate discourse, such as the religious discourse, which dictates what is morally good or bad (VAN LEEUWEN, 2008, p. 21VAN LEEUWEN, T. Discourse and practice: new tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford ; New York:Oxford University Press, 2008. (Oxford studies in sociolinguistics).).
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It is possible to propose that the game evaluates the Amazonian region (and Brazil through metonymy) as lesser in comparison to the other countries under a discourse that values technology and progress. The forest ‘covers’ the laboratory, the only construction aside from the Pyramid, an ancient structure. Likewise, the game ‘hides’ Brazil under the blanket representation of the Amazon Forest.
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Purposes: relates to the purpose of the practice or object’s representation (VAN LEEUWEN, 2008, p. 21VAN LEEUWEN, T. Discourse and practice: new tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford ; New York:Oxford University Press, 2008. (Oxford studies in sociolinguistics).). Below, we summarize the necessary elements for the discursive construction of the purposeful action (VAN LEEUWEN, 2008, p. 126VAN LEEUWEN, T. Discourse and practice: new tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford ; New York:Oxford University Press, 2008. (Oxford studies in sociolinguistics).):
Purposeful action: that is, the action whose purpose is to be constructed
Purpose: itself a process, an action, or a state
Purpose link: the relation of purposefulness between these two.
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The representation of Brazil in the game attends firstly to create a stage based on the Amazon Forest, which leads to representational and interactive purposes. Broadly, we propose that the Amazonian stage serves the purpose of creating a ‘forest area,’ so common in older games, just like ‘desert’ and ‘lava’ areas.
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| Non-Additive transformations |
Substitutions: the transformation of practices/objects into semiotic elements is crucial for the meaning-making processes (VAN LEEUWEN, 2008, p. 17VAN LEEUWEN, T. Discourse and practice: new tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford ; New York:Oxford University Press, 2008. (Oxford studies in sociolinguistics).). Aside from that, usually substitutions involve the transformation of concrete referents into abstract ideas or vice versa (VAN LEEUWEN, 2005, p. 111VAN LEEUWEN, T. Introducing social semiotics. London ; New York: Routledge, 2005.).
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Brazil, a political unit (abstract), is materialized under the guise of the Amazon Forest (concrete) in the game. At the same time, the forest (concrete) becomes a connotator of ‘primitiveness,’ (abstract), which applies to Brazil as a whole.
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Exclusion (or deletion): involves the exclusion of a participant that composes the social practice/object represented semiotically (VAN LEEUWEN, 2005, p. 110VAN LEEUWEN, T. Introducing social semiotics. London ; New York: Routledge, 2005., 2008, p. 18VAN LEEUWEN, T. Discourse and practice: new tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford ; New York:Oxford University Press, 2008. (Oxford studies in sociolinguistics).). Two major types of exclusion are suppression, when there are no references to the deleted element (VAN LEEUWEN, 2008, p. 29VAN LEEUWEN, T. Discourse and practice: new tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford ; New York:Oxford University Press, 2008. (Oxford studies in sociolinguistics).), and backgrounding, when the deletion occurs only partly and we can still infer the missing participant, although not entirely (VAN LEEUWEN, 2008, p. 29VAN LEEUWEN, T. Discourse and practice: new tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford ; New York:Oxford University Press, 2008. (Oxford studies in sociolinguistics).).
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Rearrangement: the participants from the social practice/object can be represented in an order different from the original, staged order (VAN LEEUWEN, 2005, p. 110VAN LEEUWEN, T. Introducing social semiotics. London ; New York: Routledge, 2005., 2008, p. 18VAN LEEUWEN, T. Discourse and practice: new tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford ; New York:Oxford University Press, 2008. (Oxford studies in sociolinguistics).).
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Given the interactive nature of games, most often the action will be linear and dependent on the player’s command. In more complex/narrative-driven games, the creators can employ, for instance, flashbacks, that can break this flow of action.
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Source: Created by the authors.
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Source: Adapted from Rhyne (
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Source: Screenshots from (