ANALYZING THE DIAGRAMMATIC REGISTER IN GEOMETRY TEXTBOOKS: TOWARD A SEMIOTIC ARCHITECTURE

Abstract

Diagrams are key resources for students when reasoning in geometry. Over the course of the 20th century, diagrams in geometry textbooks have evolved from austere collections of strokes and letters to become diverse arrays of symbols, labels, and differently styled visual parts. Diagrams are thus multisemiotic texts that present meanings to students across a range of communication systems. We propose a scheme for analyzing how geometric diagrams function as resources for mathematical communication in terms of four semiotic systems: type, position, prominence, and attributes. The semiotic architecture we propose draws on research in systemic functional linguistics (Halliday, 2004; O’Halloran, 2005) and suggests a framework for analyzing how geometry diagrams function as mathematical texts.