ABSTRACT
To see is to believe. A picture is often worth a thousand words in everyday communication settings. A graphical representation actually “talks” in such communication, integrated with some other representation systems like spoken language. Because of its power, however, a graphical representation can affect the way people grasp a target situation it describes. This paper presents an empirical investigation of language usage in graphical communication. Drawing on actual dialogue data, we show that the configuration of graphics affects linguistic expressions of motion when people collaboratively work on a task. This effect of graphics on language usage demonstrates that the configuration of graphics has an influence on perspectives in event conceptualizations.
