on grammar

"As ours becomes a world made not only of words but images, sounds as well as colors, all of which are increasingly integrated into multimedia constructions, we must return to the notion of grammar as a way of thinking. Grammar goes beyond formal rules of correctness. It is a means of representing patterns of experience .... It enables human beings to build a mental picture of reality, to make sense of their experience of what goes on around them and inside them. ... What is expressed in language through the choice between different word classes and semantic structures is, in visual communication, expressed through the choice between, for instance, different uses of color, or different compositional structures" (Kress and van Leeuwen).