Of Imaginary Imageries!

Appears that Geo-information sciences, Environmental sciences and Social sciences overrule the principles of the grammar of the English language.

Dr Mahavir Former Professor and Dean (Academic), School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, India

I was going through a paper (Singhal and Gupta, 2024) when the word ‘imaginary’ in the abstract caught my attention. Somehow, the sentence was not making sense, as if a word was missing. This aroused my anxiety and I tried to make sense by going through the whole paper. I became more anxious as the word ‘imaginary’ appeared a few more times, every time leaving a sense of an incomplete sentence. A few examples from the paper are quoted below:

“This allows for the unpacking of a larger urban socio-ecological imaginary being produced.” (p.1); “… which delineates the city’s future waterscape and reveals the environmental imaginary shaping under …” (p.9); “These fit into the imaginary of Delhi …” (p.11); “The problem is that they are being carved out of this environmental imaginary.” (p.13); and so on (all quoted from Singhal and Gupta, 2024). The said paper also used the word ‘imaginaries’, presumably to represent the plural of ‘imaginary’ in “… such imaginary has no space for various environmental imaginaries to coexist.” (Singhal and Gupta, 2024, p.13).

The more I went through the paper, the more I was confused about the usage of the word .. was it to mean ‘image(s)’, ‘imagery’, or an imaginary image, or indeed a different usage of the word ‘imaginary’ with its plural as ‘imaginaries’? Let us set aside this discussion for a while and explore the usage of the word ‘imaginary’.

‘Imaginary’ is something that is created by and exists only in mind (Cambridge Dictionary) or imagination (The Britannica Dictionary). One can have imaginary friends, fears, situations, scenic landscapes, etc. There can be imaginary lines (The Britannica Dictionary) or boundaries. The synonyms could include made-up, make-believe, non-existent, or fictional (Cambridge Dictionary).

‘Imaginary’ is an adjective (Cambridge Dictionary). An adjective is a word that modifies or describes a noun or pronoun. Adjectives can be used to describe the qualities of someone or something independently or in comparison to something else (Scribbr, 2024). Usage of the adjective ‘imaginary’ without being followed by a noun or pronoun will make the sentence incomplete and will not define the noun or pronoun to which it applies. The usage of ‘imaginary’ without the related noun or pronoun in the above paper (Singhal and Gupta, 2024) thus leaves a void in appreciating the paper fully.

The context of the above paper reminds me of several instances where students and scholars use the word ‘imageries’ (Pratomo, et. al., 2018; Oyedele, 2019) wrongly, most of the time. Imagine, imagination, and imagery … have their origin in the word ‘image’, which itself is often confused with a picture or a photograph. Until the advancement of computerised image processing, an image was a “generalized mental picture of the exterior physical world that is held by an individual. This image is the product both of immediate sensation and of the memory of past experience, and it is used to interpret information and to guide action” (Lynch, 1959, p.4), implying the ‘imaginary’ aspect. Digital capture of photographs through digital cameras, satellites and (relatively recent) UAVs and further digital processing and production separates photographs (analogue) from images (digital). The product is no longer imaginary (mental, as in Lynch, 1959) but a reality (as in printed form or on a computer screen). What is being depicted can still be imaginary (as in AI). Usage of the word ‘images’ gained more popularity over the words pictures and photographs with the advancement and mass availability of mobile phones with built-in high-resolution (digital) cameras and digital photo processing. Image processing software used in the fields of satellite remote sensing and medical sciences also popularised the usage of the words ‘image’ and ‘images’. Along came the word ‘imagery’ to broadly cover the entire field of capturing, processing and producing processed images. It is parallel to the word ‘photography’, the skill or process of taking photographs (Oxford Languages). While photography is a skill and process, a photograph is a product. Similarly, while imagery is the science and processes, image is a product. The plural of photographs would be ‘photographs’ (and not photographies), likewise, the plural of image would be ‘images’ (and not imageries).

Batty and Longley (1994) used the terms ‘imagery’ and ‘images’ separately and distinctly to mean ‘imagery’ as a process (verb) and ‘image’ as a product (noun). “… and we could complement this display of data with that taken from remotely sensed imagery …” (Batty and Longley, 1994, p.235) also implies ‘imagery’ to be a process related to remote sensing. Mahavir (1996) also used the two terms distinctly to mean one as a process and the other as a product. “Satellite imagery refers to the process of capturing visual data of the Earth’s surface from satellites orbiting our planet” (Geoimage, 2022). ITC (2008, p.532) describes an ‘image’ as “… the optical counterpart (pictorial representation) of an object produced by an optical device or an electronic device.” At no point, did the classical literature on remote sensing use the term ‘imageries’ to mean several images. “A plural verb does not have an s added to it, such as write, play, run, and uses forms such as are, were, have and do” (Good English Movement).

In the non-photographic systems, Aronoff (1993) defined an image as created by light-sensitive detectors that produce electrical signals proportional to the brightness of the light energy. “In physical form, a digital image is a twodimensional array of small areas called pixels … that correspond spatially to relatively small ground areas …” (Avery and Berlin, 1985, p.452). Usage of the term ‘image(s)’ in the above examples illustrates it to be a product, a noun.

Imagine for a moment, that the intended word in the above-quoted paper (Singhal and Gupta, 2024) was ‘imagery’. Let us try replacing the word ‘imaginary’ with ‘imagery’ and ‘imaginaries’ with ‘imageries’ and see if it makes sense:

“This allows for the unpacking of a larger urban socio-ecological imaginary imagery being produced.”; “… which delineates the city’s future waterscape and reveals the environmental imaginary imagery shaping under …”; “These fit into the imaginary imagery of Delhi …”; “… such imaginary imagery has no space for various environmental imaginaries imageries to co-exist.”; “The problem is that they are being carved out of this environmental imaginary imagery.”; and so on (all originally from Singhal and Gupta, 2024, editing added).

This began making some sense … yet not fully comprehendible, ‘imagery’ being a process (verb) and ‘imageries’ not acceptable as a plural of a verb. The Concise Oxford Dictionary (2000, p.708) describes ‘imagery’ as “(noun) …visual images collectively”. Now if imagery itself is plural, there can not be ‘imageries’. The above paper further quotes a paper by Zimmer, Véron and Cornea (2020) with the title “Urban ponds, environmental imaginaries and (Un)commoning: …”, arousing curiosity about whether ‘environmental imaginaries’ is an acceptable term. Yes, indeed ‘environmental imaginary’ (and imaginaries) appear to be accepted terms (Nesbitt and Weiner, 2001; Helliwell, Raman and Morris, 2020) which itself has origins in the concept of ‘spatial imaginary’ developed by Peet and Watts (1993). With this understanding, the usage of the words ‘imaginary’ and ‘imaginaries’ in the above paper becomes justified in the context of socioecology and environment. Similarly, although ‘imagery’ in the context of remote sensing also seems acceptable as a noun, ‘imageries’ as its plural has not gained popularity yet. ITC (2008, p.534) avoided using the word ‘imagery’.

Let us examine the sequence from ‘image’ to ‘imaginaries’ from the English language viewpoint. ‘Image’ (noun; verb; plural images) leads to ‘imagine’ (transitive verb) and ‘imagination’ (intransitive verb); leading to ‘imagery’ (noun in literary sense; process-verb in the context of remote sensing) (MerriamWebster Dictionary). Although in my opinion, ‘imagery’ is a process and hence a verb. ‘Imaginary’ is labelled as an adjective (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). However, the word ‘imaginaries’ did not find a place in this dictionary. ‘Imageries’ was shown as a plural of ‘imagery’ but examples of sentence formation with ‘imageries’ were not provided.

Appears that Geo-information sciences, Environmental sciences and Social sciences overrule the principles of the grammar of the English language. An adjective becomes a noun, and a noun can have a plural. With popular use, nouns can become verbs, e.g. PayTM karo and Google it; and verbs or adverbs can become nouns and can have plural, e.g. ‘imageries’ and ‘imaginaries’. ‘Imagination’ has been dropped out somewhere in the process. After all, English is a language of exceptions.

References:

Aronoff, S. (1993) Geographic Information Systems: A Management Perspective; WDL Publications, Ottawa, pp. 47-102

Avery, T. E. and Berlin, G. L. (1985) Interpretation of Aerial Photographs, Macmillan, New York, ISBN 0-02-305030-6

Batty, M. and Longley, P. (1994) Fractal Cities: A Geometry of Form and Function, Academic Press, London

Cambridge Dictionary
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/ dictionary/english/imaginary

Geoimage
https://geoimage.com.au/blog/whatsatellite-imagery#:~:text=Satellite%20 imagery%20refers%20to%20the,back%20 to%20Earth%20for%20analysis

Good English Movement
https://www.languagecouncils.sg/ goodenglish/resources/grammar-rules/ subject-verb-agreement#:~:text=How%20 do%20you%20recognise%20a,E.g.

Helliwell, R., Raman, S., and Morris, C. (2021) Environmental imaginaries and the environmental sciences of antimicrobial resistance. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 4(4), 1346-1368.

https://doi.org/10.1177/2514848620950752

ITC (2008) Principles of Remote Sensing: An Introductory Text Book, (Tempfli, K., Kerle, N., Huurneman, G. C. and Janssen, L. (eds.), ITC, Enschede, The Netherlands

https://webapps.itc.utwente.nl/ librarywww/papers_2009/general/ principlesremotesensing.pdf

Lynch, K. (1959) Image of the City, The MIT Press, Massachusetts

Mahavir (1996) Modelling Settlement Patterns for Metropolitan Regions: Inputs from Remote Sensing, ITC (Publication No. 35), Enschede (ISBN 90-6164-117-9)

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

https://www.merriam-webster.com/ dictionary/image#:~:text=%3A%20 a%20visual%20representation%20 of%20something,a%20television%20 or%20computer%20screen

Nesbitt, J. T. and Daniel Weiner, D. (2001) Conflicting environmental imaginaries and the politics of nature in Central Appalachia, Geoforum, Volume 32, Issue 3, Pages 333-349, ISSN 0016-7185

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ article/pii/S0016718500000476

Oxford Languages

https://www.google.com search?q= photography+definition&sca_ esv=e936ada1b37f2909&rlz=1C1CHBF_ enIN757IN757&sxsrf= ADLYWIILvn 9HVGP1MFUNKAT3 Ep2nCJ984w %3A1730389916524 & ei=nKcjZ7 LZH_vVseMP4 _eA8QY&ved =0ahUKEwiyl7Di_LiJAxX7amwGHeM 7IG4Q4dUDCA8&uact= 5&oq=photography +definition&gs_ lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiFnBob3R vZ3 JhcGh5IGRlZmluaXRpb24yCxAAGI AEGJECGI oFMgUQABiABDIFEAAY gAQyBRAA GIAEMgUQABi ABDIFEAAYgAQyBR AAGIAEMg UQABiABDILEAAYgAQY hgMYig UyCxAAGIAEGIYDGIoFSJIq UMg TWIYmcAF4AJABAJgBlgGgAeEL qgEEMC4xMrgBA8gBAPgBAZg CDKAC kQvCAgoQABiwAxj WBBh HwgINEAAYs AMY1gQYRxjJ A8ICDhAAGIAEGLADGJIDGIoFwg IOEAAYgAQYkQIYsQMYig XCAgoQABiABB gCGMsBwg INEAAYgAQYk QIYigUYC sICCxAA GIAEGLEDGIMBwg IFEC4YgASYAw CIBgGQBgqSBwQxLjExoAeD WQ&sclient=gws-wiz-serp

Oyedele, A. A. (2019) Use of remote sensing and GIS techniques for groundwater exploration in the basement complex terrain of AdoEkiti, SW Nigeria, Applied Water Science (2019) 9:51

https://doi.org/10.1007/ s13201-019-0917-9

Peet, R. and Watts, M. (1993) Introduction: development theory and environment in an age of market triumphalism. Economic Geography, 69(3): 227-253

Pratomo, J., Kuffer, M., Kohli, D. and Martinez, J. (2018). Application of the trajectory error matrix for assessing the temporal transferability of OBIA for slum detection. European Journal of Remote Sensing. 51. 838-849. 10.1080/22797254.2018.1496798.

Scribbr (2024)

https://www.scribbr.com/partsof-speech/adjectives/

Singhal S. and Gupta M. (2024) Critically analyzing nature-based solutions: A political ecology framework of planning for the Yamuna River floodplains, Delhi, Journal of Urban Affairs, DOI: 10.1080/07352166.2024.2413587

https://doi.org/10.1080/073 52166.2024.2413587

The Britannica Dictionary

https://www.britannica.com/ dictionary/imaginary

The Concise Oxford Dictionary (2000), Oxford University Press, New York

Zimmer, A., Véron, R., and Cornea, N. L. (2020) Urban ponds, environmental imaginaries and (Un)commoning: An urban political ecology of the pondscape in a small city in Gujarat, India. Water Alternatives, 13(2) www.wateralternatives.org