MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Assistant Professor
Dr. Kawa Sherwani
?WHY MULTIMODAL
 The development of technology recently created
new types of texts, such us images, digital texts,
videos etc.
 In this global and digitally networked scenario,
“multimodality” can offer a valid help because it
can account not only for linguistic analysis but
also semiotic analysis.
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
 Historically, multimodality stems out of Gunther
Kress and Theo van Leeuwen’s seminal book
Reading Images 1996.

 Michael Halliday’s functional theories of meaning

and socio-semiotic approach to language. His
book (1978), Language as Social Semiotic: the
Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning.
 MULTIMODALITY

 Speech and writing interact with ‘non-verbal’

modes.
 The study how discourses are communicated and
semiotically encoded.
 Discourses are communicated not only through
verbal utterances, but through entertainment media
such as computer games and movies.
MULTIMODALITY

Multimodality, where “multimodal‟

typically refers to the multiple modes (e.g.
spoken, written, printed and digital media,
embodied action, and 3-D material objects
and sites) through which social semiosis
takes place.
MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
 Multimodal discourse analysis is the study of the
intersection and interdependence of various
modalities of communication within a given
context.
 Researchers in this area seek to identify the
influence of mode on meaning within a given
context, focusing on co-occurrence and
interaction between multiple semiotic systems
MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
 Different semiotic modalities make different
meanings in different ways according to the
different media of expression they use.

 Communication occurs across more than a single

mode and is therefore inherently multimodal
 It can be used in analyzing movies, websites, TV
documentaries, news, architecture , etc.
MULTIMODAL CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

 Multimodal critical discourse analysis is a

qualitative research methodology that has been
used by scholars to analyze communication
content on the World Wide Web
 It is a relatively new extension of critical
discourse analysis, which, in turn, has been called
"one of the most influential and visible branches
of discourse analysis”.
MULTIMODAL CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Researchers have used multimodal critical

discourse analysis, for example, to examine how
photographs and other graphic elements, children's
toys, political cartoons, and even music are used by
social actors to construct and contest dominant
social meanings.
ASSIGNMENT

Summarize the following paper into a 5-paragraph

essay:

“Using a social semiotic approach to multimodality:

researching learning in schools, museums and
hospitals”

By: Jeff Bezemer, Sophia Diamantopoulou, Carey

Jewitt, Gunther Kress and Diane Mavers