Perspectives on Multimodality

Abstract

The article gives a broad historical overview from the early beginnings of multimodal analysis to currently burning issues and future perspectives in the study of multimodality. In contrast to other publications, the historical beginning of multimodality research is seen with Lessing's Treatise on Laocoon (1766), so what we see today is the revival of a debate that was partly already discussed among the German classicists. A fervently discussed topic today is how modes relate as sub-modes to other modes and within different media. The meaning potential of a mode changes according to the salience of the mode within a semiotic construct as well as through the loss or gain of meta-functional meaning in the technological development of the mass-media. This is exemplified for typography. New topics and trends in current multimodality research are portrayed, and recent findings in a range of studies in applied research fields, such as translation in hospitals, hypertext design, museum design, film sub-titling and comics translation are presented and reviewed. Finally, future perspectives on how to put multimodality research on a more empirical basis, e.g. through multimodal corpus analysis, are outlined.