Making Sense : Reference, Agency, and Structure in a Grammar of Multimodal Meaning

Brings together concepts of meaning and communication across a range of subject areas such as education, media studies, cultural studies, arts, design and architecture. It will be of interest to scholars and students of semantics and discourse analysis, and those working in the fields of media and communication studies, semiotics, and education.

The phenomenon of multimodality is central to our everyday interaction. ''Hybrid'' modes of communication that combine traditional uses of language with imagery, tagging, hashtags and voice-recognition tools have become the norm. Bringing together concepts of meaning and communication across a range of subject areas, including education, media studies, cultural studies, design and architecture, the authors uncover a multimodal grammar that moves away from rigid and language-centered understandings of meaning. They present the first framework for describing and analysing different forms of meaning across text, image, space, body, sound and speech. Succinct summaries of the main thinkers in the fields of language, communications and semiotics are provided alongside rich examples to illustrate the key arguments. A history of media including the genesis of digital media, Unicode, Emoji, XML and HTML, MP3 and more is covered. This book will stimulate new thinking about the nature of meaning, and life itself, and will serve practitioners and theorists alike.