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

Explains the multimodal connections of text, image, space, body, sound and speech, in both old and new computer-mediated communication systems.

Bill Cope (Author), Mary Kalantzis (Author)

9781107133303, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 January 2020

378 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 2.5 cm, 0.65 kg

'… this is a book that could only be written by authors such as Cope and Kalantzis, who have themselves lived through the sheer breadth of the lines of development they bring to readers' attention, making connections and leaps which would in the normal, more circumscribed, business of everyday research rarely occur.' John A. Bateman, Journal of Pragmatics

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.

Part 0. Meaning
Part I. Reference
Part II. Agency
Part III. Structure.

Subject Areas: Grammar, syntax & morphology [CFK], Semantics, discourse analysis, etc [CFG], Philosophy of language [CFA], Linguistics [CF]