Multimodal discourse analysis

The history of discourse analysis is beset by a vagueness around the homonym ‘discourse’. The term names a large territory, located somewhere between two ‘markers’, which might, generally speaking, be something like ‘providing accounts of connected stretches of language in use’ and ‘uncovering salient social, political, psychological features in text-like entities’. ‘Multimodality’ names the field in which semiotic work takes place, a domain for enquiry, a description of the space and the resources which enter into meaning , in some way or another. Multimodality asserts that ‘language’ is just one among the many resources for making meaning. Semiotically speaking, an exhibition is a complex multimodal text-message. It provides a complex set of signs for the visitors who come to engage with it and from which they construct for themselves an infinite series of prompts for interpretation.