This article analyses the discursive and rhetorical strategies that help promote an image of competence in the corporate histories provided by the webpages of the top 25 companies ranked in the 2008 Fortune Most Admired 500. The analysis sheds light on the lexicogrammatical features deployed within a temporally structured framework. Furthermore, the linguistic approach is integrated with the modalities of visual semiotics. Specifically, referring to Lemke’s “trifunctional” theoretical framework, this article discusses the mapping of organizational meanings as competence-oriented thematic pathways developed cross-modally. Against this background, it is argued that the identification of the construals of time can be particularly useful for the retrieval of meanings underlying the representation of competence as a process.
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