Multimodality,where next?–Some meta-methodological considerations

Abstract

In this position statement, I draw broadly on approaches and theories relevant to the phenomena of multimodality to propose some methodological directions for further cycles of development and application. Two apparently opposed goals are accepted and reconciled: on the one hand, increased attention needs to be paid to empirical studies and, on the other, highly exploratory and smaller scale case studies with more conjectural analyses need to be continued and expanded. To achieve an integrative view spanning both forms of approach, methodological refinements capable of reducing the gap between theoretical metalanguages and larger-scale empirical research are required. Multimodality is consequently reconstrued not as a field of study in its own right, but as a stage of development through which many disciplines naturally pass. Means are then explored for securing access to the various theoretical frameworks and methodological tools disciplines provide by combining new models of disciplinary triangulation with a more finely articulated notion of materiality.