The Role Of Multimodality In Communication

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Multimodality can be noticeable in all areas of human life from education and communication to the media. It is hard to create one cohesive precept because there are many definitions that allude to this phenomenon. Jewitt (2009) states that multimodality is created by various modes, for instance writing, speech, posture, gesture or image. They hold semiotic values, that is hidden meanings, and are used in an appropriated time, situation as well as relation. People have to employ these modes in order to communicate and pass the right meanings to their receivers. Additionally, according to the author “multimodality (…) refers to a field of application rather than a theory” (Jewitt, 2009, p. 2). However, Jewitt (2009) also observes that different …show more content…

Both a verbal and non-verbal languages are equal in terms of the contribution to the transmission of meaning. Nevertheless, different modes, which create multimodality, vary from each other. While the spoken language is structurally complex and it lets people coin new words and an endless number of phrases, non-verbal scheme is simple and one gesture falls for only one piece of information. Furthermore, verbal communication is invisible and nondurable as opposed to symbols which are clearly seen but of short …show more content…

These two modes contain the most significant parts which are responsible for the meaning. The rest of modes are only an accompaniment to them and may belong to writing or speech category. In order to confirm it, Bezemer and Jewitt refer to the definition of “contextualisation cue” written by Gumperz (1999) who describes it as “any verbal sign which when processed in co-occurrence with symbolic grammatical and lexical signs serves to construct the contextual ground for situated interpretation” (p. 461). Ergo, grammar as well as lexis are treated as the elements of text and they are major components of the meaning conceiving. The other, additional modes, like cadence or a volume of speech are labelled to another “drawer” called context and some are not even taken into account. On the grounds of multimodality, social linguistic researchers pay attention to people who speak to each other during a conversation but also to the language which is used at the very

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