Mikko Lehtonen, Université de Tampere, Finlande.

multimodalité

« We can speak of textual and cultural multi-modality. The textual aspect of multi-modalities links to the fact that language has, through history, existed as just one mode in the modes involved in the production of any text. To take an example, a spoken text, like this one, is not just verbal, but also visual, combining with non-verbal modes of communication such as facial expression, gesture, posture and other forms of self-representation. So if one of the most fundamental symbolic forms – speech – is always already multi-modal, then it is easy to think that multi-modality also covers the more complex symbolic forms developed on the basis of, and combining speech, writing, sounds and pictures. »