Multimodality - (Mouton Textbook) by John Bateman & Janina Wildfeuer & Tuomo Hiippala (Paperback)

About the Book

This textbook offers a broad, problem-oriented introduction to the topic of multimodality suitable for students and practitioners from diverse disciplines. It establishes the necessary theoretical foundations to engage productively with all kinds of

Book Synopsis

This textbook provides the first foundational introduction to the practice of analysing multimodality, covering the full breadth of media and situations in which multimodality needs to be a concern. Readers learn via use cases how to approach any multimodal situation and to derive their own specifically tailored sets of methods for conducting and evaluating analyses. Extensive references and critical discussion of existing approaches from many disciplines and in each of the multimodal domains addressed are provided. The authors adopt a problem-oriented perspective throughout, showing how an appropriate foundation for understanding multimodality as a phenomenon can be used to derive strong methodological guidance for analysis as well as supporting the adoption and combination of appropriate theoretical tools. Theoretical positions found in the literature are consequently always related back to the purposes of analysis rather than being promoted as valuable in their own right. By these means the book establishes the necessary theoretical foundations to engage productively with today's increasingly complex combinations of multimodal artefacts and performances of all kinds.

Review Quotes

"Bateman, Wildfeuer und Hiippala legen mit diesem Buch eine Einführung in die Multimodalitätsforschung vor, die Neulingen einen umfassenden, praxisbezogenen Einblick in das Feld ermöglicht und gleichzeitig vielfältige Anregungen und Anstösse für Forschung bereithält. Für Überlegungen zur Multimodalität im DaF/DaZ-Bereich steht hier somit eine hilfreiche Vergleichsfolie für weitere Diskussionen zur Verfügung [...] Besonders hervorzuheben sind auch die umfangreiche Bibliographie und das Stichwortregister, die den Zugang zum Feld der Multimodalität ungemein erleichtern und vermutlich so schon alleine für eine Vielzahl von Studierenden ein gewinnbringender Ausgangspunkt für eigene Arbeiten werden dürften."
Arne Krause in: Zielsprache Deutsch 45, 1 (2018); 73-75

"The breadth of topics and detailed writing are finely balanced with an accessible, engaging style that is annotated with color figures which model concepts, encapsulate frameworks and demonstrate analyses. The book's tripartite structure, from foundation to methods to case studies, offers students and practitioners alike firm ground and a clear path forward for conducting detailed multimodal analyses -a welcomed and needed foundational textbook."
Chris Featherman in: Discourse Studies 2018, Vol. 20(3) 443-457

"Les outils présentés au sein de cet ouvrage sont ainsi le point de départ fondamental pour explorer le champ de la multimodalité dans son ensemble et, plus largement, pour s'ouvrir à de nouvelles perspectives d'analyse."
Alida M. Silletti in: publifarum, http: //farum.it/lectures/ezine_articles.php?art_id=540

"[...] [the title] can make a worthwhile addition to the field and may encourage LL scholars to engage more explicitly with multimodality research."
Jeffrey L. Kallen in: Linguistic Landscape 4, (2018), 96-99

About the Author

John A. Bateman and Janina Wildfeuer, University of Bremen, Germany; Tuomo Hiippala, University of Helsinki, Finland.