Mode

Jūratė Ruzaitė, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
jurate.ruzaite@vdu.lt

The term mode denotes a set of socially and culturally shaped resources for creating meaning. It is a central concept in systemic functional linguistics, social semiotics, and multimodal discourse analysis. Instances of modes encompass written and visual elements on a page, extending to dynamic visuals and audio on a screen, as well as spoken words, gestures, gazes, and postures in embodied interactions. While other communication modes had been previously recognised and studied, the comprehensive investigation of various communicational means contests the previous dominance of spoken and written language in linguistics. This approach offers a new framework for analysing the diverse ways individuals create meaning and how these meanings are interconnected through multiple modes.

Modes are not static or independent; rather, they are fluid and subject to change as products of social processes. Additionally, modes are not universally applicable but are specific to communities where there is a shared knowledge of their semiotic characteristics.

Though the concept has become a central term in research on multimodal communication, it is still debated what constitutes a mode. For instance, some researchers view colour and layout as distinct modes and thus consider writing as multimodal, but this is not unanimously agreed upon. In some research, a distinction is often made between ‘mode’ from ‘medium’. Media are conceived as resources that both materialise and produce meaning, referring to platforms or channels of communication. These include traditional forms like television, newspapers, and radio, as well as digital platforms like websites, social media, and apps. A mode, meanwhile, refers to the different forms or resources used to create meaning within these media (e.g. written text, images, sounds) and is understood as a realisation of Hallidayan metafunctions, including the ideational, interpersonal, and textual meanings.

Keywords: multimodality, media, semiotics

References:
Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. Edward Arnold.
Jewitt, C. (2009). The Routledge handbook of multimodal analysis. Routledge.
Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. Routledge.
Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2001). Multimodal discourse: The modes and media of contemporary communication. Arnold.
Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (1996). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. Routledge.