From Saussurean linguistics to social semiotics: the concept of multimodality under scrutiny

Abstract

This article aims to scrutinize the notion of multimodality through a theoretical discussion that seeks to re-present, problematize and reformulate concepts that underlie and support it, such as semiotic resource, semiotic element, semiotic system, modal affordance and semiotic modality. To do so, one starts from the concepts of language (both língua and linguagem), speech, sign, signifier and signified, by Ferdinand de Saussure (SAUSSURE, 2006 [1916]), and their reappropriation by Émile Benveniste (BENVENISTE, 1976 [1966]) and Roland Barthes (BARTHES, 1990 [1982]); then, one discusses more specifically the contributions from Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen for social semiotics (KRESS & VAN LEEUWEN, 2006 [1996]; KRESS, 2010), so as to formulate a concept of multimodality based on premises that can establish criteria for semiotic modalities, not just to explain, in some way, the wide and (not rare) indiscriminate use of concepts and expressions in academic texts that are not very enlightening, but, above all, to theoretically contribute to the field of language studies and to the formulation of documents related to the area of Education, in which multimodality has been increasingly present.