Multimodal Socialsemiotik & Levende Billeder

Abstract
This dissertation inquires into the applicability of the social semiotic paradigm to
moving images. The inquiry is conducted by discussing the theoretical foundation of
the paradigm and by subsequently exploring the possibility of sketching out a
framework for the description of the grammatical meaning potential of moving
images.
The overall conclusion of the dissertation is that, when applied to moving images, a
multimodal social semiotic approach can prove very rewarding indeed. The social
semiotic approach can uncover significant semiotic features of moving images across
a wide range of semiotic systems, thereby shedding light on the interplay of different
semiotic systems involved in the meaning making of moving images. It thus seems
possible to present a tentative description of the grammatical meaning potential of
moving images based on the social semiotic approach which opens up for future
research into the subject. Finally, it also seems likely that the multimodal social
semiotic approach can provide a detailed and nuanced theoretical foundation for
analysis of moving images which caters for the complex interplay between
temporally integrated semiotic systems.
As a theoretical field, social semiotic multimodality is still relatively fragmented. This
dissertation attempts to gather the threads and weave them into a congruent whole
which presents the overall paradigm into which they are developing. The theoretical
discussion in the thesis unfolds over five chapters in a movement from the
linguistics‐based origin of multimodality (chapter 2.1) over the early theories of
visual meaning‐making and multimodality theory (chapters 2.2 and 2.3), discussions
of further implications of the theoretical development to date (chapter 2.4), to a
discussion of these topics in relation to moving images (chapter 2.5). This part of the
dissertation shows that the social semiotic multimodal paradigm is founded on a
sound theoretical base, and it is furthermore argued that although the paradigm as
such remains young and in need of further development its theoretical base is
robust enough to support such development.
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