The multidimensionality of semiosis: beyond multimodality

Abstract

This essay attempts to continue and expand the conversation based on the concept of anthroposemiosis, as the study of actions of signs as it relates to our species, with particular attention to the concept of multimodality, or the pluralistic enterprise combining multiple signification strands or mediums into a larger analysis of the semiosis enterprise. In the last decade or so, multimodality has provided a much-needed framework for the analysis of the multiplicity of modes, a multipurpose toolkit. This essay will attempt to frame these processes belonging to a larger process, of what can be perceived as multi-dimensional semiosis. By this typology, the modalities or modes are not independent of the process of signification to create a whole, neither are they independent processes that interact with each other, but rather, they are part of a larger symbiotic system of signification.