The challenges of bringing together multilingualism and multimodality: unpacking the structural model of multilingual practice

Kopaczyk, J. (2023) The challenges of bringing together multilingualism and multimodality: unpacking the structural model of multilingual practice. In: Włodarczyk, M., Tyrkkö, J., Tyrkkö, J. and Adamczyk, E. (eds.) Multilingualism from Manuscript to 3D: Intersections of Modalities from Medieval to Modern Times. Routledge: London, pp. 119-138. ISBN 9780367763596 (doi: 10.4324/9781003166634-7)

Abstract

This chapter takes on the problem of designing a structural approach to multilingual texts which would also be sensitive to multimodal cues. After addressing the question of multilingual repertoires and practices, the discussion moves on to outline the points of synergy between multilingual and multimodal communication. Set against this background, the Structural Model of Multilingual Practice (SMMP), designed in earlier work (Kopaczyk 2018), is interrogated from several perspectives: (1) the definition of linguistic resource and whether it is straightforward to identify different resources in a communicative event; (2) the boundaries between linguistic levels delineated in the SMMP; and (3) the nature of non-linguistic cues which may mark the change in linguistic resource. Employing a transhistorical approach and using examples from Older Scots and Latin, as well as modern German, French, English and Gaelic, the discussion highlights the challenges involved in applying the model and makes recommendations on how to overcome them. The ultimate goal is to engage with the issues of integrating information about linguistic resource and the communicative mode into corpus building and annotation. The ambition is to design and implement a model which can capture the complexity of multilingual communication in its semiotic context, regardless of the linguistic and semiotic repertoires involved, or indeed the time period.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Kopaczyk, Professor Joanna
• Authors: Kopaczyk, J.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Language and Linguistics
• Publisher: Routledge
• ISBN: 9780367763596