The Role of Materiality of the Sign in Multimodal Discourse Construction
The present research focuses on the study of the contribution of materiality of different types of signs to their meanings.First,it studies the materiality of different types of signs,and how their materiality contributes to sign formation at different levels;then it investigates the process of how the material entity of signs is semiotized;and finally,it probes into the contribution of signs at different levels to the construction of the meaning of discourse and that of multimodal discourse of different genres.It is found that the ontological sign is the basis of sign formation,and the semiotization of the material entity goes through several stages:being perceived,valued and conventionalized.According to the materiality of signs,they can be classified into different levels,from the ontological sign to the arbitrary one.The ontological sign can directly provide holographic,concrete,realistic,and vivid semantic characteristics;the image sign has the same function;the abstract sign can directly provide general and schematic semantic patterns;and the arbitrary sign basically has no direct connection with its meaning(signified),but can be acquired by learning and conventionalization.We hope that in this new media and AI era,it can throw light on the choice of the appropriate modes of different materiality according to different communicative purposes and their arrangements and integration to construct discourses of different genres.
materialitymaterial entityontological signsemiotizationdiscourse construction