Making Sense
Reference, Agency, and Structure in a Grammar of Multimodal Meaning

The phenomenon of multimodality is central to our everyday interaction. 'Hybrid' modes of communication that combine traditional uses of language with imagery, tagging, hashtags and voice-recognition tools have become the norm. Bringing together concepts of meaning and communication across a range of subject areas, including education, media studies, cultural studies, design and architecture, the authors uncover a multimodal grammar that moves away from rigid and language-centered understandings of meaning. They present the first framework for describing and analysing different forms of meaning across text, image, space, body, sound and speech. Succinct summaries of the main thinkers in the fields of language, communications and semiotics are provided alongside rich examples to illustrate the key arguments. A history of media including the genesis of digital media, Unicode, Emoji, XML and HTML, MP3 and more is covered. This book will stimulate new thinking about the nature of meaning, and life itself, and will serve practitioners and theorists alike.

Part 0. Meaning; Part I. Reference; Part II. Agency; Part III. Structure.

Bill Cope is a Professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is co-author of multiple books including New Learning: Elements of a Science of Education (Cambridge, 2nd edition, 2012), Literacies (Cambridge, 2nd edition, 2016) and e-Learning Ecologies (2017).
Mary Kalantzis was from 2006 to 2016 Dean of the College of Education at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is co-author of multiple books including New Learning: Elements of a Science of Education (Cambridge, 2nd edition, 2012), Literacies (Cambridge, 2nd edition, 2016) and e-Learning Ecologies (2017).