‘Doing critical discourse studies with multimodality: from metafunctions to materiality’ by Per Ledin and David Machin

Ledin and Machin (2018) discuss perceived problems with the notions of ‘text’ and ‘context’ in systemic theory and suggest ways to deal with the ‘materiality’ of multimodal communication. The focus on SF approaches to multimodality is timely, given that systemic functional theory and the forms of multimodality built around it are ‘hugely inspiring’ and have ‘transformed the landscape of visual communication analysis’ (Ledin & Machin, 2018). Beyond this, systemic functional theory provides the foundations for major theoretical, methodological and analytical trends in multimodality (Tan, O’Halloran, & Wignell, 2019). It is possible that these and other research efforts (including those in CDS) might, through collaboration, lead to the establishment of the discipline of multimodality (O’Halloran et al., 2019). In this context, Ledin and Machin’s (2018) concerns are understandable, given the research trajectory of multimodality where systemic theory is expected to continue to play a major role for the reasons provided in this response. Before addressing Ledin and Machin’s (2018) concerns, we clarify some issues of terminology.