Abstract
In this manuscript, I present a signifier-based, multimodal discourse analysis of a focal event involving four children (ages 4–5) as they interacted with materials and with one another in their preschool classroom. I draw upon Jacques Lacan’s theory of the four discourses, applying the mathemes, or formulas that he developed, in order to map the multimodal signifier operations as they occurred in the moment-to-moment interactions during the event. My purpose was to use the signifier as a conceptual tool for multimodal discourse analysis, which revealed the highly particular discursive agencies that are characteristic aspects of signifier operations. Further, I examined the movement and operations of the signifiers as they were drawn from across modes and combined to create opportunities for the subjects to participate in the discourse. These signifier operations occurred according to discursive agencies of an educational discourse that both reduced and delimited subjectivities, as well as agencies that the focal subjects introduced to challenge and re-signify toward new ways to participate in the discourse.
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© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Artistic imagery in advertising: experiencing advertisements through art
- Visual metaphtonymy in automobile femvertising
- How to have fun with sticks, bowls, and colored water: insights into multimodal signifier operations through Lacan’s four discourses
- Discourses and practices of attention in video chat
- The influence of multimodal textualization in the conversion of semiotic representations in Italian primary school geometry textbooks
- Interactional means of teaming up: enacting the features of contemporary working life in a theater performance
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Artistic imagery in advertising: experiencing advertisements through art
- Visual metaphtonymy in automobile femvertising
- How to have fun with sticks, bowls, and colored water: insights into multimodal signifier operations through Lacan’s four discourses
- Discourses and practices of attention in video chat
- The influence of multimodal textualization in the conversion of semiotic representations in Italian primary school geometry textbooks
- Interactional means of teaming up: enacting the features of contemporary working life in a theater performance