Meaning Potential in Semiotic Remediations: Understanding Comprehension Prospects Through Multimodal Discourse Analysis

Abstract

The digital era ascertain the emergence of multimodal studies that lend an immense potential to the viewers to generate synergistic meanings from multitude of semiotic resources infused together. By virtue of multimodal remediated texts, the meanings and comprehension process can rekindle the prior mental concepts into a new dimension owing to ensembles and visual affordance it employs. Therefore, the study aims to analyze the tendency of remediated text in multiplying the meanings and upgrading the understanding of an older text refashioned into a new medium. For this purpose, the study is designed in two phases. The first phase is a preliminary analysis of an adapted film Pride and Prejudice which is examined through metafunctional approach of multimodal discourse analysis while the second phase encompasses three participants to explore their comprehension process through qualitative methods i.e. verbal protocols (Concurrent and Retrospective) and Semi-Structured Interviews. The results imply that remediated text supplied a holistic perspective of an artifact and it added to the comprehensive meanings of the narrative. It was also found that multimodal text has enriched participants’ comprehension about the narrative as it reinforced their critical understanding of the content.