ABSTRACT
Are there common features of science discourse across languages? Given that science discourse is multimodal text, which includes diagrams and other visual forms (Lemke, 1998), are there commonalities of scientific diagrams across languages? Do readers from different languages and cultures interpret scientific diagrams in common ways, and do their written interpretations show common features of science discourse? Finding common features could lead us to a deeper understanding of the nature of multi-modal science discourse and of a host of tasks of processing science discourse across languages, where a language user is able to transfer what is common from one language to another. This is of considerable practical importance, for example, to scientists who must work in English as their second language. More generally, to the extent that “the language of science has become the language of literacy” (Halliday & Martin, 1993, p. 11), there are still wider implications. However, the cross-linguistic study of interpretations raises new issues in multimodality.
