ABSTRACT
This chapter examines afresh such theorizing of meaning in multimodal texts as inherently contingent and in motion the kinetically cumulative product of reflexive, alternating attention to both structure and significance as a corrective to unhelpful conventional conceptions of writing as stable representation of the world as it is. It argues that consciously reflexive awareness of semiotic instability and oscillation is vital to constructing knowledge in and about multimodal texts, as well as to understanding our digitally mediated world. In language and literacy pedagogy, over the past two decades this social semiotic view of meaning making has gained recognition and influence, mainly through the promulgation of multiliteracies. Malinowski's interpretation here prompts me to consider afresh some of my most preliminary thoughts on questions of authorial voice in multimodal expression and the potentials and complexities of 'saying what one means' within and across the semiotic parameters of different modes.
