The Potential Field Multimodal Communication is a research focus at Goethe University within the university’s Research Profile and the profile area Universality and Diversity.
Duration: January 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027
Description
Communication is inherently multimodal. In spoken languages, visual and other modalities complement speech through manual and facial gestures. Sign languages—languages with a fully grammaticalized communication system in the visual domain—can also use multiple channels of expression simultaneously, including manual signs, facial expressions, body posture, and head movements. Written language often integrates visual elements such as emojis or images, and animal communication also exhibits multimodality, for example when vocal and manual cues are combined.
Within theoretical linguistics, multimodality is a relatively recent field of research that seeks to integrate such phenomena into formal linguistic theory. A central goal is to capture the formal components of visual communication by identifying meaning-bearing elements within the continuous signals of body, head, arm, and hand movements. A key challenge is the treatment of iconic and depictive elements—vocal or visual expressions whose form inherently reflects their meaning, such as speech-accompanying gestures—which have long been neglected in theoretical linguistics and resist formal modeling with existing theoretical tools.
Building on these perspectives, the Potential Field Multimodal Communication establishes a cross-disciplinary research focus on multimodal communication at Goethe University and within the Rhine–Main Universities (RMU). It brings together researchers from linguistics, literary studies, theatre and performance studies, film and media studies, as well as related work in cultural studies, history, psychology and neurocognition, musicology, and computer science.
The Potential Field addresses a wide range of multimodal phenomena including, but not limited to, text–image combinations, visual and sonic narratives, questions of narrative discourse coherence across media, literary and artistic iconicity, multimodal practices in historical, cultural, and religious contexts, the role of gesture and embodiment in theatre, performance, and interaction, as well as multimodal communication in digital and everyday settings.
Speakers
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Contact
Lennart Fritzsche (Project Manager)
fritzsche@em.uni-frankfurt.de
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