Before: Unimodal Linguistics, After: Multimodal Linguistics. A Parallel Architecture Account of a Multimodal Construction

Abstract

This paper adopts a construction-grammar approach to multimodal meaning. We provide a detailed analysis of the Before-After-construction used frequently in advertisements, cartoons and Internet memes. We demonstrate that parts of its generic ‘caused-change’ meaning is compositional, and rendered independently from what is overtly expressed by concrete instances of the pattern. The latter hence build on an abstract multimodal construction whose form elements are paired idiosyncratically with meaning, just like linguistic constructions proper. We show that non-standard instances of the Before-After-construction represent deviations based on a systematized standard Before-After-construction. Finally, we argue that the Before-After-construction belongs to a broader inheritance hierarchy of two-image multimodal construction types, while also providing one amongst several options to convey caused-change. Altogether, we demonstrate that multimodal expressions instantiate similar properties as unimodal expressions both across form and meaning.