Multimodality and Rhythm

Rhythm plays an important role in all time‐based multimodal phenomena. The study of rhythm in multimodality research requires drawing on theories and methods from a broad multidisciplinary range of fields. This entry summarizes the core underlying principles of rhythm that are pertinent not only to the study of multimodal texts and communicative events, but rhythms in general. These concepts and principles are therefore useful for guiding interdisciplinary research. The underlying principles of rhythm are repetition with change, alternation, regularity, relativity to bodily rhythms, multisensory perception, polyrhythmic integration, and rhythmic segmentation. The entry then introduces three different frameworks for the detailed analysis of rhythm in multimodal texts and communicative events and explores ways these frameworks can be combined to different types of multimodal phenomena. Finally, the wide‐ranging functions and meaning potentials of rhythm in multimodal phenomena are discussed.

Meaning (existential) · Modality (human–computer interaction) · Multidisciplinary approach · Multimodality · Repetition (rhetorical device) · Rhythm