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Article published In: Pragmatics
Vol. 36:2 (2026) ► pp.165–191

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Tracing relevance beyond codes and across modes

A multimodal pragmatic analysis of children’s rights advocacy campaign posters

 | Iraqi General Directorate of Curricula
 | Mustansiriyah University
Published online: 16 January 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.23042.alt
Abstract
Drawing on Relevance Theory, the paper sketches out a framework that accounts for inference-making in creative multimodal texts, taking advocacy campaign posters as its case study. The analysis shows that in each poster semiotic resources are employed to create a micro-narrative exemplifying actors affected by a sociopolitical problem, whose function is to create assumptions against which a higher-order intention is recognized. The text-internal relevance within the micro-narrative is optimized by combining verbal and visual elements to communicate multimodal explicatures and implicatures. The visual elements are employed to invoke non-propositional effects that activate perceptual mechanisms to maximize emotional attachment with the issue advocated for. These non-propositional effects communicated by visual connotation carriers are essential, rather than extra, elements, contributing to the understanding of the propositional meaning communicated at the text-external level. The analysis shows that an inferential approach to multimodality is indispensable to account for (non)propositional content across different modes.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Towards multimodal pragmatics
  • 3.Relevance Theory and literary text interpretation
  • 4.Data and methodology
  • 5.Analysis
    • 5.1Relevance in metaphor-based multimodal texts
    • 5.2Relevance in metonymy-based multimodal text
    • 5.3Relevance in irony-based multimodal texts
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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