Multimodal arguments: language, script, and politics

Abstract

This study uses discourse analysis to investigate the connectedness between embodiment and the politics of orthography. Drawing on a video-recorded conversation from a large sociolinguistic dataset on Amazigh/Berber, the study examines the role of embodied acts not only as semiotic resources that elaborate talk but also as consequential discursive entities that organize political arguments about script. The participants use multimodal utterances that extend beyond meaning to iconize social orientation as well as power in conversation. Analysis of the video reveals the way participants map their social perceptions of the language and its script onto their talk and embodied actions. Analysis also shows how script arguments mirror larger political debates in Morocco, in which script preferences are based on ideological and political orientations.