Martin and Bednarek address the need for innovative analyses of multi-modal discourse, identity and affiliation within functional linguistics. "New Discourse on Language" addresses the need for innovative analyses of multi-modal discourse, identity and affiliation within functional linguistics. The chapters in this volume are connected by their common underlying theoretical approach, Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), and by their focus on semantic variation (across modalities of communication and between speakers) as well as the negotiation of identity and affiliation. The analyses focus on a diverse range of texts from very different contexts, using analytic techniques that are based on the latest research in this field. They represent a wealth of exploratory, innovative and challenging perspectives, and are a key contribution to the extension of systemic-functional theory to the analysis of multimodality, identity and affiliation. The volume is of interest to linguists, applied linguists, semioticians, and communication theorists.

"This book, by a group of highly talented young scholars, gives us a glimpse of what multimodal discourse analysis might come to look like in the first half of the 21st century." - Professor Theo van Leeuwen, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
This book provides some concrete linguistic tools from the bonding of the three metafunctions to the bonding of multimodal semiotic systems to study the process of identity formation and negotiation. The 10 chapters are truly at the forefront of SFL studies and represent a wide range of multimodal texts from an interdisciplinary approach. -- Discourse Studies 14(1), 2012

J. R. Martin is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sydney, Australia. Dr Monika Bednarek is Research Fellow at the University of Sydney, Australia.