Introducing the diagrammatic mode

In this article, we propose a multimodal perspective to diagrammatic representations by sketching a description of what may be tentatively termed the diagrammatic mode. We consider diagrammatic representations in the light of contemporary multimodality theory and explicate what enables diagrammatic representations to integrate natural language, various forms of graphics, diagrammatic elements such as arrows, lines and other expressive resources into coherent organisations. We illustrate the proposed approach using two recent diagram corpora and show how a multimodal approach supports the empirical analysis of diagrammatic representations, especially in identifying diagrammatic constituents and describing their interrelations.