Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies >

2025 , Vol. 25 >Issue 3: 119 - 128

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2025.03.011

Exploring Multimodal Discourse in the AI Age: Opportunities and Prospects

  • LI Zhanzi ,
  • HAN Zeting
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Online published: 2025-05-16

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Abstract

With the rise of generative AI, social semiotic multimodality studies face new opportunities and challenges. This paper reviews recent developments in multimodal researches to explore the application and impacts of AI technologies in social semiotics. Our findings show that AI helps overcome methodological limitations in multimodal discourse research, stimulates innovation in multimodal genres, and contributes to a paradigm shift in social semiotics theory—one that considers all communicative elements in the dynamic meaning exchange process. To address AI’s limitations in empathy and multimodal comprehension, future efforts should focus on building harmonious human-AI collaboration, encouraging interdisciplinary work and enriching the interpretation of multimodal discourse theory.

Key words： social semiotics; artificial intelligence; GAI; multimodal discourse; digital genre

Cite this article

LI Zhanzi , HAN Zeting . Exploring Multimodal Discourse in the AI Age: Opportunities and Prospects[J]. Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies, 2025 , 25(3) : 119 -128 . DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2025.03.011

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